By Mary Beth West

With April 22 as Earth Day and the green of spring abounding here in East Tennessee, “In the Profession” will focus this month on sustainability as an organizational ethic and how green issues are impacting companies’ reputations.

For the past number of years, we’ve been fortunate to count among our close colleagues Knoxville-based advertising agency Shelton Group, led by entrepreneur and green strategy guru Suzanne Shelton.  Suzanne has spearheaded Shelton Group’s focus on understanding the national consumer mindset on sustainability and helping clients motivate mainstream consumers to make sustainable choices.

Tomorrow (April 9), Shelton Group will release Eco Pulse 2010, one of several annual Shelton Group proprietary studies, which will uncover “American consumer perceptions, drivers and knowledge issues for green products.” 

One of the major themes Shelton Group identified years ago and relentlessly hammers home to its clients nationwide is the issue of making sustainability real and authentic as an organizational value – as opposed to touting green messages as the flavor of the moment. 

From a public relations standpoint, that counsel is critical for all organizations to heed – particularly those in consumer products or with consumer stakeholders.  As Suzanne routinely points out, there is indeed something worse than a company failing to craft a strong sustainability message – and that’s crafting a false one.  Consumers get wise to phony green claims with even a whiff of contrivance. 

And that’s good.  It forces companies to get real about what they want to stand for on sustainability, both philosophically and in genuine practice.  Complete alignment of organizational messages with motivations makes for the best in public relations outcomes.  We tip our hats to Shelton for preaching good gospel on that front.