Interview with Deborah Fleischer of Green Impact

by: Dennis Salazar

18 Feb 2010

From the beginning we promised to bring our readers interviews with difference makers in the fast moving, rapidly changing world of sustainability and few have as firm of a handle on it as Deborah Fleischer. Deborah is president of Green Impact and whether she is serving as a consultant or as a writer for various outlets, including her own blog, she is a busy lady and we are fortunate to be able to interview her.

DS: Deborah, please tell our readers about your company and the consulting work you do?

DF: Green Impact helps companies walk the green talk. We support businesses and organizations committed to sustainability design and implement new green programs, and create green communications that engage, inspire and change behavior. Our promise is to deliver real, measurable results.

DS: You are considered an authority on “green messaging”. Give us some idea of what you suggest to your clients.

DF: Wearing my Green Maven hat, I offer three suggestions to promote a stronger, more authentic green message:

Walk the talk and implement in-house goals and programs before you tell the world you are green (see If You’re Going to be Naked, You Better Be Buff);
Target Audience: Be clear on who you are trying to reach, what they care about and communicate directly to them where they are. Be it Twitter or Facebook, you need to integrate social media channels into your strategy; and
Tell simple stories: Share both your successes and challenges in an engaging way. You need to go deep and identify real areas for improvement, yet go simple with your communications.

DS: You do a lot of work with governmental agencies as well as and non-profit organizations. How has the recession affected their green programs and initiatives?

DF: Over the past year, I have seen a significant drop in budgets to execute new green programs for non-profits and governmental agencies. There are many cutting-edge programs in these sectors, but smaller budgets for consultants to support the efforts.

DS: Deborah, late last year you authored a Green Biz report titled “Green Teams”. Can you please tell our readers a little about what led to that excellent piece and what it addresses?

DF: Much of my blogging has focused on best green business practices and last year, after attending a variety of conferences, a particular challenge I saw companies struggling with is how to leverage the passion and commitment of employees to support corporate sustainability goals.

A top-down approach alone is not enough for success and a key strategy for engaging employees is green teams. I ended up interviewing several larger companies about their green team best practices and pulled the information together into one report.

DS: Please give us some idea on how your “Green Teams” report can be utilized by different size companies at different levels of their green initiatives.

DF: The report identified ten best practices for engaging employees in sustainability. I have received positive feedback on the report from a wide variety of companies. If a company is just getting started, the report includes tips for forming a green team and presents ideas for initial programs. For companies farther along in the process, it also presents more strategic ways to align green teams with corporate objectives.

DS: You are a self proclaimed “packaging geek” and I know this is an area of great interest to you. Tell us what you think the packaging industry has accomplished and where you believe it still has much work to do.

DF: I’m not sure I’m a geek, but when I see a company claiming to be green, and they have not thought about their packaging, it drives me a bit bonkers. I get so passionate about it I can drive folks crazy.

That is why I was so excited to discover your company and happy to recommend it to organizations struggling to find good sources of green packaging. I think the variety and options of products has grown—for example, the bio-based plastics and packing peanuts are a great addition.

The challenge I still see if around education and labeling. I just ordered something last week from a “green company” packed in peanuts. I have no way of knowing if they could be composted or if they are plastic (I imagine you might be able to tell by simply looking, but I’m not that much of a geek!).

And at the GreenBiz Forum in San Francisco earlier this month, there was much confusion over whether the cups and cutlery were compostable or not. Green packaging is great—but it is even more powerful when we can close the loop and reuse, recycle or compost rather than send it to the landfill.

DS: Deborah, thank you for taking time to share with us and I encourage everyone to spend some time reading your insightful articles, posts and reports. You can learn more at Deborah’s sustainability consulting website and her sustainability blog, Shades of Green. You can also follow Deborah Fleischer on Twitter.

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