Combating ‘Green Noise’
A recent article by Alex Williams of the NYTimes, discussed how consumers are feeling overwhelmed with the "urgent, sometimes vexing or even contradictory information played at too high a volume for too long" about environmental issues.
For businesses and organizations wondering how best to overcome this consumer fatigue, I suggest that they reexamine and narrow their audience. Rather than jumping on the green bandwagon — which is increasingly becoming a congested freeway — and widely broadcasting their environmental achievements (which are oftentimes inconsequential) in hopes that the media will cover their efforts, I suggest carefully targeting their communications to very select constituencies.
- Corporate sustainability efforts should be reexamined and explained from a recruiting perspective. As talent becomes more difficult to find, a good corporate citizen has the advantage in the recruiting pool.
- Less packaging, high recycling rates, and reusable materials should be presented to business analysts as examples of efficient manufacturing and sound business practices. Benefits to the environment are a perk.
- Analyzing one's carbon footprint and taking proactive steps to reduce carbon emissions across the board from employee trips to raw material use to finished product packaging demonstrates to potential investors that the company is well prepared to adjust to a carbon-regulated future.
The era of 'broad-brush green' is over.
