Then & Now >> Green Credentials Sought

Skeptics have coined terms such as "greenwashing" to refer to their perception of how corporations seek to appear to be concerned about the environment without taking any genuine action.

Recycling advocates can make fairly clear assessments in the case of some manufacturers and retailers as to whether they use recycled content in their products and/or set up recycling processes at their plants and offices.

Subsequently, the track records of corporations and their recycling-related decisions are found to be as widely varied as the decisions made within individual households. Some unapologetically recycle only when it makes financial sense, others show occasional bursts of activity when consumer trends seem to be skewing green, and others have adopted "zero waste" initiatives as both environmentally and financially sustainable.

While many "Then & Now" columns have looked at differences over the years, March 1991 Recycling Today coverage of the Green Marketing Summit of 1991 shows several similarities to that event and what has evolved with the annual Greenbuild Expo.

The Green Marketing Summit, which was co-sponsored by Advertising Age and Good Housekeeping magazines, attracted more attendees than expected to its Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza venue in Manhattan.

Presenters ranging from Bob Garfield of the Advertising Age staff to Bob Viney, a marketing manager with Proctor & Gamble, to Denis Hayes, then CEO of Green Seal, a nonprofit that develops environmental certification standards for consumer products, who offered advice and ideas on how companies can properly tap into the pro-environmentalist sentiments of American household consumers.

Survey results offered by a speaker from ad agency
Ogilvy & Mather noted that consumers most wanted corporations to pollute less and to offer products and packaging that did not contribute to pollution problems.