According to the latest survey by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, a full 1/3 of U.S. commercial printers “
identify [themselves] in marketing and sales materials and promotions as ... environmentally sensitive business[es].” Let's look at how printers can balance marketing claims with green initiatives and avoid green washing.
First, exactly what is green washing? Different groups have different definitions, but the gist of it is the same. If you’re giving the impression that you’re doing more for the environment than you really are, that’s green washing.
Our research indicated that the number one green practice among commercial printers is to describe themselves in their own marketing materials as green businesses. Describing yourself as green, without implementing the appropriate green processes takes you close to the point of green washing.
(Chart added August 17, 2009)
The first step is to take a close look at your own marketing materials to ensure that you're not green washing. Do your messages fall into any of the quadrants except the upper right? Then it's time to rethink your communications.
Here are 10 signs you should watch for, taken from
Understanding and Preventing Greenwash: A Business Guide.
- Fluffy language: Words or terms with no clear meaning (e.g. “eco-friendly”).
- Green product vs. dirty company: Such as efficient light bulbs made in a factory that pollutes rivers.
- Suggestive pictures: Green images that indicate a (unjustified) green impact (e.g. flowers blooming from
exhaust pipes).
- Irrelevant claims: Emphasizing one tiny green attribute when everything else is not green.
- Best in class: Declaring you are slightly greener than the rest, even if the rest are pretty terrible.
- Just not credible: “Eco friendly” cigarettes, anyone? “Greening” a dangerous product doesn’t make it safe.
- Jargon: Information that only a scientist could check or understand.
- Imaginary friends: A “label” that looks like third party endorsement - except that it’s made up.
- No proof: It could be right, but where’s the evidence?
- Out-right lying: Totally fabricated claims or data.
If offering recycled paper and printing with soy based inks are the extent of your green initiatives, you may want to consider reading some of the following chapters from
Printing Continues to Go Green and reach further:
- Shift to Processless Platemaking
- Proof Online or Electronically
- Think About What Happens After a Job Comes Off Press
- Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
- Buy Carbon Offsets
- Look to Alternative Energy Sources
- Change One’s Workplace
Get your copy of
Printing Continues to Go Green from the WhatTheyThink online store.
