Posts tagged as:

greenwashing

Once more unto the eco-labels breach

03.09.2010
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I spent part of last weekend catching up on my eco-labels. Several articles and a virtual conference nicely cleared up a cloudy Sunday afternoon and, at least partly, my persistent doubts about marketing with eco-labels.
Do eco-labels matter?
Yes and no.
It’s no news there are too many eco-labels polluting the market landscape, leading many consumers to question [...]

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Eco-labeling vs. greenmuting: What’s right for you?

01.13.2010
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A while ago someone asked me whether my business card was printed on recycled paper. Yes, it is, I replied. Why, then, the response went, is there nowhere on my card a corresponding symbol to be seen? And, What if, when deciding whether to keep the card or do business with my company, a prospect [...]

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Greenwashing lives!

01.10.2010

Just when I thought greenwashing is so last decade, two things happened:

I discovered The Greenwashing Blog through its sarcastic post “How to greenwash in four easy steps”. Fun stuff.
Sustainable Life Media offered me a press pass for the upcoming (Thursday, January 14th) daylong virtual conference “Sustainable Brands In Focus: Building Credibility, Avoiding Greenwash”*. Looking forward to it.

I’m [...]

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Where are the trees? How to keep misleading claims out of your marketing

10.21.2009

“How many trees must be lost so you can print your e-mail? Print responsibly.”
“Think before you print and save a tree.”
“Save Trees. Print only when necessary.”
“By not printing this email you’ve helped save paper, ink, and millions of trees.”
These are just some of the statements I’ve seen in email signatures, in my inbox and around [...]

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Alternatives to eco-labels

09.02.2009

Guest post by Jacquelyn Ottman, who blogs at Jacquie Ottman’s Green Marketing Blog, where the post originally appeared on June 29, 2009. Reprinted with the author’s permission. All views in the post are the author’s alone.

If you’re interested in guest posting on the Sustainable Marketing Blog, please read the guidelines, and let’s take it from [...]

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“Everything is biodegradable.”

08.24.2009

That’s what Hannah Sandmeyer, who writes her company’s Q19Greening Blog, pointed out in a recent presentation on consumer synthetics in your office or household. She walked the audience through a simple process of identifying and avoiding harmful substances, starting with product labels.
“Biodegradable” claims seem to be on the rise, particularly on products targeting the sustainability [...]

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Portland’s Designgate and the place of spec work in a sustainable economy

07.25.2009

Despite the summer heat, Portland’s creative community is incensed. What’s going on?
Designgate
On July 13th, the City of Portland launched the PortlandOnline.com Design Concept Contest, which started on July 19th and which is part of the larger and much-needed Refresh Project to redesign the 100K+ page site. Essentially, the contest invites individual designers or firms to [...]

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The 7th sin of greenwashing

03.21.2009

TerraChoice’s six sins of greenwashing classify the major ways companies mislead “consumers regarding [their] environmental practices (…) or the environmental benefits of a product or service.” The six sins are:

Hidden trade-off
No proof
Vagueness
Irrelevance
Fibbing
Lesser of two evils

After pondering these the other day, I’ve added a 7th sin to the list: the sin of condescension. The sin of [...]

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Marketing the future

12.20.2008

Concurrent with its bailout bid, General Motors has been running a feel-good commercial for its much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid vehicle due on the market in 2010. “Innovative” or “sustainable” aren’t words typically associated with GM. But the company deserves credit for 1) inventing The Long Marketing Campaign, and 2) demonstrating the irony of [...]

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