Jacquie Ottman's
Green marketing Blog

Jacquie Ottman's Green Marketing Blog

To Get the Last Drop, Consumers Look to New Innovative Gadgets

How much money are you leaving behind?

What’s your favorite way to get at that last dollop of the Crest?  Do you flatten as you go?  Slice the neck?  What about the shampoo or conditioner?  Do you add a little water and swirl? Prop the bottle upside down in a corner?  You are not alone!  As the Wall Street Journal has noted, an increasing number of consumers are shaking, rattling and rolling their packages in search of the last drop, ounce and morsel …Read more...

 

Cultures Around the World Can Inspire No-Waste LIfestyles

In India lunches are delivered to workers in reusable steel tiffins

Lunches delivered to workers in India in steel tiffins. (Image: Letztrend.com)

Cultures around the world possess their own unique, deeply-ingrained beliefs and traditions for minimizing waste. For instance, the Yankee Ingenuity helped America put down its early roots, and the Dutch custom of sharing unlocked ‘community’ bikes at train stations inspired bike-sharing programs in NY, Paris and other world capitals. Many …Read more...

 

The Newest Rule of Green Marketing: Help Consumers Live a ‘No-Waste’ Lifestyle

Swedes at a train station

The Swedes Enjoy the Most Sustainable Lifestyle in the World (Image credit: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebnk.sweden.se)

In 1988, my antenna tweaked toward an emerging trend soon to be called ‘green consumerism’.  A hole in the ozone layer was discovered over Antarctica, nightly newscasts tracked the daily wanderings of the Mobro garbage barge, and air pollution clogged views of the Grand Canyon. Among the culprits: consumer products.

Alternatives needed to be found for CFCs in aerosols, polystyrene clamshells …Read more...

 

Sustainable Innovation 2013: Key Lessons

Enviu.org uses crowdsourcing to create concepts for innovative businesses with positive environmental and social impact.

Every year I head to Europe to take part in the Sustainable Innovation Conference organized by The Centre for Sustainable Design (UK) as part of its ‘Towards Sustainable Product Design’ series of conferences.  Sustainable Innovation brings together pioneers, movers and shakers from around the world and across multiple industries who are changing the game of sustainable design to present their ground-breaking concepts and ideas. This year’s program, as always …Read more...

 

Eight Ways to Prevent Household Waste for Fun and Profit

Zipcar image

Ask a roomful of consumers, “Who here hates to see things go to waste?” and every hand will likely shoot up. But, if everyone hates to waste, then how come we generate so much of it? And what can we do to prevent waste from being created in the first place? Answering these questions can be profitable and fun.


Turn Waste into Business Opportunity

Despite all the attention paid to them during the past two decades, facilities to recycle and …Read more...

 

Introducing WeHateToWaste.com

WHW Parade Shortened

I am excited to announce our new consumer-focused blog and website. In beta test since June, it’s called WeHatetoWaste.com and we’re officially launching it this week.

In line with our mission at J. Ottman Consulting, to help businesses meet consumer needs sustainably, our goal with WeHatetoWaste.com is to ignite a movement and galvanize a community of ardent ‘Waste Watchers’. You know them. They are the ones who get those last extra swipes from the Secret antiperspirant, line …Read more...

 

The Rise of the Biobased Economy — and Why Brand Owners Need to Develop a Strategy in 2012

Our economy is slowly but surely heeding the signal that carbon is the new watchword. During the past few years, a steady stream of so-called “biobased” products have been making their way to retail shelves — compostable dinnerware made from corn, plant-based laundry detergents, and bamboo flooring among them. Coke and Pepsi are now competing to be first to market with a soft drink bottle derived entirely from sugarcane or other plant materials.

The emerging biobased economy even has …Read more...

 

Green Marketing 3.0 Can Re-ignite Interest in Green

Rumors of green’s demise are being greatly exaggerated.  In this year of fiery political passions, the word “revolt” is in the air.  However, I think Ad Age inhaled a whiff of the zeitgeist and incorrectly applied the term to consumers supposedly cooling in their ardor for green products.  “Has Green Stopped Giving? Seeds of Consumers Revolt Sprouting Against Some Environmentally Friendly Product Lines” trumpets the headline of a recent Ad Age article.  The author quotes Timothy Kenyon, director of GfK Roper’s Green Gauge study who more judiciously describes the …Read more...

 

Terrachoice’s Sins of Greenwashing Report—Time for Industry Self-Regulation?

dried green paint Most of you are familiar with      Terrachoice’s “Seven Sins of   Greenwashing” report.  On a webinar aired in late October, CEO Scott McDougall admitted that his firm never intended to be malicious in their use of the term, “sins”.  He believes that most of the “sins” of greenwashing being committed today are really not sins at all, but rather, inadvertent missteps. 

Call me literal, or not a fan of hyperbole, but I believe that calling, in effect, …Read more...

 

Green Marketing Myopia and the SunChips “Snacklash”

SunChips bagsMany marketing experts have weighed in on what they believe to be the reasons for the current backlash against SunChips’s new compostable chip package: excess noise. If you somehow missed it, consumers complained so loudly about the snack food’s new environmentally preferable but noisy corn-based bag  that the brand reverted to the old packaging for most of its line. Before we blame consumers once again for not sacrificing a little inconvenience for the sake of the planet, let’s …Read more...

 

EPA’s Role in Advancing Sustainable Products—and You

EPA logo

According to a new entry in the Federal Register, EPA is now soliciting individual stakeholder input regarding the Agency’s role in the “green” or sustainable products movement. The Agency will consider the information gathered from the Federal Register notice as well as from other sources as it works to define its role and develop a strategy that identifies how EPA can make a meaningful contribution to the development, manufacture, designation, and use of sustainable products.

This represents an important opportunity for …Read more...

 

Plastiki Trash Expedition Meets Goal—Who’s Next?

Plastiki

New York Times recently reported that the Plastiki has docked after a four-month voyage from San Francisco to Sydney. The brainchild of British environmental advocate, David de Rothschild, the 60-foot “Plastiki” is a sailboat pieced together from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles and powered by solar panels and windmills. His mission: raise awareness about the amount and effects of plastic waste affecting our oceans.

David was on to something when he built his environmentally responsible craft and sailed it across the Pacific. …Read more...

 

Stand By Your Cause: What Marketers Can Learn From Dawn’s Involvement In The Gulf Oil Spill

Washing Bird with DawnLong marketed by Procter & Gamble as an “effective yet gentle” way to keep dishes free from even the greasiest of grease, Dawn dishwashing liquid was widely publicized during the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in 1989 as an ideal way to remove residue from afflicted bird and mammal species.

Fast forward to mid-April 2010, just days before the 40th anniversary celebration of Earth Day. P&G decided to create awareness for its 30-year long support of bird rescue groups …Read more...

 

Give Your Stuff Away and Unclutter Your Life

Wouldn’t it be great if in just one weekend, we could get rid of some of the clutter in our lives by making it available to others who need it?

That’s the idea behind Mike Morone’s Give Your Stuff Away Day, happening on May 15, 2010 all across the country.

The deal is pretty simple: Just bring safe, valuable items that you no longer want to your curb (keeping in mind that no trash, recyclables, food, drugs, chemicals, or weapons should be included) and instantly …Read more...

 

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