Elly Woolston, founder of belief-driven marketing agency {united} here describes the importance of brands standing up for their green credentials. In this opinion piece, Elly argues that while many companies lead truly belief-driven green campaigns, ensuring that they are operating as greenly as possible at every level, many others are trying to tap into all the benefits of appearing green without decreasing the damage they cause to the environment. It is a grave problem, she argues, that can divest the companies of trust, reputation and customers...
The importance consumers place on green credentials when choosing which brands to support is already very high and only continuing to increase. The level of a company’s commitment to green conduct can be the deciding factor when choosing between products and customers will often be prepared to pay more if it means that a product is more ethical.
This has led to a situation in which some unscrupulous companies are taking the opportunity to exploit the public’s conscience. While many companies lead truly belief-driven green campaigns, ensuring that they are operating as greenly as possible at every level, many others are trying to tap into all the benefits of appearing green without decreasing the damage they cause to the environment.
All this may seem an easy way to attract customers but avoid the costs involved in curtailing environmentally destructive practices, these tactics will inevitably be seen through by savvy consumers.
A brand which is genuinely aiming to be green or socially conscious will not limit their actions to only the most visible and obvious levels. In short, they will not be acting with the sole aim of attracting customers.
An example of this kind of behind the scenes green activity is the policy in place at Expedia, in which they pay for employees’ public transport, as encouragement to reduce the number of car journeys that they are responsible for.
Dedicated green brands will also be able to clearly support their claims with detailed evidence of relevant activity, rather than just relying on vague affirmations. L’Oreal, a company which was singled out for impressive performance by Interbrand in the top 50 green companies 2011, makes available on its website a detailed ninety page sustainable development report.
In contrast, many companies devote large sections of their websites to making themselves look like they are doing a great deal of environmentally conscious work whilst doing very little to justify this emphasis.
This often consists of such feeble measures as extensive use of the colour green and pictures of trees. By pointing out how “aware” of the issues they are, and including advice to customers on how to be eco-friendly, these companies can appear very environmentally conscious without giving supporting evidence of genuine commitment.
Where these companies do discuss what small amount of true green activity they may be undertaking, it will be given a disproportionate emphasis while their more damaging behaviour is not mentioned, creating an entirely unrealistic picture of the balance.
CorpWatch, an association which describes itself as “holding corporations accountable”, gives awards on its website to companies for “greenwashing”, a term coined by environmentalist Jack Westervelt which they define as, “The phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment and leaders in the struggle to eradicate poverty”.
These companies often spend more money and effort on creating an impressive green image for themselves than they spend on any actual green activity. It is strongly implied that BP spent a disproportionate amount on their environmental “Beyond Petroleum” campaign advertising compared to the amount actually acting on the issues they discussed.
Whilst, unfortunately, this greenwashing can occasionally deceive some for a period of time, in most cases people can quickly see through the falseness and the greater the hypocrisy, the greater the company will suffer. Some of the most embarrassing cases of backlash against inflated claims or spurious green behaviour have been the demonstrations against and discontinuation of oil companies’ sponsorship of environmental enterprises.
At different points, BP and Shell have both been the sponsors of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award. Not only are these companies causing long term negative effects on the environment through their contribution to climate change, but they are also responsible for the immediate endangerment of wildlife through oil spills.
This astounding hypocrisy was met with a vast level of protest which both times resulted in the sponsorship finishing. The award is now sponsored by the far more appropriate Veolia, an environmental service and utility company. If companies are found to be actively lying about their precise level of greenness cases can be taken against them such as when Sanyo was penalised for false claims about the proportion of energy accounted for by their renewable resources.
There are several consequences of this insincerity and pretence. The most obvious is that it divests the companies of trust, reputation and, inevitably, customers. Dishonesty in relation to any aspect of a company drives away customers and since green commitment is an attribute many people hold in high esteem, it is met with an even greater level of disgust.
Secondly, this behaviour is damaging to other companies who may have been previously less environmentally friendly but have decided to enact a sincere belief-driven turnaround. They will have to fight much harder against the perception that they are merely faking for profit.
However, the worst potential consequence of this devious conduct would be a situation in which, due to the amount of companies taking the name of green in vain, the description “green” itself may become something that causes suspicion and distrust amongst consumers instead of inspiration and satisfaction.
Elly has more than twenty years experience in advertising and direct marketing in London and New York. Her career started on the client side and then she joined DDM Advertising to run the British Airways and Ford Motor Company accounts. In 1991 she left as an Associate Director to found Barraclough Hall Woolston Gray with three other partners. This agency is now known as Proximity London and is part of the Worldwide BBDO Omnicom Group. Elly set up her current company {united} last year.
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