Tree Shirt by Christoph Niemann

thunderbird tree by Christoph Niemann

to see the full collection…..

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’.