Are you going to Ecobuild next week? 

If so, please do pop over to Stand S1102 to say hello. We're right next to the S4 entrance to the South Hall.

We often advise clients on their exhibition plans, but actually booking an exhibition space at Ecobuild ourselves is a very exciting project for us. It has involved a whole team of environmentally-friendly suppliers (many of whom are donating their materials, time and expertise free of charge) and our first working collaboration with the excellent team at commercial interior designers Grigoriou Interiors.

Grigoriou Interiors is one of London’s most forward-thinking consultancies on all aspects of sustainable interior design and architecture, predominantly in the commercial sector.

It is run by two sisters, Elina and Angeliki Grigoriou, who have worked with renowned global brands such as Virgin Atlantic, Marks and Spencer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Regus.

Elina Grigoriou is one of the UK’s leading experts on sustainable commercial interior design - you may also have seen her named this week as one of Building magazine's Top 50 Rising Stars of Sustainability.

Consequently, our exhibition stand at this year’s Ecobuild will become the first built in the UK to be formally assessed for its environmental impact under the RICS Ska Rating scheme.

Building on the success of the original office fit-out version launched in 2009, Ska Rating for Retail was launched by RICS in February, and can be applied to exhibition spaces.

It is an award-winning standard assessment method that allows businesses to measure the environmental impact of their fit-outs and to set benchmarks for improvements.

Our joint stand with Grigoriou Interiors will be designed and built according to Ska Rating good practice measures. Consideration has been given to the whole lifecycle of the stand and, once built, it will be formally assessed for its environmental impact, including where appropriate energy efficiency and the CO₂ emissions from transport, waste and material use.

I can't wait to see the stand - Elina tells me that it will be a fun and friendly space. Nothing too corporate. And as she always reminds me, ‘fashionable’ and ‘green’ need not be mutually exclusive.

For me, this stand also demonstrates what can be done through creative collaborations between liked-minded businesses, where genuinely sustainable spaces can be well designed and built very economically.

This is a first, and our success with Ska will depend on how much can be verified once the stand has been built, but we are confidently aiming for a silver Ska Rating (we will know for sure by the end of the show and will get the certificate to show for it). And of course we also gain a robust benchmark to improve on next year.

This is no gimmick. Exhibitors at any show with ‘eco’ or ‘green’ in its title will inevitably come under scrutiny for the environmental sustainability of their stands, and we felt very conscious of that. Without any form of accredited assessment, we all run the risk of being accused of greenwash.

That’s why we chose to work with Grigoriou Interiors and use Ska Rating.

I think this exercise – as with all good PR and marketing in this field – is about a journey, a learning process, and a commitment to responsible promotion.

It is also providing us with a very special meeting space, a quiet place at Ecobuild for journalists to meet up with our clients who will be attending the show. That's its primary purpose. So I hope you will stop to say hello if you're passing by, and I can introduce you to some great people.

Our very grateful thanks go to the other collaborators on the stand, including:

Stand Manufacture & Construction: Mast Displays - http://www.mastdisplays.co.uk/

Paint: Earthborne - http://www.earthbornpaints.co.uk/

Furniture: Mark Product - http://www.markproduct.com/

Lighting: LSLCo – www.lslco.co.uk

I heard a true story the other day of a leading company in renewable energy which was banned from saying in its marketing literature that its biomass products used ‘sustainably sourced’ wood.  The edict came from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), backed up by Defra. 

The offence? Using the S word.

Yes, warn your marketing agencies and copywriters right now. Any attempt to sell stuff using the S word is, well, unsustainable.

For 10 years Defra’s Green Claims Code has set out best practice on the content of environmental claims including accuracy, truthfulness, relevance, use of unambiguous terminology, presentation of claims and comparative claims.

As a proposed revision to the Code now explains:

“The concepts involved in sustainability are highly complex.  At this time there are no definite methods for measuring full sustainability or confirming its accomplishment (whether environmental, social and/or economic). Therefore claims about a product or service being ’sustainable’ or ‘environmentally sustainable’ should not be made.”

Don’t get them wrong. The Government wants to see more and better environmental claims.  It acknowledges that marketing has a huge role to play in promoting more sustainable lifestyle choices and that business must be a positive catalyst for change.

But given the changes to the ASA’s rules since September this year and from everything I continue to hear on this issue, massive proof is going to be needed to justify green claims in the future. 

No one has ever yet managed to persuade the ASA that they, or their product or service, are “sustainable”, “green” or “environmentally friendly”. And woe betides anyone who tries to use any absolute claim of “zero carbon” in their marketing. (Hmm, I can’t wait to see what will happen when a ‘definition’ of zero carbon is made by CLG, but Defra bans its use…)

If you want to know what you can say and what you can’t, updated guidance on Defra’s Green Claims Code is supposed to be coming out this month. 

But in the meantime it all seems to boil down to what is easily understood by the man on the street (specialist or well-informed audiences don’t count). If he understands ‘sustainable’ to mean one thing, and his mate thinks it’s another, then we have Ambiguity. And this does not sit comfortably with the ASA or the Government. 

Environmental claims are often complicated or very technical. But the underlying principles are the same for all, says the ASA Council – they look at everything from a consumer’s point of view.

In its defence, the ASA says its has seen a big rise in public scepticism about carbon and climate change claims since ‘Climategate’, the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit about 12 months ago. But it seems to me the most common cause for an ASA investigation and potential corporate reprimand is still a complaint from a competitor. 

Interestingly, having studied past ASA adjudications on this topic, there seem to be a few alternative ways in which environmental credentials can be promoted with a bit more legal leeway:

• Sponsorships can help to make you look greener by association (but needless to say no one is fooled by any cynical attempt to greenwash a baddie brand this way)
• PR and media information is not covered by ASA rules (but we have our own professional guidelines from bodies like the CIPR, and I see no reason why PR people should not apply the same rigour to environmental claims)
• Comparative claims can work (but only if there is a clear improvement over a previous product or a competitor and the comparison is very clear. In this context, any ‘independent’ research that backs up your claim must be entirely independent – you can’t have paid for it)
• And it looks like trade associations can have much more freedom in the claims they might make on their industries’ behalf, as they are not selling direct to the customer (but again, this is a complex area and best practice should still be observed).

I’m no lawyer, and I’ve witnessed some pretty perverse decisions on what can and cannot be said about environmental sustainability in the building industry.  I will be watching with interest what gets published by Defra shortly, including its latest research on consumers’ understanding of green terms.  For now, the best advice I can offer is to play it safe.  Put more time into becoming a greener business than you spend on saying it. 

You can also find further advice on my ‘10 top tips to avoid greenwash’ here.