Green Marketing for a Sustainable Future By Bradly Montague President & CEO NOMAMONT, Inc.
Eco-Innovation and Green Marketing can lead to top line sales, differentiation and improved brand equity. The obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service's "greenness" as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. While green marketing is growing greatly as increasing numbers of consumers are willing to back their environmental consciousnesses with their dollars, it can be dangerous. The public tends to be skeptical of green claims to begin with and companies can seriously damage their brands and their sales if a green claim is discovered to be false or contradicted by a company's other products or practices. Presenting a product or service as green when it's not is called greenwashing.
Along with the now meteoric rise of green consumers, we see the rise of ecolabeling, green advertising and the importance of environmental reporting. This trend creates the opportunity for just about anything to be marketed as green, from simple packaging changes to products and services that radically reduce materials, energy, and waste. Green marketing has produced advances such as packages using recycled paper, phosphate-free detergents, refill containers for cleaning products, and bottles using less plastic. Today’s green marketing campaigns highlight the superior environmental protection characteristics of a company's products and services, whether those benefits take the form of reduced waste in packaging, increased energy efficiency in product use, or decreased release of toxic emissions and other pollutants in production. Most observers agree that while some businesses engage in green marketing solely because such an emphasis will enable them to make a profit, other businesses conduct their operations in an environmentally-sensitive fashion because their owners and managers feel a responsibility to preserve the integrity of the natural environment even as they satisfy consumer needs and desires.
Indeed, true green marketing emphasizes environmental stewardship. Businesses practice being green when they voluntarily recycle and attempt to reduce waste in their daily operations. Practicing green is inherently proactive; it means finding ways to reduce waste and otherwise be more environmentally responsible, before being forced to do so through government regulations. Many businesses took heed of this growth in "green consumerism," and new marketing campaigns have been devised to reflect this new strain of thought among consumers. Companies with product lines that were created in an environmentally friendly fashion i e , with recycled products, comparatively low pollutant emissions, and so on have quickly learned to shape their marketing message to highlight such efforts and to reach those customers most likely to appreciate those efforts an advertisement highlighting a company's recycling efforts, for instance, is more likely to appear in an outdoor/nature magazine than a general interest periodical. The Journal of Advertising, states that "green consumers are the very segment most likely to distrust advertisers and are quite likely to pursue behaviors and activities that confound business people." Corporate reputation, then, has emerged as a tremendously important factor in reaching and keeping these consumers.
China Plans $440B Stimulus Funding for Renewables SustainableBusiness.com News
China is planning to invest $440 billion (3 trillion yuan) in stimulus funding on renewable energy, according to an AFP report.
The report cites the Beijing Morning Post and a State Energy Administration official who said much of the investment will go towards wind power.
The timeframe for the stimulus spending was not reported.
China wants accelerate its plans for wind power, aiming for more than 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2020--more than triple the goal of 30 GW announced in 2007.
The report follows an announcement made last week by Zhou Xi'an, a director general at the State Energy Administration, stating that China wants 6% of its power to come from renewable energy by 2020 (excluding hydropower)--up from a current level of 1.5%.
China currently depends on coal for nearly 70% of its energy production.
Last November, China unveiled a $584 billion stimulus package supporting its auto industry, petrochemicals and eight other sectors.
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The Philippines wants to attact $9-10 billion in investements in renewable energy projects over the next 10 years, and has created generous incentives that go into effect next month.
Read Reuters coverage at the link below.
Website: planetark.org/wen/53071
Sustainable Packaging To Be A Third of Market by 2014 SustainableBusiness.com News
Sustainable packaging is a fast-growing segment of the global packaging industry, and will grow to 32% of the total market by 2014, up from just 21% in 2009, according to a new report.
Plastic-based packaging, which represents 35% of all materials used, will be the fastest-growing sector of the sustainable packaging market over the next five years, according to cleantech analysts at Pike Research. Metal-based packaging, one of the easiest materials to recycle, will continue to be the sector with the highest percentage of sustainability--by 2014, more than 63% of metal-based packaging will be environmentally friendly.
Paper and paper-based packaging are the largest sectors with more than 40% of the global packaging market.
“The $429 billion global packaging industry is huge but extremely fragmented, with no clear market leaders,” Pike research managing director Clint Wheelock said. “As such, the move toward sustainable packaging represents a broad-based effort by manufacturers, retailers, industry groups, and governments to promote the design of minimal packaging that can be easily reclaimed. A tremendous amount of innovation is going into reducing energy requirements to manufacture packaging and using more recyclable and compostable materials, but there is still a long way to go.”
The report estimates the worldwide market for packaging is currently $429 billion and will surpass $500 billion within five years, an annual growth rate exceeding the total global increase in GDP.
Website: www.pikeresearch.com