Ken Eskenazi, Clean Agency

Sustainability “cool”? Clean Agency believes that you can’t make something cool — either it is, or it isn’t.

But people have to know what you’re talking about before they can decide if it’s cool or not. When it comes to sustainability, that’s our biggest hurdle: people need to understand what sustainability means, because they won’t embrace what they don’t understand.

We are often asked how “sustainability” differs from “green,” “ecology,” “environmental” and “cradle-to-cradle.”

These terms carry a lot of baggage — it’s possible that we need a new word altogether. And it isn’t clear who is responsible for sustainability: government? business? nonprofits? tree-huggers? you? me?

Let’s face it, sustainability has an image problem. The question is, how do we change that?

Our solution is education. We need to define sustainability for consumers and create awareness that sustainability is more than just recycling trash or being natureconscious (the reference points most consumers are likely to have). We must brand sustainability as a cool way of thinking, acting, working and living your life.

Our cleanMarketing campaign will brand sustainable living as an individual choice — not a demand coming from government, business, environmental groups or other perceived interests. Choosing sustainability must be co-opted byconsumers — especially young consumers — as a bold way to create a new kind of world, not as a re-hash of old ecology movements or as anything related to maintaining the status quo.

One of the best ways to unite people is by sharing a common enemy. And our approach has a prime villain: waste. Our campaign will clarify and simplify sustainability by defining it as minimizing waste — of time, money, resources, efforts or energy.

Action planning

“Choose Sustainability/Don’t Waste it” is a long-term program integrating marketing, online promotion, public relations and advertising. Key elements are: BRANDING. A strong visual branding campaign: you see it, you get it, it looks cool.

Teaching sustainability. You can’t unlearn it. Organize a roster of guest speakers for grade schools.Design cool book covers (printed with soy inks on recycled stock, of course) with our brand’s look and feel. Produce in-class lectures to be played on closed-circuit TVs and train TAs to answer kids’ inevitable questions (“Why aren’t we doing this already?”).

Bringing it to the community with cleanPractice. We’ll work with local nonprofits, libraries, churches and other peer group organizations to integrate sustainability into existing programs. The message comes from within the group, not from an outside source. Make it easy for cities to host green festivals and provide branded educational material  and “swag” (reusable bags, organic cotton tee shirts, fresh natural food).

Staging a massive cleanPR effort to place sustainability on “in” lists and “waste” on “out” lists. Utilize influencers and celebrities to promote sustainability like a brand: Dr. Phil and Oprah (“Is your relationship sustainable?”); supply morning television program segments on cool new products and practices; engage Bill Gates and Steve Jobs incompetition (what’s more sustain-able: Windows or Mac?); sponsor concerts and MTV/VH1 programming; produce  more public service announcements by celebs such as Bono, Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, etc., and enlist emerging ock and rap artists.

Our budget? This ambitious program would run at least $5 million (for publicists, talent, online, broadcast and print media) and could easily be scaled up or down.

Waste isn't cool

The opportunity for change is tremendous, so why waste it? Fortunately, some large companies are beginning to take this larger view. Redefining British Petroleum (BP) as Beyond Petroleum, GE’s ecomagination campaign, and Starbucks'  Fair Trade Organic Coffee are examples of corporate early adopters.

Any successful media campaign must target two important consumer groups: trend-setting boomers and youth. Both groups are ready for the anti-waste message of less is more. Boomers continually look for new ways to navigate their stressful, overly commercialized, overly full lives. And youth looks for ways to avoid making the same mistakes.

Clean Agency’s campaign isn’t about trying to make sustainability cool — it already is cool. Just try to buy a Toyota Prius in California!

In their own words: Clean Agency is a fullservice marketing firm, based in Pasadena, Calif., founded by advertising and marketing industry veterans focused on integrating sustainability into business strategy and communications. Our solutions-oriented, multidisciplinary approach, called “clean marketing,” includes sophisticated design, immersion market research, online marketing and applications, media planning, promotions, public relations and consultation.