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Nearly every major corporation in America has announced a “green” strategy or product line and very few of them are authentic efforts but instead green washing of the same old stuff by the marketing department.
Many of you saw this article today about Starbucks in the Bee. The sad thing is that its not that surprising, we have come to expect this from corporations.
Levi
Update: The picture is of a sandwich that was cut in half and on display. The small pieces of meat and cheese are to make it look like there are a lot of both in the sandwich. I found it here.
7 responses so far ↓
1 BGarland // Sep 23, 2007 at 10:16 pm
I had one of those once at the airport! I was so pissed!
2 Rob // Sep 24, 2007 at 7:55 pm
The problem is we are all getting used to being lied to.
3 Paul // Sep 25, 2007 at 11:18 am
I have feared this coming for a while: Every company and corporation has gone “green”. While this sounds good (it certainly has made more people aware of global issues, and has moved environmentalism from the fringe to the mainstream), I also see it gradually diluting the meaning of being “green”.
Just as with any buzz created by marketing, it will only be a matter of time until the masses have grown tired of the greening of America, become numb to the message and grow skeptical of the products and services that are advertised as being green. Marketing will then look for the next catch phrase (maybe it will be “blue”). In the meantime, the products and services that are truly green will suffer.
The remedies are smart consumerism and common sense. Know where your products come from and research them to their point of origin (when possible). If the salesman can’t tell you where a product comes from or why it is green, move on. Buy locally. If the big corporations want to be green then more power to them, but unfortunately they have earned the skepticism.
4 Levi // Sep 25, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Paul, I could not agree more. The greening of America is a good thing but ultimately will lead to to much of a good thing. Thomas Freidman (The World is Flat Author) makes the argument that this country needs to go green as a strategy for maintaining the lead. I agree but it gets muddy when corporations get involved.
It really all comes down to like you say, you making good decisions when you make purchases.
5 Mike // Sep 25, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Paul, I just checked out your site Grass Cabinetry. Sounds like you are working on what you preach!
6 Levi // Sep 25, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I have been thinking about this more today and realized that this issue percisley is why we decided to have only non-commission sales people in our sales offices. We all felt that we were being lied to at every sales office we visited. And saw that the structure of commission based pay encourages the sales people to do whatever it takes to make a sale.
I feel better and better about our choice the more I think about this issue. We are from the start making it easy for buyers to have an authentic experience where they get the truth.
7 paul // Sep 25, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I’m gonna jump back up on the soapbox for a minute. I think it all boils down to motive. Why do some businesses embrace green philosophies and other embrace green marketing? Once all the global warming hype disappears (it will, whether global warming is still a problem or not) then so will the overt “GREEN” marketing. We all know this.
Green marketing is obviously used at this point because it is a hot topic (a laugh for those of us who were green before it was cool). With the three-second attention spans that most consumers have, aka television, it won’t take long before they are bored and move on to the next shiny object. In the meantime, the companies who choose to monopolize on environmental fears will be seeing green, but it will have nothing to do with the environment….End of rant.
Now let’s look at some of the benefits that being green holds for the capitalist. I can only really speak from my point of view, but material waste is one. In my business I factor in an amount of waste that will be both unusable in the current project and unusable in any future projects. I still have to buy this excess material at the front end, but am unable to itemize a charge for it down the line. It is a cost of doing business. It costs me money. Good business practices led me long ago to optimization. I am able to optimize raw materials, reduce waste and increase my realized profit. This took time at the beginning but has been well worth the initial investment. This is a sound business principle regardless of green motivations.
In an office environment one of the biggest costs to business is absenteeism. It has been studied and documented that buildings with cleaner indoor air environments have fewer worker illnesses, less absenteeism, less turnover and more productive, healthy employees. All of this equals money for a company, whether it is a large multi-national corporation, or a single-person operation. Productivity goes up- profit goes up. Illness goes down- workers comp and insurance costs go down.
Theses are only two business principles that have led some companies to embrace green philosophies and green building. There are many more but these tend to be the most profitable. It is a win-win for the company and the environment. Green principles can save money.
But we fight the status quo with every new evolution. It is hard for some companies to change until new blood is in charge, so they stick with what they know: market where the money is, figuring that “green” is just a fad and will wear off in time. It would be a foolish business decision in their eyes to change their entire operations for a fad. Many of these companies are too large to actually retool or revamp their production processes to make them green, so they justify what is already in place, hoping that someone will buy the “greenwashing”. Green will eventually win out as the environmentally enlightened generations come into power.
Finally, I agree with you Levi that commissioned sales can lead to a certain amount of dishonest dealings, but I think there is more involved there than whether a commission is involved or not. The very best sales people I know are as honest and trustworthy as anyone, and that is where their success comes from. But I’m also sure that none of them would say that money is their motivation.
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