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...

Recycling down in the Purchasing Department Say no to recycling old ideas. Recycle, reuse, save the planet. I hate to see anything good or reusable tossed into the garbage heap. What’s more, everybody seems to be embracing the recycle concept. I love it. But, lately there seems to be a different kind of recycling coming out of the Purchasing Departments of major companies. It seems as though they believe the time is right for recycling an old plan to drive our prices downwards. First rolled out back in the early 1990s, this plan starts off with a nicely worded statement, “You are a fabulous partner and we value the relationship our companies have built over the years. Because we both invested so heavily in making all this work, we want to help you grow your business with us.” Sounds pretty good so far, but then things take a nasty turn. The purchasing guy is likely to word it something like this. “We are asking all of our good partners to help us be more competiti...