News from the Trenches:

Marketing Guidelines? What Guidelines?

By Wendy Jedlicka

The text on the new Deer Park packaging seems to comply with the FTC's guidelines for Environmental Marketing Claims. The prevailing spirit of FTC's guidelines is that environmental claims about the product or package must be explained thoroughly to the consumer. Deer Park explains and documents the claims even further at www.deerparkwater.com.

There is not a week that goes by where I don't get one of two questions: "Where can I get a list of eco-materials?" and "Are there some kind of environmental marketing guidelines for making eco claims?"

When companies ask me for what I refer to as the "happy list," I have to ask them if they understand systems thinking or if they have a training program in place to help the people using the list figure out what will actually BE eco for their applications. The answer is always: "No, we just want the list."

In theory, picking an eco-material is better than using a non-eco one. We have a very rich list right here at Package Design Magazine. But in many cases, if you don't know why it's eco, or how to apply its use correctly, the eco material can be far worse than the thing it's replacing. In addition to applying eco-materials properly, clients are looking to their designers to help them meet new more restrictive legislation, new initiatives from their own clients (the Wal-Mart sustainability scorecard, for example), and a whole host of problems—bigger than just picking recycled paper—that require a look at the whole system of the packaging and not just its substrate.

Environmental marketing guidelines

"Are there some kind of environmental marketing guidelines for making eco claims?" Sure there are. Have you tried googling Environmental Marketing Guidelines? I am shocked at how few people have not even gone that far on their own. In 1992, the FTC issued guidelines for the use of Environmental Marketing Claims; though in the U.S., adherence to these guidelines is voluntary. Judging by how many products TerraChoice Environmental Marketing uncovered in their 2007 report showing how many violated these gentleman's rules (nearly all of the over 1,000 products reviewed), googling Environmental Marketing Guidelines seems to be a very arduous task.

Last updated in 1998, the FTC is now taking public comments as part of the process to update the Guidelines. With consumers becoming ever more concerned about greenwashing, the FTC's process to overhaul its guidelines started by focusing on today's commonly used eco-marketing hot-button issues which have no definitions under the 1998 rules. They are examining words like "carbon offsets," "renewable energy," and "sustainable." Janice Podoll Frankle, a lawyer at the FTC's bureau of consumer protection, stated in a recent BusinessWeek article: "We want to make sure the guides reflect today's marketplace, consumer perceptions, and current science and technology."

One of the big arguments floating around is: "If the rules are voluntary, why bother?" The answer is simply, "getting away with" something because the laws haven't caught up with you yet has never worked for long, and it's always a gamble. Would the guys at GE who thought dumping their PCBs in the Hudson (quite legal at the time) feel so clever if they knew how much it was going to cost in both dollars and brand health to clean up that mess once the laws caught up (in inflated dollars) decades later?

Laws are good, but we need a shift in conscience. As attitudes change, and sustainability becomes part of everyday life, formal systems will fall into place to help assure those who make claims are held accountable for them. Around the world, environmental marketing claim guidelines are becoming law, with stiff penalties for the abusers.

In today's global economy, any company wanting to sell outside its home market needs to adhere to the most stringent of trading partners' laws and apply that to all markets, or run the risk of being exposed for "doing less" at home. This applies even if the laws at home haven't caught up to the rest of the world. Your brand's image and how it behaves is judged now in a global forum. Because of the Internet and the speed of information, every brand is a global brand, with every product increasingly coming under scrutiny for its global impact—even if it never leaves its home market.

The Sustainability Update is coordinated by Wendy Jedlicka, CPP – Jedlicka Design Ltd. (www.jedlicka.com), o2 Global Sustainable Design Network (www.o2.org and www.o2umw.org), Minneapolis College of Art and Design's ground breaking Sustainable Design Certificate Program (www.mcad.edu/sustainable).