Seth Bauer's presentation on green marketing and communications from Sustainable Brands 10 conference

1. How to Greenwash
Better
Seth Bauer

2. How to Greenwash Better
Thoughts
For
Companies
on the
Verge of
Doing the
Right Thing

3. What is Greenwashing?
“The act of misleading
consumers regarding the
environmental practices
of a company or the
environmental benefits of
a product or service”

4. What is Reporting
on Greenwashing?
Ideally, investigative
reporting that protects
consumers from
deceptive marketers.

5. What are the effects of
such reporting?
1. protects consumers from deceptive
marketers
2. Inadvertently scares
companies away from
making any environmental
claims whatsoever.

6. Who Greenwashes?
Research Report:
TerraChoice Environmental
Marketing identified 1,018
consumer products bearing
1,753 environmental claims.

7. Results: “6 Sins of
GreenwashingTM”
1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off
2. Sin of No Proof
3. Sin of Vagueness
4. Sin of Irrelevance
5. Sin of Fibbing
6. Sin of Lesser of Two Evils

8. Take a Guess
Of the 1,018 products examined,
how many did NOT make claims
that the researchers felt were
false or misleading?

9. Products analyzed
1,018

10. Green Claims
1,753

11. No False or
Misleading Statements
1

12. We are all
greenwashers

13. Concerned,
Not Up in Arms
• Cone study
– 32% of Americans more interested
in the environment than 1 year ago
– 91% have a more positive image of
a company if it’s environmentally
friendly

14. Concerned,
Not Up in Arms
– 85% would switch to another
company’s products if they heard
negative reports
• But . . .
– 47% purchased environmentally
friendly products/services

15. Lesson 1
We can’t all be worms
Everything we make uses resources
and creates waste

16. Lesson 2
Hey, that thing moves
The green bar can be set at any height

17. Lesson 3
No matter how far you go
There’s always someone to your left

18. Takeaway 1
Greenwash Better
DON’T mislead consumers
regarding the environmental
practices of your company or
the environmental benefits of
your products

19. Takeaway 2
Greenwash Better
DON’T shy away from doing the
right thing even if you can’t go
all the way

20. Takeaway 3
Greenwash Better
DO recognize that for
companies as for consumers,
going green is a gradual
process, not an all or nothing
plunge.

21. Takeaway 4
Greenwash Better
DON’T disparage the
competition for moving in
the right direction.
DO hold them to high
standards for science and
honesty.

22. Takeaway 5
Greenwash Better
DO help educate the consumer.
Consumer’s Four Questions:
1. What CAN I buy?
2. What do I save?
3. What else can I do?
4. How important is this, really?