4 Tips To Effective Green Marketing Environmental Compliance

Putting a premium on “green marketing” is obviously quite important when it comes to environmental compliance issues, but be careful to not make overblown claims, which can damage your reputation.

“Green marketing is a necessity, but it comes with certain challenges when it comes to things like permit requirements, records maintenance and obligations related to storage or disposal, to name a few examples,” said Edward(Ted) Sailer, President of ProComplianceWare, a popular customizable web-based environmental management system which organizes and maintains all compliance requirements for any type of industry.

Thus, here are four tips to help companies make sure their green messaging campaigns never cross into overstatement and inaccuracy:

1 – Make Sure Your Green Claims Are Accurate

There are few regulations on what a company can or cannot say about its green approach to business. Yet there are many ways to make claims that can get a company into trouble.

Inaccurate claims can bring enforcement actions from the Federal Trade Commission and some states

As well, goals that are too broadly stated can leave a company open to stakeholder criticisms for not being achievable, creating false expectations for the public or diluting the company’s brand. And if you're a public company, there may even be SEC concerns.

Top 10 Hazardous Waste Compliance Issues

A recent Tufts University study revealed these top ten hazardous waste compliance issues:

1. Waste label not properly filled out (on both sides, complete information).
2. Weekly inspection of the satellite accumulation or main/central accumulation area NOT being performed.
3. Full container remaining in a satellite accumulation area for more than 3 days.
4. More than one container per waste stream (type of waste).
5. No impervious base (secondary container requirement). All waste containers must be stored in a compatible secondary container in order to contain spills.
   

How To Achieve A Perfect Environmental Compliance Record

There’s no single means to achieving the best environmental compliance possible, but here are some common themes employed by those company's with outstanding compliance records:

• An iron-clad environmental management system that  keeps your environmental compliance on track.
• Data and calculations are achieved electronically, thus making them less susceptible to error.  A good environmental compliance program (web-based or software) is highly advisable.