My company often gets asked to come in and wave our magic wand to tell someone they are green or sustainable enough to print their brochure talking about it. I say this tongue and cheek because we were asked not that long ago to do this.

A company wanted to produce a brochure stating how green their products were. They wanted my company to come in and do a quick little assessment and tell them they were green enough to produce this brochure. The challenge was that they had never had any type of sustainability platform, no guiding principles, no audit on energy usage, etc., etc. Knowing this, I knew in order to be able to accomplish what they wanted, my assessment had to be even more in-depth than I normally did so that I would prevent the company and really my company (oh yes, consulting firms and agencies can be greenwashed as well) as well from being greenwashed.

In my last blog post, we discussed trusting yourself and your green and natural products. We’re continuing this discussion. If you missed this article, scroll down below this post to read it.

Other ideas to know if your product is the problem or it is your perception is to:

A. Look at your competition and see what is selling and what isn’t. Just make sure they are targeting the same audience. It should give you a sense of what customers are buying overall.

B. Survey your customers before rolling out a new product. Before you roll out a new product, unless your customers demand it, test it on them first. Ask for a sample customer group, a focus group of sorts, and tell them you will send them one of your products in exchange for providing feedback. This will save you a lot of time and energy from producing something that won’t sell.

You’ve just rolled out a new natural product; let’s say it’s a lotion. It’s similar to the others using natural scents and no fillers. Prospects are not reacting the way you expected and you wonder why. Some customers are picking up your product, smelling it, then putting it down. You start to wonder if your product is as good as you think it is. You know your customers love it, you have it in stores and have been selling similar products for a while now.

In my last post, I talked about the Crain’s ecoSMART manufacturing panel I sat on in Cleveland that was sponsored by MAGNET.

If you missed my last post, click here.

Here is the question I asked at the end of my post. I am sure you are wanting to know the answers I didn’t have time to share, right?

Why pursue sustainability, or Eco-Smart Manufacturing, during a downturn? Is this a nice to have but not a need to have?

a. Trust is at an all-time low. Transparency is the only answer.

b. Consumers are still spending the dollars with greener products more – Deloitte did a retail strategy as well as others.

c. Green consumers will spend 20% more. Targeting them allows you to tap into the $209 billion global marketplace and $545 billion international marketplace of goods and services.

Cleveland, Ohio is definitely a hub for manufacturers both large and small. On September 10th, I had the opportunity to interact with these manufacturers while sitting on a panel of other green experts specializing in sustainable operations, facilities and so forth. My area, of course, was on the trends and marketing.

There were about 90 manufacturers in attendance. I thought it was a respectable number considering it was a recession and green may have not been at the top of their business agenda. Nevertheless, they were attendance and asking some good questions of the panel.

In my last blog post, we discussed a city’s sustainability responsibility. We’ll be continuing this discussion in this blog post.

In indicated in my last blog post that a women said she didn’t recycle because she didn’t believe it would help and what was the point.

I’ve seen the same thing happen in companies where they institute a recycling program, people start recycling then one person ends up dumping the recycled products into a dumpster. This kills the credibility of the program and instills distrust immediately—something hard to get back.

When a city rolls out a program, communicate on a basic level would make sense, here is what I mean:

1. Explain the benefit of recycling and the downside of not recycling – I explained to this lady that people do not understand that when a landfill is full, we will need to transport trash, do you think transporting trash would diminish the air quality? We could end up in a similar situation as China because our air quality is so bad.

2. Show what’s in it for them – Why should they do it? Everyone has a different motive. Conventionals who are driven by more municipal behavior will actively engage in recycling, but they are only a little under 30% of the population. What about everyone else? For a drifter to relate, you have to show them how it affects them personally. Each groups relates very differently to these types of initiatives and are motivated in different manners.

I posted the other day on Twitter (Twitter name:colechan), if a mayor is green yet--most of the city isn't does that equal a mayor who doesn't know how to communicate green or a city that doesn't know how to follow?

What do you think?

I am perplexed when I see this. If you read my last post you’ll notice I really like to get a pulse of a city by seeing and hearing what is happening from the people and events. I’ve seen on more than one occasion a mayor who is a strong shade of green, greening buildings for the state, yet the rest of the city is not completely buying in.

So, how does this happen and how do you prevent it from happening?

I travel a good deal and while traveling, especially to new cities, I take the opportunity to explore the city, talk with working people and really get my pulse on this city. My motive is to find out:

1. How green/sustainable is this city?

2. Who is driving the efforts?

3. How are they managing during this recession?

4. Which industries have felt it more and which have felt it less?

Why is this important to me?

In a recession, it is important to be creative and strategic with any and everything you do. This includes the way you present, market and sell. It is important to look at everything not just as a sale that you will forget about after you receive the money, but a partner that you could do more business with after the recession is over (if they have little cash). By doing this, you have a better opportunity to do business with them today. Let me explain…

Say your sales person calls upon a prospect (or you do) to receive your service and your sales person, or you, find out they do not have money or so they say. If your sales person is doing the calling and there is an opportunity for the prospect to talk with the person delivering the service, set up this call right away. Tell them you’d like them to talk with the person delivering the service to see if there is a creative way you could work together. Tell them in advance to put on their creative hat. If they are already interested in the service and you know this for a fact, then you have a great opportunity to work with them.

Last quarter was my best quarter in my 10 years of operation--and, in the midst of a recession. It was even hard for me to believe. There is a reason, though, this happened. I spent the time to plan and continue planning.

Here is what I did:

1. I started working with a business coach.

2. I started devoting one day, at the beginning of every quarter to planning my next 90 days. I did this 90-day planning session away from my office allowing me to gain a fresh perspective.

3. I planned where I wanted my business to be and what it would take to get there.

4. I recorded five goals that I wanted to accomplish and set a date. Then I created three strategies and the associated tactics that would allow me to accomplish my goals. Each strategy and associated tactic had a start and end date.

I just read an interesting article today in my local business publication about sales. The author talked about how people blame the economy as opposed to their product or service. I started thinking about this and how it applied to marketing and selling green products and services.

I can no longer count on my hands how many times people indicate to me that their green product or service is not selling because of the recession. My question is, “are you sure about that or is it because you don’t know how to market or sell it?

Here are some other questions to ask yourself before you blame the economy for your woes:

1. Is it the economy or has your green product or service just run its course? Maybe your product or service is obsolete. Maybe there is an another product or service that filled the gap you once occupied (or tried to occupy) because you didn’t know how to secure your positioning.

2. Is it the economy or do you just have bad customer service? Have you scaled back so much that your customers can no longer be serviced. Remember, people expect their dollars to go farther because they have less in a recession.

In my last two blog posts, I talked about Shell being under attack for environmental and human rights violations. If you missed our discussion on this topic, see my previous two posts. It will make it easier to better understand this blog post.

So when you are under attack such as in the case of Shell, what do you do? How do you handle it?

We talked a little about it in the last blog post—creating greater transparency. Let’s discuss it further in this one.

First of all, from a PR standpoint, if you go on trial or are accused of something as large as being involved in an execution, whether you did it or not, an apology for your involvement, especially if there was proof you were involved, is important. Dealing with this issue head-on is important, not just trying to hope other people will not find out about it.

1. First of all, what could you do to help the people who allegedly suffered? Could you set up medical care? Could you contribute and set up projects to offset negative carbon emissions?

2. Acknowledge the situation and talk about it—everyone else is and they’ll jump to their own conclusions. It’s important for you as a company and corporation to tell your side of things, what happened and what you are doing to ensure this situation does not happen again.

In my last blog post, I talked about the current situation with Shell and the continued criticism it has received from various groups and parties for its alleged human rights violations and environmental damage. At the end of our last discussion, I asked you if you thought Shell was to blame. Should Shell really be in the hot seat?

Let’s look at how they are involved as reported from CSRwire:

• Involved in 11 wind projects in North America and Europe that produce around 1,100 megawatts

• With Shell’s shares in the project at 50%, the company has stated it saves around 1 million tons of CO2 emissions a year compared to what coal-fired plants would release.

Sorry for my recent extended absence, my family caught a nasty, week-long bug that everyone had the pleasure of catching causing me to not have the ample time to tend to this blog. My apologies to my loyal readers for not posting for awhile. We’re getting back to business this week.

Shell Oil has been under attack again, the company really cannot catch a break. The focus is on wreaking havoc on the environment, and the livelihood and human rights issues in Niger delta. For those of you who followed some of my previous posts on Shell, they were accused of allegedly being somehow involved in discussions with the Nigerian government around the time of human rights activitist’s, Ken Saro-Wiwa, execution. Shell, settled this suit in June for $15.5 million as a “humanitarian gesture,” versus accepting responsibility for his death, something the company did not believe they caused or with which they were involved. Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian government for his work on behalf of the people the of Niger delta.

We are continuing our discussion on the FTC cracking down on false green claims that Kmart Corp., Tender Corp., and Dyna-E International made claiming their products were biodegradable.

It really was a matter of time before the FTC starting cracking down. I figured it was around the corner. What is important to know is that the FTC publishes Green Guides to help marketers avoid making false or misleading green claims by explaining how consumers understand commonly used terms, such as “biodegradable” and “recyclable,” and by describing the basic elements needed to substantiate those claims.

Has the FTC had it with greenwashing? You might think so since they recently charged Kmart Corp., Tender Corp., and Dyna-E International with making false and unsubstantiated claims that their paper products were “biodegradable.”

If you read some of my previous blog posts, I indicated that I thought we were getting closer to fining companies for false green claims as they do in Europe.

Kmart and Tender have agreed to settle the cases against them; the case against Dyna-E will be litigated. The testimony states that with the recent growth in “green” advertising and product lines, the agency will continue its efforts to ensure that environmental marketing is truthful, substantiated, and not confusing to consumers.

This basically means, get your facts straight and make sure you are truly green before you put it out there for the world to see.

Here is the story on the above retailers and why they were charged:

I just returned from 4 days in San Francisco. I love the west coast, but with the reduced number of flights, it seems to take a while these days. I spoke at the WBENC Conference for certified women business owners.

The conference was well-attended, in fact, they ended up with so many late registrations that they ran out of food! I guess it is a good problem to have. Although there numbers were down, they still ended up with close to 2000 attendees from all industries and an exhibit floor packed with corporate vendors. This is another conference that had me wondering if we were really in the midst of a recession. There was an event at every corner — Luncheons, breakfasts, dinners and receptions. From Wine Country receptions to senior executive receptions, food, drinks and deserts were aplenty.

When I was checking out, I spoke with the front desk person at the Hilton San Fran who indicated he had a hard time believing it was a recession as their hotel had been sold out for 3 weeks straight — 2000 rooms.

I spoke on creating authentic green value and received some great questions from the audience members on how to create it and how to get around costs when selling higher priced green projects.

In my last blog post, we talked about Shell being put on trial for in New York accused of playing a role in the killing of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. If you missed our discussion, see my two prior posts below this one.

In the past month, since we’ve rolled out some new green marketing assessment tools, I’ve been asked what makes companies and corporations successful in marketing green products, services or green initiatives.

The reason my company originally developed green marketing assessment tools was to help organizations, corporations and companies determine if their roll outs would be successful in the green arena. I realized quickly that everyone needed more education and then rolled out my Creating Authentic Green Value Webinar series, http://www.marketing-insider.com/secrets_of_green_brands_webinar/

There is so much to learn in this ever changing green and sustainability marketplace. One thing is for sure, though, certain rules still apply.

• Education is paramount to make customers aware of what you mean when you indicate a product, service or brand is green/sustainable. The more education, the better in my opinion.

• Knowing your customer and that not all green consumers and business think and act the same

• Knowing how to effectively position your message, when to say what, what to say in general

• Determining where you can position your company in the over-crowded green marketplace to allow it to rise above the clutter and not be one of the “me too” generations

• Knowing what else you need to work on internally to be successful in launching a green campaign and how your message should follow your greening process

• Knowing what the trends are in the marketplace, which are here to stay

What doesn’t work:

In my last blog post, we talked about Shell being put on trial for in New York accused of playing a role in the killing of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. If you missed our discussion, please click here.

What I wanted to discuss in this blog post is how you handle any type of bad publicity as it relates to your company, especially if you are positioning your brand and company as sustainable and socially responsible.

Being a sustainable company carries with it a degree of responsibility to treat people fairly, be kind to the environment, and be completely responsible as a company and corporation. Responsibility comes in the form of being transparent so that people know you are not trying to make yourself look perfect, but your brand more human—showing your flaws and all. It is easier and more forgivable for issues to come from you versus the media and it puts in less of reactionary position.

As I write this blog post, Shell went on trial in New York accused of playing a role in the killing of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. This civil case, which apparently took 14 years to come to trial, will push the idea that companies can be held liable for human rights abuses committed by others abroad. I’m sure that is a tough thing for many companies to swallow.

You can read more about this particular case that was covered in-depth in the Ethical Corporation magazine. They’ll be talking about the alleged evidence that will be presented in Manhattan federal court, of the contact Shell had with the military government of Nigeria’s Sani Abacha before he ordered the execution of nine activists, including Saro-Wiwa, in 1995.

This is not a great position for Shell or any company to be in for that matter.

So how would you handle it? How would you handle publicity of any human rights violation?

I’m continuing our discussion from my last blog post on the mental affect of climate change. If you did not have a chance to read my last blog post, click here.

In Eastern Australian communities, where the toll of a six-year-long drought has been devastating, interviews with farmers provided additional momentum for the solastalgia concept.

In one such interview, a female farmer poignantly described the loss of her garden oasis. “Our gardens have had to die,” she said, “because our house dam has been dry…. So it’s very depressing for a woman because a garden is an oasis out here with this dust…you know, to come home to a nice green lawn is just… that’s all gone, so you’ve got dust at your back door, ” according to this same article.