Latest Green News for the week of 01.28.08

Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler (NY Times)

“The two commodities share a great deal: Like oil, meat is subsidized by the federal government. Like oil, meat is subject to accelerating demand as nations become wealthier, and this, in turn, sends prices higher. Finally — like oil — meat is something people are encouraged to consume less of, as the toll exacted by industrial production increases, and becomes increasingly visible.”


Also, in the NY Times, green homeless shelters: “The facility, Crossroads, which will accommodate 125 residents, may be the only “green” homeless shelter built from the ground up. It has a solar-paneled roof, hydronic heating, artful but practical ceiling fans, nontoxic paint, windows that can be opened to let in fresh air, and desks and bureaus made from pressed wheat.”

Also:

Living on Earth investigates green issues, from black voters.

Read more »

Texas’ penchant for SUVs and sprawling suburbs has landed it as the biggest polluter in the nation. According to the Associated Press:

The headquarters state of America’s oil industry spewed 670 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2003, enough that Texas would rank seventh in the world if it were its own country, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The amount is more than that of California and Pennsylvania — the second- and third-ranking states — combined.

Though I think the article exaggerates anti-green sentiments in Texas, it does show  that “going green” has not gripped all markets equally. Yet it’s easy to forget this in the eco-chic pockets.

And yet, just because a region eschews, say, hybrid vehicles, does not necessarily reflect a lack of interest in alternative energy. For instance, for the third consecutive year, Texas was the nation’s leader in the amount of wind capacity added to the electric grid, according to Wired Magazine.

Any thoughts on the varying interests in “going green” for different regions?

THIS WEEK’S GREEN HEADLINES:

Hybrids and alternative fuels dominated the North American International Auto Show, held this week in Detroit.  The LA Times reports, Toyota plans to market a test fleet of rechargeable hybrid vehicles by the end of 2010.  Could this mean trouble for GM and Chevy, since they have faced considerable setbacks in rolling out the Chevy Volt?

Yet GM is courting plenty of attention at the show with its  two concept cars that run on ethanol, the Hummer HX and the Saab 9-4X, according to the  LA Times.   But the American automaker has acknowledged switching its focus from battery-operated to the ethanol vehicles because its Volt model is facing some major road bumps.

Even though green vehicles are attracting the buzz, the nation’s top-selling vehicles are still gas guzzling pickup trucks, reports NPR.

By Sabrina Horn
Horn Group

• Carbon trading…not only are bills in front of Congress but you have companies like World Energy, Chicago Climate Exchange, and NYMEX vying for position in gathering and enabling trading for carbon credits.  This will create a blanket of noise in the green sector, a trend that the PR community certainly will be challenged with during 2008.

• The 2008 election will be the largest trend in green; this will determine whether the US joins Kyoto actively or continues to allow regional carbon emission standards to be placed (i.e. RGGI).  Therefore this will be a critical trend for PR folks to understand and leverage for green.

• The power of green bloggers is increasing each day, will the PR industry learn from their earlier mis-steps in building relationships with bloggers?

• Can PR entities make money in the green PR space?  This trend is something discussed widely in 2007, but 2008 will really be the year it is put to the test.  Everyone wants to work in the green space, but does it equal green for the bottom line?

Horn is president of the Horn Group.

By Courtney Newman
Allison & Partners

•  Big climate change initiatives – Nonprofits and government agencies are not waiting for Congress to regulate greenhouse gases; many are stepping out of their prescribed roles to take proactive steps to address climate change (e.g., Bay Area Air District’s climate protection grants to cities).

• Continued increase in chief sustainability officers – These c-level executives are developing green products and services and have the authority to hire PR firms to promote their innovations.

• Increased opportunities on the government front – 2008 is an election year, so we should see increased opportunities as government agencies look to spend money that’s been allocated.

• Increase in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs – It continues to be more and more important for corporations to have a CSR initiative or consider cause marketing for specific brands, especially given growing consumer interest in supporting companies that treat their employees and the environment well.

•  Strong interest from prospective employees – There is a robust pipeline of young professionals who want to join our practice and make a positive impact on the environment and human rights.

Newman is vice president of social impact at Allison & Partners.

Latest green news for the week 01.08.08

E.P.A. Seeks New Life for Old Cellphones (NY Times)

The E.P.A. is rolling out a campaign for recycling cellphones, giving retailers a major green PR opportunity. According to the NY Times:

The $175,000 campaign — “Recycle Your Cellphone. It’s an Easy Call” — will rely heavily on public service announcements, particularly in lifestyle and technology magazines read by the 18- to 34-year-olds who trade up to new cellphones most often. The ads will stress environmental and social reasons for recycling. The agency also plans to release a podcast in which recycling specialists elaborate on their methodologies.

50 People Who Could Save the Planet (The Guardian)

Dot Earth’s Andrew Revkin responds to the list that includes movie star Leonardo DiCaprio, Nobel prize winners Al Gore and Wangari Maathai, NASA scientists, farmers, and peasants. Surprisingly, according to Revkin, Gore barely landed on the final list:

[John Vidal, the paper’s environment editor,] said Mr. Gore, despite his high profile, was a close call: “He may have put climate change on the rich countries’ agenda, but some felt his solution of trading emissions is not enough and no more than what all major businesses and western governments are now saying. But in the end he squeaked through.

Mixed Week for Big Oil (Houston Chronicle and the AP)

According to the AP: “Jurors sided with oil giant BP Corp. North America Inc. on Monday in a pollution lawsuit filed by the city of Neodesha seeking to recover the costs of cleanup and damage caused by an oil refinery.”

But there are more lawsuits targeted at the industry. The Houston Chronicle reports, “Environmental activists filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Shell Oil on behalf of citizens, saying state and federal environmental officials failed to enforce the Clean Air Act at the company’s Deer Park plant.”

In other news: more on melting ice caps, rising seas, and the threat to polar bears ; taking the president’s advice and using switchgrass for fuel.

By Eileen Conway
Citigate Cunningham

In 2008, I think we’ll see more companies “go green” and that includes PR agencies. Green began to see an incredible amount of media traction in 2007, which will result in internal and external pressure on companies to change corporate and production practices to be more environmentally friendly in 2008. In fact, we already saw a lot of companies begin to highlight green initiatives as a marketing strategy.

However, companies will need to be strategic in how they market their green initiatives in 2008. I think that there will be a backlash to some extent given all the hype in 2007 that will make consumers and media alike more discriminating between the companies that have truly adopted green practices versus the companies that simply try to position themselves as green with little to back it up.

For example, we saw companies this year try to market themselves as green for cutting back on sending direct mail and instead going to email marketing campaigns, etc. I think the companies that will receive recognition in 2008 will be the organizations that make the commitment to go green on a number of levels from cutting back on paper use to making big investments in green technology to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions, etc.

The debate about whether tech PR agencies need to develop and market green practices to be successful is already in full swing. Everyone is asking if green is the new biotech industry. My feeling is that it will be important for agencies to have a comprehensive understanding of green technology and how it fits into the technology industry as a whole. For example, most green products and solutions on the market today are produced by companies that have other core offerings as well. PR agencies that market a green practice will probably fair better than those that don’t, but in the end every tech PR firm will need to have an understanding of green technology in order to survive in the market.

Conway is CEO of Citigate Cunningham in San Francisco.

Burt’s Bees, a longtime darling of the green movement, is defending itself against critics now that it is owned by Clorox, according an article in the NY Times. But the company has resorted to some weird PR tactics to prove that its product is still natural and eco-friendly — even with the Clorox affiliation:

To prove his own bona fides, [CEO of Burt's Bees] Mr. Replogle grabs a bottle of Burt’s Bees avocado butter hair treatment, squeezes some onto his finger and dramatically licks it off. He then passes the tube to two Clorox executives so they can have a taste.

Yet Clorox execs are promising that they are going to follow the sustainable business practices of Burt’s Bees and take the bleach company green. That might be a hard sell considering the trouble the cleaning giant already has with environmentalists.

But even more fascinating is the fallout between Burt Bees’ founders (and former lovers), Burt Shavitz and Roxanne Quimby, who met while Quimby was hitchhiking.

What is clear is that Mr. Shavitz lost out on a huge payday. In 1999, Ms. Quimby bought out his one-third share in Burt’s Bees by buying him a house in Maine. Much grander than a turkey coop, the home cost $130,000, Ms. Quimby says. She now calls that figure “embarrassing” considering how much she made from the company.

By David Landis
Landis Communications

I think 2008 is going to be the “Year of Transparency” for PR/marketing professionals jumping on the green bandwagon.

We’ve seen everyone – from our client, Whole Foods Market –to McDonald’s – jump on the “green” bandwagon, but what will separate the successful campaigns from those that aren’t, will be authenticity. People will no longer be able to just claim the moniker “green” without fulfilling on that promise.

So, our thoughts at LCI, as an agency that has numerous clients in the green space, is don’t just dive into this haphazardly without doing your homework:

a. Do your research

b. Find out how your clients can truly affect change – and not only what they can do, but what they can’t do as well

c. Make sure to not “bite off more than you can chew” – start small and build slowly

d. Above all, make sure that what you are doing is truly what you claim

In addition to that, here are some other thoughts:

I think global climate change and educating the public about how they can reduce their carbon footprint will be a growing trend for 2008. Interest in the topic should spike again with the release of Al Gore’s follow-up book to An Inconvenient Truth (Spring 2008 TBD). Efforts will be focused on easy steps consumers can take to reduce their carbon footprint and give back to the environment, such as having a redwood seedling (our client, Save-the-Redwoods, has one of the biggest such programs in California), or other tree planted (celebs have done this as a way to offset emissions from plane flights) , or biking to work one day a month to offset daily car commutes to work.

Landis is president/CEO of Landis Communications based in San Francisco.

By Kathy Kniss
Clean Agency

In 2008, consumers will see a trend among major name brands to
authenticate their “green” claims by seeking out eco audits (which, by
the way, Clean Agency provides) in order to implement an overarching
policy of corporate social and environmental responsibility.

Additionally, more green niche products will make their way to national
retail chain stores, while more manufacturers will explore sustainable
packaging to meet consumer demands. In fact, retailers themselves are
mandating these be standard practices: i.e. WalMart to reduce the amount
of packaging material by 5%, Target to reduce/eliminate PVC in packaging
and products, IKEA, reusable bags, etc.

The practice of sustainable packaging and manufacturing is likely to
occur especially fast among toy and childrens’ clothing manufacturers,
as parents’ concern for their children’s’ safety mounts. In the advent
of the Internet, information is more easily accessed and shared among
groups of people – especially parents. Warnings about everything from
PVC piping in babies bibs to the toxicity levels found in furniture
treated with fire retardant can be found circulating on the web in the
form of viral videos, news articles, and NGO reports.

And just as broadcast groups, such as NBC (”Universal is Green”), have
begun embracing the movement towards eco-consciousness, so will major
entertainment groups, sports teams, and live events.

Kniss is director of PR at the Clean Agency.