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April 1, 2012 by bgrossman

Green Marketing Presentation to Tufts University

I had the privilege of guest lecturing at Tufts University in late February to a class titled “Social Marketing.”  I focused my presentation on green marketing and sustainability, with a particular emphasis on the importance of transparency.  In addition, I spent some time on product lifecycle management, which I’ve been interested in for a while, and have been learning a lot more about through my membership on the Product Stewardship Institute Advisory Council.

I’m pleased to include a selection of slides that I discussed in class below:

Green Marketing Presentation to Tufts University
During the conversation, I covered a number of topics that we have reviewed here at Sustainable Ink, the most important being the issue of transparency.  As we have been advocating for years, when companies make green claims, they need to back those claims up with hard data.  In the commercial printing world, a great example is the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator, which I covered here back in 2007.

I provided a best practice example, which I wrote about in July 2009, about the use of eco-logos and statistics on the outside envelope of a fundraising appeal by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which was signed by former Vice President Al Gore.

I then went on to discuss an example of greenwashing by a major company, SC Johnson, in their creation of Greenlist.  Terrachoice, a leading environmental marketing agency, defines greenwashing as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.”  SC Johnson created the program in 2001 and started putting its Greenlist logo on products in 2008 to indicate that one of their products met certain environmental standards.  The problem was that SC Johnson made the logo look very official, which gave many consumers the idea that it was rated by an outside organization, which it was not.  Two class action lawsuits were filed against SC Johnson, which they settled in 2011, by agreeing not to use the Greenlist logo on Windex moving forward.  Here’s an excellent article on the settlement by GreenBiz.  Here’s a quote from Fisk Johnson, SC Johnson’s chairman and CEO, that sums up the issue of greenwashing very well:  “In retrospect. we could have done a better job at being more transparent and clearer with our label and what it meant.”

Following this discussion, I reviewed Poland Spring’s 5-gallon “Eco Sense Bottle” that it unveiled in 2010.  When I first saw the bottle on one of my office’s water coolers, I did some investigating, and wrote an article about it, which is still the most read post on my blog over the past 5 years.  The reason I wrote about the bottle was that it had an environmental logo with no explanation of what the logo meant.  I spoke with a representative who told me that the bottle used less plastic and was easier to recycle.  I did not believe this was greenwashing, but rather, as I wrote 2 years ago, “a failure of a major brand to provide clarity on its green claims…Poland Spring went to the trouble of trademarking ‘eco-sense’ and creating a special logo for the term, but they didn’t take the extra step of providing consumers an explanation of what the term means.”

The next part of the discussion focused on product lifecycle management and the importance of reducing the use of resources in packaging.  To create these slides, I was lucky to get help from Scott Cassel, the founder and CEO of Product Stewardship Institute.  The example I provided was Staples, and its pioneering computer “take back” program, which, according to the company, allows consumers to “securely recycle your end-of-life technology.”  These programs prevent a large number of devices from being thrown away, reducing the presence of hazardous materials in the waste stream.  Staples was the first major retailer to offer such a program, and it had a significant impact on its industry; Best Buy, Office Depot and a range of other firms have followed suit.  Not only is this good for the environment, and convenient for consumers, but it has been good for Staples as well – studies have shown that this program increased consumer loyalty to the chain.

I closed out the formal part of the program with a discussion about packaging, and how reducing the resources needed to make products can have a significant impact on a company’s brand.  Over the last decade, Wal-Mart, the leading retailer in the world, has suffered a number of public relations issues, with many focused on its treatment of workers.  In addition, very few retailers have had a more significant positive environmental impact on their industry or suppliers than Wal-Mart.  There is a wide array of information on Wal-Mart’s sustainability efforts on its website, including its creation of a Sustainability Index, its efforts to create zero waste, as well as its aggressive efforts to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.  I focused the conversation on one example of Wal-Mart exerting its influence on a supplier to effect significant change in its industry.  The supplier was Tide, and the result was a packaging revolution.  Several years ago, Wal-Mart set a goal of only selling concentrated liquid laundry detergent in all of its U.S. and Canadian stores.  The program was a success, and the entire industry has been transformed.  In addition, because of this and a number of other initiatives, consumers have easier access to more environmentally-friendly products, and Wal-Mart’s reputation has been partially rehabilitated.

The students, all of whom are undergraduate students at Tufts University, had a wide range of interesting and insightful questions and comments.  I was honored to have had the opportunity to spend the evening with them!

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Posted in Data/Report, Green Marketing, PR, Procurement, sustainability | Tagged Al Gore, best practices, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, eco-logo, Environmental Defense, green marketing, greenbiz, greenlist, greenwashing, Paper Calculator, Poland Spring, product lifecycle, Product Stewardship, sc johnson, Staples, Terrachoice, tide, transparency, wal-mart, windex | 2 Comments
April 25, 2010 by bgrossman

Poland Spring’s Missed Green Marketing Opportunity: A Discussion of Their New Eco-Sense Bottle

My company is a Poland Spring customer.  We receive frequent deliveries of their 5-gallon water bottles for various water coolers stationed around our office.

Last week, I noticed that the bottle had changed.  It is now made of a darker blue plastic, and has a slightly different shape.  When I looked closer, I saw that the label included a new logo, with the phrase, “ECO SENSE BOTTLE.”  There is a trademark symbol after eco-sense, which makes the logo look pretty official.  Here’s a picture I took with my phone:

Image of the "ECO SENSE BOTTLE" logo on new 5-gallon Poland Spring bottles.

Given my interest in green marketing and green business issues, I looked closer at the bottle, hoping for an explanation of what eco-sense means.  Unfortunately, the only language that could be considered an explanation was, “our eco-sense bottle is returned, refilled and recycled.”  As far as I know, the large bottles on water coolers have been getting returned, refilled and recycled for years.  In fact, when the Poland Spring delivery team comes to our office, they drop full bottles off and pick up empty bottles to be cleaned and refilled.

Unfortunately, the bottle does not have any more information on what the company, owned by Nestle, means by the new logo.  Therefore, I called Poland Spring late last week and connected with someone in their Consumer Affairs department.  When they learned that I was calling about a bottle typically delivered to businesses, they connected me to a group that fields questions and comments for their business services group.

I spoke with a very nice representative who explained, “We’re trying to use less plastic on the actual bottles.” She also explained that they are made from “an easier plastic to recycle.”  I asked a follow-up question about the ease of recycling the material, but she didn’t have specifics available.  I made the suggestion that future bottles include this additional information about containing less plastic and being easier to recycle.

The key lesson from this experience with Poland Spring is one that I and others in the green marketing community have been emphasizing for years: when you make green claims, you must be transparent and provide the details behind the language and numbers. Wherever possible, it helps to provide third-party references for your claims.  Poland Spring did not do this, which surprised me, given their past experience: Nestle Waters was hammered with greenwashing claims by bloggers when they came out with their eco-shape bottle across all of their water brands in 2007-2008 (of which Poland Spring is one) – here’s another example of criticism they received.  I understand why they have been accused of greenwashing for their retail side bottles, as the majority of plastic bottles end up in landfills, and the eco-shape logo gives people the impression that they are being environmentally-friendly by drinking bottled water.  Terrachoice, a leading environmental marketing agency, defines greenwashing as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.”  I personally try to drink water out of a reusable bottle whenever possible, and my firm has given them to all of our employees as a way to practice what we preach.

The difference in the case of the eco-sense 5-gallon bottle is that it is not greenwashing, but rather a failure of a major brand to provide clarity on its green claims.  Large water coolers enable people to cut down on bottled water consumption in favor of filling up reusable water bottles like those made by Sigg or Nalgene.  Poland Spring went to the trouble of trademarking “eco-sense” and creating a special logo for the term, but they didn’t take the extra step of providing consumers an explanation of what the term means.  According to Cone, a leading cause marketing agency, 91% of consumers want to hear about companies’ social and environmental commitments.  More than the high-level green logo or tagline, conscious consumers want to “get under the hood” and understand the details behind companies’ green claims.

By failing to include further explanation of their eco-sense logo, Poland Spring failed to give their customers the option of learning more.  I would strongly suggest they address this lack of transparency, and immediately start adding further information about their eco-sense program onto the larger bottles.  It may cost a few more cents per bottle in printing fees, but they will more than make up for it with stronger customer relationships.

Posted in Data/Report, Green Marketing, sustainability | Tagged Cone Inc., eco-logo, green marketing, greenwashing, Poland Spring, Terrachoice, transparency | 13 Comments

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