There was an article that sparked my interest in a paper called Canadian Small Business Week called “Beware of shortcuts when it comes to green marketing”.  First off, I’d like to say how happy I was that this issue was perceived as big enough a concern that it was published in this business paper.  It convinces me that this issue is important to other people (and not just myself!).

The article really ties in with our class lecture today about sustainability marketing communication.  The first thing the article mentions right off the bat is how consumers are quite adept at pointing out questionable green marketing claims.  Thus, companies can easily develop a tarnished reputation if those consumers decides to broadcast the company’s poor practices onto social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

How then can a company avoid the perception of greenwashing?  The article suggests that companies have a couple options including partnering with credible organizations and/or obtaining certification from third parties that indicate the company meets certain performance standards.  I suppose then that the issue becomes deciding which certification to obtain and then also which credible organizations to partner up with.  The business owner will have to use their own judgment in deciding which of these organizations they want assistance/designation from.  The article mentioned that there are a growing number of companies and organizations in Vancouver who offer these types of consulting service to companies to help them implement strategies to become more green.  Although I do believe this is a positive thing, I am concerned for small businesses who don’t really know how to get started choosing one of these organizations or quality certifications when there are so many choices.  In this sense, it’s becoming increasingly difficult I believe for a small company to really prove that they’re sustainable.

Another part of the article listed some advice from Michel Bergeron, the vice President, Corporate Relations at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).  He said that in order to develop a truly green marketing strategy, a company needs to:

1) Understand the environmental impact of your activities

2) Take action to reduce that impact

3) Tell your story

Now does that third point seem really interesting since we’ve been discussing how “green-hushing” might actually be a better strategy for some companies?  At the same time, when companies fear being described as greenwashing, it’s almost unintuitive to say to that company “tell your story” to the public, because it could potentially be feeding the critics more fuel if they don’t think the “story” is good enough.  What do you guys think?  Do you believe more companies will engage in green-hushing only because it’s becoming more difficult to prove you’re actually green and not green-washing?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.