« 75 Green Businesses -- A Book | Main | Green To Gold, for the Hospitality Industry »
Are You Green Washing?
As a hospitality venue are your communications to your staff and the public fact or fiction? Are you "green marketing" or "green washing"?
Being a green hotel or restaurant isn't just a marketing ploy -- not in the long run. Hospitality venues need to avoid green washing to preserve their reputation. If you say you are green, you better be or the traveling public will avoid doing business with you, the opposite of what you are striving for when you announce your green actions.
It's interesting to observe what hospitality venues do and don't say about themselves regarding their green program and green actions. Some mention they take green steps. Some don't say a word about their environmental initiatives. Some tell all about their sustainable and green steps.
And then I see some hospitality venues talk about green actions they say they are taking but don't seem to really follow through on. And that's green washing.
Green washing happens with each green wave that comes along: green bathroom paper products, green cleaners, green trash bags, green car rentals and now green hospitality venues. How can consumers determine which are green and which are making hollow claims? That's been the challenge for years, and part of the reason green certification programs have popped up for various consumer goods.
Green certification for hospitality venues is on the way, but it's not here yet. Until it's here and truly established consumers are going to have to rely on directories like:
- EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com
- Green Seal
- Green Globe 21
- Green Restaurant Association
- THEBestGreenHotels.com
- and for more links to green hosptiality and travel resources check the ECOnomicallySound.com article Green Action
and the to point them to hospitality venues that by some action or actions make them green at some level or another. Sometimes the property's website guides consumers to their green actions, but too often they don't.
And when you find a website that talks about that property's green steps, how do consumers know they can trust what they read? Call the hotel and ask about their actions. Check for participation with green associations. Look for green reviews like at GreenOnTheFly or at EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com.
But if a hospitality property is green washing, that property is doing itself a huge disservice. It won't be long before the traveling public will catch onto the fact the green actions you claim to be taking aren't real or true and your reputation will reflect that dishonesty. Consumers get cynical with green washing companies and talk about them to friends and online. Bad news travels fast.
Green marketing, as with any marketing, needs to reflect what is real. Don't hide what you are doing. In this case, tell all of the wonderful green steps you are taking, and point out the benefits of those green actions. Don't exaggerate what you are doing to avoid the appearance of green washing.
Green washing is bad for business. That's not an ECOnomically Sound business decision.
Posted by Kit
