In my previous post, I had mentioned some of the themes I saw after perusing 30+ magazines the other day. If you missed this blog posting, you might want to read it before reading this one.
I’m devoting this post to this same topic because it is so important to know what is happening in the marketplace. It’s something I’ll be addressing in Maine in a couple of weeks at their Lodging Management Institute conference. I’ll be there for a couple of days, February 6-7.
After reading these magazines, I really was surprised to see companies touting green benefits without any perceived endorsement to back up the claim (well, I cannot really say surprised).
Maybe they are not familiar with the new trend…greenwashing lists.
Oh, yes. Today’s false green claims definitely do not go unnoticed; they appear on various greenwashing lists where consumers and industry professionals can rate them, www.corpwatch.org and www.greenwashingindex.com are just two of them.
Today, it is harder than ever to claim to be green and eco-friendly without proving it. If you had this discussion with me even two years ago, it would have been much different. There are just too many companies jumping on this bandwagon.
It’s probably why it’s one of the most sought after topics about which I talk—How to Market Green and How to Avoid Getting Greenwashed.
I also started talking about what to do if you do get greenwashed. Toyota, quite an iconic green company has been greenwashed and so have many others.
We’ll talk about why this is the case and what to do about it in my next blog post.
Helping You Understand and Profit from Consumer Health and Green Trends
Colette Chandler
