Month: April 2009

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Report on New England clean energy firms

necec-logoI had the opportunity to hear Nick d’Arbeloff, president of the New England Clean Energy Council, give a talk on Thursday, April 23, titled: “The Case for Energy Transformation: Climate Change, Energy Security, and Global Fossil Fuel Supply.”

d’Arbeloff extensively discussed the causes of global warming and the need for more sustainable energy supplies.  Near the end of his presentation, he highlighted some of New England’s leading clean energy firms, in a wide range of categories.  I thought this list was highly-targeted, and wanted to share it below, along with links to the various firms’ websites:

  1. A123 Systems – batteries
  2. Aircuity – energy efficiency
  3. Aspen Aerogels – advanced insulation
  4. EnerNOC – demand response for utilities
  5. Evergreen Solar – vertically integrated solar PV
  6. FloDesign Wind Turbine – turbine technology
  7. General Compression – energy storage (nacelle technology)
  8. GreenFuel – algae-based biofuel
  9. Konarka – thin film solar
  10. Mascoma – cellulostic ethanol
  11. ORPC – marine turbine techology
  12. Protonex – Fuel cells
  13. Qteros – cellulostic ethanol
  14. Ze-gen – waste-to-energy

d’Arbeloff concluded by explaining that despite the dire environmental trends (coupled with unstable energy prices and finite fossil fuel supplies), there will be a bright “green” future.  He said this will be made possible, first, by the right policy, which will unleash innovation and free markets to solve our energy problems.

The event was hosted by Goodwin Procter LLP, and organized by my high school, BB&N.  A special thanks to my friend, Jonathan Shapira, author of the Cleantech Investing in Israel blog, for making it happen.

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Preview: BrightTALK Green Marketing Summit

brighttalk_logo_blackgreen_medI was flattered to be invited to present to the BrightTALK Green Marketing Summit tomorrow (Friday, 4/24).  BrightTALK is aiming to become the “YouTube for Business,” meaning they arrange targeted meetings/summits online and then store the webcasts so people can watch them in the future (upon registration).

According to the BrightTALK site, “This summit will help companies leverage the growing interest of consumers in purchasing products and services from companies with strong ‘green’ messages through understanding the need to develop a green marketing strategy. Summit attendees will gain insight from companies who have implemented successful green marketing initiatives and improve their understanding of why going green will help build a strong brand connection with their target audience.”

The summit will include representatives from companies like Intel and HP, as well as green marketing experts like Joel Makower, who runs GreenBiz, among other ventures.

My session, scheduled for 4 pm EST, is titled: Green Marketing: Bridging Theory & Practice – A Guide to Making Your Direct Marketing Efforts More Sustainable. To attend the summit, please click here.

Here’s a brief abstract on my talk from the BrightTALK site: “Please join Ben Grossman, Director of Grossman Marketing Group’s Green Marketing & Sustainability Practice, to learn about the latest trends in green marketing.  Specifically, Ben will discuss how the green movement is having an impact on communications, and will highlight ways to make your organization’s direct marketing efforts more sustainable and relevant to your constituents.  He will highlight creative ways that he and his colleagues have helped organizations like ZipCar, J.P. Morgan and the National Park Foundation, leverage green marketing techniques without adding any extra cost to the bottom line.”

There will be a live Q&A session, so I will be back with a full report over the next several days.

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Grossman Marketing wins green business award from Boston Business Journal

The Green Business Summit will be held on Friday, May 15, 2009.

The Green Business Summit will be held on Friday, May 15, 2009.

We at Grossman Marketing Group were honored and humbled this afternoon to learn that we are one of this year’s recipients of a Boston Business Journal green business award.  The award will be presented at this year’s Green Business Summit, scheduled for Friday, May 15, at 7 am at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

We were included in the “Innovation” category, and recognized for our work in the green marketing and sustainability space.  We are especially grateful to our client, Zipcar, for nominating us for the award.

Below please find the full list of winners:

Invention:

Workplace:

Innovation:

Design:

Here’s a link to learn more about the event program as well as to register.

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Ad Age: Green-Marketing Revolution Defies Economic Downturn

Source: Datamonitor's Product Launch Analytics

Source: Datamonitor's Product Launch Analytics

This week’s Advertising Age features a very interesting and timely (Earth Day is this week) article, titled “Green-Marketing Revolution Defies Economic Downturn.” The writer, Jack Neff, starts off the article with the following statement: “Green marketing is turning out to be surprisingly recession-proof.”

Neff points to product launch and sales data that indicate that even during the recession, consumer-packaged goods manufacturers are seeing significant revenue growth for their green offerings.  In fact, according to Seventh Generation CEO Jeffrey Hollender, his company’s sales were up 50% last year and 20% in March 2009 versus March 2008.

The article continues that as opposed to previous recessions, during which sales of green products “had the air taken out of them,” sales of green products have remained stable (and are still growing) in the current downturn.

Neff includes some interesting tips for green marketers at the end of the article, and I would certainly recommend giving it a quick read.

Here’s a link to the full article.

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WSJ: Interesting report on eco-logos and green marketing

Courtesy Wall Street Journal. Illustration by Michael Witte.

Courtesy Wall Street Journal. Illustration by Michael Witte.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting report in Thursday’s issue titled: “As Eco-Seals Proliferate, So Do Doubts.” The article discusses how a number of unregulated organizations that purport to verify “green” product claims have sprouted up, which only makes buying these products even more confusing for businesses and consumers.

Here are the two main points that the writer makes:

1) The U.S. Government may need to oversee the creation of Federal green marketing standards, similar to what the U.S. Department of Agriculture has done with organic foods.

2) Eco-seals that are verified by reputable third-party organizations are more reliable.  One example the writer provides is a Canadian-based organization, Ecologo.

I couldn’t agree more.  I have been pushing my industry and my clients to be transparent about green marketing claims, especially because consumers are smart and see through “fuzzy” and unsubstantiated claims that organizations make.  This is why when a client uses eco-friendly papers in their marketing programs and wants to explain the environmental benefits derived from these choices, they should not use a paper company’s calculator to arrive at these statistics.  Rather, they should use the paper calculator created by Environmental Defense, a leading non-profit dedicated to the environment.  I have written about this resource a number of times over the past several years.

I also believe that the Federal government should step in and begin to regulate green product claims.  I know this will be a difficult process, as it would be impossible to apply the same standards across all industries.  Nevertheless, it is important to start now, as it will help companies and individual consumers to better navigate the increasingly-complicated product landscape.

Here’s a link to the full article.