PRESS RELEASE
7 NOVEMBER 2006
Carbon Credited brands will lead
A new consultancy has been launched to help marketers grasp the opportunities in Climate Change. The "Carbon Credited"™ Brands program is an advisory service that can help brand owners respond to the Greenhouse challenge and gain an early mover advantage.
“The time to start thinking about Global Warming is now, when your can gain maximum leverage and lead your category,” says Australia’s first Climate Change Marketing Consultant Michael Kiely. “You don’t have to spend $3 billion like Virgin to position your brand for a climate-changed world. In fact it’s better of you don’t because there are more enduring results to be had from a grassroots strategy that engages all stakeholders,” he says.
The "Carbon Credited"™ Brands program involves mapping an organisation's ‘carbon footprint’, developing options for becoming a 'carbon neutral' brand, developing opportunities for engaging a brand's stakeholders and helping them learn to manage Climate Change in their own lives. Companies engaged in the process of becoming carbon neutral can display the "Carbon Credited"™ stamp of approval.
Michael Kiely recently returned from a 3 week study tour of the USA meeting with the leading scientists working on the US Government’s Greenhouse solutions, meeting leading US and European carbon market authorities, and signing a deal with the Chicago Climate Exchange to trade in carbon credits from Australian producers. This visit caps off a year-long involvement with the issue at a grassroots level as Convenor of the Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming, a Greenhouse lobbying and trading operation.
“Both Australia and the US are close to introducing ‘cap and trade’ systems, despite their federal governments’ refusal,” says Michael Kiely. “The States in both countries are setting up mandatory ‘pollution tax’ systems that will have the same effect. Soon all companies will be forced to address their greenhouse emissions. Then the rush will be on.”
Companies that move early will stand out as being visionary and proactive.
Every brand should be thinking of its response to their customers' question: "What are you doing to save the world?" News Ltd, Ford, Dupont, and Virgin are among the leaders in this issue. They are going 'carbon neutral' - reducing their emissions or paying others to 'sequester' or lock up carbon dioxide in amounts equivalent to their emissions. BP, Westpac, Origin Energy, Visy and IAG are taking a leadership role.
The front-foot approach involves the following: 1. Engage your CEO and Board. (McKinsey says: "The way a company manages its carbon exposure could create or destroy shareholder value." Goldman Sachs says, "Climate change is a topic that should be on the agenda of every Board of Directors.") 2. Audit your emissions. 3. Assess your potential for reductions by operational changes. 4. Estimate the offsets you will need to purchase to bring your "carbon footprint" down. 5. Engage your stakeholders - staff, suppliers, customers, shareholders - in the process.
There are pitfalls to avoid: 1. As with any new market, there are many opportunists selling snake oil. 2. Some 'abatement offsets' being sold are 'junk', ie, not fit for the purpose for which they are offered for sale. 3. Some could damage brands choosing them when green groups reveal what is going on behind them. 4. Companies that indulge in "greenwashing" (making a token effort, hoping to spin it out into an acceptable image of action) will be unmasked, and their deception will do them damage.
“There’s no time to lose. This issue is getting hotter,” says Michael Kiely.
ABOUT MICHAEL KIELY
Michael Kiely is principal of Michael Kiely Marketing. He served until 2006 as a national director of the Australian Direct Marketing Association and was inducted into the Australian Direct Marketing Hall of Fame in 2001. He is former Chairman of Boomerang Integrated Marketing & Advertising.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Call 0417 280 540. Or email me at Michael@michaelkielymarketing.com.au.
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