Don't Let "Going Green" Make You Blue

You can’t read a magazine or read a newspaper today without seeing something about a company’s transformation into eco-friendliness. There are dozens of environmentally-themed television shows and scores of websites devoted to saving the planet. Helping stave off global warming is a great thing and becoming the catalyst for encouraging others to go green may help your bottom line as well. Obviously there can’t be a downside to going green, right? Well, unfortunately that isn’t always true.

Many companies complain that it costs too much for them to convert to a green approach to doing business. But shortly after beginning it, most figure out that the conversion will save money in the long run and is a smart move on many levels. But one move that isn’t so smart is crowing too loudly about your company’s wonderful ethical stance, especially if the self-promotion is blown out of proportion or flirts with misrepresentation.

Hard to believe, perhaps, but there are companies that choose to promote themselves as green even though they might be stretching the truth. No one has yet written "Going Green for Dummies," so there are no hard and fast rules about the appropriate level of "greenness" a company should aspire to. But common sense should prevail. For example, if your company uses a dozen different dangerous chemicals in its manufacturing process but uses recycled toilet paper in the employee lounge, it isn’t really fair to represent yourself as going green.

When a company says it’s going green and the truth comes out about their barely-there green practices, the resulting fallout could be worse than if they didn’t attempt to go green in the first place. Not only would the tailspin insult the intelligence of customers and the public, it would undermine the reputation of the company and create a mindset of distrust in consumers. Getting a little extra notoriety for going green isn’t worth it if the truth comes out and you alienate your target audience.

Especially nowadays, the general public—particularly the media—are a curious lot. So if your company makes grandiose claims about going green but then someone learns that you don’t properly recycle or dispose of electronic devices, manufacturing materials, garbage, or anything that might contribute to the downfall of the planet, then someone somewhere will find out and make it public. It could be a local recycling advocate, a well-known eco-journalist, or a competitor who wants to damage your reputation. News like that travels like wildfire, especially if print media, radio, television news, and the Internet get hold of the story. Credibility can vanish in an instant and be impossible to regain.

If a company make a customer happy, that customer might tell one or two friends. But if a company displeases or angers a customer, that customer will tell a dozen friends or maybe even a news reporter. So if good PR is important to your company, you should think twice before boasting about going green if you’ve really just gone a little green around the edges. Or you might find yourself red-faced when you have to own up to your false claims.