Speakers at the Target Green conference in DC today repeatedly emphasized the need for green products to, perhaps not surprisingly, actually be useful, by generating a decent profit for the manufacturer and providing a product as good as any non-green product available, along with being beneficial to the environment, of course.

Matt Pliszka, founder of cleaning products startup Simply Safe, noted that people just won’t buy a product merely because it’s eco-friendly; it’s got to be just as good as anything else on the market.

“If people associate green cleaners with poor performance, they will not be bought again,” Pliszka said. “They must perform as effectively as the hazardous cleaner.”

A good reminder that effective communications about green products and services always hinge on communicating the practical aspects of “green” — that being eco-friendly is not just virtuous, but a matter of self-interest for all.

“Do tell your story. Tell it and tell it, and when you’re sick of it, tell it again. Don’t just assume that people know your story. I sometimes describe this as a ‘PR death march’ that the company has me on.”

–Beth Lowery, General Motor’s VP of energy, environment, and safety policy, speaking about her company’s promotion of its various “green” initiatives, including development of ethanol-powered vehicles.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, had some harsh words in his keynote address to the Target Green conference this morning about “Detroit” and the “energy industry.”

Though people under 30 by and large are greatly concerned about global warming and are pushing for a revolution in the way businesses, consumers, and people in everyday life use energy, the auto and energy industries are for the most part actively against implementation of new legislation that could effect change, such as rules to set average mileage per car at 35 MPH and mandates requiring utilities produce 15% of electricity through renewable sources by 2020, Markey said.

“But while Detroit is fighting it, there’s no denying that change is possible,” Markey said. “There is a lot of institutional inertia. A lot of companies are using their PR firms to fight change.”

Yet energy efficiency is in fact a marketing opportunity, said Markey, given that all the leaders on college campuses today are being very active in pushing for change. At the University of Florida, for instance, Markey said students pushed against the initial wishes of university officials to enact a small student fee to go toward creating a wind turbine, ultimately raising about $25,000.

“Increasingly [environmental activists are] going to be a larger and larger audience in our country,” Markey said. “I think the polling is so overwhelming that politicians are going to vote against that change at their peril.”

Plus, he noted, many energy efficient products, from cars to lightbulbs, have the false reputation of being virtuous but requiring financial sacrifice.

“Light bulbs that have five times the efficiency but cost twice as much — this is not a sacrifice,” and companies are starting to appreciate the marketing opportunities such products present, Markey concluded.

Speakers at a session of Target Green this morning on “Clean Tech and Public Policy” noted that partnerships among businesses, government agencies, advocacy groups and others are key to bringing about meaningful change in the consumption of energy, emission of CO2, and related public education efforts, if environmental experts are correct in estimating that the world has about 10 years before the pace of global warming becomes too fast too reverse.

Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, laid out the reasons “why”: in the US, for instance, gas and oil prices are at record levels and petroleum imports are at 60% and rising. Then she discussed “how”: In employing “clean technologies,” the first step is R&D, then incentives must be offered to get people to buy the products, accompanied by a public education campaign, and then finally standards can be set by regulators or governments to make sure superior products are favored in the marketplace.

“You need the public element to make those products take ahold,” Callahan said.

In some cases, the impact of the government might not always be welcomed by the private sector, making for something of an involuntary partnership. But as Mike Stanton, chairman of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers noted in the case of gas-mileage standards for cars, change is coming whether people like it or not.

Apparently it’s not easy for a city to go car free, as the traffic outside my window is backed up down the street at the moment – 9:50 am – on what is supposed to be Car Free Day here in DC (and other cities around the world).

DC mayor Adrian Fenty was, however, shown on a local news report walking about yesterday and will be getting to all his appointments today by bus. The day’s not over, of course, but more extensive promotion of the day next year would probably help encourage more people to take public transportation.

As a fitting prelude to PRWeek’s Target Green conference on October 3 in Washington, the DC city government is promoting a “Car Free Day” on September 18, as are more than 100 other cities around the world.

Given the number of US and foreign government officials in Washington used to being ferried around in gas-guzzling SUVs, a completely car-free day is probably not likely, but at least Mayor Adrian Fenty provided some good symbolism recently by taking the bus to the press conference promoting the day.