Greening the Inner-city

How green do Canadians think the leading brands are? That is the question Marc Stoiber and the rest of the crew over at Change set to find out.  They recently revamped their website and released a report they call MapChange.  It is available for download at their site.The MapChange project was undertaken to clarify two things: how committed Canada’s top brands are to the environment. And, how committed consumers think they are.

In the world of branding, what is real is only what is perceived to be real. What a brand does, good or bad, only affects its value if those actions change consumer opinion.

As companies across the globe race to adopt and brand sustainability for competitive advantage, consumers are becoming overloaded with green messaging, confused by the issues, and wary of greenwashing. Reality is becoming distorted.

Companies looking to win with sustainability branding must navigate this challenging landscape. Our goal was to figure out how well they’re doing.

Which companies have successfully branded sustainability? Which are not capturing the full value of their efforts? Which are benefiting from an unjustified green image?
What’s the difference between reality and perception?

This report will be of interest to anyone who runs a green business or is building a green brand.  Also of interest will be a post we made earlier on Targeting Socially Concious Consumers.  Below is an image mapping the greenness and perceived greenness of several popular brands in Canada which comes directly from the Change website.

Thanks to Simon Dunne for the heads up.  They plan to resume blogging too, but it doesn’t appear they’re using WordPress.