Businesses Green Up:

Environmental concerns affect consumer purchases; shape product design and marketing strategies

By Florence Conner

When Chris B. was debating the purchase of a new car, protecting the environment was not one of his top priorities. The Chattanooga businessman, who makes frequent trips to Atlanta scouting merchandise for his retail store chose a Saturn because of its price, reliability and fuel efficiency.

"I was also impressed with Saturn's reputation, which I knew included a strong environmental concern," Chris says, but that didn't influence my purchase."

When General Motors launched its "new kind of company" in the early 1990s, the corporation focused on its environmental sensitivity, basing much of its advertising around the billion-dollar Spring Hill plant, which featured the latest in pollution control and environmental technologies. This year, GM chose Saturn to market its new EVI electric vehicle because the target market so closely resembles the profile of the Saturn customer --- young, hip and with definite green buying tendencies.

Danka, a copier distributor, has also spent millions of dollars promoting itself as an environmentally friendly company. Commuters in Nashville zip past large billboards that feature a blue whale with the tagline "Some things can't be duplicated." Danka'a small logo is almost lost in the corner.

When he calls on potential clients, however, Scott McDonald won't mention that the Minolta copier he's pitching recently won a top international award for environmental design and operation. "They want to know its price and service record," says the local representative for Danka products. "Period."

Advertising goes green

As Kermit the Frog often quips, it's not easy being green. But if consumers' decisions aren't based on the environmental aspects of the products they buy, why is green advertising now surpassing the billion dollar mark? For Saturn, marketing the environmental angle is another way to gain competitive advantage, says Bill Miller, Saturn's manager of environmental affairs at the Spring Hill plant.

"Most cars are built far better than they were three years ago," he says. "We use the environment as a way to distinguish ourselves."

Miller doesn't believe that environment is the final deciding factor when it comes to the purchase of a car of other large-ticket item. But a reputation for environmental responsibility helps create an image, a status symbol that helps sell products, he says.

Smaller products, bigger rewards

When it comes to smaller consumer items, advertising a product's environmental features does make a difference, says Robert Rehak, author of Greener Marketing: Charting a Responsible Course. The book has served as the manual on selling the environment since it was published in 1993.

Indeed, Rehak writes, the environment is a "powerful tiebreaker" when it comes to consumer choice. When faced with two products of similar quality and price, the consumer will choose the perceived "green" product. "Anyone who considers the environment a soft issue should realize it drives more and more hard purchases every day," he says. "Advertising that communicates a company's environmental performance can win sales and enhance brand loyalty."

Still, in Chattanooga, organic stores spring up and wilt as frequently as the seasons. It's a fickle business catering to consumers who want to save the world, but not at the expense of soft, white toilet paper, plastic jugs and hamburgers.

"When we first opened this shop in 1990, we thought there'd be a bigger demand for products that were kind to the environment," says Suzanne Sims, co-owner of Only One Earth, a small grocery store located within a few steps of the recycled Walnut Street Bridge. "We quickly found out Chattanoogans weren't ready; many are still not, but it's getting better."

Another company that has built its marketing strategy around the environment is The Body Shop, which operates 1,400 stores worldwide selling personal care products. Customers that patronize the Body Shop in Nashville's Hickory Hollow Mall are well aware of CEO Anita Roddick's founding philosophy of treading lightly on the earth, says manager Karin Frontczak. "They know, for instance, that our body butter line supports free trade and small businesses and that we advocate no animal testing on any of our products," she says. "Our customers are strong supporters of these actions and that's one reason they shop here."

Customer beware

But it's been a tough road littered with potholes and the debris of false claims and out-and-out lies. When environmental marketing was in its infancy in the late 1980s, retailers could make whatever claim they saw fit about the "greenness" of their products. Such disrespect for the customer ultimately caused distrust and cynicism among consumers. To curb these sometimes wild claims and to protect the reputations of legitimate businesses, the Federal Trade Commission in 1992 created environmental marketing guidelines that required companies to back up any claims they made with "competent and reliable" truth. The guidelines also gave firm definition to such terms as "biodegradable," "recyclable," "recycled content" and "ozone friendly."

Sometimes companies are pushed into environmental marketing rather than actively joining the ranks. Such was the case with the carpet industry, which was forced to deal with bad press several years ago when a study claimed carpet emissions were toxic. In refuting the claims, the Carpet and Rug Institute had to take a crash course in Environment 101, says Kathryn Wise, public relations director for the non-profit organization in Dalton, Ga.

"It was a Catch 22 situation," Wise says. "We didn't want to have to be on the defensive, but we're glad we were because we are now very knowledgeable about the composition of our products and their possible impact on the environment."

The carpet industry parlayed its bad fortune into positive public relations --- and possibly big bucks. As a result of the bad publicity, the industry began a voluntary program to test and allow identifying labels on truly low-emitting carpet, carpet cushions and adhesives and started looking for ways to "close the loop" --- to use and reuse resources and find new uses for waste products.

Next year, the institute will begin a four-year, $100 million campaign promoting carpet as the floor covering of choice. "The environment will certainly be part of the marketing strategy," Wise says. "Designers and architects are actively incorporating sustainable development into their designs and that includes floor covering."

From green to greed?

But why are the same environmentalists who demanded that companies become more green now denouncing green advertising? Some believe many companies are just covering the same damaging practices with a thick coat of "greenwash."

Others worry some corporations are using image advertising to pursue self-centered political and social agendas. Writing in the summer 1996 issue of The Amicus Journal, journalist David Helvarg charges that "corporate public relations campaigns have served to deflect attention from deeper environmental problems --- or to thwart environmental initiatives altogether."

Some activists also believe companies are scoring "greenie" points for sound business practices that just happen to benefit the environment. Saturn, for one, makes no excuses.

"We do it to save money," Miller says of its environmental control policies. "We've never had an environmental project that hasn't paid for itself."

Green and bear it

Companies can't expect to become environmentally sensitive without regard to money or shareholder reserves. What's true for the environment also holds true for business --- you have to put back more than you take. And greening a company can take a terrible toll if not managed effectively. But stewardship can be balanced with profitability, and an environmentally sound company does have the right to toot its own horn.

"I love driving by that billboard," McDonald says of the Danka ad. "I work for a sometimes wasteful industry, and it makes me proud to work with a company that's willing to do something about it."

Flo Conner is a freelance writer who has written for The Boston Globe, The Chattanooga Times, Successful Meeting, Envirolink and other consumer and business publications.