It's a hot day in Tarzana, CA (where Chusid Associates has its headquarters) and I just saw a perfect symbol of greenwashing: a black Toyota with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning on.
No knock against Toyota or its Prius hybrid. I'm thinking of the driver. In this hot climate, what environmentally conscious person buys a heat-absorbing black Prius?
Someone for whom the purchase is not really a sustainable choice, just a sustainable statement.
When the weather heats up and she turns on the air conditioning, it becomes pretty obvious to anyone who thinks about it that her sustainability credibility is pretty thin. Her black Prius is pure greenwash.
Every day, Chusid Associates helps building products manufacturers tell their “green” stories in websites, press releases, magazine articles, sales sheets, data sheets, guide specifications, trade show displays, continuing education, social media and more. Green has become a major aspect of marketing. This means that the consumers – in our case, design professionals, contractors, and building owners – have gotten and continue to get more sophisticated.
In the current environment, a green story gets attention, but increasingly, greenwash gets seen through. Design professionals can smell it. LEED AP’s are cropping up in every architectural office. And they care. Owners and even contractors are starting to know, and they’re starting to care.
Green is not a fad, it’s not going away. As has been noted here before, it’s becoming standard. Products that can’t meet the standard will see their markets shrink.
If you have a green story, now is the time to tell it.
If you don’t know whether you’ve got a green story, now is the time to figure it out (we can help).
If your product has a green problem, now is the time to address it. There are many avenues to tackling a green problem, and there are experts available. Get some help, save your product, save the planet.