Important New Shades of Green, Part 1

In our last post, we outlined the several shades of green uncovered by a Roper survey in 1990.  Since then, important new shades of green have emerged.  We'll cover some here, and more in the next two posts. 

Dark Greens — Believe that environmental problems are an inherent part of industrialized capitalism, and seek radical political change.  Tend to believe that  industrialism inevitably lead to consumerism, alienation from nature and resource depletion because of its emphasis on economic growth.  (Adapted from Wikipedia). 

Light Greens — See protecting the environment as primarily a personal responsibility.  Focus on personal transformation and lifestyle choices rather than political activism and reform.  (Adapted from Wikipedia).

Wait!  That's too clear and simple!  Let's add some confusion.

Lite Greens (or Light Greens) — Another name for greenwashing, painting harmful products with a green veneer in order to fool a gullible, green-hungry marketplace.  This is a greater crime against people and the planet than products which don't hide their harmfulness.  It must be fought, for it undermines both the effectiveness and the mission of green marketing. 

Although the terms lite green and greenwashing are typically applied to businesses, they can equally be applied to individuals — and will be, more and more, as it becomes chick or cool to be seen as green, and uncool or worse to be seen as basic brown.

Eco-Radicals — Convinced that industrial/consumerist momentum is too great to be stopped in time without confrontation (e.g., Greenpeace) if not violence (e.g., Earth First!).  Basically, edgy/cynical, highly committed dark green.  Eco-radicals have more impact in the green movement than in the green marketplace.  The ultimate mission of green marketing must be to disprove the eco-radical premise, but that dream is still far in the future.

Bright Greens — Convinced that we must redesign not only human society but even nature itself into a single integrated system based on principles like "cradle to cradle" product lifecycles and "no waste" industrial processes.  The old nature is dead, and the new nature will be human-designed, if we are to have a worthwhile future at all.

The fundamental values of bright green are sustainability, economic growth, social justice and human quality of life.  Although nature is used as a model for efficient processes, nature and natural are not values or goals in-and-of themselves.  (See Wikipedia as well as Worldchanging, by Alex Steffen.)

Viridian — Convinced that to turn things around fast enough, we must market green successfully to people as they are, with their current habits and values.  That means we must dress green up in sexy consumerist garb, outcompeting consumerism on the latter's turf and terms.  Rather than adapt people to green, we must adapt green to people.  (See Wikipedia as well as The Viridian Manifesto, by Bruce Sterling.)

These new shades of green, as well as those we'll discuss in our next two posts, reflect recent changes in the green marketing environment.  For example...

• There was no point for a company to greenwash itself lite green when nobody cared whether they were green or not.
   
• Bright green and viridian couldn't have emerged when green solutions were clunky, low-tech or anti-tech and green consumers were anti-consumerism. 

This shows how dramatically the green landscape has changed in less than two decades.  This change is still accelerating.  Since each shade of green is an attitude, you must know these shades — and where your customers fall in the green spectrum — or your marketing will speak to people who aren't there, and miss many of those who are.

In our next two posts we'll explore additional new shades of green.

Keith Borden, Consultant
Brilliant Green Marketing