Environmental Communications Comes to the Fore
By Don Millar, President of The Element Agency (http://www.theelementagency.com/green/)
Today’s broadened concern about the environment has created new opportunities for smart businesses to communicate in a way that connects much more deeply with target audiences than traditional advertising and marketing ever has before.
With every opportunity, however, comes barriers and this one is no different. The barriers to successful environmental communications include the seeming inability of traditional ad agencies to communicate effectively about meaningful values combined with self-styled green police using blogs to hold companies to account.
But the biggest barrier is probably the old-school thinking of the companies themselves. A recent Financial Times article referred to green communication as a matter of “corporate hygiene” – a mindset as stuck in the past as a horse and buggy is compared to a hybrid car.
We advise clients to think in terms of opportunity not obligation, in other words, provide authentic examples of environmental progress, then play offense. This thinking needs to replace defensiveness.
It is also imperative that the communications provide an honest representation of what the company is doing – the public, and even activist interest groups, do not expect perfection nearly as much as they look for sincerity and progress.
This mindset is a reflection of the fact that the audience for green communications has changed – it’s no longer a narrow, highly motivated niche but a mainstream swath of the public. Naturally, this means a different message and a higher profile for green attributes.
Understanding this new, broader audience gets to the central point of green marketing today – environmental values should stand at the center of a company’s brand and overall image.
British Petroleum (BP) is a great example with their “Beyond Petroleum” campaign. They got out early, put their alternative energy research and development front and center but didn’t pretend they are something they aren’t.
We took the same approach with a Canadian client, Epcor, a power and water producer. We zeroed in on the great work they do cleaning up water pollution at a high profile site. This got them important notice from green activists as an innovative and sound approach to the environment on this specific issue, building credibility for future work.
The main thing for businesses today is to move quickly, be authentic and then do what we call “greening their brand” – putting an important, values-based message front and center.
Don Millar is President of The Element Agency a communications, advertising and online firm specializing in environmental communications from offices in New York, Vancouver and Mexico City. dmillar@theelementagency.com.
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:50 pm You are right on the mark with the need for authenticity and values. A company has to have truly committed to integrating sustainability (however they explicitly define it) into their entire business. It can’t just be a marketing hook. It can’t just be the CEO who’s decided that he’s going to be greener than his buddies on the Business Roundtable. Being green isn’t coming up with a hodge-podge portfolio of “green” products or projects. If company leadership isn’t building sustainable thinking into company-wide culture, they are playing a game that will backfire and trounce the company’s reputation. I also have to comment on the term “green.” What does it mean? I was actively involved in the development of the FTC Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims and chaired the claims review committee for a Fortune 500 company. “Green” and “environmentally friendly” have no meaning as absolutes! Everything has environmental impacts at every point in its life cycle - raw materials acquisition, manufacture, use and disposal. Even recycling has impact. I think the FTC may need to get active again to make sure companies are not misleading customers as more and more jump on the green wagon. But I’m all for communicating authentic values of companies that are earnestly working toward sustainable solutions. Just be clear that it’s a journey and that there aren’t perfect solutions, just increasingly better ones. Georjean Adams, EHS Strategies, Inc.