| About Us | | |
We help companies throughout the product supply chain create environmentally-sustainable businesses. Our consulting services include: creating enterprise-level environmental sustainability visions, goals and strategies; re-engineering internal processes to reflect environmentally-sustainable best practices; and maximizing the environmental sustainability of product supply chains through the design and implementation of supplier assessment mechanisms.
We work in a variety of industries. We are extremely sensitive to clients' budgets and their capacity for change. Whether it's an energy, water, chemicals or solid waste issue, our team of professionals is ready to help your business. Please contact us to learn how we can help you. Call 212-343-1006 today.
|
|
|
Greetings!
Welcome to the final edition of our newsletter for 2010. Our Feature Article discusses the topic of "greenwashing," the practice of making false and/or misleading sustainability-related claims about products and business practices. In our Ideas You Can Use Now section, we've included tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of greenwashing and help save your organization from embarrassment, at a minimum, and real risk, as a possibility. Our Events Calendar has some listings but is a little thin in this edition ... the Holidays are upon us.
Happy reading!
P.S. Do you follow our blog? Lots of interesting stuff there ... check it out here. And be sure to bookmark the page! |
| Feature Article: Greenwashing
|
Recently, TerraChoice, an environmental marketing consultancy, announced the release its 2010 report on the "Sins of Greenwashing - Home and Family Edition." It made us think about the challenges that companies face in making credible, verified claims about environmentally sustainable products and business practices. The report suggests that greenwashing is a pretty common phenomenon in the area of consumer products; the report says nothing about B2B claims about eco-friendliness. Of course, it's essential that customer-facing claims about sustainability be authentic. Customers are savvy about these things and regulatory bodies (e.g., the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission) are cracking down on transgressors. And it's equally important that the claims be accompanied by best practices in transparency:
- additional information related to the claims should be made available on websites
- how the claim is substantiated should be disclosed
- any certification used as a part of a claim should have its own high levels of transparency.
Similarly, we believe that B2B claims about eco-friendliness need to be authentic and backed by best practices in transparency. So, for example, suppliers should be willing to provide customers with information about materials composition and any related certification. Sometimes this is difficult to do because of intellectual property concerns and a lack of a transparent business culture. But there are many examples of how business partners have overcome these obstacles, including the furniture maker that eventually got a plastics supplier to disclose the proprietary plastic's chemical composition so that the furniture maker could complete a verified life cycle analysis before making eco-friendly marketplace claims. What made that happen? A sense of being committed partners, shared goals around sustainability and well-crafted non-disclosure agreements.
Greenwashing is "easy" ... sustainability is not a mature model yet, there are many confusing aspects to it and much of what we do in this area is not sufficiently data driven (yet). Authenticity, on the other hand, is "hard" ... working with cross-functional internal teams and engaging external stakeholders such as suppliers, NGOs and regulators takes a lot of new skills and resources. But we know from experience that authenticity pays off. Contact us to learn more about how. |
 | Ideas You Can Use Now! |
In the Feature Article we talked about how important it is to avoid the pitfalls of greenwashing. Here are some tips to help you out:
- You should have your company's legal or risk management departments review any language you plan to use in reports, in press releases, in literature or on products. This review is a good counterweight to the marketing department's zeal for pushing eco-friendliness.
- In the case of claims about products, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Green Guides offer very good advice about the appropriateness and legality of product-related sustainability claims. The Guides, which have been around since 1992, are about to undergo revision and the FTC is now seeking comments (the comment period ends December 10, 2010 (visit the FTC website)). If your situation is outside of the United States, check for information from the appropriate regulatory body. - Also regarding products, it's not a bad idea to check out certification schemes and see which might work for your products. Be comfortable with the scheme first, though, as there are many out there that won't help your credibility much. For example, if they certify raw materials you buy as being sustainably sourced, find out how they verify this. Transparency is the key here.
- In the case of sustainability reports and publications, follow established reporting guidelines such as those put forth by the Global Reporting Initiative. Using commonly-accepted reporting standards is the right thing to do in order to avoid confusion and cut down on greenwashing.
If you have questions or comments, please contact us at 212-343-1006 or info@kuhnassociatesllc.com.
|
| Calendar of Events |
It's a quiet time of year as far as events go, but here are a few of the interesting sustainability events happening in the coming months:
December 8 ... GreenBiz.com's Environmental Sustainability Tools Virtual Conference is being held online. For more information visit their site. December 14, Long Island, NY ... I'll be speaking on Value Chain Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting and Reporting at APICS' New York/Long Island Chapter's Professional Development Meeting. Visit this site for more information. January 25 - 27, Toronto, Ontario ... training group HRCarbon, in partnership with Humber College, presents a two-day executive level course in Climate Risk Management. Visit their website. |
|
|
Thanks for reading! Please contact us today to discuss anything you've read here, suggest a topic for a future edition or learn how we can help you build a more sustainable business.
Call 212-343-1006 or email us at info@kuhnassociatesllc.com for more information.
Sincerely,
|
|
|
