What are consumers looking for in marketers’ green claims? Honesty, according to the Cone’s 2011 Green Gap Trends Tracker. According to the research, a majority of American consumers are distrustful of companies’ environmental claims (57%) and are overwhelmed by the amount of environmental messages in the marketplace (51%). Given this confusion, it’s understandable that consumers […]
What Consumers Want in Green Claims Read More 👉
After all the effort marketers are putting into communicating their green claims, a new study shows that consumers — American consumers at least — continue to misunderstand phrases commonly used in environmental marketing and advertising. Often, this gives products a greater “green halo” than they may deserve. At the same time, these same consumers are
Consumers Will Punish Brands for False Environmental Claims Read More 👉
There is a state forest near my home that is absolutely beautiful to hike. You can walk for hours on seemingly endless interconnected trails. Some of them look like pristine natural lands. Others, however, are devastated by mass clear-cuts, with logs sprawling across one another, ugly stumps protruding, and nothing more over your head than
Does This Look Like a Logged Forest? Read More 👉
Both marketers and consumers are asking to know more about the paper they use today — who made it, how it’s made, and where and how its raw materials are sourced. They want this information prominently displayed on their products. Knowing this, one paper company is doing the smart thing — offering a variety of
You want logos? They have logos Read More 👉
Let the world of PET bottles rejoice. PepsiCo has developed the world’s first PET plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources, enabling the company to manufacture a beverage container with a significantly reduced carbon footprint. The new bottle is 100% recyclable and, according to the company, “far surpasses existing industry technologies.” The bottle
Pepsi Announces GREEN Bottle Made from Plant Resources Read More 👉
There are two new apps that help environmentally conscious businesses and consumers find and compare the most the most eco-friendly cities and cars. The Clean & Fuel Efficient Cars App and Modes of Transportation to Work App by FindTheBest.com. The Clean & Fuel Efficient Cars App displays air pollution score, greenhouse gas score, SmartWay designation,
Apps Make It Easier to Find Eco-Friendly Cars and Cities Read More 👉
SunChips is back in the game! Today it announced the release of a quieter 100% compostable SunChips bag. After six months of testing, the company’s research team says that by using a different adhesive, it has been able to significantly reduce the noise of the bag. As before, the next-generation bag is still made from
SunChips Announces Quieter Compostable Bag Read More 👉
If you haven’t heard of augmented reality (AR), you will. It’s a way to use electronic devices to create three-dimensional experiences that insert the viewer into the action. Advertisers have been using it for years to allow consumers to “insert” themselves into video games or allow them to see three-dimensional holographic type views of products
Using Augmented Reality to Promote Environmental Awareness Read More 👉
On Sunday, I blogged about research from a U.K. initiative going after large European corporations for greenwashing on the topic of e-billing. As I poked around the site some more, I found three factoids I couldn’t help but pass along. If this doesn’t get you questioning conventional wisdom about print versus e-media, you’re a tough
Carbon Footprint of 5 Cheeseburgers? Or Mail? Read More 👉
Greenwashing sanctions for promoting e-billing? New research is making the case that major U.K. corporates are flouting advertising regulations and risk reporting to the Advertising Standards Authority for promoting electronic billing as good for the environment. Two Sides, a European initiative to promote the responsible production and use of print and paper, is targeting companies
Study: Banks, Telecoms, Utilities Risk Greenwashing Sanctions for Promoting e-Billing Read More 👉
We’ve all read those horrific stories about plastic bags wrapped around sea birds that choke them to death or cause them to starve to death because they cannot fly. While those stories pull on the heart strings, they are — well — from somewhere else. Not this time. My parents were canoeing in Canada, and
Don’t Think the Seagulls Don’t Notice Read More 👉
I just downloaded The State of the Paper Industry: Monitoring the Indicators of Environmental Performance, put out by the Steering Committee of the Environmental Paper Network. On the surface, the numbers sound impressive and scary. The big bad paper industry needs to be reigned in for the good of the planet. Old growth forests are
Green Stats: Can’t We Tell Them Without the Agenda? Read More 👉
Last week, I blogged about some of the latest research showing that marketers are missing the opportunity to share their green stories with customers who want to hear it. Customers want to hear your green story. Research shows that when marketers share their green commitments, it increases customers’ favorable feelings toward the company, strengthens customer
Got Green? Flaunt It! Read More 👉
I’ve been covering the greening of print marketing for a long time. I just updated my report “Greening Print Marketing: A Practical Guide,” and here is what really struck me as I was doing so: How critical it is to understand product lifecycles if you really want to do a credible environmental footprint analysis How
Greening Print Marketing: It Can Be Easy If You Let It Read More 👉
Yesterday, I posted an interview I did with Steve Sklar, senior vice president of marketing for Boulder Canyon, which like SunChips offers a 100% compostable chip bag. Yet unlike SunChips, its bag is quiet — like paper. As a marketer, I wondered about Sklar’s take on SunChips’ decision to pull its 100% compostable packaging after
If SunChips Did Its Research, Why Did It Need to Pull Its 100% Compostable Bags? Read More 👉
It’s been a hobby of mine lately to follow the compostable packaging marketplace. As readers of this blog know, I’ve been conducting my own private experiment on the compostability claims of SunChips and Boulder Canyon, both of which claim to offer 100% compostable packaging for chip bags. The SunChips bag is reported to be made
Did you know that in the paper community, it’s an open secret that recycled paper has a higher carbon footprint than virgin paper? It’s more evidence that things in the environmental world are not always as conventional wisdom would suggest. What factors impact the carbon footprint of recycled paper? transportation of the fiber (distance of
Looking for a Green Resolution for 2011? Could It Be Laying Off the Recycled? Read More 👉
Last Saturday, I had the adventurous experience of dining at Herwig’s Austrian Bistro in State College, PA (“Where Bacon Is an Herb”). After being confronted by a table talker informing me that no takeout boxes would be provided (since I was expected to eat all my food), my friend and I were faced with what
Would You Pay a Quarter for a Green Take-Out Box? Read More 👉
A national Capstrat-Public Policy Polling survey found that 59% of consumers consider a product’s environmental sustainability to be “very important” in their buying decisions. And 56% noted they would pay “a little” to “significantly” more for a product that was environmentally friendly. Yet — in a mystifying donut hole between opportunity and realization — nearly
Capstrat Study: Consumers Will Pay More for Green Read More 👉
Recently, I was reading one of those business-to-business online discussions and someone asked for recommendations on tree-free paper. One of the first suggestions was Polyart, a synthetic paper made from recycled plastic. Sounds good, right? Paper not made from trees. What could be greener than that? I went to the company’s site and read through
Is Plastic Paper Good for the Environment? Read More 👉
What are your environmental resolutions for the New Year? As an environmental writer, I have a very important one I want to share. It’s to invest the time to always check the facts. Last week, I was writing a post based on some terrific comparison figures on print vs. e-media. Everything was going along fabulously
New Year’s Resolution of an Environmental Writer Read More 👉
Quick! Which of the following three industries uses the least amount of forest land per year? Don’t look it up. Just pick one off the top of your head. A. Lumber Industry B. Paper Industry C. Energy Industry Many people would pick the energy industry because the product is invisible. You can’t see, hear, or
The Painful Truth: Are iPads Killing the Environment? Read More 👉
We are told that one of the benefits of environmental certifications is to help business owners and executives make smart decisions that help the environment. By looking for environmental certifications on paper use, energy use, and others, it simplifies your decision-making. By selecting the certified product, you can be certain that the choice is better
Is the Focus on Environmental Certification Hurting the Environment? Read More 👉
We all want to talk about big, grand ideas for saving the environment. How about taking small, incremental steps like, say, not mailing big huge, bulky packages to the wrong people? I was browsing an industry discussion group recently and the the co-owner of an interactive marketing firm — you know, one of those creative,
Dumb Mailing Moves That Hurt the Environment Read More 👉
