I recently attended the Western District Conference for PRSA and picked up a few takeaways that I will relay as I interpreted it in relation to sustainability:

  Everyone who's anyone is doing it – green cause marketing is all the rage.  It's so Facebook and so not Myspace!  Al Gore brought the ideals of going green to the pop culture forefront with his delivery of An Inconvenient Truth and the trend has since become a movement. 

So what's the big deal?  Green Cause marketing is one of the top five most consumer-respected community outreach strategies right now.  I just researched a New York Times case study on Method cleaning products and their push to go green.  The product had a 140 percent increase in sales in 2008 from 2007 thanks to its grean cause marketing which showcases the biodegradable cleansers.  This has spawned competitors in the traditional brandlines to respond with products such as Chlorox Greenworks. 

The question is, are companies and individuals doing it right?  It's not just about talking green, it's walking green.  We're headed down a path that's instrumental in placing corporations and businesses in the passenger seat and consumers are taking the wheel – of a hybrid, of course. Green cause marketing is all about ensuring the message isn't dumbed down with phony statements and empty promises that really are "awash."  Although waxing is not necessarily always thought of as "natural," it fits the analogy that we need to make things bright, shiny and new again without tossing and replacing new (think waxing your old car and finding reinvigored love for the same thing all over again).

A modular flooring company called Interface sure tells their green story like it is.  The company has publicly announced its intentions to be carbon neutral by 2020.  The company not only sells recycled carpeting, but also operates using green technologies.  According to their Web site mission statement, "Interface will lead by example and validate by results, including profits, leaving the world a better place than when we began, and we will be restorative through the power of our influence in the world."  Pretty bold, huh? 

On the flip side, companies such as Walmart aren't getting such a good rap for their environmental efforts given the exorbitant amount of cheaply-made, bottom line-driven products sold within the store.  Companies such as this may say they're greener, but is that making people believe and affecting their purchase decisions?

In a time when companies such as GM are struggling to make ends meet while competitors such as Toyota and Honda are holding strong, it makes one wonder if that's the most evident validation.  The age of responsibility is here – Barack even says so!  Consumers will dictate the fate of a washer versus a waxer and for some the outcome will be a perpetual low tide.

A wise intern interview candidate recently referenced Warren Buffett's historic quote and I believe it will ring true soon enough for green washers, "It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's swimming naked."

Posted by Kari Mather