o quote a colleague who specializes in sustainable product research, “The Vinyl Institute has done a great job of misleading consumers about the toxicity of the products their industry produces… Inherently, petroleum-based products are toxic, regardless if they can be recycled.”

We’re sure that you’ve heard about greenwashing. It’s a cool thing to talk about sustainability, but what about walking the walk?

We found this as a common question in an internet search and immediately took pause to determine exactly what the question is asking. With two possible interpretations, we thought we would take a moment to answer both from our point of view.

Clients have come to us many times with comments like, “I’m not sure if this is something you’d even be interested in,” and others that boast about the multiple quick-flip properties they assume we would be thrilled to take on. In actuality, those assumptions are usually far from the truth.

We hear it all the time “green materials,” “sustainable practices,” but what does this mean? Sometimes it is a marketing ploy, something to convince people that they are making the right moral decision by purchasing that vinyl flooring that “meets sustainability standards.” Other times, it means that firm is doing the very best it can and are constantly working to do better.

We hear about VOC’s all the time these days, particularly pertaining to harmful products that we bring into our homes. Many products will tout that they do not emit VOC’s and are therefore sustainable products. While it does help, there are so many more variables that make a product truly sustainable, and if possible we prefer a cradle-to-cradle product.

Let’s back up a minute though. What are VOC’s?

Breathe. Breathe in the air. Don’t be afraid to care.
-Pink Floyd.

Today, I had one of these moments as I reviewed the posts in a group that I had been encouraged to join so that I could share my BIG message in a BIG way. Sigh.. an inspirational quote followed by an ad, followed by the groundbreaking discovery that is not so groundbreaking.

I turned on my marketing brain from my schooling and put out a question to the group that went something like this,

“This is big? This is the message? How are you going to change the world with this? What is it that is so beautiful and magnificent that it drives your every being to do what you do?”