Over the past few weeks, we’ve been receiving numerous inquiries on how businesses can communicate their green efforts without undergoing extreme customer scrutiny. While consumers say they want to deal with environmentally and socially responsible companies, some of the organizations that do promote their good deeds end up being accused of greenwashing. How do you prevent this and still bank on your good corporate stewardship? Read more…

Today’s post is from guest blogger Rob Jones of Vancouver-based online building materials firm BuildDirect. Rob’s experience in authoring the company’s green building blog has given him some insight into what it is to communicate how sustainability is affecting the industry in which BuildDirect is a part.

We asked Rob about his own efforts in talking about sustainable practices and trends in the marketplace while avoiding the greenwashing of his company’s products . Read more…

Comply with the Environmental Marketing Guides

Today I did a Google search on “green marketing claims” and was just overwhelmed with the results. Here’s what I got on the top 3 results: “Sorting Out ‘Green’ Advertising Claims,” followed by “Only .05% of Green Marketing Claims Not False or Misleading” and “Whom Do You Trust to Make Green Marketing Claims?”. This is quite worrisome for marketers that genuinely want to help green companies succeed. So here’s a resource that will help both marketers and consumers understand green marketing claims – directly from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Read more…

The Social Media for Small Business series will be back next week. I’ve discovered a bunch of great social media tools and will need the time to properly review them all. Today, I wanted to take a detour and write about a topic that’s been on my mind lately.

Across national borders, and especially here on the West Coast, consumers are becoming increasingly savvy to the problems of greenwashing. Read more…