Page 342 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

320 CHAPTER 10

Phase 2B: Public Relations—Gaining

Credibility and Support

The best and most robust communications plan includes advertising (and compo-
nents like direct marketing) and public relations. Public relations includes the activ-
ities you engage in to create goodwill for your organization in the communities where
you are doing business. Success can come in the form of an article in the local news-
paper or industry magazine, an invitation to speak at a trade group, or a chance to
work on a project with a well-regarded business partner. This “third party endorse-
ment” reassures your target that you are credible. There is often the temptation to call
public relations “free advertising,” but that’s really a misnomer. Public relations exper-
tise doesn’t come free, and an experienced and well-connected professional is essen-
tial to the effort.
Ideally, your public relations team and your marketing/advertising team will work
together so that you have a consistent and well-executed message and strategy. The
research on your message and target, described earlier in this chapter, is also a great
foundation for developing a successful public relations campaign. The work you will
do to create and manage your green reputation is important, and you should take care
to guard those credentials once earned.
Typically, public relations programs include media relations (developing relation-
ships with journalists who cover your organization and its projects), as well as com-
munity relations (developing relationships with organizations that are a part of
your business community or your industry). Your public relations plan should also
include a crisis management plan so that you are prepared to deliver bad news if and
when it happens.
Green public relations, like green marketing, is unique in that it deals with a highly
sensitized target. And, like green marketing, organizational issues such as top-down
support, alignment with mission, and authenticity and transparency are critical. There
is a key difference between advertising and public relations that makes this commit-
ment to authenticity critical. When you place an ad, you pay for the opportunity to
secure a space for content that you will develop and deliver. You have complete con-
trol over your message. When you conduct public relations activities, you or your rep-
resentative pitches your story to a potential target via a filter—a newspaper editor, a
magazine writer, a television announcer—and that person takes your news and edits it
to fit within the story he or she is telling and in the context of the particular news out-
let. Therefore, the only chance for control is on the front end, and is dependent on the
story idea you take to the media person and the working relationship you establish
together. Understanding this key difference between advertising and public relations
will help you develop the best strategy for each.
When you think about public relations for a sustainable project, you need to keep
in mind a few rules of thumb.