Greengaged

On Friday evening, the Greengaged week closed with a vibrant debate on Greenwashing. Chaired by Lucy Siegle, The Observer, panelists were John Grant (author of The Green Marketing Manifesto, co-founder of St Luke’s and London United), Chris Sherwin (Forum for the Future), Richard George (Plane Stupid), Ed Gillespie (Futerra), Stewart Rassier (Saatchi & Saatchi S) and Sophie Thomas (thomas.matthews).

The debate - “Should we believe the hype? Green Marketing, spin and substance”- asked the panelists to explore how, in the climate of economic down turn, we can create behavioural change in consumers who are bombarded by advertising and bored of greenwash? The delegates each stood to offer a 7 minute discussion with examples of greenwash.

Chris Sherwin began by praising the work of AQUO and Windex. He compared the work of Unilever and P&G and explained how, in 2007, P&G set the corporate target to “generate $20 billion in cumulative sales of green brands.”

Richard George critically noted BP’s campaign targetneutral.com which pictures an inappropriate image of a middle aged man driving a sports car, and EDF’s advert “future energy”, which depicts an image of Easter Island, which George explained “killed itself through deforestation”.

Sophie Thomas showed Anya Hindmarsh’s “I am not a plastic bag” and explained that she remains ‘on the fence’ as to whether it is greenwash. Ok, the bag is not green, but it did help to bring an awareness of sustainability in to the public realm. Sophie continued to present Marie Claire’s “Eco Chic Goes Glam” edition, printed on non-recycled paper and using non-recyclable glue. For her final example Sophie showed us Vanity Fair’s “Green Issue”, which features Madonna draped around a globe that was created with everything but green credentials and even notes how the star flew in for the photoshoot.

Ed Gillespie showcased Futerra’s “Greenwash Guide” and discussed how people are becoming ever more sceptical with advertising of more and more stuff. He discussed the confused and idiotic messages of advertisers, such as the highly criticised Shell advert “Don’t throw anything away, there is no away” which portrays the outline of an oil refinery with flowers sprouting from its chimneys. He closed his speech with a Turkish airline ad with the entirely inappropriate tagline “We are changing the skies.”

John Grant started his discussion by explaining the origins of the term greenwash, when Intercontinental Hotels ran ads asking people to pick up their towels. He also discussed NPower’s “No.1 for Renewable Energy for UK Homes” ad, which at the time of its launch was theoretically correct. He continued by saying that, despite vastly negative media attention, McDonalds are the number one fast food retailer working against deforestation, and commented on their partnering with Innocent Smoothies.

Stewart Rassier took a more positive approach to his presentation to showcase examples of good practice. He showed us an advert for Sunchips depicting a bank of solar panels photographed on Earth Day. This became the most effective campaign for the brand, he explained. After showing us a 30 second video from Walmart Canada, Rassier explained that the Walmart example is certainly controversial as they are responsible for producing 20m tonnes of CO2 a year. He explained that consumers are confused and are looking for trust from such organisations and retailers.

Introducing Saatchi and Saatchi S’ “Think Green, Act Blue” campaign, Rassier explained that “Acting blue means moving beyond the greenwash and environment. Blue is a concept that sustainability is more than just the green agenda.” Why blue? “If you were to fly up to space and look down on the planet you would see a whole lot of blue, not green.” Showcasing Saatchi & Saatchi S’ work with Tide products, he explained that “If you can get consumers talking about sustainability, it is beyond greenwash. Sustainability is a journey not a destination.”

Recognising the scale of the problem, Rassier explained that we can make the biggest impact by working with the biggest players. Richard George questioned: why push big corporations such as Ben & Jerry’s, IKEA and McDonalds to expand, and capitalise on green?

Noting that the majority of the panel have or do work with big corporations, the discussion evolved to debate the designer’s ethical decision. “We have to be alive in our practices and be ‘ok’ with our own values. There is no ethics free zone in life”, explained John Grant.

The evening debate was both vibrant and lively and offered a real insight into the designer’s moral dilemma; do we make big companies good or good companies big? Should we say no to working for unethical clients or should we work with big corporations and help them to change? If we want rapid results, which bit of the world should we start with?

You can see photographs of the greenwash debate here.