IDLE THOUGHTS
Over-egging the green claims is irresponsible
’ ‘
Marketeers must work harder and be more creative. Business has a real responsibility
Surprise, surprise: Despite efforts by the marketing industry to clean up its act, greenwash is still prevalent. A study by Which? that looked at 14 different household items sold by supermarkets, such as laundry tablets and toilet cleaners, found around half of them were marketed as being “eco” or “green” products without any supporting evidence to back it up. Take Ecover’s “eco” laundry tablets, for example. Experts from the consumer champion found no convincing evidence that the chemicals found in bog-standard tablets were any more dam- aging to aquatic life than those sold as “environmental friendly”. The guilty parties include Tesco, Ecover and Sainsbury’s. This kind of thing has been going on for ages, of course, and the biggest problem the industry has is defining “green”. But marketeers must work harder and be more creative. Consumers with a con- science do exist, and studies show that they are willing to pay more for less damaging products. But these products that have a smaller impact on the planet than their equivalent competitor products should not necessarily be described as “green”. They are just “less damaging”. Businesses have a real responsibility to give the right information; not to over-egg the pudding, but to be transparent and accessible to the average punter.
I’d like to say thank you to all of you that attended this year’s Sustainable Business – The Event at the NEC in Birmingham,
supported by our partners CA, BSI, Hyder Consulting, NQA, Parsons Brinckerhoff, powerPerfector, Scott Wilson and WRAP.
We hope you found it useful and energising. The SB team is busy planning several other live events as we help to drive the agenda forward, so watch this space.
TOM IDLE EDITOR
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS
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■ John Alker UK Green Building Council
■ Mark BarthelWrap
■ Charlie Browne UK environment manager, Ikea
■ David Crowhurst BRE Environment ■ Anya Ledwith consultant, ESHCon
■ Liz Parkes Head of waste, Environment Agency ■ Tim Pollard head of sustainability, Wolseley ■ Amita Vaux Business in the Community
■ Bruno Zago UK & Ireland environmental manager, Hewlett Packard
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Sustainab le Business ❘ May 2010 5
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