HY-brid team member Paul von Paumgartten reflects on what Earth Day means to him. For all of us at HY-brid it is an exciting time to be meeting with and helping businesses understand how to develop and communicate their sustainability platforms to their stakeholders. Happy Earth Day!

For those of us in the green space, Earth Day holds a special place in our minds. For me, it brings back memories of Earth Day 2000. Ten years ago, an exhausted but passionate team of green idealists were about to launch our baby, LEED NC. As everyone in the building industry now knows, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system has become the standard for the design and construction of new buildings across the world. We picked Earth Day 2000, partly because of it’s symbolism, but also because we were tired of debating the merits of various prerequisites and credits. It was time to take this baby for a spin and see if the marketplace would embrace it. Boy, what a ride it has been. Thousands of buildings have been registered and certified, but perhaps the best indicator of market acceptance has been the number of building industry professionals who have studied the rating system and taken a test to become accredited. We now have over 150,000 LEED Accredited Professionals (AP), which is an amazing accomplishment.

Some would say we are in the “Green Century” or the “Age of Energy and the Environment”.
Certainly the green building industry has had a major impact on the whole sustainability movement. Those who launched LEED on Earth Day 2000 are very proud of what has been accomplished as we reflect on Earth Day 2010.

As always, if you would like help understanding your organization’s sustainability efforts and how to talk about them, contact us, it’s why we’re here.

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

A couple of us from the HY-brid team attended the Tuesday February 9th GreenBiz.com State of Green Business Forum in Chicago. Though the weather was busy dumping more than a foot of snow on the area, it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the nearly 400 people in attendance.

The Forum included some great presentations, panel discussions and opportunities to meet some of the leading experts in sustainability from companies like IBM, Johnson Controls, UPS, EBay, and the list goes on. The obvious topic of interest for HY-brid was the session titled Green Marketing in the Age of Transparency, a panel presentation that was certainly was worth its weight. We heard from the panelists (in short) that consumers are interested in green products, they are willing to pay more and they take comfort in knowing they are buying from a company who is looking out for their health and the health of the environment.

So what exactly does that mean for you? HY-brid has always counseled clients that ‘going green,’ or engaging in sustainability efforts is good business. No matter if it is about the bottom line (a huge driver by the way,) or if it’s good for the environment or both, green is ultimately a great business decision. Think about it—who from your stakeholder set would disagree with a better bottom line? A better process? A better product? I think you get the picture.

The part of the equation that seems to be missing in all of this is how the green efforts get communicated to those same stakeholders. How an organization is telling its sustainability story (or even if it is telling its story) should be addressed as part of the overall communications strategy. HY-brid addresses this in our EcoMap process, something we create with our clients to help them deliver the right sustainability messages to each stakeholder audience in their own ‘speak,’ i.e. what makes sense to them. This approach allows an organization to ensure the internal and external audiences are getting the right messages about the products and services reseach shows they are most interested in.

For more information on the EcoMap process, the questions to ask before you take your message to market or, if you simply want to learn more about HY-brid, send us a message, we would like to hear from you.

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

Happy 2010 from all of us at HY-brid and Hoffman York. At the end of last year I started what I hope will become a longstanding series of interviews with ‘green’ thought leaders. My first conversation was with Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Inc., and we talked about his company’s approach to sustainability. What a great story!

My latest conversation is with Rob Watson. Described as “one of the best environmental minds in America,” Watson discusses his thoughts on sustainability in business, environmental responsibility and how having ‘fathered’ the one rating system that is internationally recognized is truly humbling. He also dives deep into why an organization needs to communicate its sustainability efforts. He tells me communication of these efforts is ‘vitally important’ and that telling the story is fundamental in generating impact across all industries.

As the “Father of LEED” and one of the leading experts in the international high performance green building movement, he has a two-decade track record of delivering cutting-edge green projects and programs worldwide. His new company, EcoTech International brings an unparalleled combination of green building expertise, innovation and key “cleantech” technology solutions to China, India and the United States. So, it goes without say, that business leaders should give a listen to what he has to say.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with Rob. As one of the world’s most influential environmental leaders, he offers a unique perspective on sustainability. Turns out he has the same outlook as HY-brid. I hope you enjoy listening to my conversation with him as much I did having it. Whether it’s your first steps, or if you have already begun down the path, I hope this Podcast inspires you to look more in-depth at what you are doing to address your sustainability efforts. As always, HY-brid would like to help you communicate those efforts. So give us call or send us an email, it’s why we’re here.

Subscribe to our Podcast via RSS or download the interview (m4a file) or listen below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

In my last post, I wrote about sustainability and how it is being weaved into the moral fiber of business today. I also touched on the fact that companies may be addressing sustainability now if, for no other reason than to say they have a stance on the environment.

People close enough to the environmental movement within business know that’s not a very strong reason on its own. So for those who want to know more about the benefits of addressing sustainability, I thought I would ask someone who has been pioneering this area to explain it for us. Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Inc., and author of the new book, “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist” shared his thoughts with me recently and now you too can learn from Ray why a business should invest in sustainability—NOW.

Our conversation touches on everything from the path to sustainability for Interface, Inc., to what inspired Ray’s taking of the company down a sustainability path. Finally, Ray talks about the benefits of sustainability, the fact any business can and should do it and the importance of communicating sustainability efforts to internal and external audiences.

It enjoyed the opportunity to talk with one of the world’s most influential environmental business leaders and get his perspective on sustainability. Turns out he has the same outlook as HY-brid. I hope you enjoy listening to my conversation with Ray as much I did having it. Whether it’s your first steps, or if you have already begun down the path, I hope this Podcast inspires you to look more in-depth at what you are doing to address your sustainability efforts. As always, HY-brid would like to help you communicate those efforts. So give us call or send us an email, it’s why we’re here.

For more information on Ray, I encourage you to go to www.rayanderson.com.

Subscribe to our Podcast via RSS or download the interview (m4a file for iTunes users) or download the interview (mp3 file for non-iTunes users)or listen below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

There is a fine line between doing what you say you will do and just saying what you will do. A perfect example is the push today for sustainable business practices. Companies are looking for a clear path to sustainability if, for no other reason than to say they have a stance on the environment. Though not a good reason on its own for a company to invest the time and money in sustainability practices, it is at least a start. More on that in a bit.

Before I talk about what is going on today, let’s step back fifteen or twenty years, when a business addressed its impact on the environment very differently, if at all. In very general terms, there was little pressure from the government to conduct sustainable business practices. Supply chain pressure was non-existent and for the most part, environmental practices were being led by only the largest of corporations. And even then, it wasn’t as much about the betterment of the environment as it was about the bottom line.

Fast forward to today, where government is playing an increasing role globally and supply chains and stakeholders are asking for updates on how a company is addressing sustainability. Though bottom line still plays a very integral role in sustainability, it’s not just the bottom line anymore. Today, having a stance on the environment is a good start but it is just that—a start. The next step is implementing those environmental promises into everyday practice. A business that builds itself with sustainability in mind every step of the way is a truly sustainable company.

Which leads me all the way back to my original statement about how doing what you say and saying what you do differ greatly. In the 80’s and 90’s a lot of companies were saying what they would do but doing very little of what they said. That sentiment is changing in today’s business practices. I would like to think it has as much (or more) to do with sustainability being embedded in the moral fiber of business owners, stakeholders and shareholders, than with outside groups forcing its hand. However we got to where we are today, the business world has changed greatly and it’s exciting to be a part of it all.

In my next blog I will address why companies are looking for a clear path to sustainability.  For now, if you want to find out how you can assess your sustainability practices, or if you simply want to learn more about HY-brid, send us a message, we would like to hear from you.

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

Cap and trade, energy efficiency, LEED buildings and renewable energy for business. All terms your audiences or customers are hearing and becoming very familiar with. With all the buzz around “green,” how you address your position on the environment is increasingly important. Your sustainability platform must project your environmental message across all audiences, internal and external. One segment taking increasing notice of green is the stakeholder- a somewhat loose term that envelops those from among others, the dealer/retailer audience to the supply chain, to those who own stock in a company.

A key reason for putting your sustainability platform in front of stakeholders is to keep them informed of how the company is addressing the rising number of environmental issues facing businesses of all types. With such a wide audience range, what makes sense from a sustainability perspective to one must also be pertinent to each of the others. That’s not to say that what you are saying to each gets communicated the same. What I do mean is that your platform remains the same but the terms and messages need to be communicated in a way that the audience sees the “what’s in it for me” has been met.

For instance, you may have three green certifications that make your product or service more sellable. To the dealer/retailer the certifications make sense in helping how they package that product and where in their store it is positioned. It also gives them an opportunity to promote their business as eco-friendly. That’s what’s in it for them.

To a stockholder, the fact you have three green certifications means something very different. An immediate question might be– are those labels going to help the price of the stock rise? The answer is maybe, but at the end of the day, what matters to this audience is a more global approach to your sustainability platform. The fact you have one may be enough to make them want to invest in you. If stock prices rise, that investor does better. That’s what’s in it for them.

Clearly there are many within your stakeholder audiences that are looking to work with and purchase stock in organizations with a solid environmental platform. This is another subset of your audience set and it too needs a message that makes sense. We will address this in a follow up post.

All of these examples are addressed in what HY-brid calls an EcoMap^sm. If you’ve been following me you know I have blogged about it before. It’s our way of helping clients understand how to put their environmental platform together—what audiences they have, what messages make sense to each of those audiences and how the platform ladders up to the overall corporate mission.

Have stakeholders asking what you are doing to address the environment? Have an environmental message and just don’t know how to put all the pieces together? The EcoMap is one way HY-brid can help. Questions on what your next steps are in navigating this issue? Let us know, it’s why we’re here.

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

After my last blog titled One Green Message, Many Green Voices, I received a great comment from Keith P. His comment is:

Good starting points to take under consideration for establishing the green message within the proper conversations. The only thing I might challenge is how you reply within the social settings of facebook, twitter, tumblr, linkedin, myspace and brighkite when you are not the company spokesperson. Do you empower your employees to talk openly about how they view your green initiatives? Do you allow your employees to express their opinions and how they are helping the company be green? And do you engage people that discuss your company’s attempts at being green?

If the company has answered yes to this then you are a social business going green, if not your a company with a veil of secrecy of your green efforts and that is where you need help encouraging the conversation, because most likely you have bigger cultural issues.

Now if yes how can the EcoMap process help give the employees the framework of communication without sounding like they are talking points? How does the EcoMap process address when your Vendors and Consumers talk about your company? (Personal opinion on the last one–if you are embracing your Vendors and Consumers in a social context the conversation is more constructive, collborative, and innovative, which helps everyone in process make a difference.)

Looking forward to answers to these questions and follow-up blog posts on the process.

Thanks for the feedback Keith. HY-brid works with our clients to establish their environmental (green) platform and it’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach. To that end, it is much more than the green conversation(s) we address in our EcoMap process. We take into consideration such things as type of business, audience set(s), and messages that are not only pertinent to, but resonate with those audiences. This holistic approach to defining green for clients ladders up to the overall business goals and objectives and thus acts as an extension of the corporate mission.

In your comment you reference many of the social outlets being used today. We certainly address these in our communications planning, but it is again very different by client. One important thing to keep in mind is that not all businesses are marching to the same beat on social. We’ve found social marketing and social media are very new to a number of businesses, no matter their size and standing within their industry, and in fact we have visited with some very large corporations whose marketing teams are blocked from social sites. While we certainly encourage our clients to be as transparent as possible on their environmental stance, if they do not have the social tools in their arsenal (yet) we can only counsel them to use the tools they do have to promote their efforts.

But in our overall approach to social for those clients who have access to it, we look at it as a means of brand building. It is an extension of what can be done through traditional ads and PR but puts the brand building experience in the hands of the customer. That’s where being truly transparent plays a key role in how a business uses social in its integrated communications planning. The EcoMap process determines the audiences and messages for each, and from the Map, the tactics that make the most sense for those messages to be disseminated are determined. Social is a key ingredient in that tactical mix.

To answer your question about how we help manage messages when the people in the social space are not the spokespersons, we do give message points with hopes those socially communicating stay to them, but we also counsel our clients to develop social guidelines for employees to adhere to.

Thanks again for the great comment Keith.

Do you have questions about your environmental platform? Have comments on our process or HY-brid’s vision of green messaging and marketing? Let us know– it’s why we’re here.

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

I recently read an article in the USA Today, “Green Claims by Marketers Go Unchecked.”  The article stems from a June 9, 2009 hearing before the Subcommittee on Commerce (Trade and Consumer Protection of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce) discussing the lack of legislation for companies regarding green claims.  Not surprisingly, since 2000, the FTC has taken legal action against only three companies for violating the guidelines.  The FTC was not set up to monitor green claims.  Since the 1980’s companies have been using environmental messages, but at no time has the Commission been responsible for monitoring so much at one time.

M. Scot Case, Vice President, TerraChoice Group, Inc. and Executive Director, of the EcoLogo Program put it best in his summation:

U.S. consumers want to buy greener products, but they are confused by competing environmental claims, unsure when a claim is accurate, and increasingly skeptical of all environmental claims.  As a result, the recent focus on green jobs, green manufacturing processes, and a green economy could collapse because of inadequate, competing, and even contradictory definitions of green.

The current system is not working:

• Greenwashing is rampant.

• FTC is not equipped to define green.

• The United States lacks a single, unifying environmental label to make “buying green” easy for U.S. consumers.

As a green communications professional, I find this to be an unfortunate reality that has led to a great deal of consumer confusion and skepticism.  As HY-brid, we work with our clients to develop and deliver green messages that are transparent. 

To find out more about greenwashing and eco-labels visit http://www.hy-bridgreen.com/why-go-green/.

• No Comments
• Post Your Own Comment

Yes, with a capital Y. A recent report from Johnson Controls in which more than 1,400 CEO’s, GM’s and VP’s were surveyed suggests a trend in energy efficiency that only a downturn in the economy could drive. The 2009 Energy Efficiency Indicator Report reveals a clear line between interest in green and action being taken.

The reason for the distinction? Capital, or lack thereof. Of those surveyed in 2009, 46 percent indicated they expected to make efficiency improvements financed with capital expenditures. Admittedly, this is a nice number—until you compare it to last year’s 56 percent who said they would make the improvements. In addition, the number one barrier (42 percent of respondents) to energy efficiency measures being implemented is limited capital availability. The 10 percent drop, coupled with the fact the report even had to introduce the barrier statistic (it wasn’t in 2008’s) shows just how much the economic situation has worked against the push toward environmental responsibility and stewardship.

There is no doubt that business leaders need to do what they can to keep people employed. The fact that green initiatives are taking a back seat is totally understandable, but they should not be cast aside for good. Corporate America seems to agree–according to the study, 45 percent of those surveyed still see building efficiency projects as their top carbon reduction strategy. So we know the want for getting these measures in place is there. The hope of course is that the economy turns around and the number of projects implemented increases with it.

So what side of this issue are you on? It’s a question you should be asking yourself and one that we would like to help you answer and eventually communicate to your audiences. Questions on what your next steps are in navigating this issue? Let us know, it’s why we’re here.

• 2 Comments
• Post Your Own Comment