RHC Marketing Moment: Greenwashing Many of you may remember Tom Sawyer tricking his friends into whitewashing Aunt Polly’s fence. This canny trickery is still seen today, only it’s “greenwashing” instead of whitewashing. In Tom’s case, he fooled his friends into doing the work for him. With greenwashing, companies claim they are “green” or engaging in environmentally responsible behavior to gain favor with existing or new customers. This is often a case of all style and no substance or, as a good friend says, all sizzle and no steak. The danger of slapping a green label or purporting to be green is that it’s easy for your trickery to be exposed. Being environmentally sustainable and green can mean many things, but be sure you are doing some or all of the best practices from this list: • Recycling • Reducing paper and packaging • Switching to renewable energy sources • Using energy-efficient lighting • Conserving water • Purchasing sustainable products • Reducing transport...

A week or so ago we reported that the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) had hired a consultant to lead them into the "Green" market. There seems to be a great deal of interest in all things green. This report was listed in today's version of The Electrical Distributor Magazine on-line. CLAMORING FOR GREEN—an April 29 Reuters report, which TedMag stumbled across only recently, noted that “building maintenance supply company W.W. Grainger says…customers are clamoring for the energy-efficient lights, high-efficient water faucets, and even waterless toilets it sells…Grainger’s sales of such products rose 20% in the first quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 7% revenue gain overall, a company spokesman said.” I suspect that distributors in nearly every line of trade are looking for ways to put an energy saving spin onto some of their products.