Repurposing Fall Castoffs – the originally organic art of Christoph Niemann
Filed under Nature Inspired Design, design for environment, repurposed
From his Abstract City blog on the NY Times……….
Tree Shirt by Christoph Niemann
thunderbird tree by Christoph Niemann
Tags: Christoph Niemann, design for environment, recycled, repurposed, sustainable design
NBC Green Week – when well intentioned meets uninformed
Filed under green media
I admit to being a couch potato at times. Last night I was watching NBC, which is in the midst of hosting its Green Week. I assume their intentions are noble and appreciate having them draw attention to the cause and hopefully help encourage better behavior and environmentalism.
That said, I have to ask, What are they thinking? They added the words Go Green to the end of every sentence in their PSA’s on green [ok, not quite every sentence]. Reminds me of the childhood game where you add the same phrase to the end of every sentence you and your friends utter, creating nonsensical, ridiculous and hilarious combination.
It makes me wonder…..with all the smart people at NBC, and all the resources at their disposal, Is this the best we can expect from a national media company when it speaks about green?
Tags: green business, green marketing, green media, greenwash, nbc green week, sustainable marketing
Design For Fighting Climage Change: Blog Action Day
Filed under climate change, design for environment
Today is Blog Action Day. The focus is Climate Change.
I would like to focus today on the human side of climate change, and specifically water- Clean, flowing, accessible water.
I was a guest on a radio show recently, and was asked ” Does climate change really exist?” It was followed by the question…..can each person really make a difference. I was surprised that people are still asking these questions. I told the listeners that I am not a scientist, but I believe there are a lot of credible scientists and reports that confirm that yes…..climate change is happening.
I get personal confirmation from my friend Mary, who lives in Alaska. A documentary film maker and photographer, Mary is always documenting the world. The photos I receive regularly are both beautiful and haunting. Dry areas that used to be wet… icebergs melting….. Water……..
Back to the radio show…as I was formulating an answer, I got a visual image of john doe, regular citizen driving to get coffee every morning, which gets served in a paper cup; I then imagine him finishing the last sip of coffee and tossing his empty paper cups into the backseat of his car. Imagine what his car looks like at the end of the year…..now multiply that by all the things he [and you] consume………….. Car overflowing with junk….no room for the driver…leaving a trail of junk…….that is infringing on neighbors…
I ask anyone who isn’t convinced to Act As If…..isn’t it better to take restorative and preventive measures than not? I invite you to design your life and your work to Act As If.
According to 28 leading scientists…..
A recent post on Discover blogs entitled 9 Eco Rules Humans Shouldn’t Break if We Want To Survive, “28 leading scientists have drawn up a list of nine “planetary boundaries” that must not be crossed if we want to avoid drastically changing the global environment and imperiling our own existence. The only problem is, we’ve already crossed three of those thresholds.” Read the rest of the post
Water – One billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us.
I recently attended a great marketing seminar that had participants donate money to charity: water to help build wells in 3rd world countries that have limited/no access to clean water. We raised enough money by the end of the conference to build 2 wells! We all left feeling very proud!
Charity: Water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years.
I invite you to join me and build another well, or two or three…. together. Please donate here
To find out more about Blog Action Day
Tags: blog action day, carbon footprint, charity water, design for environment, environmental impact, environmental leader, sustainable design, sustainable organizations, water
The Green Business Success Blueprint Program Launches – intro teleclass offered on 10/8
Filed under Events
Today more than ever, businesses are challenged to survive and thrive. Many entrepreneurs start with great ideas but fall short on execution.
Green business has unique challenges. There is a lot of noise in the green space and a lot of companies claiming to be green. As an Eco business owner, you need to establish yourself as a credible green company as well as stand out from the crowd. Even a responsible company can be suspected of greenwashing if it doesn’t communicate clearly with all stake holders both internally and externally.
Green business is also good business. What are the attributes that make any business successful? What do you need to do in order to insure that your business is credible, sustainable and profitable?
Join us for a informative overview of the best green business practices and how simple systems and tools can keep your business running smoothly and profitably*. Learn how to create your money making, less stress blueprint for 2010. For information and registration: http://greenbusinesssuccessblueprint.eventbrite.com/
This call will be recorded, and sent out after the event.
* these are some of the same simple tools and systems that we use in our upcoming Green Business Success Blueprint coaching program created by Jane Tabachnick – starting on October 13th. For more information visit: http://www.janetabachnick.com
Tags: eco entrepreneurship, environmental certifications, ethical fashion, green business, green business coaching, green marketing, green products, greenwash, online marketing, social media marketing, sustainable marketing
The Good Green Website
Filed under Marketing
Websites are the frontline marketing for any business; often the first impression of your company. I have written about this a few times over the years; in a report entitled “What’s Your Website Done for you Lately” and in the NY Enterprise Report article entitled “Is It Time for a Website Upgrade?”
For sustainable organizations, the website is even more critical to your business; it holds the key to your reputation.
Take for example the company running an advertising campaign that touts their green product line. In an effort to get more information about the company and products you visit their website. There is little or no information to support their ad campaign. Your conclusion could easily be that the company is greenwashing. This may not in fact be the case, but the perception of greenwash or even just a suspicion, can be as damaging to your reputation as the act of intentionally misleading the public.
Take the “Good Green Website Survey” and let us know if this has happened to you.
The good green website has to do better than most companies are doing. Even those businesses with firm environmental or 3BL commitments, policies and products fail to provide appropriate supporting information online. Or if it is online, it is not easy to find. I think of it as the great green scavenger hunt. Most visitors are going to leave your site before finding the information they are seeking, never to return.
Here are the keys to a “good green website”:
- Easy to find information
- Multiple ways to find the information [home page, about us, product pages….]
- Varying degrees of detail – appropriate for specific audience [architects and consumers may need different levels of information]
- Data supporting claims
- Contact information for further details [human answered is best]
- 3rd party verification wherever possible
The Green Challenges concurs that companies are falling short on their websites and need to do better stating: “There is a breakdown in communication of sustainability programs and policies from leadership to employees, stakeholders and consumers.”
A large part of the success of sustainability programs is in the corporate communications both internally and externally. The website, therefore is the perfect and necessary tool to be the epicenter of company’s sustainability programs and success.
Note: our StandForGreen™ marketing tool makes is easy for your website to communicate your green message.
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This post originally appeared as a Guest Blog on The Green Challenges http://www.thegreenchallenges.com
Tags: business reputation, green business, green marketing, green online marketing, green social media, greenwash, marketing green, online marketing, sustainable organizations
When Your Marketing Says “Green”, What Do They Hear?
I recently presented a seminar on Green Marketing as part of the Tools of the Trade – Go Green series at FIT.
I tried the following exercise out.
Think of a color in the green palette. Think of what comes to mind when a company’s marketing says ‘green’.
Now consider this scenario: You hire a painting contractor to paint your living room. The only instructions you give him are that you want it painted green.
What color does he paint it? According to color service company Pantone, there are millions of shades of green.
The responses ranged from ‘Toothpaste’ to “Pistachio” to “Forest” to “Mint” to “Apple” etc
When it comes to eco or sustainable marketing, there aren’t a million shades but there are many possible variations.
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“It’s striking how rich and varied these descriptions are, often differing both by product as well as by people’s different perspectives, and also what aspect of the product’s lifecycle is often most salient for different products. The appetite is there, but the message needs to be more effective.”
Amy Hebard, “Speaking Green: an Earthsense Report” which polled and summarized how 30,000 consumers define green for over 80 different product categories.
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The class offered a variety of responses as to what it means if a company says they are green:
• Environmentally Friendly
• Reducing Carbon Footprint
• Having good corporate citizen policies [triple bottom line – including
environmental and social responsibility]
• Having recycled products
And the definitions went on…. What did you think of?
Here are a few real world examples:
As the founder and manager of the green marketing group on linked in, I hear from a lot of people wanting to join the group. In their introduction email they tell me about their companies and what makes them green. Here are two examples of the descriptions I get which illustrates the range of what people think of as green:
• Our ad specialty company recently went green: we added a line of bamboo products.
• We have just begun the process to become FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] Certified, and are undergoing an energy audit for our facility. Our small printing company isn’t yet as green as we would like be we are committed to becoming more sustainable. We also have some give back programs in our community that we are seeking to expand.
When you say green do they hear only environmental attributes or are they thinking you mean triple bottom line?
It gets pretty confusing trying to figure out what a company means, especially if you are committed to buying from responsible companies.
Its time for a new language for green. Until then, let them know exactly what you mean when you say ‘green’.
Tags: environmental certifications, green events, green marketing, green products, recycled, sustainable marketing
Carbon Footprint Gets Added to the Dictionary – and how that can help your marketing success
Filed under Green Products, Marketing
I was surprised to hear that Merriam Webster was just adding Carbon Footprint and Green Collar to the dictionary this week. It seems to me that they have been in use for a very long time. It then occured to me that doesn’t mean however, that my customers respond the same way to these phrases. The question here for marketers is what language does your audience speak?
Becoming official and being added to the dictionary doesn’t’ mean a word or phrase isn’t commonly used and recognized. It just reminded me that as marketers we often forget that we are not necessarily our customers, and need to keep that in mind with every communication.
The best marketing resonates with customers and makes them feel we are speaking directly to them. Miss the mark with language that seems foreign to them or like jargon and you can alienate them.
Its easy to lose perspective of whether a term or phrase is jargon or has moved into common usage with our audience, particularly if you live, breath and work in a niche. It’s your job to be up to date on trends, news…and you are probably a bit ahead of most of your audience, making it hard to keep it all in perspective. That is not to say there aren’t very savvy audiences out there on the cutting edge. The key is to really know your audience.
Social media such as blogs and twitter give us an incredible opportunity to have ongoing conversations in real time with our audience and read exactly what words and terms they speak/write in.
The real question for marketers is not when does a term become official, but when is it commonly used and accepted into the familiar language our target audience speaks.
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Tags: Add new tag, carbon footprint, environmental leader, green collar, green marketing, green products, social media marketing, sustainable marketing
Tools of the Trade – Go Green series
Filed under Events, Green Building and Decorating, Marketing
Tools of the Trade - Go Green Series
Please join me…I will be presenting on Green Marketing on 7/12 at: Tools of the Trade – Go Green at FIT in NYC.
This dynamic seminar series at FIT hosts some of the preeminent thought leaders in sustainability, entrepreneurship and design. Scheduled speakers include Danny Bitran, founder and president of EthixPeople; Neil Chambers, founder of Green Ground Zero; Beto Lopez, sustainability thought leader and IDEO designerand sustainability expert and marketer Jane Tabachnick.
Tix can be ordered: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=186308
I will be attending the entire series… so stop by and say hello!
Jane
Tags: eco entrepreneurship, eco fashion, environmental certifications, ethical fashion, green building and decorating, green manufacturing, green marketing, green products, IDEO, sustainable, sustainable design, sustainable marketing
Furniture Sustainability Certification Launched
Filed under Green Building and Decorating, Green Products
Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) International, the trade association for the commercial furniture industry, has launched its “level” product certification program. The sustainability standard takes into account material use, energy and atmosphere impacts, human and ecosystem health and social responsibility. Read the rest of the article here at Environmental Leader: http://tinyurl.com/owon7u
Tags: BIFMA, certification, commercial furniture, environmental certifications, environmental leader, green building and decorating, green products, sustainable furniture
Green product certifications – trusted or suspect?
Filed under Green Products, Marketing
As Eco Seals proliferate, so do doubts according to today’s Wall Street Journal. In a well informed article, Gwendolyn Bounds starts off by writing “It’s too easy to be green.”
“Recently, Kevin Owsley went searching for a reputable organization that could validate the eco-friendly traits of his company’s carpet-cleaning fluid. But after canvassing a dozen competing groups hawking so-called “green certification” services — including one online outfit that awarded him an instant green diploma, no questions asked — he grew disillusioned about how meaningful any endorsement would be to his customers.
Mr. Owsley goes on to say ‘I joke and say, ‘I could buy some of these companies a case of beer, and they’d give us a certification.’ I’m very frustrated by that. ”
To certify or not to certify. For small to medium size companies, the price alone may inform this decision. Whichever route you decide to go, good marketing for your sustainable business doesn’t rely on a certification. It’s really about telling your story and providing credible information to stakeholders. read my article 5 top tips for responsible green marketing…
Tags: Certifications, green products, Marketing