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.
Unfortunately, the green effort was being driven by the sales manager who didn’t see the value in the assessment and thought it should cost pennies on the dollar. I always hope this is the last time I’ll see this. Understandably, everyone is watching their pennies today, yet it is even more of a reason to do things right from the get-go.
We started conducting in-depth marketing and competitive analysis assessment because we saw there was a need. We’d start to strategize and realize so many other things were missing. We’d have to stop and backpedal to determine where the company was. This took time and extra dollars that weren’t always originally budgeted for. It’s the reason we created this assessment. We knew which questions we needed to know from the beginning and put together over 50 questions that addressed everything to make the process smoother, quicker and easier—costly less money.
Why do I tell you this? Because sometimes we do not know that we need something until we skin our knees (unfortunately, this skinning could be in the form of a fine from a regulatory agency). Take the time to assess where you are in your sustainability efforts first, before you launch any of your initiatives. It will prevent future headaches.
Colette Chandler
Helping You Understand and Profit from Consumer Health and Green Trends
