Question #2

Case 10.5 Green or Greenwashing? A small business (thirty-five employees) in the highly competitive greeting card business is faced with a challenging issue. The company makes artistic, handmade greeting cards that are sold to local retails stores, who then sell them to consumers. The customers base of the retail stores is composed mainly of tourists and other affluent buyers looking for something more unique than what a local supermarket or discount store typically carries. The company markets the card as environmentally friendly, usually with a note on the back indicating the cards are made from 100 percent recycled paper. The cards themselves also have a ruff-hewn quality to them that give a distinctive look and fingertip feel of being recycled and organic. Business has been on a downward trend the past few years. Both the recession and increased competition have cut into market share. The owners of the business (a husband and wife) were recently approached by a representative of an organization that sells renewable energy credits (RECs), RECs are purchased by business to offset the carbon emissions they produce. The credits purportedly go toward renewable energy (ie. plant trees and /or build wind turbines) and thus negate emission produced. The representative informs them that if they purchase enough of these credits, they can now additionally market their business with strong environmental claims along the lines of carbon neutral or 100% wind powered Knowing the environmental views of most of their distributors and customers, the owners believe adding these monikers to their cards and other marketing materials would give them a small competitive advantage. When they tell their employees that they intend to purchase these credits, one of their long-term staff members asks if the practice amounts to greenwashing I know lots of others businesses make these claims, she states but arent some of our customers going to picture wind turbines powering our production when in reality we are still on coal-generated electricity and havent done anything to reduce our immediate and actual carbon footprint? In fact, given our promising sales this year and the longest distances we are shipping some products in new markets we have opened up aboard, I think we will actually increase our emission by about 10 to 15 percent this year.

2. Would doing so without a simultaneous reduction in the companys environmental footprint be greenwashing?

Question #2 It is one thing to advertise financial support for green processes.

It is yet another thing to market the firm as green when it is knowingly leaving a heavy environmentally destructive footprint.

The student might also point out that once a user is on the grid it is not easy may in fact be impossible to go off grid and use more eco-friendly energy generation.