GREEN MARKETING: OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATION

Foreword

< Prev	Next >
Table of Contents Featured Cases Table of Exhibits

When I was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, during a visit to Cincinnati to inspect one of the Agency’s premier laboratories, I stopped by the headquarters of Procter & Gamble. P&G’s chief executive Ed Artzt proudly displayed for me his company’s latest products and recounted the environmental benefits: concentrated detergents that saved energy and transport costs, compostable diapers, recyclable plastic packaging. These products reduced waste, lowered materials use, saved money and improved the company’s image, Artzt said. But P&G wasn’t making them because I said to, or because regulations made them do so. Increasingly, consumers the world over demanded them, he said. The market was driving P&G to greener products.

His remark encapsulated for me the new, more environmentally sensitive business climate in which American firms must compete today. It’s not enough to refrain from damaging the environment, or to be in compliance with environmental laws. The consumer wants to see environmental benefits in the products. New product lines testify to the profound power of the marketplace to drive environmental performance beyond compliance. Smart CEOs and progressive companies get it. They are leaving behind those companies whose goals are limited to staying out of trouble with environmental regulators.

By now it is clear to many corporations that environmental principles are emerging as a critical part of doing business and conducting our lives. Many companies are recycling, conserving energy, and cutting down waste. Consumers are recycling, too, and looking for greener goods when they shop.

One reason I find Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation so stimulating is that it distills for us in highly readable fashion, drawing on numerous examples, some of the best thinking about creative, effective strategies businesses are adopting to put them and their products on a more environmentally responsible path. These companies are tapping into Americans’ abiding concern for environmental quality, a cause that is gaining momentum the world over. More and more, we will see this kind of thinking distinguish the enterprises that will prosper in the dynamic, global marketplace of the 21st century.

William K. Reilly

Aqua International Partners

Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1989-1993