Policy Recommendations: Lack of Availability

Policy Recommendations

In order to encourage companies to make tradeoffs between social, environmental, and economic concerns, steps must be taken to lower the barriers to consuming sustainable products: (1) high price, (2) lack of information, and (3) lack of availability, and (4) concern for capital so they may experience sales growth. By breaking down these barriers consumers may begin to see the real costs of the products they purchase, which may diminish their concern for capital, or their willingness to preference capital over sustainability concerns when they are in conflict.

(3) Availability

Sustainable Product Placement: Even if consumers have the information they need to buy sustainable products, they are relatively hard to find. An informal survey of 23 retailers in Chicago and in the San Francisco Bay area found that fewer than half sold sustainable products (other than organic foods and CFLs), and among the minority that did sell these products only about 10 percent stocked more than one brand option (McKinsey, 2008). If stores simply stocked more sustainable products (including products produced locally), consumers would suddenly have the opportunity to purchase these products more widely. This could be especially effective if consumers actually understood the social and environmental returns on their purchasing decisions, as I discussed in the last section. Stocking and supporting local products may also help the cause by emphasizing the personal relevance of the products.

Leveraging Sustainable Products: Marketers have been leveraging products to influence consumers for decades, and given that companies have taken to identifying many more of their products as “green” there is some evidence that this is also taking place in the realm of sustainable goods. (Drumwright, 1994; Davis, 1992; Mayer, et al, 1996). The idea simple: leverage media to showcase a product or service being used as part of everyday life in order to shape consumer brand perception and impact purchase behavior. For instance, in 2002 Busta Rhymes and (the artist formerly known as) Puff Daddy collaborated on an ode to a cognac brand, Courvoisier. After the release of Pass the Courvoisier Part II, the brand’s sales jumped 20 percent (Sauer, 2010).

While Busta and P.Diddy may or may not be the ideal spokespeople for sustainable products, the basic concept still stands -- put a product in the hands of a celebrity and consumers will interpret this as a de facto endorsement. It is important, however, that the products that are marketed in this way could actually be considered sustainable (rather than greenwashed). Obviously it should not be acceptable for any company to purposely greenwash their products, but it is relatively common today. Perhaps individual spokespeople should make more of a effort to evaluate the sustainability potential of the good before they agree to position it as sustainable. Likewise, consumers should be mindful of the information they are receiving may not be entirely truthful, given that it is being propagated by celebrities and for-profit entities

NBC’s Behavior Placement: Although specific advertisements may not always influence a person to buy a specific product, political scientist Shanto Iyengar argues that the media exercise ‘agenda control,’ which is to say that it has the potential to shape what you think about as well as what you consider important and true. For instance, the prominence of issues in the news media – fear of crime or concern about traffic congestion or worry about the condition of the economy – is correlated with the public’s perception that those issues are important (Dearing & Rogers, 1996; Iyengar & Kinder, 1987).

Along the lines of agenda control, NBC’s network executives have asked producers of almost every primetime and daytime show to incorporate a green storyline at least once a year since 2007. In just one week during April 2010 the detectives on "Law and Order" investigated a cash-for-clunkers scam, a nurse on "Mercy" organized a group bike ride, Al Gore made a guest appearance on "30 Rock," and "The Office" turned Dwight Schrute into a cape-wearing superhero obsessed with recycling. The tactic, according to General Electric (GE), owner of NBC, is called "behavior placement.” It is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows, and it helps sell advertisements to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially aware programming (Chozick, 2010).

Clearly GE wants people to be thinking positively about sustainability. Why? Well, it is worth nothing that in 2005 GE unveiled the $90 million “Ecomagination” PR and advertising campaign, which is designed to convince consumers that GE is helping to solve the world's biggest environmental challenges while driving profitable growth for GE and its shareholders.

A September 2007 analysis of “Ecomagination” noted that GE continued to sell coal-fired steam turbines and was delving deeper into oil-and-gas production. Meanwhile, its finance unit was seeking coal-related investments including power plants, which are a leading cause of carbon-dioxide emissions in the U.S. GE, however, is on track to sell $14 billion of its self-described environmentally friendly products this year, and projects the total will grow more than 10 percent annually through 2010. GE also says it reduced its own greenhouse-gas emissions by 4 percent between 2004 and 2006. Although the company does not count emissions from many power plants that are partially owned by the company, the Wall Street Journal described the discounted power plant emissions as "an unknown but unquestionably significant amount” (Kranhold, 2007).

Sustainability is undeniably a complicated issue for enormous companies like General Electric. They have the money to influence consumers to think positively about sustainability, and they have the ability to directly manufacture sustainable products. It is important, then, to monitor the activities of companies like GE to ensure that they’re “walking the talk” – that is producing their goods in a sustainable manner rather than just greenwashing products to leverage them in the marketplace. This may take the form of non-profit or government analysis of company behavior and may extend to the individual consumer, as he makes use of more dependable information about sustainability to make his product decisions.

Benefits to Sustainable Companies

Once consumers overcome barriers to purchasing sustainable products, these products will experience sales growth. Firms that have a strong position in the market for sustainable goods can stay ahead of regulation and protect their market shares from competitors. The most proactive companies will lead regulation, and may even push for stricter regulations that will put their less savvy competitors at a disadvantage. Newcomers, in turn, can steal market share from existing companies by appealing to the growing legions of consumers concerned about sustainability.