Category Archive

Today, a little blatant promotion for one of our clients. Starbucks and Conservation International have created a donation campaign for Earth Day that offers Starbucks customers a chance to support the planting of trees in the coffee-growing region of Chiapas, Mexico. More carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning and clearing of forests than from all of the world’s cars, trucks, SUVs and trains combined. And while no one knows exactly the best way to save the entire world, planting trees instead of slashing and burning is pretty much unequivocally good.

And ok, so they’re a client, so we have to say something nice, right? Not necessarily. We like to think we’re independent thinkers here (thus the whole non-joiner thing). Plus, approximately eight people read this blog … hardly a grand opportunity for client bootlicking.

The fact is, we’ve met people inside Starbucks directly responsible for their sustainable actions around the world — environmentally, socially, economically — and we are impressed. It’s easy to take broad, pissy potshots at a brand this big, this polarizing and everpresent, but the truth is that behind this global-sized brand there are people-sized people. And they are honestly passionate about doing things the right way. Sit down across the table from them and it’s palpable.

Plenty of smaller coffee companies are doing wonderful things in terms of sustainability and fair trade, but none have the reach or impact of Starbucks. For example, last year Starbucks purchased 20 million pounds of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee, making them the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee in North America. However, these purchases only made up roughly 6% of Starbucks total purchases of green (unroasted) coffee for 2007. (Why Starbucks doesn’t purchase 100% Fair Trade Certified™ coffee is an interesting, but slightly longer, tangent we won’t take here.)

Green is a responsibility Starbucks takes very seriously and, especially in our often cynical business of sloganeering, it’s pretty refreshing to work with people this dedicated to something good.

Today, we were going to talk about how Marlin just switched to PureClean for our janitorial services (who use Green Seal Certified™ cleaning products and focus on reducing the environmental impact while keeping our offices all sparkly), but then we realized we could do that all in a simple parenthetical phrase. Topic accomplished. Moving on!

Our friends over at FoodIQ just sent us an interesting article (ne press release) from Hotels Magazine about the debut of ECOLICIOUS at W San Francisco. Apparently, it’s an “eco-fun” “organic-chic cocktailing” happy hour, complete with original “eco-friendly drinks” and “organic bar bites.” And, if you couldn’t tell already from our egregious use of quotation marks, we’re just a wee bit skeptical of how green all this really is.

Admittedly, it’s not a bad idea. They’re trying to take green into more chic territory (though they’re certainly not the first people to figure that one out) and they’re owning their version of green: how much more W could green get than ECOLICIOUS? And they are serving green-friendly things that are organic or eco-friendly or biodynamic (what?). But our faux green radar started going beserk when we read this sentence:

Guests will be encouraged to have fun with the ECOLICIOUS themed cocktail hour, by showing up with eco-friendly tips to share with others, wearing sustainable clothing, or reusing their cocktail glass each time they enjoy a new beverage.

Ok, “showing up with eco-friendly tips to share with others?” “Wearing sustainable clothing?”

Shenanigans, W.

Shenanigans.

Have a great weekend. We’ll be back with a much more positive attitude (and more Green!) on Monday.

To quote Adam Sandler quoting Madonna who was not quoting Imelda Marcos but rather channeling Marilyn Monroe: “We are living in a material world, and I am a material girl.”

And when we material girls/boys want to do something good for our material world, what do we do? We buy it. Environmentally friendly products and services are, of course, incredibly popular now. And with that booming eco-market comes plenty of eco-posers.

If you believe all the advertising — luckily, most of you don’t — every company in North America is single-handedly saving the entire planet several times a day, at least. (By the way, did you hear about our universe-saving automatic toilet fans?!) Every ad is screaming green. Every product has some kind of spin that lets it claim a small, hopefully profitable chunk of the environmental movement.

Some products and companies actually are doing right by their claims. Some are simply trying to cash in on the latest consumer trend. It’s called greenwashing, though we find that the term “lying” works well enough and saves us from inventing yet another unnecessary compound adjective-verb thingy.

So…how to tell green friend from green faux? The answer is, proudly and not coincidentally, one of our clients here at Marlin — Green Seal.

Green Seal develops standards and provides certification for environmentally responsible products and services. In fact, Green Seal is the largest independent certifier in North America and, with the market’s rush to green itself, they’ve really come into the national spotlight. Check out this recent clip from The Today Show.

Green Seal offers consumers some much-needed reassurance on the accuracy of green claims, and gives responsible companies a little well-deserved credit for doing the things they’re doing. We (here at Marlin) have recently begun working with Green Seal, developing a complete brand strategy, updating their logo and now working on a video project to introduce Green Seal to the masses. Though, with 1.7 million hits on their website last month, it seems the masses are getting clued in pretty quickly.

Tomorrow’s GreenWeiner? Taking Out The Trash!

ADDITION: One of our clients at Starbucks just forwarded us this perfectly timed article on Ad Age about consumerism and Earth Day. Great read!

Whenever the issue of climate change or global warming (or whatever you’d prefer to call it; I call it “Thomas”) comes up, talk invariably turns to emerging nations like China, countries diving headlong into their own pseudo-industrial revolutions under the ever-watchful eye of the Information Age. And that talk is rarely flattering.

So it was refreshing to hear this piece on NPR Monday night, examining how China is trying to balance explosive growth against heavily leaded skies.

One side note: A companion bit of commentary to this story is from an expat currently living in Shanghai who was truly shocked at the idealism and can-do attitude of the Chinese people she’d met. She compares this to what she perceives as current American pessimism (and past American can-do-ism). Interesting perspective.

Tomorrow (speaking of can-do attitude): Green Seal Certified

Let’s talk about toilets.

As a result of a near-disastrous exhaust fan fire in the Marlin ladies restroom, we now have automatic, motion-activated lights and fans in both restrooms. This cuts down on the possibility of fires breaking out unnoticed on the weekend, but it also has the very green side effect of reducing Marlin’s overall energy consumption. The lights and fans aren’t running 24/7, which means we save approximately 43 billion kilowatts of energy every single day. (This number is in no way “true” or “accurate” or “verified” in any way imaginable. But the auto lights do save energy.)

Now, any time you feel the need to visit Mrs. Murphy, there’s a good chance you will be greeted with a momentarily dark restroom. Yes, a little disconcerting. But then the lights and fan will flicker to life and stay on for, we’re told, fifteen minutes. Should you be detained relatively motionless in the restroom for more than your allotted fifteen minutes, the lights will go out. So a word to the, um, slow-moving. We suggest you either speed things up or bring some sort of elongated waving device (a glove on a pole?) into the stall with you … for god’s sake do something to keep those lights on.

The only real downside to this? Some Marlinites believe fifteen minutes of exhaust fan just isn’t enough to handle certain bathroom events. Scary but true.

Tomorrow: China!