Green or Gold?

Romi Mahajan · President - KKM Group

KKM Group is an Advisory company focused solely on Strategy and Marketing in the Technology, Media, Agency, and Luxury Goods sectors.

http://researchaccess.com/romi

The Corporate World is awash in a Gilded-Green. The Green is clear- environmental sloganeering; the Gold is equally clear- profit. The conflation of the two, money and morals, is a tricky one and ultimately rings disingenuous. That the relentless pursuit of profit and single-minded devotion to economic growth has directly lead to anthropogenic climate disaster cannot be forgotten nor should the baby-steps being taken by corporations be trumpeted as a new, sustainable mode.

When things seem to clear to us, too obvious, too comfortable (for instance that we can continue to make super profits and protect the planet) they should be suspect.

When someone tells you to buy a carbon offset and that too charges a nominal amount to do so, it should be clear that huge problems cannot be remedied by easy steps.

When oil companies broadcast commercials about their fierce love of the environment and simultaneously invade the Earth more deeply to find what’s left of the Planet’s oil, one should realize immediately that they are attempting to dupe us.

Until it’s too late.

Marketers and PR Professionals are carrying much of the water for these deceptive forces. That we do so is blight on our profession.
The status quo is not a good one.

And sooner or later we’ll need to retrain ourselves. We’ll have to be able to speak to the Press or to large audiences about our shrinking companies and our reduced profits. We’ll have to boldly discuss measures we take to ensure our workers’ health and welfare, to in fact increase our spending on things that matter. We’ll have to talk about these things with our characteristic verbal dexterity and smiling faces.

The good news is it won’t be subterfuge. Because when we discuss these things, we’ll know at a deep level that we are talking about security, sustainability, and the real possibility of progress.

When will this switch happen? The sooner the better.