Earlier this year we undertook a research project looking at the sustainable business practices of 400 small and medium enterprises (SME’s). We found that 95 per cent of SME’s undertake at least one of seven environment measures with at least half offering staff at least one option for working flexibly.

93 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses undertake at least one charitable activity.

One of the motivations for adopting sustainable practises is to assist with marketing and to appeal to those 32 per cent of consumers and 25 per cent of businesses that are influenced in their purchase decisions by the sustainability credentials of their suppliers. However, as sustainable businesses we need to be mindful of “green washing” – or the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

A must read for any marketer is a report from TerraChoice Environmental Marketing in the US.

They have looked at the seven sins of green washing and say,

• Avoid the Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off.
• Avoid the Sin of No Proof.
• Avoid the Sin of Vagueness.
• Avoid the Sin of Worshiping False Labels.
• Avoid the Sin of Irrelevance.
• Avoid the Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils.
• Avoid the Sin of Fibbing.

Read the summary report.

The sins seem obvious but 98 per cent of the “green” products surveyed were found to be committing at least one of the sins.

As marketers we need to make sure that our claims are creditable and authentic or the market will rightly continue to become more cynical of the environmental and social sustainability claims being made.