Brilliant to see the role of marketing being addressed here, both in terms of 1. its potential to drive a business beyond cost savings (once you've made a committment to customers you have to keep going) and 2. where marketers are actually making matters worse, through ineffective advertising that doesn't stand out and can actually confuse the customer making it more difficult for all of us!

These insights are the foundation of our communications consultancy business. We offer workshops for those advertising agencies brave enough to admit they aren't doing sustainability well yet. Clients looking for practical advice might want to take a look at our content rich website which covers topics ranging from targeting through to developing messaging strategies and forming the business case www.hiveideas.co.uk.

We're looking to convene a conference of marketers to encourage them to see the role they can (profitably) play in encouraging people to live more sustainable lifestyles. Get in touch if you're interested in being part of it berryd@hiveideas.co.uk.

Great article Joel. The steps for using your green efforts to enhance a brand are well defined. I've already reprinted (with attribution of course) over on my blog.

My personal exploration now is less about steps like thes and more about how the tools of marketing can be used to create a sustainable economy. The distinctions I'm drawing (just wrote a blog post about it, and working on a video) are:

- Marketing Sustainability: selling green products and concepts

- Marketing with Sustainability: using your green efforts to enhance your brand

- Sustainable Marketing: utilizing marketing tools (product, price, placement & promotion) to help build a sustainable economy (people, planet, profit)

More at:
http://bobcanhelp.com/

Are you serious? Crediblity? How credible is it that this site's charter sponsor and major advertiser is General Motors. Besides spending quite a bit of money telling people they are going green by sponsoring green events, web pages and advertising , what exactly has GM done? Have you seen the new Hummer ads?Almost every company listed in your article is on the most recent PERI Toxic 100 list which uses EPA data, including Dupont at #1. Here are the rest:

6-General Electric
18-General Motors
29-BP
59-PFizer

What service are we truly providing these companies when it comes to actual environmental issues versus just "feel good" attempts to try to persuade consumers that something is being done?

As a communications consultant, I think Joel is absolutely right to put so much emphasis on credibility. It's essential to successful communications on any topic, but especially green/sustainable products, services, and initiatives. With so much greenwashing out there, there's a huge wall of skepticism to overcome -- witness the "Are You Serious?" comment.

Personally, I have a great deal of ambivalence about many large corporations' sustainability communications. Significant efforts to reduce environmental impact and increase social benefits should be encouraged and applauded, but can you really claim to be aiming for sustainability if your fundamental business model is unsustainable?

In my observation, the companies that benefit the most from Green marketing are those who really leapfrog the previous common wisdom about what is actually possible and make giant strides based on systemic rethinking (a la Amory Lovins), as well as the small incremental improvements like green lightbulbs and compostable plasticware that lots of other people are doing.

This includes a lot of companies who have for decades been far from the cutting edge, but are feeling economic and consumer pressure to be more viably green. I think that's a good trend, as long as the progress is real and not just for show

Shel Horowitz, award-winning author of Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and founder of the Business Ethics Pledge, http://www.business-ethics-pledge.org

"Credibility is Key" hit the nail on the head with the question, "...can you really claim to be aiming for sustainability if your fundamental business model is unsustainable?"

The simple answer is 'of course not.' Green-washing is ever present with companies like Clorox producing 'Green" options but not changing the formulas to their traditional brands. As mentioned in an earlier post, GM and DuPoint are on top toxicity lists.

But, what we have to realize is that sustainability is a process. It's the process of breaking out of old habits and adapting brand new methods that are completely opposite from our routines. For large corporations this means either a). waiting for a more cost effective way to do business b). becoming a pioneer and taking the initial loss for the long-term ROI.

This is not an easy choice at all. While they are thinking about A or B, the corporations' "greenwashed" contributions to sustainability actually makes the complicated answer YES. Let's face it, we have come to depend on corporate brands in a 'stamp of approval' way. If these companies are now Greening their habits-even if it's faux Green, they are sending a very large message to the non-greened general population that sustainability is the right way to go.

--LadyPink

more at http://www.thepinkstandard.com

I think it is going to be extremely difficult to convince the masses to take sustainability seriously when the so-called "experts" and the media are willing to take money from companies that are the biggest polluters. The small changes these companies are making are so incredibly minute compared to the damage they caused and continue to cause. However, they have the marketing/pr machines and most importantly -- the money -- to try to convince people they are doing something good. Money that Greenbiz.com, GreenOrder, CNN, Planet Green, NBC/Universal, Time, The Sundance Channel and many others are all glad to take.

Most of the comments have focused on credibility. In a recent survey 76% of consumers could not name one green company. That is why I believe that the last two factors in your CRED framework are at least as important. Like it or not, most people don't put a lot of thought into evaluating marketing and PR messages. Green marketing is no different...this is not about advocacy, it is about persuasion.

Marketing Guy