Green Wolfie

What does Oscar the Grouch, the Sesame Street character who lived in a trash can, have to do with the California Environmental Protection Agency?

We discovered at the Sustainable Brands 2008 conference in Monterey that Oscar is helping the California EPA tackle the serious issue of pollution from old fluorescent light bulbs, which contain mercury.

California has created a highly innovative ‘Take-It-Back’ Partnership, fronted by Oscar, which is demonstrating the state’s firm commitment to environmental initiatives. For those in Europe who think we are doing so much more than the Americans on the environment, take a look at what California is doing.

At the conference, we heard from Leonard Robinson, chief deputy director for the EPA’s Department of Toxic Substances Control. In the video below he is talking to me about the ‘Take-It-Back partnership.

In the first of our video reports from the Sustainable Brands conference 2008, Claire Alexander of Discovery Channel’s new Planet Green Network, talks to be about what we can expect to see when the channel launches tomorrow, June 4th. Claire and I are sharing a panel tonight on the ‘Greening of Media’.

On the first day of SB 2008, my colleague Annie Longsworth and Russ Meyer from our WPP sister company, Landor, unveiled our Green Brands study 2008, examining consumer perceptions of environmental issues and companies in both the UK and the USA. The findings are remarkably similar. In both countries, it’s body care companies and supermarkets who are really capturing the imagination of the public with their environmental initiatives, such as Marks & Spencer’s ‘Plan A’.

The Guardian has picked up on the supermarket angle in its report on our study:

High-profile green advertising campaigns by supermarkets appear to be paying off with five of the country’s biggest grocers coming out top in a survey of the most environmentally friendly brands.

Campaigns to discourage plastic bag use and an emphasis on less packaging helped Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda take five of the top six places in a survey of 1,500 people.

What strikes me about this year is that, although people are clearly more worried about the economy in 2008, they have not forgotten green issues. They are forming ever-more sophisticated opinions of companies based on their environmental performance and commitment.

Greetings from the Hyatt Regency, Monterey, California, on the first day of the Sustainable Brands Conference 2008.

Cohn & Wolfe is proud to be a sponsor of this event, which has brought together an outstanding cast-list of leaders in sustainability, media commentators and (of course) consultants.

We have representatives here from big corporates like Dow Chemical, sustainability gurus like Andrew Winston (Green to Gold), and Claire Alexander from the Discovery Channel’s new ‘Planet Green’.

Claire will be joining me tomorrow for what promises to be a great topic: The Greening of Traditional Media’. Also on the panel will be Betsy Rosenberg, executive producer of ‘EcoTalk’, Anya Kamenetz of ‘Fast Company’, and Nick Aster, the media artchitect of ‘Treehugger’.

Cohn & Wolfe, along with our WPP colleagues at Landor and PSB will also be launching our ‘Green Brands’ study 2008, which looks at current consumer perceptions of environmental issues, and how they ‘how green’ they consider our leading companies to be.

If you imagine that worries over the state of the economy have wiped green issues from people’s minds, think again. This study is essential reading for anyone who works for a leading brand, or who reports on it.

Look out for a lot more in the days ahead.

I will also be busy filming interviews with leaders in sustainability who are speaking here, to kick-start a rolling Cohn & Wolfe series.

One thought strikes me right away: if anyone thinks that the United States is somehow behind Europe on sustainability, a week at this conference will make them think again.