June 25, 2007
Clean and green | With climate change and spiking oil prices, Maine companies go ga-ga over Gaia
By Sara Donnelly
John Ryan, co-founder of Wright-Ryan Construction, has lately made the environment a priority. Ryan, who co-founded the Portland company with Thomas Wright in 1984, first explored green building in 1994, when Wright-Ryan was hired to manage the construction of the environmental center at Maine Audubon's Gilsland Farm in Falmouth.
The project required Ryan to research some of the basic tenets of green building ˆ a style of construction that emphasizes energy efficiency and waste reduction. Wright-Ryan oversaw the installation of a geothermal heating and cooling pump and recycled steel framing, drywall and other materials. "That kind of got us introduced to a lot of concepts and got us fired up on doing that type of work," Ryan says.
Fast forward 13 years, one "Inconvenient Truth" and countless bloated gas bills later, and Ryan's green tint is as good for business as it is for Mother Earth. Since Maine Audubon, Ryan has gone from quietly encouraging Wright-Ryan to lean green to broadcasting his eco-friendly ways.
This summer, Wright-Ryan wraps up its first marketing campaign centered around a single project: a house in Freeport that is the first residential building in the northeast to receive Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification, the highest available. (For more on this house, see "Going green in Freeport," April 30,
2007.)
For a total cost of $1,800, Wright-Ryan mailed around 300 former and potential customers a series of nine postcards highlighting various green aspects of the property it built, from the high-efficiency faucets and toilets, to kitchen cabinets made from sunflower seed hulls. Allison Stoddard, marketing director for Wright-Ryan, says the company received about a dozen inquiries from the campaign, though "it's too soon to tell whether that might roll into a new job."
The buzz is a welcome change. In the 1990s, Ryan says you "had to stand on your head" to generate interest in green building; these days he's seeing about a quarter of his clients prioritizing green elements, particularly thermal insulation and highly efficient light bulbs and mechanical systems, which, respectively, conserve about 45% and 75% more energy than conventional materials.
"Almost everyone is interested now and that's dramatically different over the last two or three years," says Ryan.
As Ryan is discovering, customers are warming up to earth-friendly companies after a couple of years of dire climate change news and steadily rising gas prices. And so some companies, in turn, are making green their new favorite color.
Nationwide, corporations like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and General Electric Co. have recently made their eco-friendly efforts part of their image, with varying feedback from skeptical environmentalists. Web company Yahoo announced plans to go completely carbon-neutral in 2007 (meaning the company will erase its greenhouse gas emissions by altering habits and investing in projects that reduce emissions), Pepsi became the largest buyer of renewable energy in the country this May and, in March, Bank of America launched a $20 billion loan initiative to encourage development of environmentally sustainable products and technology.
Stateside, market watchers say green business is already a part of the Maine identity and so the trend has been less conspicuous. But even here, where a clean environment is synonymous with quality of life, companies have found room to up the ante. In June, bottled water company Poland Spring announced its fleet of over 650 trucks would run on biodeisel, 52 lodging establishments have received a decal to advertise their participation in the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's new Environmental Leader program and this year "Oakie," the sprightly chestnut mascot of Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, debuted a new lime-colored look for Earth Day.
But even Earth-loving has a seedy side. Some companies, hip to the marketing opportunity but lax on the actual save-the-planet stuff, are talking the talk but not walking the walk. "I think what we're seeing is people throwing around 'green' for everything," says Cary Weston, president of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications in Bangor, whose client Quoddy Bay LNG this month announced patent-pending technology to reduce natural-gas processing emissions by 75%. "I think people are responding to what they think people want to hear."
Green currency
According to a May 2007 poll by Portland's Pan Atlantic SMS Group, the majority of Mainers think the environment needs help. Around 68% of Mainers surveyed think global warming is now having a serious impact on the planet. High oil prices also drive consumers to consider the environment ˆ albeit unintentionally ˆ through fuel alternatives like ethanol, biodiesel and solar power.
Eco-attuned consumers fall into a marketing category called LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sensibility) that a 2007 study by the Pennsylvania-based Natural Marketing Institute claims accounts for more than $200 billion in spending power in the United States alone. LOHAS buyers practice what's called "ethical consumption," evaluating products based on environmental and social impact. According to John Rooks, president of Dwell Creative in Portland, a green marketing firm, LOHASians comprise about 12% of the shopping population nationally. They tend to be female and college-educated. They earn an average salary of at least $50,000 a year. And they're willing to pay between four and eight percent more for a green product they believe in.
"What we're seeing now ˆ and I'm not really seeing this locally as much ˆ is companies wanting to market themselves to the green market," says Rooks, who opened a second Dwell Creative office in early June in Los Angeles. Rooks' national clients include Purchase, N.Y.-based Pepsi, which recently acquired the all-natural company Naked Juice, and Rutland, Vt.-based Casella Waste Systems, which this year launched a program to convert landfill methane gas into electricity.
But some companies have caught flak from environmentalists who accuse them of "greenwashing" ˆ fabricating environmental efforts or, as is more common, highlighting green practices that amount to little more than nice gestures when compared with the company's other polluting practices. Rooks says he's turned down potential clients who want to appear green just for the marketing edge, like the vinyl siding company that Rooks says wanted him to develop a false campaign saying the product is environmentally-friendly.
"There's dishonesty on the menu that, to be honest, is starting to bother me," says Michael Boland, owner of Rupununi restaurant in Bar Harbor. Boland, who named his restaurant after an African river, has carried local produce, seafood and meat at Rupununi since he opened in 1994. The restaurant uses only biodegradable cornstarch to-go containers. In May, Boland spent thousands installing a solar-powered hot-water heater on the property. Boland bristles at other establishments in town he believes exaggerate their environmental efforts. "I've spent the time to educate myself about this and research the products," he says. "And then I've got to compete against restaurants who are selling 'naturally-raised beef' and maybe some of the time it is and the rest of the time they're just crap SYSCO burgers."
The triple bottom line
Rooks believes disingenuous green marketing campaigns set companies up for a public reckoning. "The green consumer is willing to self-educate," he explains. "If the company can't deliver it breaks the promise of their brand. It's difficult for companies to reposition themselves as green unless they truly are."
Cadbury Schweppes and Target Corp. are a just two corporations whose natural marketing campaigns purists have exposed as misleading ˆ Cadbury for promoting its 7Up soda as "100% natural" when it contains processed sweetener, and Target for selling its organic food and clothing alongside products made of potentially toxic polyvinyl chloride plastic, or PVC.
Nancy Artz, a business professor at the University of Southern Maine in Portland who specializes in green marketing trends, says most businesses take one of two tacks when targeting the "triple bottom line" of revenue, social responsibility and environmental imperative. The first is to work on pollution prevention and waste conservation. John Wasileski, for example, hired a part-time sustainability director last year to focus on energy and waste reduction at his retirement communities Highland Green and the Highlands, in Topsham; and Ocean View at Falmouth, and this year installed an $80,000 solar hot water heater at the Highlands.
The second method is to green most or all of the company's business processes, like Tom's of Maine in Kennebunk, which uses recycled packaging and wind energy and claims to base all of its company decisions on natural, sustainable and responsible guidelines.
Some companies, Artz says, simply purchase carbon offset vouchers but do not change their own pollution practices. And still others go green on the sly because they believe customers are not interested ˆ for example, in 1991 Anheuser-Busch quietly reduced the amount of aluminum in its beer cans by a third, which saved the company millions and also helped rid the environment of toxins. (These days, no good deed goes unheralded: Anheuser Busch recently set up a website to tout its expanded environmental efforts).
Artz believes companies that ease up on the environment and explore alternative energy sources will benefit in the long run.
"Sustainable business I believe is the next management phenomenon," she says. "It's a fad right now but it will be part and parcel of good business."
Wright-Ryan is living proof of Artz's prediction ˆ the company's internal reduce, reuse and recycle efforts, begun in 2006, saved $42,400 that year.
Ryan wants his company to become the premier eco-builder in Maine, so green is now integral to Wright-Ryan's branding ˆ in 2004, the firm created an internal sustainability committee to study green building methods and became a founding member of the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (three of the firm's some 75 staff have received accreditation from USGBC).
The following year, Wright-Ryan added a "sustainable" page to its website, www.wright-ryan.com, and updated its strategic plan to include a new goal to "become the industry leader in Maine in the development and implementation of sutstainable and environmentally responsible practices throughout our organization." The company participates in the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's "Smart Tracks for Exceptional Performers and Upward Performers," otherwise known as the Step-Up Program, in which the firm, along with a dozen other Maine industrial companies like Bath Iron Works, NorDx and National Semiconductor, promises to adhere to a written plan to become more environmentally-friendly in 2007.
Wright-Ryan now encourages all commercial, institutional and residential clients to use sustainable techniques and urges suppliers and subcontractors to supply recycled, non-toxic materials.
"It's a great business decision no matter what," says Ryan. "Because even if all of the assumptions prove to be wrong, to take a look at how you're doing business and to eliminate wasteful practices, I think these are important things for any business."
The project required Ryan to research some of the basic tenets of green building ˆ a style of construction that emphasizes energy efficiency and waste reduction. Wright-Ryan oversaw the installation of a geothermal heating and cooling pump and recycled steel framing, drywall and other materials. "That kind of got us introduced to a lot of concepts and got us fired up on doing that type of work," Ryan says.
Fast forward 13 years, one "Inconvenient Truth" and countless bloated gas bills later, and Ryan's green tint is as good for business as it is for Mother Earth. Since Maine Audubon, Ryan has gone from quietly encouraging Wright-Ryan to lean green to broadcasting his eco-friendly ways.
This summer, Wright-Ryan wraps up its first marketing campaign centered around a single project: a house in Freeport that is the first residential building in the northeast to receive Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification, the highest available. (For more on this house, see "Going green in Freeport," April 30,
2007.)
For a total cost of $1,800, Wright-Ryan mailed around 300 former and potential customers a series of nine postcards highlighting various green aspects of the property it built, from the high-efficiency faucets and toilets, to kitchen cabinets made from sunflower seed hulls. Allison Stoddard, marketing director for Wright-Ryan, says the company received about a dozen inquiries from the campaign, though "it's too soon to tell whether that might roll into a new job."
The buzz is a welcome change. In the 1990s, Ryan says you "had to stand on your head" to generate interest in green building; these days he's seeing about a quarter of his clients prioritizing green elements, particularly thermal insulation and highly efficient light bulbs and mechanical systems, which, respectively, conserve about 45% and 75% more energy than conventional materials.
"Almost everyone is interested now and that's dramatically different over the last two or three years," says Ryan.
As Ryan is discovering, customers are warming up to earth-friendly companies after a couple of years of dire climate change news and steadily rising gas prices. And so some companies, in turn, are making green their new favorite color.
Nationwide, corporations like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and General Electric Co. have recently made their eco-friendly efforts part of their image, with varying feedback from skeptical environmentalists. Web company Yahoo announced plans to go completely carbon-neutral in 2007 (meaning the company will erase its greenhouse gas emissions by altering habits and investing in projects that reduce emissions), Pepsi became the largest buyer of renewable energy in the country this May and, in March, Bank of America launched a $20 billion loan initiative to encourage development of environmentally sustainable products and technology.
Stateside, market watchers say green business is already a part of the Maine identity and so the trend has been less conspicuous. But even here, where a clean environment is synonymous with quality of life, companies have found room to up the ante. In June, bottled water company Poland Spring announced its fleet of over 650 trucks would run on biodeisel, 52 lodging establishments have received a decal to advertise their participation in the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's new Environmental Leader program and this year "Oakie," the sprightly chestnut mascot of Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, debuted a new lime-colored look for Earth Day.
But even Earth-loving has a seedy side. Some companies, hip to the marketing opportunity but lax on the actual save-the-planet stuff, are talking the talk but not walking the walk. "I think what we're seeing is people throwing around 'green' for everything," says Cary Weston, president of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications in Bangor, whose client Quoddy Bay LNG this month announced patent-pending technology to reduce natural-gas processing emissions by 75%. "I think people are responding to what they think people want to hear."
Green currency
According to a May 2007 poll by Portland's Pan Atlantic SMS Group, the majority of Mainers think the environment needs help. Around 68% of Mainers surveyed think global warming is now having a serious impact on the planet. High oil prices also drive consumers to consider the environment ˆ albeit unintentionally ˆ through fuel alternatives like ethanol, biodiesel and solar power.
Eco-attuned consumers fall into a marketing category called LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sensibility) that a 2007 study by the Pennsylvania-based Natural Marketing Institute claims accounts for more than $200 billion in spending power in the United States alone. LOHAS buyers practice what's called "ethical consumption," evaluating products based on environmental and social impact. According to John Rooks, president of Dwell Creative in Portland, a green marketing firm, LOHASians comprise about 12% of the shopping population nationally. They tend to be female and college-educated. They earn an average salary of at least $50,000 a year. And they're willing to pay between four and eight percent more for a green product they believe in.
"What we're seeing now ˆ and I'm not really seeing this locally as much ˆ is companies wanting to market themselves to the green market," says Rooks, who opened a second Dwell Creative office in early June in Los Angeles. Rooks' national clients include Purchase, N.Y.-based Pepsi, which recently acquired the all-natural company Naked Juice, and Rutland, Vt.-based Casella Waste Systems, which this year launched a program to convert landfill methane gas into electricity.
But some companies have caught flak from environmentalists who accuse them of "greenwashing" ˆ fabricating environmental efforts or, as is more common, highlighting green practices that amount to little more than nice gestures when compared with the company's other polluting practices. Rooks says he's turned down potential clients who want to appear green just for the marketing edge, like the vinyl siding company that Rooks says wanted him to develop a false campaign saying the product is environmentally-friendly.
"There's dishonesty on the menu that, to be honest, is starting to bother me," says Michael Boland, owner of Rupununi restaurant in Bar Harbor. Boland, who named his restaurant after an African river, has carried local produce, seafood and meat at Rupununi since he opened in 1994. The restaurant uses only biodegradable cornstarch to-go containers. In May, Boland spent thousands installing a solar-powered hot-water heater on the property. Boland bristles at other establishments in town he believes exaggerate their environmental efforts. "I've spent the time to educate myself about this and research the products," he says. "And then I've got to compete against restaurants who are selling 'naturally-raised beef' and maybe some of the time it is and the rest of the time they're just crap SYSCO burgers."
The triple bottom line
Rooks believes disingenuous green marketing campaigns set companies up for a public reckoning. "The green consumer is willing to self-educate," he explains. "If the company can't deliver it breaks the promise of their brand. It's difficult for companies to reposition themselves as green unless they truly are."
Cadbury Schweppes and Target Corp. are a just two corporations whose natural marketing campaigns purists have exposed as misleading ˆ Cadbury for promoting its 7Up soda as "100% natural" when it contains processed sweetener, and Target for selling its organic food and clothing alongside products made of potentially toxic polyvinyl chloride plastic, or PVC.
Nancy Artz, a business professor at the University of Southern Maine in Portland who specializes in green marketing trends, says most businesses take one of two tacks when targeting the "triple bottom line" of revenue, social responsibility and environmental imperative. The first is to work on pollution prevention and waste conservation. John Wasileski, for example, hired a part-time sustainability director last year to focus on energy and waste reduction at his retirement communities Highland Green and the Highlands, in Topsham; and Ocean View at Falmouth, and this year installed an $80,000 solar hot water heater at the Highlands.
The second method is to green most or all of the company's business processes, like Tom's of Maine in Kennebunk, which uses recycled packaging and wind energy and claims to base all of its company decisions on natural, sustainable and responsible guidelines.
Some companies, Artz says, simply purchase carbon offset vouchers but do not change their own pollution practices. And still others go green on the sly because they believe customers are not interested ˆ for example, in 1991 Anheuser-Busch quietly reduced the amount of aluminum in its beer cans by a third, which saved the company millions and also helped rid the environment of toxins. (These days, no good deed goes unheralded: Anheuser Busch recently set up a website to tout its expanded environmental efforts).
Artz believes companies that ease up on the environment and explore alternative energy sources will benefit in the long run.
"Sustainable business I believe is the next management phenomenon," she says. "It's a fad right now but it will be part and parcel of good business."
Wright-Ryan is living proof of Artz's prediction ˆ the company's internal reduce, reuse and recycle efforts, begun in 2006, saved $42,400 that year.
Ryan wants his company to become the premier eco-builder in Maine, so green is now integral to Wright-Ryan's branding ˆ in 2004, the firm created an internal sustainability committee to study green building methods and became a founding member of the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (three of the firm's some 75 staff have received accreditation from USGBC).
The following year, Wright-Ryan added a "sustainable" page to its website, www.wright-ryan.com, and updated its strategic plan to include a new goal to "become the industry leader in Maine in the development and implementation of sutstainable and environmentally responsible practices throughout our organization." The company participates in the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's "Smart Tracks for Exceptional Performers and Upward Performers," otherwise known as the Step-Up Program, in which the firm, along with a dozen other Maine industrial companies like Bath Iron Works, NorDx and National Semiconductor, promises to adhere to a written plan to become more environmentally-friendly in 2007.
Wright-Ryan now encourages all commercial, institutional and residential clients to use sustainable techniques and urges suppliers and subcontractors to supply recycled, non-toxic materials.
"It's a great business decision no matter what," says Ryan. "Because even if all of the assumptions prove to be wrong, to take a look at how you're doing business and to eliminate wasteful practices, I think these are important things for any business."
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