BUS 670 Week 6 Discussion 1 & 2 Responses Needed

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Discussion 1 Claims to Environmental Friendliness

 After reading  The Seven Sins (Links to an external site.) , discuss the tension between business’s interests in maximizing profits and the public’s interest in receiving complete, truthful, and non-misleading information about products that they purchase. From a business perspective, what are the dangers of greenwashing? If you were a marketing executive, would you have a policy against greenwashing? Why or why not?

Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts in a substantive manner.

Agree or disagree with your classmate’s position concerning having a policy against greenwashing. Defend your position by using information from the week’s readings or the readings related to governmental regulation.

REPLY TO Shannon Anderson POST

From a business perspective, what are the dangers of greenwashing? If you were a marketing executive, would you have a policy against greenwashing? Why or why not?

In today’s day and age, people are very concerned with taking care of the environment and living a more environmentally conscious lifestyle.  Most states require their residents to break up their recycling into paper, plastic and aluminum and residents in my neighborhood pride themselves on being environmentally conscious.  For marketing executives, this opens a whole world of opportunities as they can focus on leveraging consumer’s concern for the environment into their marketing campaigns when trying to sell a product or service. 

According to the article The Seven Sins (n.d.), greenwashing is when an organization presents false information about their claims of being a green or economically-friendly.  Using this tactic can mislead consumers and sway them into purchasing products that are marketed as economically-friendly.  Organizations who use greenwashing try to separate themselves from their competition by marketing and appealing to consumers who are environmentally conscious. When these organizations use greenwashing to sell products or services that are supposedly not bad for the environment, they are deceiving their customers by making them believe that the products they are buying are good for the environment.  This type of misleading can limit competition in the marketplace, cause losses to companies who are really selling eco-friendly products or services and can create doubt and mistrust for consumers when purchasing eco-friendly products.    

As a marketing executive, I would ensure that there was a policy put in place to prevent greenwashing so that the company, employees, products, consumers, and the environment were protected.  The only way to build a loyal and trusting brand is to be transparent and honest about the products the company sells.  

References

The Sins of Greenwashing. (n.d.). The seven sins. Retrieved from http://sinsofgreenwashing.com/findings/the-seven-sins/index.html

REPLY TO Vincent Marks POST

With regards to business’s interests in maximizing profits and the public’s interesting receiving complete, truthful, and non-misleading information about products they purchase, there exists the potential for a considerable amount of tension. Many businesses are founded on principles of environmentally conscious and friendly operating philosophies and others are founded on principles of honesty and transparency. While these are great ideals that more businesses should follow, frequently, these companies experience higher operating costs as a result. Generally, managers have the duty of minimizing risks as well as costs for the company, while driving revenue generation. Frequently, this requires strategies formulated to position products and services in the marketplace that make the respective product or service look better than the competitors. As a result, many companies have engaged in “greenwashing” which is a practice of generally misleading customers to believe product or service is “greener” or more environmentally friendly than it actually is.

Many consumers are environmentally conscious with their purchase decisions, and as a result may look specifically for suppliers or retailers with similar values. If a company is found to be engaged in a practice of greenwashing, they may be accused of false advertising, bait-and-switching, or, depending on the circumstances, possibly even fraud. Misrepresenting the truth to consumers can have the effect of tarnishing the reputation of the company, and diminishing sales and revenue, as well as potentially exposing the company to liability.

Int the event that I were a marketing executive, I would not implement a policy specifically against greenwashing, but instead a policy of transparency and making every possible effort not to mislead customers or the general public. While green initiatives are important, and would insist on many, technology is not yet at a point where it may be plausible to call many types of businesses truly green. Even internet based technology companies cannot be truly green, and could be guilty of greenwashing. While they may not consume any paper, and even if they utilize renewable energy for power, the computers and servers they utilize contain considerable amounts of minerals and rare earth metals that had to be mined from the ground and refined. So instead of being conscious not to greenwash, I would be conscious to not create excessive waste, and to be transparent to customers and business partners.

Required Resources

Article

The Sins of Greenwashing. (n.d.). The seven sins (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from http://sinsofgreenwashing.com/findings/the-seven-sins/index.html

Websites

Environmental Regulations | SBA.gov (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). The U.S. Small Business Administration | SBA.gov. Retrieved from http://www.sba.gov/content/environmental-regulations 

Laws & Regulations (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). U.S. EPA. Retrieved October 19, 2012, from www.epa.gov/lawsregs