You can either take the necessary steps now, be the first on your category/sector to develop a sustainable, recyclable, carbon-constrained, fair trade business model and get all the accolades and first mover advantages – or wait until you’re forced to change, by a mix of activism, consumer opinion, competitive pressure and government regulation.

In either case, a Green makeover will take time, money and effort – but only early adopters get the credits.

We know what we’d recommend.

Too Soon?

Why now, you ask? Surely we should wait until this becomes a serious trend?

It’s true that in most countries the public still have a little way to go before they go Green in earnest.

Encouraging people to change their behaviour is no trivial task. There’s a considerable gap – the “Value-Action” gap – between people’s values, often pro-environmental, and their everyday actions.

The “Value-Action” Gap

UK research conducted by the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable highlights the gap between what consumers feel about the urgency of the challenge of sustainability and what they feel able to do as individuals in the current context of their lives:

• we are creatures of habit, reluctant to make changes that challenge our routines;

• we are highly influenced by the social norms we see around us;

• we perceive sustainable options to be expensive and niche;

• we are preoccupied with short-term household budgets and, for low income consumers, with making ends meet on a weekly basis; and

• we often do not trust the government bodies and businesses that are exhorting or enticing us to change.

• Consumers are willing to act, but they want to act together: “I Will If You Will” (the mutually-cooperative notion that we explored in an earlier newsletter).

Sound familiar?

That’s why it’s nothing short of amazing, then, that Green Thinking has gone mainstream in the UK and the US, in a dramatic shift that’s being labeled“one of the fastest revolutions in public thinking and behaviour ever seen.”

That claim comes from the 2007 ImagePower Green Brands Survey(Landor Associates, London), which cites the following:

• A year ago, Green was a fringe issue in the UK. In May 2007 (even before the floods) 60% of Britons spontaneously identified global warming and climate change as the biggest issue facing the planet today.

• 40% of US consumers also see global warming as an issue and awareness and understanding are clearly growing; the American public is now engaging with Green issues in large numbers, displaying Green attitudes and behaviours that are as strong as anyone’s.

Going Seriously Green

Harking back to the ImagePower Green Brands Survey, 29% of Britons now classify themselves as Strong Greens – they see the impact our current lifestyles are having on the planet and are taking real action to address it.34% of the US respondents see themselves garbed in similar coloration.

Behaviours exhibited by this group:

• recycle regularly, buy recycled products and invest in energy-efficient home appliances;

• actively avoid waste (take bags to the supermarket, drive a fuel-efficient car, wash it form a bucket rather than a hose);

• look to business to take more steps to be greener;

• have strong views on how companies can make a difference, including reducing emissions, adopting sustainability and increasing recycling and conservation measures.

It takes real commitment to go this green, and we’re nowhere near there yet. Neither government nor business nor consumers have taken the Green pill so far. But if any country wants to seize Green as a strategic advantage (yes, let’s admit that self-interest is the only way we’re going to overcome the Value-Action Gap), then we’ve collectively got to take actions that are not merely bold and decisive but at times downright terrifying.

Green Leadership Role For Business

In both the UK and the US over three-quarters of the total sample surveyed believe that society’s environmental performance is neutral or below par. Even more (80% UK, 83% US) believe it’s important or very important to buy from green companies.

Emerging Green agendas are rapidly going mainstream in automotive, energy/petroleum, banking and travel sectors. In less obvious product and service categories, it’s apparent that proactive Green initiatives are creating competitive advantage for those companies willing to walk the walk.

The environment is no longer someone else’s problem. Our customers have made it their responsibility which means they have also made it our responsibility.

As it happens, going Green is not just about doing it because our customers made us do it. The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, in its 2006 Members’ Survey, found that 67% of member companies reported enhanced brand value as a result of their sustainable business practices.

Another major benefit: attracting and retaining staff (reported by 58%), an important advantage as New Zealand continues to experience low unemployment and skills shortages.

The 2006 Survey also highlighted several other benefits of sustainable business practice, including reducing risks (42%), reducing costs (42%), identifying new business opportunities (50%) and enhancing stakeholder relationships (42%).

In other words, even if Green wasn’t good for the planet, it’s good for business.

What Companies Are Doing About Green

In the US companies like Wal-Mart, Staples, Unilever, Home Depot, Dell andSafeway are turning Green. In the UK top Green brands include the Body Shop, Waitrose, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Dyson, Sainsbury’s and BP.

These organizations are tackling Green issues across a variety of fronts. They’re constructing energy-efficient buildings. They’re ensuring that their wood and paper products come from sustainable forests. Some are reducing unnecessary product packaging and print marketing materials. Others are selling organic apparel. They’re helping to cut down on the number of bags that end up in a landfill, they’re reducing their CO² output and are offsetting what they can’t reduce.

While many may have started getting involved as a defensive posture, they now see it as a market opportunity and they’re out there investing money in it. Self-Interest Rules!

Why Green Is Good

A statistic commonly bandied about in pro-environmental circles is that we’re consuming precious resources at a rate that would be fine if we occupied three planets. Let’s agree that we can all see the benefits of preserving our planet (refer Mordor in The Lord Of The Rings for a sneak peek of what happens if we don’t).

The Value-Action Gap is alive and well with companies too. We may believe that Green is worthy but we still need to be convinced of the commercial benefits. The Green Brands study kindly provides us with a number of sound business reasons to go green:

• All consumer types link green with quality in most categories; they expect green brands to make better products and are willing to pay a modest green premium – the key word is “modest”.

• Green reputation drives trial. A “green-perceived” brand is likely to prompt a significant proportion of category users towards consideration and green trial in future.

• Green reputation also appears to drive respect and appetite for a brand and its products.

• Green entrants act as change agents but retain their leadership position; as pioneer brands go mainstream, they attract new users, build reputations and put pressure on category competitors.

• Latecomers still have to pay the cost of entry, but lose out on the differential advantage (as we noted above). As more competitors go green, you’ll have to do so as well – but you won’t get any credit if you’re just seen as being a “me green too” in your category.

• A green reputation lasts – so long as it’s backed up by substantive action.

Developing A Green Strategy

You may think that Al Gore invented Green just after he whipped up the Internet, but in fact the notion of sustainable living has been around for a while – as has the idea of involving business in Green initiatives. In her 1998 book Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation (NTC-McGraw-Hill),Jacquelyn Ottman noted seven winning Green strategies:

1. Do Your Homework
Understand the full range of environmental, economic, political and social issues that affect your consumer and your products and services, now and over the long term.

2. Minimise Impact
Create new products and services that balance consumers’ desires for high quality, convenience and affordable pricing with minimal environmental impact over the entire life of your product.

3. Empower Consumers With Solutions
Help them understand the issues that affect your business as well as the benefits of your environmentally preferable technology, materials and designs.

4. Be Credible
Establish credibility for your marketing efforts.

5. Build Coalitions
Develop mutually beneficial relationships with corporate environmental stakeholders.

6. Go Public
Communicate your corporate commitment and project your values.

7. Don’t Quit
Continuously strive for “zero” environmental impact of your products and processes; learn from your mistakes.

Green Marketing Starts Here

According to the SmartReply Best Practices paper “It’s Good To Be Green”, here are six things you can do right now to jump-start your sustainability strategy:

1. Start by building an opt-in database.
To better target your communications, improve relevance and reduce waste, build and maintain an opt-in email database.

2. Align your priorities with your stakeholder groups.
To generate a successful business case for sustainability, determine the “sought benefit” priorities of your target first. For instance, if you want to create an environmentally friendly soap, the soap must first work well as a cleaning solution before you tout its environmental benefits.

3. Know your sources.
Utilize sustainable and renewable sources and know what they are. If your core product is produced in print, such as a magazine, or if you sell wood or paper products such as copy paper or plywood, it’s critical today that these materials come from sustainable and renewable forests, and that you can prove their source.

4. Shift from mass marketing to targeted, personalized digital media.
Fragmentation of media has made retail customers more difficult to reach today than ever before. Consumers are constantly on the go and becoming increasingly more challenging to locate through traditional channels — channels that are growing more wasteful and less effective daily.

5. Consider moving some of your material to print on demand.
Print on demand allows you to print personalized targeted materials for individual customers when you need them, in either print or electronic form. The result is a significant reduction in the number of printed documents you store and mail, cutting down on your company’s energy use and overall carbon footprint.

6. Reduce and offset your company’s carbon footprint.
Work with nonprofit organizations and consultants to reduce your company’s carbon footprint.

Time For Change

Anyone not on board with a green marketing plan risks losing customers to companies that already have a plan in place. Better environmental stewardship and social capital is becoming the benchmark entry point and more and more companies are building it into their bottom line. There is a fundamental shift in everyone’s consciousness … and companies are realizing that things have to change.

However it can’t just be lip-service – no GreenWash, thanks. The business landscape is turning Green fast, so only significant initiatives will make an impact. Go public with a concrete programme for change.

You’ll also need to look to a Green theme that echoes your existing positioning, to build on your share of the public mind; if your new ideas don’t connect with existing public perceptions, your efforts won’t be recognized.

And engage your people in the cause. If your people aren’t working together to make Green thinking fly, it won’t even get off the ground.

A Little Caveat

As Jerry Stifelman, founder and creative director of The Change, noted in a recent blog on Treehugger.com, just because it saves the planet doesn’t make it popular.

“The majority of First World earthlings don’t wake up planning to save the planet. Instead, they’re hungry for breakfast, concerned about their family, curious about the newest episode of CSI, and wondering how they’re going to get through their day.

“As a global abstraction, sustainability is a difficult sell. This is not because people are selfish, but because their concerns are closer to home. People are quickly engaged when you explain sustainability in terms of their children’s future. That’s common ground. For better and for worse, evolution has made qualities such as empathy, nurturing and conformity more adaptive than leadership. So sales pitches that ask people to do what no one else is doing tend to fall on deaf ears.

“However, when sustainable actions are conveyed in the context of family or helping others, audiences are much more likely to respond. Consider the tremendous response to immediate human crises like the Asian Tsunami andHurricane Katrina.

“The key to marketing sustainability is making it relevant to values consumers already hold. Instead of trying to convince people they need to care about “sustainability” — it’s more productive to talk to them about honesty, responsibility, fairness and innovation – all the things sustainability, at its core, is about.”

Getting Started

All this talk is well and good, but what can we actually do as a business, just to get under way? We can’t start Green Marketing initiatives until we’re actually doing Green things ourselves.

Take the easy steps first, within your own organisation – recycle paper and other reusable materials, look for lower-impact packaging, find suppliers with lower carbon footprints. Then appoint key movers and shakers as Green Evangelists and commission them to prepare a Sustainable Development Report which will identify your company’s economic, environmental and social impacts, assess your corporate performance in these areas, focus on areas for improvement, and track down new opportunities that are consistent with the goals of sustainable development. The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development provides a useful guide to Sustainable Development Reporting which you can access here.

Next, empower your Green Evangelists to explore (and commit the company to) long-term initiatives geared towards sustainable business practices, lowered energy consumption, waste reduction and recycling, reduced carbon emissions, responsible suppliers and fair trade.

The planet you save may be your own.

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