Marketing Sustainability —Tom Polischuk

Sustainability could be the topic of the decade, and hopefully, for years to come. There’s no doubt that it is a hot topic in the news today, and there’s a lot riding on the eventual outcome of long-term, worldwide sustainability efforts.

One of the problems with sustainability is that it’s an extremely complex technical issue. As an example, both National Geographic in its October 2007 issue and Time in its April 7, 2008 issue, did thorough reviews of the environmental equations relating to biofuel production and use. It was clear from both of these reviews that the net environmental impact from biofuels does not do much on the sustainability front, despite the good intentions to use a renewable resource. Beyond trying to understand the technical complexities, hot topics always result in a flurry of marketing activity, and sustainability is driving its fair share. The difficulty now becomes separating the hype, or what might be called greenwashing, from the efforts that have real merit relative to sustainability.

According to Wikipedia, the term “greenwashing” was coined in 1986 by environmentalist Jay Westerveld. At the time, he questioned the initiatives within the hotel industry to promote the reuse of bath towels to help save the environment. The fact that in the majority of cases these companies did very little or nothing in other areas of waste recycling led him to believe that the real objective of towel reuse was profit enhancement. Today, the term greenwashing calls into question not only the motivation behind sustainability claims, but even the degree of real environmental impact. Just like that well-known Wendy’s commercial showing a huge hamburger bun, the question becomes, “Where’s the beef?”

In this issue, the article beginning on p. 26 discusses the importance of sales and marketing to a package-printing business—it is a critical component of business success. Relative to the marketing of sustainability initiatives, there was an admirable tone to the overall view from the executives with whom I spoke.

Leslie Gurland, president of Logotech, Inc., acknowledged that sustainability could and should be used to enhance a company’s sales and marketing efforts. “But, if you approach sustainability as a sales and marketing tool only, you will fail,” she adds. “When I became president of Logotech, I realized how deep of an issue this is. . .Sustainability has to be something you believe in, something that reaches all parts of your business, not just something you market.”

Alan Isaacson, president of ABI adds, “Sustainability is a major consideration for package printers. However, you have to be careful not to ‘greenwash.’ Look closely at your claims and do due diligence.”

We welcome your comments regarding any part of packagePRINTING. They can be addressed to Editor, packagePRINTING, 1500 Spring Garden St., 12th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19130, or tpolischuk@napco.com.