I suspect that most of you are familiar with the term “greenwashing”. According to Wikipedia, it is a term used to describe the perception of consumers that they are being misled by a company regarding its environmental practices or the environmental benefits of a product or service. (Picture a TV commercial that includes a Hummer driving through a pristine forest with birds singing and deer dancing.) Did you know that the term was born in the lodging industry? It is kind of embarrassing, but true.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about the origin of the word: “Greenwashing was coined by suburban New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, in an essay regarding the hotel industry’s practice of placing green placards in each room, promoting reuse of guest towels, ostensibly to ‘save the environment’. Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward waste recycling was being implemented by these institutions, due in part to the lack of cost-cutting affected by such practice. Westerveld opined that the actual objective of this ‘green campaign’ on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, profit increase. Westerveld hence monikered this and other outwardly environmentally-conscientious acts with a greater, underlying purpose of profit increase as ‘greenwashing’.”
The reason I am mentioning greenwashing this week is not to lambast towel and linen reuse programs but to mention something that recently happened to the Starbucks Corp. It is a lesson for any organization portraying itself as “green”. The Sun, a U.K.-based publication, reported that Starbucks was wasting more than 6 million gallons of water a day at its 10,000 global locations. How so? By keeping a tap running continuously for the purpose of cleaning utensils. Starbucks claimed it was necessary to maintain good hygiene. Health experts said it was a ridiculous practice. It did not take long for the story to spread to all of the major news organizations. Starbucks turned from “green” to red—as in embarrassed.
Company Had Received Warning
Not long after the Starbucks story broke, it was revealed in the media that the company had been warned two years prior by a public relations agency that it was setting itself up for a potential PR problem. At that time, Starbucks ignored the warning. How did Starbucks react to the water debacle? It introduced a procedure to switch off the tap and wash spoons after use. It is currently exploring other options as well. Now was that so difficult? It is amazing to me that a company the size of Starbucks could waste so much water all because of a hygiene myth.
Are there lessons to be learned from this story? Definitely. Here are a few that come to mind:
• Before you create an aura of greenness around your brand or property, make sure you are not doing something that is glaringly not green—something that is highly visible to your customers. You will be accused of greenwashing.
• If your public relations representative warns you about something you are doing that could be perceived as greenwashing, pay attention.
• Starbucks has a very aggressive goal to have 50 percent of the energy used at its stores to come from renewable sources by 2010. The company also wants to incorporate green building standards into all of its new building construction. These are all worthwhile goals. What it learned in this most recent incident, however, is that a lot of good works can be overshadowed by one unwise operational decision. In a hyper media environment, one almost has to be perfect to avoid scrutiny.
• For those properties with food and beverage operations, there certainly is no need to keep water running continuously. Pre-rinse spray valves are a no brainer when it comes to conserving water in the kitchen. (See article.)
Starbucks is a good company and I am sure it will find a way to solve its water problem. Let’s all think twice the next time we see or hear water running continuously. There is most definitely not an endless supply.
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