Five Ways Businesses Can Avoid 'Green Fatigue'

By Preston Koerner
Published June 23, 2008

You may have noticed an article by Alex Williams in the New York Times last week entitled "The Era of Green Noise." The article hits on some trends we're seeing, especially in the green lifestyle area, with people worn out by the green barrage of choices and information. Green advertising and/or pitches might get a roll of the eyes, or worse, some backlash. People may just repel and fight against the message. So businesses are starting to get concerned about the proper way to move forward given this "green fatigue" from the "green noise."

I've been thinking about this and have a few suggestions for businesses that want to keep a quality connection to their customers.

1. Environmental Progress Should be Authentic

At first I wrote down "Environmental progress should be meaningful," but I realized, there's more to this than meaningful progress. Business progress relating to the environment needs to be authentic. It needs to be real and in a forward direction. For example, buildings can be non-green, green, sustainable, and/or restorative, etc.. If you take a non-green building and make it into a green building, don't promote and advertise the heck out of it as if it were restorative. Be authentic about the progress that you've made.

Discuss where future improvements can be made and find ways to make those improvements. But don't ever try to (over) sell the customer on a semantic vision that isn't absolutely 100 percent authentic.

2. Products and Services Need to be Remarkable

Businesses can't abandon the bread and butter of their industry. Sometimes I get the feeling that businesses expect huge rewards for their small investments in sustainability -- but they absolutely can't forget the basic premise of their product/service.

Green computers need to be computers that are also green. Green furniture needs to be furniture that is also green. Green buildings need to be buildings that are also green. So provide remarkable products and services that are ALSO green. Don't just rest on the sustainable laurels of a given product or service. Products and services need to be other things, in addition to being green.

3. Spend More Time Strategizing Over Appropriate Prices

If there's one thing I think businesses can flub up, it's going to be with the pricing strategy. Don't be that company! If you and your accountants can't come up with a price, here's my advice. Ask yourself: What Would Apple Do? (WWAD). Good products and services at good prices will be purchased by customers. If you have good products and services at good prices, people will buy in. But remember, there can be only one Wal-Mart -- there can be only one low cost provider. If you've done your industry homework, a fair price will attract more customers and increase positive word of mouth, especially if the products and services are remarkable and authentically green.

4. Be Honest With Customers About Efforts to Improve

I think there are some companies that do a good job of keeping things honest. When words and claims are stretched, however, everyone loses. Everyone.

If you have a product and service that has both positive and negative environmental attributes, be open about both and clarify how you're working to improve the negative environmental attributes. You cannot "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative" with environmental claims. It's not a question of market positioning or strategy, it's a question of integrity and being honest with customers. If you hide the ball, your customers will find out and you will be pounded by it. Don't be one of those companies.

5. Avoid Complaints About Costs and Obstacles to "Going Green"

It's perfectly fine to discuss challenges and obstacles, but don't be the naysayer or the begrudging type. It's getting old. If you're more experienced, you may think you're being pragmatic, but you're not. You're being too conservative in the one country that rewards risk and innovation the most.

I mean, sometimes I feel as though there's no innovation left in the bigger companies because they're always talking about what they can't do, as opposed to what they can do. Immerse yourself in the research, come up with a long term plan for your company, and execute on that plan. If you get all caught up in the short term financials and benchmarks, you may wake up one day to find that your competition has outmaneuvered you and you're in trouble. That's the dynamic between companies like Honda and Toyota as compared to GM and Ford. You may not have the stomach for the impossible, but you should because that's why you're being paid so well.

Preston Koerner is the founder, sole owner and chief editor of the web magazine Jetson Green, where this column originally appeared. He also is a transactional attorney at Corbridge Baird & Christensen in Salt Lake City.