Over “Green” on BlogTalkRadio
I was interviewed by Tea Silvestre on BlogTalkRadio last week. I was ostensibly going to talk about supply chain sustainability and ROI. Instead our discussion ended up focusing on my March 5th post “Selling Sustainability…not green.” In that post I had declared in so many words I was over the term “green.” Now since that post it seems that every car commercial I’ve seen, every radio ad I’ve heard, and every pop-up ad on yahoo is proclaiming “how green our new hybrid is”, “how you can be a green consumer by using electronic banking”, and yes, how a new laundry detergent is…dare I say… “greener.” So I’m feeling a little bit like I’m swimming against the green tide.
However, the more I look at the ads and hear what their claims are, the clearer it becomes to me that we need to establish criteria by which we can quantify , measure and label the environmental footprint of a product if we intend to affect lasting change. Otherwise sustainability becomes a marketing game in which anyone can wrap the mantel of green around their product and convince confused consumers they are helping the environment, helping their kids or saving polar bears. The sad part is, given the lack of any standards, if their product is in a green plastic bottle and their competitor’s product is in a yellow plastic container, their claim that their product is “greener” is hard to argue with. Their marketing dollars are well spent.
-FR
Recent Comments