Page 337 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

MARKETING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 315

GREENING YOUR MARKETING COLLATERALS
Put some time and energy into thinking about what you will produce, in terms of adver-
tising collaterals. How will a piece be used, and what will happen to it at the end of its
useful life? Does it need to be produced in the first place? Sustainably oriented compa-
nies are often begun on a shoestring, with little or no money for marketing materials, and
by necessity have to be clever about how they get the word out. Can it be cobbled
together from materials that were previously used elsewhere, as TerraCycle does by
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packaging its liquid plant fertilizer in discarded soda bottles? Does it have a use beyond
the momentary marketing need? Can it be recycled? These sorts of questions may not
be in the best interests of marketing and ad agencies looking for high-dollar spends from
their clients. But these are the sorts of questions any green bottom line company is ask-
ing these days. And an agency partner that truly gets the issue of sustainability and the
goal of reducing both waste and consumption understands that its value add comes in
the ways a green message is communicated effectively and with integrity.
For example, when we worked on a communication piece for the USGBC’s annual
Greenbuild conference—a piece designed to make the sustainable development com-
munity more aware of Melaver, Inc.—we screen printed our messaging on 12˝ × 12˝
pieces of corrugated cardboard scavenged from around Birmingham, Alabama. We
took an example of the piece to Martin Melaver. He read it, loved the writing, loved
that it was printed on found materials. But then he asked: “What do I do with it after
I’ve read it?” After much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands, we came up with
an innovative solution. We used large alligator clips and pads of 100 percent recycled
paper to turn the cardboard piece into a clipboard, arguably a very useful piece for
attendees of a conference intent on taking notes at meetings. Moreover, it was easily
disassembled into its component parts, and all of the parts could be recycled or re-
used. The piece was a success, and it cost next to nothing to produce.

Greening What You Print
Greening what you print can be a challenge, but it is becoming easier. There are a num-
ber of environmental certifications related to the printing industry. Paper companies
and printers are making an effort to produce products that are, for example, carbon neu-
tral or made with green energy. Green Seal certification of paper stocks means that they
contain a minimum of 30 percent post-consumer fiber. The Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) is a highly respected international organization that encourages the responsible
management of forests. FSC-certified printers use mostly recycled papers or papers that
were manufactured from wood harvested from well-managed forests. Other certifica-
tions to consider are chlorine-free processing and alternative fiber (e.g., cotton rag,
hemp, banana) content. High post-consumer recycled-content papers have also come a
long way, in terms of the quality of the sheet and the corresponding quality of the print-
ing. You may also want to look at printing on a 100 percent recyclable plastic polymer
“paper.” Biodegradable inks are fairly common in the printing community, but not
ubiquitous, and not every printer is able to use them and use them well. Ask your printer
to use soy-based inks instead of petroleum-based inks.