Turning Transparent in a Green World

SLM: The Marketing of Green May 31- June 4 Monterey, CA

Do you have green building products that span both the Business to Business and the Business to Consumer worlds? You may want to attend the Sustainable Life Mediaconference at the end of the month in Monterey, CA. Sustainable Life Media focuses on green brand management and everything you need to make those brands authentic and market changing.

The event contains mostly consumer goods, but what happens in consumerland spills over into B2B world. The one sector reinforces the other.

You'll hear about:

• Transformations
• Capturing the essence of sustainability
• Consumer product case studies
• Green brand messaging
• How to inspire employees and customers alike
• Collaboration programs
• Give Back Programs
• Low impact packaging
• Social Media shifting consumer thinking
• Eco Labeling 
• Green event planning
• Social footprints

Check out the whole line up here: http://sustainablelifemedia.com/events/sb09

Other key presentations:

LCA on a budget, Jeremy Faludi, Professor, Stanford Design School.

Top 10 Online Sustainable Brands Stories and the Tools That Got Them There

A Legal Look at Green Marketing Claims and the FTC's Green Guides

Transparency & Green Materials: Key Building Blocks for Tomorrow's Brand Leaders

Leonard Robinson, California Dept. of Toxic Substances - DTSC Goes "Wiki" With Green Chemistry "On September 29, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1879 and Senate Bill 509, two laws that authorize California state government to develop an alternatives analysis framework to stimulate the rapid acceleration of replacement of harmful chemicals and ingredients with safer alternatives in products sold in California. One of the most forward-looking initiatives in the world, Mr. Robinson will share his perspective on the implications of this initiative and the doors it might open for new product innovation for a greener future.

Check out the Who's Who list of attendees and go if only to meet the sustainable innovators inside a company who might want to bring your product into the mix.You never know who you might be sitting next to.

Be there or NOT be talked about.

 

YOU are liable for what bloggers say about your products

What!?! Hold the phone, the horses and your job! How can you be held liable for what others say?  In an article posted on Internet Marketing News we learn that the Federal Trade Commission is "revising the guidelines on endorsements and testimonials for the first time since 1980." (thanks Marianne for the heads up.)

The guidelines being reviewed by the FTC would change the rules to hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and social networking users who have received samples of their products. Additionally, the proposed guidelines would hold bloggers liable for the statements they make about products. more...

That means that going transparent and listing ALL your sustainable attributes just upped the anti of responsibility for marketers. It looks like the line is being drawn when you GIVE a blogger a product to write about vs. the free market users making free market statements.  The difference is in the "giving."

And even if you give a person a product, they will still need to have real, raw data somewhere in the public and other than your site to link to and back up their statements. If you provide them that link, along with the product when/IF they choose to write about you (and it is a choice) you have a higher chance of them talking about the sustainable selling points - providing permanent, positive promotion.  

The American Association of Advertising Agencies are arguing that the guidelines are too tough. Those that live in the green world know that the guidelines are loose compared to what they'll be facing in sustainability standards. This new marketing expectation will be a piece of cake for them.

THE GOOD NEWS

Of course if you have put your product through a Life Cycle Assessment and conducted a Life Cycle Impact Assessment, and had that information certified by a third party you practically blog proof already.

Every minute bloggers make mistakes and misquote facts, having a huge bank of transparent and public knowledge keeps those misquotes at a mininum. No one wants to look like an idiot online anymore than they want to look like an idiot offline.

Marketing Departments need to have "Marketing"Safety Data Sheets at their disposal just for such an occasion. Just like Material Safety Data Sheets cover your assets for what's in a product, Marketing Safety Data Sheets will cover your communication assets.

Social media isn't going away, however, fixed communication devices such as newspapers and magazines are. It's time to start gearing up for a world where you can't control every word, but you can control the public data those words came from.

Zero VOC's, the starting point for sustainable paint

Full bloggy disclosure up front, my Dad was a house painter. When he painted a wall or the window sill it stuck and looked perfect for years - decades actually. He could match colors and cut a line that few bother with today.

He also paid dearly for his craft. Each night he'd come home and wash out his brushes and rollers in turpentine and other toxic stuff. He had rubber gloves, but often he didn't use them and the skin on his hands would bubble with the contact. Mom would slather his hands with Vaseline, then layer them with cotton gloves followed by a thin plastic version. The next morning, he'd take off the gloves and go back to work.

ENTER WATER-BASED

When water-based paint came in, he'd complain about the quality, that it just wouldn't stick like oil-based paint, but he was very happy to be able to use soap and water during clean up. Eventually he changed.

While the oil was out, the VOCs remained. I can remember the smell of the garage and the homes with "new paint" smell when we'd go on tours to see his work. Today, that new paint smell and all the VOC's (volatile organic chemicals) that go with it, are leaving the paint industry. It's about time. It's one thing to paint your own home and breathe in that stuff for a few days and another if you make a living at it day after day after day.

ZERO VOCS

Enter the next movement in colored surfaces - zero VOC paint. Green Building Pages has a nice selection of them. The companies bringing them to market are both young and established names:

• Old Fashion Milkpaint Co.
• Green Paint
• EcoTrend
• Pure Performance by Pittsburgh
• Acro PURE by Miller Paint
• Harmony Interior Latex by Sherwin-Williams

LOW COST / FAST INFORMATION ACCESS

With competition the margins are tightening up. We're almost back to business as usual before the battle of the green started. ALMOST because there is a new game in town called, online word-of-mouth.

I'm a member of a large group of green women bloggers. Between our online carnivals, there are many email discussions over which green products are the best. Last week the question was raised over "Which green paint is the best"?  Diane MacEachern, who is behind the book and blog Big Green Purse, suggested Pure Performance. She did her whole home in it and "it never had the new paint smell."

So what? who cares? Diane just told a group of 30 or so super bloggers that Pure Performance was a winner. Others gave their experienced opinions. If you're selling paint to consumers, this is the holy grail of a group that you want lovin' your stuff.

Diane also put Pure Performance in her book and she talks about it on her lecture circuit, and now I'm mentioning it here.

Permanent, positive promotion is what companies are getting for their efforts to offer safer products to the world. They deserve to be talked about. That's social media and social equity at work even if the marketers don't see it on their radar.  

That all said, Zero VOC's is a starting point. High mileage is what set the Prius on the market darling path, now buyers want to know that the manufacturing of the Pruis is in line with sustainable expectations as well. Zero VOC's is just the beginning for paint. Next the buyers of the world will want to know how safely the product is made.  Expect to see LCAs (Life Cycle Assessment) and it's impact to become the norm to fuel this word-of-mouth market.

 

Where are You on the Sustainability Curve?

The market is quickly moving from the "We're Green" stage to "We're Sustainable;" at which point buyers and citizens of the world alike are saying, "Prove it"!

This week in LCA land (Life Cycle Assessment)  Apple is conducting a full LCA on their products. Apple computers aren't building products, but if an electronic device can conduct a Life Cycle Assessment, doing one on a building product should be easy. At the very least it flags that LCA's are a thing of the present, not the future. According to this article:

"Life Cycle Assessment takes into account every phase of a product's life, including the mining of the raw materials; manufacturing of the product; packaging; missions related to transporting it to market; the power consumption during the product's use; and the energy required for eventual recycling."  

Greenpeaceis pushing Apple to publish their environmental footprint. It will be interesting to see if they begin using their highly visible tactics to motivate other big companies.

In New Zealand, penalties for the following greenwash claims can include fines of up to $60,000 for individuals and $200,000 for a company

• making claims that are vague ("green" or "environmentally friendly")
• overstating the environmental benefits of a product
• using environmental images to imply environmental benefits that don't exist
• using business names ("The Absolutely Green V8 Car Company") that imply green credentials that don't exist.

 

Here in the U.S. the EPA provided guidelines as well. Corpwatch gave out greenwash awards. The GreenWashingIndex provides example after example of what isn't working in the market.

 

Where are you on the scale? Just starting out? Sustainable before it became a trend? Let us know what you did to get your company moving in the right direction.

Put Your Company on the Cap and Trade Map

Before you read any further, go here. Is your company listed?

The Environmental Defense Fund(EDF) has over 1200 companies and their case studies listed. It's as informative as it is compelling and inspiring. Job hunters can quickly see who will be the leaders in the next market. The companies listed "get" what this next market is going to look like and are poised to play on its terrain.

The site is hosted by LessCarbonMoreJobs.org and according to a write up in Environmental Leader it provides,  "the locations, products, services and contacts as well as select case studies and worker profiles for companies in 12 states: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indian, New Hampshire, Arkansas, Tennessee, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, Virginia and Florida..." 

With Carbon Cap and Trading getting locked into place, having a Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) conducted on sustainable products is a given. The numbers have to come from somewhere and an ISO LCA is the most recognized place to start.

Yesterday I spoke with an LCA consultant who admitted that already companies who conduct LCA  audits are over booked with requests.  

This is another example of play now or play later, but you will play if you want to stay in the game. The choices are to get moving now, while everyone is scrambling to figure it out or do it later after the competition is way ahead and you're left to play catch up.

Obama, Accountability and the New Market

Did you hear Obama during his press conference today? If you are helping people save energy or create energy you are in a valued position for the next market. By extension if you are also lowering toxins in our earth, air, water and atmosphere or have products that never contained them (and your supply chain as well), you also are in good position. The same goes for water reclamation.

GREEN IS GOOD!

Obama is setting a new tone  of transparency and accountabilitystarting with his own department. How refreshing and how timely. If anyone knows how transparency and accountability works to motivate others, it's him. You can't acquire and keep millions of online supports unless they feel they can trust what's being presented. If you're interested in how the Obama social media machine worked, go here.

The green market is already following that path. First, most green products are young and part of a small business idea. Small business understands word-of-mouth marketing better than big business who can merge their way to success. Second, both big and small business knows they must put truth into their messaging or be accused of greenwash. Truth happens when all the PROS are on the same page as the CONS.

The good news, with Obama's statements Wall Street was given a clear direction as to where to put their investments. While other programs are in question about funding, the green market is on solid ground. Consequently, the financial markets will be looking at companies with a new filter of transparency and accountability. The more companies go public with their sustainable attributes, the faster we'll see this new market emerge.

How about it? Are you ready to go transparent? What's holding you back?

 

Supply Chain Transparency

If you have products serving consumers as well as business, read this from Coral Rose, former Sr. Buyer at Wal Mart. It's all about the Life Cycle Assessment...

http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/content/column/sourcing/sustainable_business_looks_upstream

RainTube takes the Sustainability Award at Green Building Pages

Congratulations to the RainTube team for taking the Green Building Pages top Sustainable Product Award. They accumulated 689 points out of 1000 possible across the Green Building Pages sustainable benchmarking system. We spoke to co-owner Steve Spratt to get an update on RainTube's sustainable progress. (Steve is on the right of CEO Bill Savage and Director of Administration, Paula Savage.)

For their full product disclosure, go here. RainTube provides LEED credit contributions for erosion and sedimentation control, water use reduction, recycled content and innovation & design.

ON THE GREEN BUSINESS FAST TRACK

RainTube went from "an idea" in 2007 to a company supporting 10 employees and 100 independent installers with international accounts with distributors in Canada, UK, Israel, Poland, and the Netherlands in 2009. Granted, they had a jump on sustainability, the entire company was designed to be green from the beginning. Instead of being bogged down with legacy issues, they took the greenest route by business model design. 

First, they looked at what was missing from the market and would be useful even if it wasn't green. (porous gutter filtering system) Second, they looked at how they could make it in the greenest way possible and still be a highly functional product. Lastly they looked at how they could establish themselves quickly as a trusted green product line.  Full history on our first post.

While the RainTube concept is anchored in solving the issue of keeping rain gutters clog free, it also solves a new problem coming along in the western states - how to harvest rainwater for later use.

GOING FROM SAYING IT TO PROVING IT

Being an unknown company with an unknown product, RainTube wanted to establish their green credibility quickly. 

"We looked around the web to see who provided the most detailed information and the Green Building Pages was the most comprehensive. Once we were listed, we could link customers and distributors to the page and they could read it for themselves".  

But they didn't stop there...

Steve and his co-owner Bill Savage knew that disclosing information on their own wasn't going to be enough, they would need to be certified. They  decided to go with C2C certification because they liked the certification's reuse philosophy and Raintube is made of 100% downcycled HDPE.

"C2C, conducts indepth testing of things. They require  a third party chemical analysis, and any heavy metals identified. It can't be over a certain level or it can't be certified as green."

But C2C certification wasn't enough for Steve...

While the company obtained a  C2C Gold level of certification on their product's composition, they still didn't have an ISO Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)which looks at how the product is manufactured and the entire supply chain inputs.  RainTube is in the middle of completing that process now.

 "The astute manufacturer, consumers and everyone else knows that green is more than fadish and they are trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff. They are looking for the third party certifier. The smartest ones [manufacturers] are gravitating that way. At first they did it because they were proud of what they are doing, but now it's more a matter of survival... The green aspects are definite edge plus our price points are right and we do hold patents on the products... Having certifications carries as much weight in the market as the patents."

WHAT'S WORKING NOW?

"Having an effective low cost product - that's the biggest one... Rain gutters didn't work well, leaves always keep them jammed up. To build up our distributor network we went after the first movers - those who hold green like a religion. One green architech will get the product in front of many homeowners... 

"The biggest problem is with the installation and roofing people only because that group knows nothing about Rain tube and sometimes they aren't interested in doing things a new way. "

"As for tradeshows, Greenbuild is exceptional because it gets up in front of the right people...   Now with investors and political people coming on board, Greenbuild adds huge credibility."

Our congratulations again to RainTube for not only creating a necessary and useful product, but for continually improving it's certifications and providing what the market wants - proof of sustainable performance. Once they have completed a life cycle assessment, they'll be able to increase their benchmarking points to the platinum level.  

Steve Spratt can be reached at info@raintube.com or by calling 866-724-6356.

Transparency You Can See

Which came first, green or transparency? And does this trend have legs?

If you're talking with a product manufacturer, going green lead to turning transparent as we went from green to sustainable to prove it.

If you're talking with the financial markets, turning transparent is an outcome of shoddy bookkeeping and closed door policies. They were forced into it.

Meanwhile the two are on an intersection course. 

While Wall Street is getting fresh scrubbed, the business of becoming sustainable is chugging along and someday soon, clean books won't be enough. GREEN and GR$$N will both be based on provable policies and that's when we'll see worldwide market transformation of transparency happen.

The consumer market gets it. Check out today's articlefrom Timberline. Author, Beth Holzman, completely understands the impact of today's consumer on the greater business market - less is more, durable is better, and start showing your process to the public.

Why should you care if you sell building products?

First, because consumers of food and clothing are also purchasers of shelters. Watch their trend and stay in front of it.

Second, because the consumer market is LOUD. What they expect washes back over everything that product stands for and that includes the buildings that house the processes.

Third, the proof that this trend is well on its way, lies in increasing green intelligence showing up on blogs and forums. Check out the information on Umbria, a Division of J.D. Power and Associates or Nielsen-online, both scan all web activity for trends and this one isn't going away.

As a trend watcher ou have two choices: Make the decision to scramble around while everyone else is scrambling and figure out how to be transparent. Or, wait a couple years for the trend to step up and then play catch up to your competition. Either way, eventually you'll have to open up your practices if you want to stay in a market that requires full disclosure that you can prove.