Mr. Weissman

Eco-Friendly Practices

Marketing Your Property's Green Certification

By Arthur Weissman, President and CEO, Green Seal, Inc.

After becoming certified, there are many creative ways for a green property to market its special status. This article will explore some of these techniques and the benefits that may accrue from them.

Now that being green is a part of your brand, you have opened the door to a variety of ways that you can re-position your property or chain with existing customers as well as within new markets. You now have a wealth of information you can use concerning how waste minimization, energy efficiency, fresh and waste water management, and environmentally and socially sensitive purchasing affect your bottom line and improve the quality of the products and services that you provide at your facility. The first and most practical means of marketing your green operations is within your local community and supply chains.

Leading the Greening of Your Community

With the increasing interest and appreciation by tourists to participate in the sustainable growth of local communities, a number of American cities have begun promoting their communities as green recreational and business hubs. For example, Travel Portland's website now includes a page that specifically lists "Green Resources" within the city and includes a brief description as to why and how the companies listed promote an environmentally responsible Portland economy. Other examples of green community branding initiated by the tourism and hospitality industry include Madison: A Green Destination and Boston Green Tourism. A significant catalyst in each of these examples was how both lodging service providers and providers of local entertainment and visitor information were able to piece together a larger detailed picture of how a tourist's decision to visit the city will positively impact the local economy, society, and environment.

Component-focused marketing is another approach that you can use to get the word out about your new green-certified management policies. Hosting a Slow Food event or working to develop a program with your city similar to the Santa Barbara Hotel & Visitor Recycling Program are marketing efforts that present to visitors and local community members opportunities to actively engage in environmentally responsible hospitality management programs that have a direct impact in the local community. Yet each of them highlights a particular supply chain that is only a component of the service provided by any property.

Other examples of component green marketing include the efforts by all the US Sofitel Hotels purchasing wind energy and the Hyatts of Dallas purchasing Green-E certified energy credits. Another approach to marketing green locally is to provide green alternatives for traditional holiday meals and events. The Convention Industry Council's Green Meeting Report provides a comprehensive listing of Best Practices for green events, travel, and destination marketing that can be used as a guide when planning your own green community event or activity.

Expanding Your Target Markets

Once you have established your green base in the local community, two market areas that you may want to consider on the national and international level are environmental organizations and the growing LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) market. By providing promotional ads that highlight your green certification in environmental journals like the Sierra Club Magazine; National Geographic; E, the Environmental Magazine; Scientific American; and other environmental science-specific journals, your green message will be seen by a variety of environmental science specialists who intrinsically understand the worth and benefit of your decision to green your business practices. In addition to accessing their readership, you may also consider tailoring your conference and event hosting services to target environmental science societies' annual and semi-annual meetings across the country.

Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) describes an estimated $209 billion U.S. marketplace for goods and services focused on health, the environment, social justice, personal development, and sustainable living.(1) Worldwide, this market segment is currently estimated to be worth US$540 billion annually.(2) With longer expected life-spans and higher levels of consumer awareness and income, LOHAS continues to grow as more and more citizens realize the benefits of healthier and more sustainable lifestyles. Three segments of particular interest to the hospitality industry within LOHAS include personal health, natural lifestyles, and eco-tourism. The Nielson Co. announced earlier this year that they have partnered with The Natural Marketing Institute and will incorporate some of NMI's LOHAS market behavioral models into their own market-trend analysis tools to better understand the purchasing behavior of LOHAS members.(3)

One example of creative marketing to these groups can be seen in the "What to Look For" page of the Green Spa Network website. By articulating the criteria that consumers should look for at a member spa facility, the network is showing how LOHAS clients can evaluate and judge for themselves how a member spa's business operations and hospitality services are environmentally and socially responsible.

Greening the Brand Within Your Chain or Property

A third component to re-positioning your facility in the green hospitality market is by crafting messages on your property and within your chain. With small tent cards, green door keys, and a variety of other in-house place cards and signs you can highlight components of your environmental program in the rooms and common areas, including certification awards you have received. While you don't want to overwhelm or suffocate your guests with messages about your green program, guests will appreciate knowing that you are doing something to protect their health and the world, and will particularly appreciate that you have gone beyond green-washing and have taken environmentally responsible action.

Your green certification can also earn you recognition within your chain and among your peers. By developing a case-study statement that other franchisees or property owners can reference as a guide to "going green," you and your facility can be a green leader within your state hotel and lodging association or chain and be valued as one of the pioneers in the development of their environmental programs.

Another way of creatively using your green certification can include adding interactive Web 2.0 applications to your website. Many visitors now expect real-time updates on weather and event information for where they plan to travel, but often don't receive this information until they are at site. The 100% Pure New Zealand Layer developed by Google Earth is an example of Web 2.0 integration with existing New Zealand tourism and travel websites. Planeta.com also provides a very extensive list of other Web 2.0 software applications that could be added to your company's site to inform visitors about your green programs and facilities. Planeta.com also agrees with Trip Sweeny that "Web 2.0 applications can help local individuals and SMEs increase their internet visibility and connection with travelers, build their credibility through reviews, further develop Information & Communication Technology skills, and reduce dependency on intermediaries." (4)

Conclusion

The environmentally responsible ripples that you make in your day-to-day business decisions have far-reaching impact, not only on your client base, but also within your community and the hospitality industry as a whole. After putting forth all the effort to make your operations environmentally responsible, there's no shame in letting others know about it! Your creative marketing outreach can explain your sustainability efforts as well as promote them in the marketplace, for the benefit of both your business and the environment.

Preliminary research for this article was done by Rani A. Bhattacharyya, Executive Assistant to the CEO, Green Seal, Inc. She holds an M.S. in Recreation Parks and Tourism Management from Western Illinois University and has assisted rural communities in the United States and internationally with tourism development projects.

References

(1) Conscious Wave, Inc.; 2008; "LOHAS Online: LOHAS Background" Accessed: March 30, 2008; http://www.lohas.com/about.html
(2) Nouvon, 2008; 'LOHAS- lifestyles of health & sustainability" Accessed: April 1, 2008; http://www.nuovon.com.au/LOHAS/tabid/53/Default.aspx
(3) The Lohasian, February 26, 2008; " Nielsen and Natural Marketing Institute Partner to Serve the Booming LOHAS Market" Accessed March 31,2008; http://www.thelohasian.com/2008/02/nielsen-and-natural-marketing-institute.html
(4) Planeta.com "Web Strategies" Accessed : April 4, 2008 http://www.planeta.com/web/web2.html

Arthur B. Weissman, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Green Seal, Inc. He has experience in environmental science, policy, and standard-setting in public and private sectors. He has led the non-profit's resurgence as a force to make the economy more sustainable. He served as an international convener in developing the ISO 14000 standards for environmental labeling, and was the first Chair of the Global Ecolabeling Network. He has developed policy for the Superfund waste-cleanup program, served in the U.S. Senate as a Science Fellow, and worked for The Nature Conservancy. Mr. Weissman can be contacted at 202-872-6400 or aweissman@greenseal.org Extended Bio...

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