Recently in Customer Standards for Green Marketing Category

Google search capabilities have changed and increased significantly over the past year, and more computer users and mobile device users are using Google and other search engines more than ever.  It's just so ... easy!  Much easier than playing telephone tag to ask a knowledgeable friend or expert a question... and that's the search engine's secret sauce. Ease of use...availability...and always having an answer, even if it takes a bit of shoveling of fertilizer to find the right connection or information.

The searching action has become part of the "media" of today. And online search is growing much faster than other methods of information distribution.

Google Leads the Search Pack

It's always fascinating to glimpse the collective consciousness of Google users.

Beyond search queries rising for Michael Jackson, swine flu, Twitter and Lady Gaga, what else did Google searches reveal last year?

• Proportion of Google users in the United States making more than one query per day:
  7 out of 10
• Proportion of Google users in the United States making more than 10 queries per day:
  1 out of 7
• Fraction of Google queries, duplicates excluded, never seen before: More than 1/3
• Fraction of Google queries, duplicates included, never seen before: More than 1/5
• Country with the greatest increase in Google web search traffic in 2009 vs. 2008: Indonesia*
• Approximate percentage of Internet users in Indonesia: 11.1%*
• Average amount of time it takes a user to finish entering a query: 9 seconds
• Average amount of time it takes Google to answer a query: Less than 1/4 second
• Number of search quality improvements made by Google in 2009: 540, ~1.5 each day
• Proportion of Google result pages that show a map in search results: 1 in 13
• Average increase in driving distance on weekends vs. weekdays on Google Maps: 11km
• Median distance from a user's location to ice skating rinks found on Google Maps: 30km
• Median distance from a user's location to ski resorts found on Google Maps: 300km

Posted by the Google Search Team

I an an active affiliate marketer for select companies and I have made it a habit of glancing over the Associates Agreements before I commit to adding the company's products to my websites, but I hadn't worried too much about them... until this came up in an affiliate agreement:

Sustainable Brands Conference
May 31 - June 4, 2009
Monterey Conference Center
Monterey, CA
SPONSOR:  Sustainable Life Media

Sustainable Brands '09 is an international event discussing the rapid rise of sustainability as a driver for revenue growth and brand equity in the 21st Century.

Despite negative world news, the climate is more ready than ever for smart, sustainable brands to pick up steam and take the lead into the future. 

Hear from some of the deepest thinkers who are paving the way for sustainable brands - from futurist and economics iconoclast Hazel Henderson on Building a Win/Win World, to Mathis Wackernagel (2007 Skoll Award Winner for Social Entrepreneurship) on ecological overshoot. From Dacher Keltner (PhD, Stanford, and author of "Born to Be Good") on the evolutionary sensibility of altruism, to Tom Szaky (CEO, TerraCycle) on creating profit from trash. And, of course, that's just the beginning. Get a sneak peek at some of the over 60 faculty we're in the process of bringing together.

SB'09 is where the most forward looking business thinkers, brand strategists, designers, sustainability executives and communications experts gather to craft new strategies, solutions and stories that will better serve the needs of today's - and tomorrow's - global marketplace. Whether we are discussing sustainable bonfire brands like Seventh Generation, Living Homes, New Belgium Brewery and Nau, or large global innovators like Wal-Mart, Coke-a-Cola, Steelcase, Clorox, HP and Unilever.

KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz
President and CEO
Sustainable Life Media
650-344-9693.
Event website: http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/events/sb09

With California's new green chemistry plan, the state is moving from 'claims of green' to 'metrics of green.'

Green is not a useful term when a company does one thing to make their product green, but their overall footprint is not good. The state of California will now start looking at how green is green. And how to compare this product to that product."

Approximately 100,000 known chemicals are used in manufacturing production today, but safety data is available on only a few thousand. In California, 644 million pounds of chemical products are sold each day.

The proposed "Green Chemistry" initiative comes at a time of growing concern that the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, passed three decades ago, has failed to control an explosion of hazardous materials.

"The federal government has not required ingredients disclosure for all products," Gorsen said. "Now for the first time, we will know what is in products -- and not just those made in California but anything sold in California."

Two California laws passed last fall have jump-started the program. AB 1879, sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), requires the state to identify "chemicals of concern" and to evaluate safer alternatives. SB 509, sponsored by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), creates a scientific clearinghouse for information on chemicals' effects.

Automakers and electronics manufacturers lobbied against the bills, saying that, given the new European standards, they could be subjected to a patchwork of warning labels.

Read more at the LA Times

THE WAL-MART SUSTAINABILITY SCORECARD

It’s likely that you’ll soon have to comply with your customers’ sustainability initiatives as well as your own. That's the case if you provide products for the Wal-Mart chain of retail outlets.

Wal-Mart has taken a "lifecycle approach" to packaging with objectives covering reduction in waste and renewable energy. Nine weighted parameters of Wal-Mart's sustainability scorecard are measured for their prospective and current vendors.

Wal-Mart has told its buyers that, starting in 2008, they should consider the packaging scores when choosing among various products for its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. Matt Kistler, Vice President - Package and Product Innovations, Sam's Club Wal-Mart

Part of the challenge in rolling out greener products is informing customers about changes that affect their perception of savings. Wal-Mart's April 2008 "Earth Month" promotion is highlighting its greener products and informing customers how making better choices, especially on a large scale, can cause a difference. Wal-Mart is featuring more than 50 products in stores and 500 online, from transitional cotton shirts to mulch made from rubber to Clorox Green Works products.

The majority of Wal-Mart's environmental footprint comes from suppliers. The company has direct control on about 8 percent of its footprint, with the remaining 92 percent coming from its supply chain.

To green its supply chain the company launched a it's "Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard" in 2007 . By filling in information about products' packaging, suppliers are rated and find out their rank in relation to peers. Kistler said Wal-Mart works with suppliers, telling them what they can do to improve and let them know what other suppliers have done to reduce packaging.