Wider consequences of green marketing

I think there are three points at which green issues and communication come together.

One is green marketing, where you are promoting your wares on the basis they are a green choice.

Another is greening your company, where you are contributing to the story of how your organisation as a whole is operating appropriate green policies and actions.

The third is where you are encouraging other people (customers, employees, citizens) to alter behaviours which have a negative impact, such as littering or generating too much carbon.

The first and the third of these come under the microscope in an Ethical Corporation article. Peter Knight warns that encouragement to change small behaviours (be it buy recycled loo roll or switch off lights) isn't just ineffective, it's distracting, and has become a substitute for environmental activism:

...politicians love the idea of personal rather than political action because it removes opposition and acts as an opiate for the green masses.

The Ethical Corporation contributor is in the US. But it's a similar line of thinking to the recent WWF report crafted in the UK, Common Cause, which has just been made available in a user-friendly handbook form. The idea here is that crafting climate change appeals on the basis that they'll save money or enhance status is counter-productive. It may change one-off behaviours but the narrow pursuit of self-interest is less likely to lead people to work collaboratively together and agree to make changes at a community level. There's a lot more on this in the main Common Cause report, under section 1.4 selling hamburgers, selling behaviour change.