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Saturday, August 04, 2007
Environment - Indianpolis Business Journal writes about "greenwashing"
An interesting article by Chris O’Malley of the Indianapolis Business Journal headed "It’s not easy being GREEN: Experts say it’s tough to pull the (recycled) wool over eyes of those wary of ‘greenwashing’" reports:
With the gospel of global warming raising the call for “green-ness” to a near-hysterical pitch, there’s a growing sense that creating an earth-friendly image will bring companies a strategic advantage.Yet the contradictions between what companies do day in and day out and what they do to improve the environment can create a marketing minefield.
“Companies are grappling with this right now,” said John W. Maxwell, professor of business economics and public policy at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Maxwell, in a study co-authored with University of Michigan researcher Thomas P. Lyon, said companies “are often surprisingly hesitant” to mention their environmentally friendly actions, for fear of being dismissed as “greenwashers” by some environmental groups.
He pointed, for example, to the “Greenwash Academy Awards” at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in recent years. Among the winners was petroleum giant BP, for its “beyond petroleum rebranding campaign.” Besides appearing to be wringing its hands worrying about motorists, BP pointed out how it is a major maker of solar cells and how it uses them atop the canopies of its service stations to power lights and refrigerators.
That’s the same BP that lately has been under fire from environmentalists for seeking a permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to dump more treated wastewater into Lake Michigan from its Whiting refinery.
“All that PR spin and investment—was it actually a win for them or did it hold them up for further scrutiny?” asked Marc Zucker, CEO of Synergy Marketing Group in Indianapolis.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 4, 2007 09:59 AM
Posted to Environment