This week Google launched Google Power Meter which gives consumers detailed information on their power consumption throughout the day by displaying data from smart meters. It's aim is to highlight areas where consumers can cut back, and help them track and monitor this
Google Power Meter is a great example of a significant trend. Until the economic situation worsened, last year saw a growing demand for 'green' or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting. Historically this was driven by multinationals such as Shell and Anglo American who use greater transparency as a way of driving energy efficiency within the organisation and informing stakeholders. But in 2008 we saw detailed CSR information being used for marketing purposes, with pioneers such as Tesco putting carbon usage data on individual products.
Price and brand promotion is king at the moment, but will green be important to marketers when the recession is over? Some companies have fallen into the trap of greenwashing, a term for using general PR statements to pay lip service to green initiatives, but CSR reporting is going to be important because of the comparisons if will provide between rival products, services and companies. Online shoppers will be able to sort a basket of items on their carbon footprint, or compare a manufacturers energy usage or a companies CSR achievements.
If CSR and transparency is going to be an area is differentiation, and the companies who can show the most transparent accurate data gaining advantage, how do you get there? Three steps...
1. Have a ‘real’ CSR policy – Greenwashing is a waste of time and can damage your brand. A genuine focused CSR philosophy with clear targets will bring benefits in areas such as energy saving (which is just one area of CSR) and resonate with consumers and shareholders
2. Plan for a long term project - Reporting on this scale can't be achieved quickly and it's a journey – work with everyone from your suppliers through to customers to bring together this data
3. Get data in front of the public early - You shouldn't need to produce a full set of CSR reports before making them available to the public, pick a metric that your customers care about such as electricity usage and carbon emmisions and grow from there.
So in the current market when many are looking to cut costs and innovate, better CSR reporting can save money and improve your competitive standing.
