The First Ever Green Branding Class at the UO: My Takeaways

I just finished up with my very last finals of my college career and now have time to reflect on my last term at the UO! This term stood out to me particularly because of Deb Morrison's Green Brand Strategies class. While the end has come I thought it would be a good time to reflect on my four big takeaways from this class.

1. Green "branding" is dying out: Sustainability is the new goal. In class we quickly shifted from how to talk about companies "green" efforts to talking about how a company can achieve long-term sustainability. People are getting increasingly educated about environmental issues and are no longer fooled by companies "green" claims. They are looking deeper into companies core values and practices in order to choose the company that they can agree with (and purchase products/services from). The green advertising agency is changing from "talking" to "doing" and needs to push companies to become more sustainable before they talk about it.

2. Transparency: This goes hand-in-hand with the first one. Companies can no longer hide their bad practices behind an advertising campaign or slick branding. In this age of social networking people will find out if companies are spinning information or straight-up lying. The role of the green agency is to tell people the truth. This has to start with companies doing more to be more sustainable, so an agency can then inform people about it in a truthful way. Sustainability is impossible without transparency.

3. Sustainability is not a trend: In the coming years a lot of things are going to change for business. Resources are going to become more expensive, consumers are going to become more demanding, and businesses are going to become more competitive. Sustainability is not a trend, like green branding has become. Innovation and sustainability are the tools that are going to allow separate the long-lasting companies from those struggling to stay afloat. Those adopting sustainable practices now are getting a major head start on their competition and will be business leaders in the future.

4. Cooperation is a must: Sustainability is such a big issue that one person is unable to make a huge impact. We must cooperate to achieve sustainability goals. Businesses, agencies, media and people need to re-think how they can work together to achieve their goals without sacrificing the goals of others or the environment.

The coming years are going to be interesting. Those individuals, agencies and businesses that are honest, creative, innovative, caring, and cooperative are the ones that are going to be able to adopt sustainable practices and be the leaders of tomorrow.

Food waste, its impact, and what this means for sustainable business.

Saw this article on Treehugger the other day, its about the impact of food waste.

I've worked for a number of food service places and I was always surprised how much food gets thrown out due to spoilage or "bad" quality. This seems like a "low-hanging fruit" where a business, especially a small business, could save money and have a positive impact easily. Proper food waste management isn't extremely difficult but many restaurants do a poor job at it.

This is an important and easy way for a green branding agency to reduce a businesses environmental impact and show how sustainable practices can save a business money. I wonder if anyone out in the advertising world has addressed this problem?

Adam Werbach in Person (kinda)

Wednesday in class we got to meet face to video screen with Adam Werbach.  Here's a couple of takeaways I got from our interaction:

• Like record companies and purveyors of gas-guzzling SUVs (Ahem..GM), The old advertising industry is dying a rapid death. Due to the availability of information and the ability to broadcast your opinions to the world, people are calling bullshit on advertising to the point where it is affecting sales. People just don't want to be "sold" to anymore. Sustainability has the potential to save the advertising industry by making agencies the purveyors of change, not pushers of products.
• "The best tool you have is knowing nothing" Werbach emphasized having an opoen mind and that the new generation of advertsing (us) have an advantage because we are not stuck doing things "the old way." We can be mentally and creativly flexible. These are essentails if you want to push change.
• "Greenwashing is bad marketing" and is also dying a rapid death for most of the same reasons that the old ways of advertising are dyding. You just cant trick people anymore.
• Sustainability starts within a business long before they should communicate about it. The time to communicate about a companies sustainability is at the "point of no return." This is when a company has integrated sustainability deeply in their business and have made capital investments which guarntee they follow through. The "point of no return" is a different time for every compnay.
• While Werbach said there are a few industries that are "inherently evil" namely, oil, tobacco, and bottled water companies, the majority of currently unsustainable businesses can benefit from adopting sustainable practices. Yes, even companies like Wal-Mart and McDonalds. 
• Regarding sustainable practices, companies are not asking the question, "should we do this?" but "how do we do this?" This is a big shift from just a few years back.
• Despite is flaws, our current industrial/economic model has done much to bring about social/economic justice and well-being to large numbers of people. This model needs to be "re-energized" with sustainability (social, economic, environmental, and cultural) guiding it, if it is going to continue being successful.

One thing that I've been thinking about a lot lately is how the relationship between ad agency and client is changing. Talking to Werbach helped me realize that agencies need to work very closely with their clients in order for them to promote their sustainable practices.

So closely that maybe the agency model needs to be changed. I think that in the years to come we will see that internal client-side advertising/sustainability initiatives will take off as opposed to ad agency-based external ones. It seems that Saatchi S, Enviromedia, etc. are now occupying a niche in the agency world that is going to soon go mainstream and may even disappear. Just a thought, but I am interested in seeing where things are going to go!

Thank you Adam Werbach for the inspiration and insight!

Green Branding Beer

I am a huge fan of micro-brews and particularly Oregon ones. I do the beer buying at my job and have noticed recently that more and more breweries are branding themselves, or particular beers, as green. Not surprisingly Portland, home of more breweries than any other city in the nation (source), is leading the charge with sustainable breweries, notably Hopworks Urban Brewery and Laurelwood.

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) brings together three things I love, bikes, beer, and sustainability. They call themselves an "eco-pub" and source local and organic ingredients to make their beer (and serve at their restaurant). Wuth HUB being founded by a bunch of bike nuts, its not surprising that sustainability is one of their core values. They have even created a pedal-powered "bar-bike" so they can support events without having to drive to them.

HUB has an additional list of things they are doing to be more green, besides being organic, listed on their website. It seems that have put considerable thought into making thier brewery as sustainable as they can.

Laurelwood was the first Oregon brewery to produce 100% organically certified beers. While not striving to be a sustainable brew-pub like HUB is. They are leaders in the organic beer movement and make one of my favorite beers Free-Range Red. On a social sustainability level, Laurel wood also produces Prevail IPA, with proceeds of this beer going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Both of these breweries are exceptional and in perfect positions to brand themselves as green. They are 100% organic from the ground up and have sustainable thinking throughout their businesses. Its not surprising that, even though their beer are a bit more expensive (about $4.70 for a 22oz bottle), they have been very successful and both breweries have recently expanded their bottle and keg distribution areas.

Yet Another Interesting Transportation Trend: Car Sharing is Booming

When gas prices hit a record high in 2008 people began to think a bit harder about transportation. To deal with this unexpected rise in oil prices some people bought more fuel efficient vehicles, some people started using public transportation, some started riding a bike, and others began to car-share. According to this article at Treehugger a lot of people began to car-share. Most people did it to save money but others were interested in helping the environment and lengthening the time we have before oil runs out.

I found this really interesting because Portland has a very successful car share program, Zipcar, with strange and awesome branding. They mostly highlight how Zipcar can save you money and help the environment but they are doing some quirky things like naming their cars and giving them personalities. Zipcar is definitely one sweet green brand with an eye on sustainability.

To go along with my last post they are also a kick ass service-based company that decreases consumption of one of the biggest purchases people make, automobiles. If that Treehugger article is right I see big growth for the Zipcar folks.

Kevin Tuerff from Enviromedia: How do we sell less consumption?

Last Monday Kevin Tuerff from Enviromedia came and spoke to my Green Branding class and I just wanted to touch on a few of his insights.

 

First off Kevin is the founder of the first "green branding" agency, EnviroMedia. He came to our class with challenges relating to the future of sustainable advertising/business and asked the question: How would you sell?

Wine in a keg (to eliminate the waste of glass wine bottles)

Boats powered by hydrogen (to eliminate water pollution related to boat fuel)

Lawn irrigation that uses treated waste water (to conserve water)

A brand of electric car charging stations (to build a electric car infrastructure)

Roof top shingle-solar panels (for home power generation)

And perhaps the toughest question of all: 

How do you sell less consumption?

This is the question that has had my attention a lot lately. I don't think it is a contradictory idea. It would require in how business does business but I think it is a possible goal. These are the two biggest changes that need to happen before we can start to sell "less consumption."

The first thing that would need to change is how products are produced. In a time of rapid technological change companies need to start designing products that can be upgraded,  thus creating products that never become technologically obsolete.You could then advertise not the new product, but the new upgrade, thus not advocating for more consumption. This could virtually eliminate "e-waste" and would create greater customer loyalty to a particular brand. A win for business and the environment.

The second thing, a concept discussed by Paul Hawken in Natural Capitalism, is a much needed shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. To explain this I'll use my favorite example: Zerox. Zerox doesn't really sell copiers anymore, they rent them and provide service for them (and do upgrades). The Zerox copier has shifted from being a manufactured product to a service product. again this is a win win. Zerox saves money in the manufacturing process, businesses save money and time (not having to purchase a copier, and not having to call that repair guy in a week to fix it). Again it, is a product that can be advertised for its ability to decrease consumption and provide a win-win for businesses and manufacturers.

So that, Mr. Tuerff, is the answer to your question about how we sell less consumption. By being more creative, of course!

Adam Werbach knows whats up.

After reading the Birth of Blue Speech, I am stoked again to be in this industry. Adam Werbach, calls it like it is. I have always thought that an economic and capital change is what our country really needs. It allows us to escape the bureaucratic quagmire that is our political system and puts power where it should be, with consumers and their wallets. I guess I should have prefaced this by explaining that I am a capitalist through and through. I feel that, however flawed it may be, our economic system has done way more good than harm and it can be used as a tool to make the world a better place.

I was stoked to find out that Adam Werbach worked with Paul Hawkin on his Wal-Mart project. I read Paul Hawkins book "Natural Capitalism" http://www.natcap.org/ about four years ago and it played a big part in shaping my view that ecological improvement can be achieved through a re-tooled economic system. I may have never chose Advertising as a major and career if it wasn't for me reading Paul Hawkin's work and it excites me that our industry is building on his ideas.

Another Werbach idea I thought was cool was the PSP. It goes along with the idea of the environmental movement that little changes can make a big difference and that setting small achievable goals (and achieving them) can make you a happier and better person. SO I think we should all make our own PSP for them term and try to stick with it. I'll start.

My PSP is to be a stricter vegetarian. I've been Vegi for about 6 years now but have slacked off within the last year or so and have included fish and sometimes turkey into my diet. I think its high time to cut those out again. So there's mine, what's yours?