Hot Topic: No Posers Allowed: How to Make Green Consumers See Red

Hot Topic

No Posers Allowed: How to Make Green Consumers See Red

There can be no doubt that “going green” has become an important movement in today’s society. And while it carries with it noble ideals, it also has a hip sort of connotation. The National Technology Readiness Survey conducted by Rockbridge Associates in 2007 asked respondents how they felt about environmentally conscious businesses and their practices and found that 68% of consumers like to do business with companies that are environmentally responsible. It is perhaps this preoccupation with being part of the trend that leads many companies into the dangerous waters of “Greenwashing.”

Greenwashing is a term coined by environmentalists in the 1980s; as their own take on whitewashing, to describe when companies spent more resources on promoting being green to the public, than rather actually practicing green. Put more blatantly it is when corporations mislead their consumers into believing they are taking environmentally conscious steps in their business practices more so than they actually are, if at all. Businesses are not alone in this disingenuous action; several so-called environmentally conscious celebrities have been called out on Britain’s The Daily Mail website for their hypocritical behaviors. For example Leonardo DiCaprio, a well known environmental celebrity activist, is cited for using private jets to fly his family internationally. Other sites such as www.treehugger.com and www.sourcewatch.org feature areas where they expose corporate greenwashing.

The bottom line is that consumers do not like being lied to… by anyone. Misleading consumers on how truly eco-friendly companies, or even individuals such as celebrities, are is not looked on favorably by the public. The NTRS found that 72% of adults say they resent companies who say they care about the environment but do not actually mean it. And with 29% of adults saying they do a lot of research on new products and services that help the environment, people are bound to find out if a company is posing as something it is not.

For more information on the 2007/8 National Technology Readiness Survey, contact Joe Bates, Vice President, at 703.757.5213 ext. 14 or jbates@rockresearch.com.