GREEN BUSINESS VIEWS

Posts Tagged ‘greenwashing’

The FTC recently took up the issue of Greenwashing, but deferred the question into the same category as other bad practices of business advertising.  While everyone understands that Greenwashing is a deceptive practice, it seems to be a part of marketing hype that is often very misleading.  Green certification infers to the public that a business is credibly Green operated except when Green scammers sell blind certifications over the Internet.

FTC does warn businesses and consumers to take a closer look at the Green boasts of any certification firm.  FTC has not yet provided the mechanism needed by consumers to identify the fakes from the genuinely Green companies.  If the boasts are patently and proven lies, the FTC may take action in such cases.

The rise of dozens of website Green certifications is particularly troubling.  Inventive programmers with little or no experience can design an attractive website that is intended to attract a gullible public that is often looking the easy way to Go Green.  This is why these website certification programs are called “Easy Green.”

Like many legal scams, the FTC and other watchdog agencies can only warn the public to be aware of the potential risks of working with these inventive websites.  The give-away for these scam programs is the obvious practice of “Pay-to-Play” approach.  This means the customer need only pay the fee to get the certification.  While there are other forms and online guides for added information, the fundamental issue is that the company need only pay the fee to get what is promised.  There is no true compliance process or verification that the company is actually living up to any standard.

Of course, that means that there must be a standard.  Across the dozens of websites, the standards vary widely.  One program places a premium on carbon footprint and carbon credits.  Another website offers a certification program for $99 but then sends an Eco Consultant to sell their Green products to the unsuspecting customer.  Yet another website is designed to gather the basic information of the company that is later sold to other companies for marketing purposes.

The Green Business League stands alone in the market as one program that will never Greenwash.  The standards of the Green Business League have a national standard built around a point system.  GBL requires all certifications to undergo an annual audit by a Certified Green Consultant, and has more than 300 Green consultants to provide the kind of guidance found nowhere else.

The Green Business League also sponsors The Sustainable Forum that seeks to train and install a Certified Green Officer in every business.  Perhaps this is why the Gerald R Ford Presidential Library chose to seek Green certification by GBL.  More and more companies seeking to develop their Green program turn to the Green Business League.

Let’s visit the bizzaar world of marketing where the concept of “Reality is What We make It” is a serious business.  In the show, “Wag the Dog” with Robert Dino and Dustin Hoffman, the story line was the incredible belief that perceptions could be manipulated to the point of mass deception and the corruption of national policy.  Out of thin air, a story could be manufactured and used for less-than-honest purposes.  While it is just another movie plot, it has foundations in reality.

The manipulation of Green has had similar less-than-honest promoters as well.  Some have set out to purposely paint their company Green while not caring for the truth.  One Pennsylvannia business owner reported, “I doubt really care about all the environmental stuff.  I just want to be Green because it is gaining popularity.”  

Some companies like the “Do It Yourself” approach and rennovate their website and advertising now to show that the company is now all bout Green.  Don’t ask them how they got there because it quickly turns into an embarassing converstion.

In the same genre of blatant Greenwashing are the dozens of website based certifications.  From an obscure office and a negligable staff of consisting of web programmers, these Green certifications appear online with glowing credentials, harvested lists of “customers,” and a very environmental-sounding message. 

Here’s the fact, if you can buy your Green certification off the Internet with the same ease as an iTune, it is a scam and it is a Greenwashing program.  Worse yet, these company include you in the scam.  When you post there nicely-designed logo on your company’s website or door, you are lying too.   There was no audited process, there was no independent review, there may not have been a shred of truth in those online questionnaires.  What there was was an online transaction where a $5 logo was bought for $500.  Such is the nature of these scams.  It is a carefully crafted series of lies that seems to actually make sense when we don’t have your ethics or commone sense engaged.

Greenwashing is fundamentally, lying about the truth of the Green value of what actually exists.  So, here’s a question.  If a customer asks one of these Internet Green certified csutmers asked, “How did you EARN your Green certification?”; will they asnwer honest and say “We bought it off the Internet, filled in a few forms that noone verified, and now we’re Green certified!”   …. or will they lie!

 The very presence of Green certifications about over the Internet is about on the same level of cyber-sex.  It isn’t real and it isn’t right.  Of course, we all know its out there and there are many that are happy for it.  But, can they really say that it is as good as the real thing?  There are cyber pets, cyber dating, cyber golf, and avatars that allow people to pretend to be what they are not.  Cyber Green is not reality and should not be passed off by businesses as jsut as good as the real thing.

The Green Business Leaguestands boldly against all forms of Greenwashing declaring that a GBL Green business certification is “Earned, not Bought.”  No business receives the Green Business League certification without going through a live audit and achieving sufficient points for Green Practices actually installed.   Should you find a business with a Cyber Green certification, refuse to do business with these Greenwashed programs.

Consider installing a Certified Sustainability Officer in your company to insure the best method for make your company environmentally-complaint, more sustainable, and more profitable.  It is easy to train a sustainability officer within the company’s staff who will apply appropriate measures to the Green program.  Remember, “What is not measured, cannot be Proved.”

It is probably time for some frank discussion about the quality of those Green certifications popping up nearly every week.  Some are free, some are cheap, and some are expensive.  The first question is why are free certification free, and cheap certifications cheap?  Are there people out their working for pennies or out of the goodness of their environmentally-green heart?  How can they pay for all the stuff we see on their website, and how do they keep their doors open?  Well, these free and really cheap programs are “funded” by some organization or grant.  This means that when the money dries up, so does your certification.  Of course, they don’t believe that will ever happen, but we all know the shelf-life of funded programs is about the length of a leased car.

How about those kinda-cheap website Green certifications?  They look real don’t they?  Yes, but they are not honest.  First of all, you have to figure which ones are real and which one are just really good at building an attractive website.  The design of the website really has nothing to do with their quality since they can be running out of their mother’s basement but look like they are the “world’s leader in Green certification.”   Websites are deceptive when the designers pretend that they are as good as the real thing.

While we are at it.  Let’s ask how much is a downloadable Green logo worth?  $5 maybe! Yet they will charge you $500-$995 to get the logo and their online forms and support.  They make it sound so wonderful.  They might even put up a mock counter of all the trees they are saving, or a green hose gas equivalent.   Many have posted up fake directories to trick the visitors into thinking that they are really doing well, but they are still just doing what comes natural to the scammers that haunt the Internet.

Then there are the real Green certifications that require real audits with real people doing real work!  Companies like the Green Business League, LEED, ISO, and Energy Star.  These programs were built in an honest fashion requiring honest verification.  Their certification logo is respected and will not one day embarrass their members.  But, they always cost more than the cheap ones!  Why is that?

Well, honest certification programs do not hide behind a website.  They have people who work this business every day, and they are professionals.  They didn’t start off a few months ago and declare themselves the best certification.  Like the Green Business League, they built a team of trained professionals who serve their community day after day, and year after year.

Paying $500 or more for a downloadable logo and downloadable forms to do your own self-assessment is like buying a gold ring that turns your finger green a few weeks later.   You paid way too much for this program because it was barely worth $5.00.  Nonetheless, that skilled website program convinced you that this was the “Real Deal” and you paid $500 for a $5 logo.  But, the deception doesn’t end their.  You are now brought into a larger scheme of public deception.

You took your $5 … sorry $500 logo and stuck ion your door and on your website to convince the world that your business was Green and some valid authority CERTIFIED that you were a Green business.  So, what are you going to say when your customer asks, “How did you get your Green certification?”  Will you tell the truth, and say “I bought it for $500 off the Internet, and no one really ever checked me out.”  Or, will you lie and say that you got it by an audit that was really only a self-assessment form that allows other to lie because it is never validated?

Green certifications bought over the Internet are a sophisticated way to lie to the public, and greenwashing your company in yet a new program of cheating the system.  And, what does that say about your company and the integrity of your business practices?  There is a reason why many of these cheap Green certifications are so cheap … it is because they are “Worth-Less!”

The Green Business League has taken a bold and open stand against greenwashing in all of its forms.  It proudly declares to all who seek GBL Green certification, that their Green business certification is “Earned, not Bought.”  No business can get the GBL Green business certification without going through a live audit with a Certified Green Consultant.  However, no GBL certification will ever be embarrassed to display this certification logo to a trusting public.  While other certifications are worth-less, the Green Business League certification is worth the investment.

READ HOW JOE’S TOXIC DUMP GOT GREEN CERTIFIED ….

It has just come out that the Climate Summit is defending against even more phony evidence about global warming.  Even those who agree with the concerns for global warming are getting tired of all the artificial and misleading information.  We now hear that the prediction about the melting away of the Himalayan glacial by 2035 was unreliable information.  Of course, it makes for great drama and photo ops when this was the crisis backdrop for the attendees of the summit.  Now, they are trying to handle the latest bombshell of false evidence.  Environmentalism is in danger of persistent exaggeration and a credibility gap going forward.

This penchant for environmental hype hurts the environmental cause since it has been roundly asserted that the “scientific community” has already laid the foundations for this urgent global meetings.  Time and time again, the information is misleading, incorrect, and purposely contrived to support the claims of global warming.

Of course, we cannot forget the leaked emails out of England that told the story of suppressed information contrary to global warming.  Fewer were told that the climate change models had the reference data tied to models that were not properly protected from manipulation.  Few people understand that the climate change data was anything more than recordation of the actual temperatures.  If scientists tweak the software, the results were more to their liking.  More lies tossed like gum balls to the public.

Like any good Nixon-style cover up of the facts, the conspiracy was worse than facing the truth.  When the emails leaked out, the whole climate change community went into overdrive trying to minimize the truth that was leaking out of their highly protected community.

But, why bother to lie or contrive information to turn a matter of concern into a voracious crisis?  Is it that those who succeed in driving a crisis mentality get more of what they want?  The sad story of Haiti perhaps illustrates my point.  Haiti has been a desperately poor nation for a century.  The world has helped Haiti through humanitarian aid, but never to the extent that it did after the horrible earthquakes that struck this island country.  Crisis raises the priority of the cause and pushes people to take emergency action.  Urgency doesn’t mean that the best solutions are installed.  Haiti will still be a poor nation after the relief efforts unless we think our way through the process of international assistance.

The message to those who make the claims for environmentalism and global warming is “Stop lying to the public even though you think the reason for the lies is noble.”  The truth is what we all want, and there are enough crisis issues around to consume our attention anyway.  With unemployment at true numbers of 17%, we have a crisis.  The national debt is a nightmare that is mostly ignored by a spend-crazed congress.  The flight of jobs from America caused by taxation and regulations is being ignored while taxes on the population are going up.

Good people were disturbed at the private jet-flying elitist who attend the Climate Summit ignored their carbon footprint, made no secret of the opulent luxury of the attendees, and yet had the audacity to lecture the rest of us on our abuses of the resources of the world.  Global warming is going to suffer the ignominious fate of Martha Coakley because people are tired of the lies and elitism of those in charge of the cause.

The truth is coming out, and global warming is obvious.  It is also obvious that far too many wrap themselves in an environmental flag to advance their own private and political agendas.  They enlarge their wealth and power at the expense of the private citizen because they have hijacked the environmental cause at our expense.  The next failure of these big, fat, Green liars will be the Cap and Trade bill.  Why?  Because people are totally fed up with the Barney Franks of the world who still believe that people will buy their bald-face lies and the sold-out news media will not call them on their favorite sport of deception.

The public voted against the lies of Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, and Frank were exposed when an unknown man in a pickup truck truth told the truth.  Shocking the world, the people turned a solid blue state with a Kennedy legacy over to the truth-telling Scott Brown.  Regardless of party implications, the fact was that the truth stood against an army of lies and won.  We need less of the present political grandstanding and a lot more real people who still believe that the truth will set them free.  The environment is not a politician football, and politics is not a reliable friend of the environment.

One would hope that what I am about to say is mostly fantasy, but I don’t think so.  On the heels of a variety of calls from people claiming to be environmentally concerned, I am finding that environmental issues rarely supersede convenience and cost.   One remarkable comment came when the person said, “I don’t mind being environmental as long as it doesn’t cost me anything.”  Frankly, I was too shocked to respond like I should have.  The best response was that irresponsibility is costing us all the time.  The price of doing nothing is rarely zero.  What is the price of not going to work?  What is the price of refusing to fill the gas tank when the needle is on empty?  What is the price of neglecting our children when they ultimately require an attorney to get them out of their latest jam?

So, it occurred to me that there is a “Green Pig” Syndrome (GPS) at work.  The Green Pig Syndrome is like greenwashing except that it means that we don’t want our environmental obligation to intrude into our lives.  You see, you can paint a pig green, but it is still a pig!   A pig will do absolutely nothing different than it has always done.  It will squeal and complain when things don’t work like he wants, and it will consume as much as he can in a day, hoping only for another day to do the same.

We love convenience, luxury, and excess.  Constant gratification isn’t such a bad way to go, wouldn’t you say?  If there were no consequences to how we lived life, one might suppose that we would all be happier.  Or, at least we think that would be best.  Like it or not, we live in a consequential world, and every day is an investment in making life better or worse.  The simple task of depositing your trash in the next trash bin or throwing it out of the window has compounding consequences.   We can survive the odd incident, but I have been in countries where trash lines the streets and festers in the alleys.

The Green Pig Syndrome is a values placement process.  Pigs, I am told, are relatively near-sighted but are considered the fourth most intelligent animal in the world.  They see only what is in front of them, and they are driven by their appetites.  Who wants the life of a pig, though?  In our example, they are not long thinkers.  So, they never worry about how the world will be tomorrow.  Life does not consist of what can be done today no matter what the real cost might be in the long term.  That would be a Green Pig’s attitude, however.

Let’s face it.  You can paint a pig green, but that does not change the way it thinks.  And, anyone can paint themselves as environmentally-concerned, but how many things are they willing to change?  The success of the environmental program is not just in building Green buildings or buying Green products.  Those embracing these solutions are merely “Green by Proxy.”   The real impact is felt when Green is made a part of the lifestyle.  It could be considered behavior modification, but it is the necessary modifications for our collective future.  We need not “Go Radical” in our transition to Green.  It is a learned behavior that allows for people to grow into a better environmental citizen.

The hard facts are that Green will cost everyone something, and it will certainly intrude on our convenience-oriented world.  We cannot make the necessary changes without changing the behavior of each and every person.  It will not be convenient, comfortable, or enjoyable.  It is, however, necessary for the world that we all hope to enjoy for a while.  Don’t be overly concerned.  This is not a call to monastic living, moving into a grass hut, or trading your car in for a bicycle.  It is the challenge that we all face in this hour in history.  It is our hour, and it is our challenge.  The problem is not as fierce as a war, or as urgently pressing as a hurricane.  Environmental problems are more like the rising tide without enough high ground to keep ourselves out of the encroaching waves.  Slow disasters still deserve our attention, even though we are not up to our necks in trouble yet.

The remedy for the Green Pig Syndrome is not an H1N1 shot.  We can be Green humans who have the intelligence to see the future and change what we are doing today.  There is a cost to Go Green, and there are simple ways to transition to Green Practices that are often mildly intrusive.  Some Green practices are even beneficial.  If you are ready to be both human and a humanitarian, it is time that we all decided to make the changes without concern for the cost or inconvenience.  The Green Business League assists businesses in their Green business certification through honest programs of audit and certification.  Those wishing assistance with Green Business Certification can request a free Green business assessment from a Certified Green Consultant.