ANDREW FROM SPOKE SAYS SUSTAINABILITY NEEDS TO BE MADE FUN, INTERESTING AND MORE ACCESSIBLE

Andrew Melville, a highly experienced PR consultant from Spoke Ltd, began his PRiNZ presentation on the issue of sustainability by treating us to a few notes on his traditional Maori flute. The beautiful sound of the putorino, the tones of which sound similar to that of a native bird, permeated the hushed private event room at Glengarry and served as a reminder of the things that we would miss if global warming ever took a serious turn for the worst.

Andrew went on to describe how, despite the potentially devastating consequences of abusing our delicate environment, many companies put sustainability into the ‘too hard basket’. Other corporations attempt to convince their audiences, through marketing, that they are environmentally friendly when they are not actually doing very much to make a difference. This is often labelled ‘greenwashing’ and is done purely to expand markets and to sell more products. More information on ‘greenwashing’ in New Zealand can be found here.

Andrew complained that there is too much media ping-pong, regarding environmental issues, between journalists and officials. Because of this, increasing numbers of frustrated consumers are heading to online sites such as Facebook and Bebo to get the information that they need.

There are no clear messages and not enough companies leading the way forward, especially within New Zealand which is estimated to be about five years behind the rest of the world when it comes to dealing with these, and other, issues. One way of getting the ‘green’ message across is to make it fun and interesting. Andrew recommended viewing a selection of ‘green’ sites to get an idea of how this can be done:

http://www.grist.org/

http://www.ecorazzi.com/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/sycamore_ceilin.php

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/10/south_africa_th.html

Andrew also pointed out a few global companies that are courageously leading the way forward when it comes to tackling green issues:

http://plana.marksandspencer.com/

http://www.citroen-online.co.uk/citroen-environment/

The presentations from both Andrew and Tim were extremely thought-provoking and certainly stimulated a lot of debate amongst attending PRiNZ members! However, I am still unsure as to how much of an impact sustainability has on consumers. After all, whatever businesses say and do, they are all interested in the bottom line and who can blame them? Their very existence depends on a continual stream of revenue. I just wonder what kind of gap exists between the number of consumers who think favourably of green initiatives and eco-friendly corporations and the number of those that actually act on these views and will pick up and purchase the environmentally friendly, locally sourced packet of tomatoes even if they are more expensive than the shiny red tomatoes exported from overseas.....? It is an interesting question and not one that has a simple, easy answer.