Marketers take note – the 2nd annual Green Marketing Conference is approaching. With all eyes on the changing economic environment, this is an event to mark in your calendar.

On Oct. 22 and 23 at The Old Mill Inn in Toronto, smart companies with leading marketers will be learning and sharing ways to build sales and brand equity through the strategic marketing of sustainable practices and greener products.

Our very own Scott McDougall, President and CEO of TerraChoice Environmental Marketing will be leading the discussions as Chairperson of this year’s event, which includes presentations from companies such as Toyota Canada Inc. and Unilever Canada.

Scott will also be asking the question, “Can Science be Sexy?” during his presentation on balancing the rigour and resonance in environmental marketing. He will look at some of TerraChoice’s clients including Attitude, Sunoco, OxiBrite, Nature Clean and others, to explore how some companies are navigating the pitfalls of false claims and are achieving great marketing successes by making green claims that are scientifically defensible.

Visit www.opendialogueinc.com for more information and to register for the conference.

* TerraChoice clients and friends - take advantage of a discounted rate by quoting “GM-TC” at the time of registration and receive $300 off the regular conference fee.

Check this out… Prepress and printing services provider Colour Innovations out of Toronto recently launched a new section on their website: Environmental Responsibility. It is amazing!

Complete with an Eco Tool section featuring calculators for print buyers to measure their carbon/ecological footprint and replete with eco-print lingo, this site is full of resources to help inform users and hopefully help them to make more environmentally preferable choices.

One tool visitors to this site should make sure to explore is the section “10 important questions to ask print suppliers.” From printers’ environmental certifications to their environmental and health policies, there are many factors that contribute to greener and more sustainable printing and Colour Innovations wants consumers to get the facts before choosing their printer.

Colour Innovations also received the Most Environmentally Progressive Printer in Canada (50 to 100 employees) award in 2007, was the first printer in Ontario to be EcoLogo-certified in 1997, and is certified by the four leading responsible forestry organizations – Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Rainforest Alliance (RA), Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).

When we asked Colour Innovations President Matthew Alexander what made him decide to green his company’s site, he replied, “We haven’t just greened our website, we’ve greened our entire company. More than ten years ago we decided that we had to be responsible corporate citizens and do what we could to reduce our environmental footprint so we became the first printer in Ontario to be EcoLogo-certified. Today we’re an environmental leader in the printing industry and we are attracting a growing number of customers who share our philosophy and want their company’s print products to be as green as possible.”

We’re sold!

www.colourinnovations.com

The blog is on the road with Scot Case, Vice President of TerraChoice Environmental Marketing. Read what he has to say about an educational conference he recently spoke at…

Greetings!

When I spoke about green purchasing at a National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) conference ten years ago, there were six people in the room and three of them were speakers.

At this year’s event, the entire conference was green. The NIGP Annual Forum and Products Exposition that took place from July 26 to 30, 2008, demonstrates a real shift toward sustainability. It had numerous green purchasing sessions and an entire “Green Alley” on the trade show floor devoted to green products and services. NIGP is also to be commended for its efforts in “greening” the conference. From reducing large binders full of paper to a CD and using compostable cups for water instead of bottles, this conference made a difference by lessening its impact on the environment.

Also of note at this event was the launch of the Green Knowledge Community.

“Created as a benefit for members, the Green Knowledge Community provides easy access to resources and tools to help public purchasers make informed decisions about green policies and products,” says Belinda Reutter, Member Services Director at NIGP. “This resource is primarily for educational purposes and brings together experts to share information about environmentally preferable products and social and economic responsibility in public procurement.”

To learn more about NIGP’s Green Knowledge Community, click here.

- Scot Case

Greenbiz.com posted an article recently about a “robust” growth in green investing in 2007, caused by a rise in overall participation in green initiatives.

The 2008 World Wealth Report, released by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, looked at the drivers and inhibitors of wealth generation and how they influence individuals with at least $1 million in financial assets.

Among the findings, investors are supporting innovative research and development initiatives in the areas of alternative fuels and renewable energy in greater numbers. For example, total investment in the clean technology sector increased to $117 billion U.S. in 2007, up 41 per cent from 2005.

The report concludes that the unilateral pursuit of economic progress, with sustainable development as an underlying commitment, will be driven by more consciously aligning investment choices with values such as concern for the environment.

Visit Greenbiz.com for more on this story and to read the full report.

EcoLogo has a category certifying renewable electricity investment. To receive EcoLogo certification, renewable electricity investment funds must be unincorporated, open-ended trusts that invest exclusively in renewable electricity generation facilities and have a portfolio where, on an annual average basis, 60 percent of renewable energy generation facilities and 50 percent of the total name plate capacity are certified under the Ecologo criteria for “Renewable Low-impact Electricity.” Click here to review the full criteria.

TerraChoice Environmental Marketing recently released its EcoMarkets 2008 Summary Report to the public and the results have to be shared. Here is a sneak-peek at some of the findings:

· Over $78 billion of purchasing power is represented in this study and the majority of survey respondents control at least half of their organization’s total procurement budget.

· Sixty-eight percent (68%) of North American organizations increased their green purchasing in the past 12 months and 91% of purchasers believe they will become more active green purchasers over the next two years.

· An overwhelming majority of survey respondents (72%) believe eco-labels contribute to better purchasing decisions.

· Purchasers identified the eco-labels they rely on most frequently to help make purchasing decisions. Results show that Energy Star (60%) and EcoLogo (27%) are the most frequently-used eco-labels.

The purpose of the EcoMarkets 2008 Summary Report is to inform our clients, partners and public audiences about the attitudes and practices of North American buyers towards environmentally preferable purchasing. The report is a public summary of research conducted in 2007 and 2008 in partnership with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation and with the Responsible Purchasing Network – a project of the Center for a New American Dream.

To get a free copy of the EcoMarkets 2008 Summary Report, email Melissa Peneycad at ecomarkets@terrachoice.com.

Part of being an effective environmental marketing agency is conducting ongoing, meaningful, primary research. Once a year TerraChoice surveys a wide sample of procurement professionals for an EcoMarkets report to determine the state of green purchasing and analyze year-over-year trends. The full EcoMarkets 2008 report is due out in June, but a few of the conclusions are available now. Here’s some of what TerraChoice found out in 2008:

• 31% of respondents indicated that at least 40% of spending is ‘green’ influenced
• 25% of organizations surveyed have formal green purchasing policies - up from 22% in 2007
• 72% of purchasers surveyed feel that ecolabels help purchasing decisions
• The single biggest factor that respondents said would facilitate more green purchasing is more training and education on how to buy eco-friendly products and services

This year’s EcoMarkets study surveyed 336 procurement professionals, with roughly half located in the US and half located in Canada. Stay tuned for the full report, which will appear on the Responsible Purchasing site. In the meantime, TerraChoice and the Responsible Purchasing Network hosted a webcast on May 28th with more of the study results discussed. A webcast video is available.

If you’re a procurement professional interested in participating in future studies, please contact the TerraChoice EcoLogo Procurement Think Tank at thinktank@ecologo.org.

OfficeMax had some really cool news out last week. The green-savvy retailer has partnered with the award-winning, green start-up company TerraCycle. OfficeMax is launching the partnership with seven TerraCycle products including a line of EcoLogo-certified, TerraCycle Natural Cleaners. Besides being plant-based, non-toxic and biodegradable, these cleaners are packaged directly in used soda bottles! Talk about innovative recycling.

TerraCycle has a storied if still-short history in bringing eco-friendly products to market. The company, founded by 25-year-old Tom Szaky started out with worm poop plant food, making it big with distribution through WalMart and The Home Depot in 2005.

Meanwhile OfficeMax is one of several retailers on a quest to become one of the greenest big-box stores around. And as more and more retailers fight for top green honors, certifications from accredited ecolabelers like EcoLogo grow increasingly important for retail suppliers. TerraCycle certainly makes for tough supplier competition.

There are a lot of ways to green a business, and a recent study by Brockmann and Co. (via Green Daily) gives some new incentives for putting greener practices in place at work – namely happier customers, happier employees and more money. The study found that, compared to their non-green counterparts, eco-companies had:

• 3x customer satisfaction
• 4.7x employee satisfaction
• 1.7x more revenue per employee

I’m not sure how Brockmann and Co. made such specific measurements, but certainly in the revenue category there are lots of ways to account for the income increase, including greater efficiency and greater competitiveness in a market that increasingly demands green products and services.

There is something immensely gratifying about writing about a product one day, and then seeing it in “real life” just a few days later. As I wait for my delayed flight in a New Hampshire airport, the one thing to put a smile on my face (aside from the free snacks) is the sight of an Xpressnap dispenser system in the nearby bagel shop. Wonder what controlled dispensing looks like? Click the thumbnails below for a close-up view. These EcoLogo-certified products make it easier for customers to take just the napkin(s) they need, saving on waste and business supply costs.

Yes, the cashier did look at me funny when I whipped out a camera to take shots of his napkin dispenser.

I started buying organic milk recently, and while I love that I’m lessening my environmental impact, I’m not wild about the higher price. The fact is that buying green is not always the cheapest option, at least in the short term. However, there are different ways to look at pricing. What’s the value of the product? What’s the life cycle cost? What are the long-term implications of the cost of a product? Most of these considerations won’t help with my milk buying, but they do help with other kinds of purchasing.

In talking with Scot Case (long-time environmental professional and TerraChoice VP) a while back, he pointed out that a lot of organizations use different kinds of pricing calculators to facilitate the procurement process. For example, if you measure the life cycle cost of a range of products, you may find that the cheapest one in the short term is the most expensive over the lifetime of that product. Think about compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). They cost more outright, but they last longer and use less electricity, making them cheaper overall.

Less common than life cycle calculators are value pricing calculators. These calculators take into account different product factors like price, performance and environmental impact. Products get points for each category, and the total scores are compared for the product with the best value.

For a real-life example of pricing analysis I talked to the folks over at SCA Tissue about how they sell their EcoLogo-certified paper products to their business customers. I was told that one of SCA’s popular products is something called the Xpressnap system. It’s a controlled-consumption dispenser that limits consumer napkin usage. Less waste = good for the environment. Less material needed = good for the business bottom line. In a life cycle cost review, Xpressnap is less expensive overall than other competitive products. It’s a good selling point, and one that SCA has used very successfully with big-business customers.