GreenAdWorks's blog

Al Gore announced the “we” campaign, a $300 million effort to raise public awareness of climate change — both the problem and its potential solutions. The goal is to create bottoms-up pressure on legislators to tackle the issue.

Lots of details in the Washington Post and in Grist, so here's some brief observations and links:

• $300 million is an unprecedented amount for a public advocacy campaign. Can that really be spent on grassroots advertising? Does $$ buy a bottoms-up movement?
• By the first glimpses, the campaign is smartly trying to balance urgency with optimism and attempting to bridge political divides. That's bold. For example, it frames climate change within other national triumphs (World War II, moon landings, civil rights movement). And it tries to cross the political gulfs, by featuring commercials that pair unlikely combos like Pelosi and Gingrich, or Sharpton and Robertson.
• Check out the first ad, narrated by William H. Macy, below
• check out and sign-up wecansolveit.org

This radio interview by GreenBiz of Judah Schiller of Saatchi and Saatchi provides interesting insight on how his firm is helping to encourage Wal-Mart's employees to embrace sustainability. It offers practical tips for companies looking for ways to engage workers on sustainability and wider corporate and community responsibility initiatives.

Transcript of Interview and Links to mp3 download and iTunes

Companies are increasingly motivated to pursue corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs for growth opportunities, rather than a necessitated by public or community relations posturing, according to a new global study released recently by IBM.

Driving this shift is the unique role of the Internet in influencing buying behavior by providing easily accessible, in-depth information about companies, their global supply chain partners, and their impact on society and the environment.

To gauge how deeply CSR has penetrated the core of the corporation — it's strategies and operations, IBM surveyed more than 250 business leaders globally and found that two-thirds of them are focusing on CSR activities to create new revenue streams

Many companies now believe that putting social responsibility principles at the core of their corporate strategy will make them more competitive and able to attract/retain top talent. According to the study, 68 percent of those surveyed focused on generating revenue through CSR activities. In addition, 54 percent believe CSR initiatives contribute to giving their corporations a competitive advantage.

Driving these beliefs is the rising influence of customers who are becomming increasingly aware of a range of values and issues -- from concerns about climate change, to product safety issues, to labor practices, to community accountability.

Although customers are driving much of this increased focus on CSR, many businesses surveyed still don't feel they understand their customers' CSR concerns. Nearly two-thirds of companies surveyed believe they have sufficient information about the sources behind their products and services to satisfy customer concerns, but half of those admit they don't understand their customers CSR expectations well.

The New York Times ran an article today that the FTC will hold its first workshop in a series on the issue of green marketing on carbon offset programs. According to Deborah Platt Majoras, the FTC's chairwoman, the scruitiny is justified because these programs present a "heightened potential for deception”.

Companies are increasingly looking to offer offset plans. For example, Volkswagen offered an offset plan to plant trees in the lower Mississippi valley, but many companies are chosing not to manage these programs themselves but are rather turning to independent offset companies such as TerraPass and Carbonfund.org, for expertise.

Business Week looked at several carbon offset transactions last year, and found that some deals were deceptive.

Increasingly, companies are promoting their green purchases on their packaging but there is growing concern about deceptive practices.

The FTC is accepting public comments on its Green Guides through February 11.

What happens when a socially responsible company sells to a large corporate conglomerate? How do loyal customers tell whether they have really sold out?

Well, a new certification scheme helps protect green company values by including social and environmental commitments in their articles of incorporation, according to the WorldWatch Institute.

B Lab, a nonprofit organization has developed a rating system of "Beneficial" or "B" Corporations that meet high standards of corporate social responsibility. To qualify, companies must amend their corporate governing documents to account for the interests of shareholders, employees, and the community as well as demonstrate their policies on the environment, philanthropy, diversity, and transparency.

Although this certification process comes at a price -- participating companies must pay .1% of their revenue as a licensing fee -- it also would appear to pay rewards ranging from assuaging loyal customers to employee retention and recruitment.

A new survey found that three-quarters of Americans plan to be more environmentally responsible in 2008. About half of those polled said they would make a "green" New Year's resolution.

Two-thirds of Americans plan to cut their use of household chemicals, while 42 percent said they would take reusable fabric bags to the supermarket to reduce the use of plastic bags. The survey also found one-third of respondents felt guilty in recent years for not living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

The telephone survey was commissioned by marketing consultancy Tiller LLC and conducted by GfK Roper. The survey of 1,004 adults was conducted between December 7 and December 9. The margin for error is plus or minus 3.0 percent.

The United States has faced criticism internationally for refusing to sign the Kyoto climate change agreement and for consumption habits.

 

There's another green shopping site, Evo, which covers everything from food and clothes, to solar panels and household products. See MarketingVox report for details

Evo relies on affiliate revenues according to CEO Dan Siegel in an interview with Treehugger. More innovative is the fact that products include a green evaluation based on a rating system that considers what the item is made from, how it is produced, the distance it traveled to reach the consumer, and what type of energy powers it, reports PSFK.

Other green shopping sites, include:

Ogden Publications, home of magazines such as Utne Reader, Mother Earth News and Natural Home, recently launched EarthMoment.com, a shopping portal.

TheFind.com launched a shopping search website for finding products from eco-friendly retailers and brands.

Green awareness continues to grow, according to research from Intellitrends. The Intellitrends Study concluded that at least 60 percent of consumers have read a newspaper or magazine article on the topic. A significant percentage of consumers have also watched a TV program focusing on the environment. But the largest increase in green awareness was tied to growth in the number of consumers who have purchased green products, up from 22 percent in mid-2007 to 31 percent at the year end.

When asked about their future purchase behavior of products and services that are specifically “green” or environmentally friendly, 93 percent of U.S. consumers say they definitely or may purchase these products over others.

This study represents the Midyear 2007 and End of year 2007 Go Green Insight Study by Intellitrends Market Research. This national quarterly tracker monitors how U.S. consumers feel about the environment, their awareness and understanding of current initiatives on the environment and energy conservation, and efforts they are taking to contribute to a better environment.

 

A new report by leading consulting firm McKinsey concludes the US could reduce up to 28 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions with only small technology innovations and at modest costs. Many of these "small step" reductions pay for themselves in lower energy bills, the report said, suggesting that people should take the reductions out of self interest, even if they are not driven by threats of climate change.

Rather than focus on sexy, big potential technology solutions, smaller steps could collectively produce significant and less risky returns. For example, modest changes in the lighting, heating and cooling of buildings would make a big difference collectively as well as make financial sense for the individual stakeholders.

The authors of the report didn't believe that these small step changes would be acheived without government and industry leadership and support. It suggested raising public awareness with a broad public education program around wasteful energy consumption, perhaps modeled on the Keep America Beautiful” campaign of the 1960s.

In contrast to these modest measures to improve energy efficiency, projects like capturing carbon dioxide from coal power plants and storing it would be costly relative to the gains. Similarly, renewable energy sources such as wind or solar would offer only modest reductions.

The report, authored by powerhouse consulting firm, McKinsey & Company was funded by a diverse group of stakeholders in the debate, including DTE Energy (the parent company of Detroit Edison), Environmental Defense, Honeywell, National Grid, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pacific Gas & Electric and Shell.

The McKinsey Study comes a week before the United Nations climate conference in Bali. The US Congress is also approaching a vote on proposals to limit emissions of greenhouse gases.