Bottled Water vs. Water Bottles: How Can Marketing Change the Trend?
Summer has arrived! When it’s hot and you’re thirsty, what do you reach for? For a lot of Americans, it’s bottled water. In fact, this pretty unassuming commodity has become wildly popular. It’s...
View ArticleThe Patriotic Case for Sustainability
If you’ve ever heard me talk deeply about Shelton Group’s vision – that every home and building in America is energy responsible and sustainability is ordinary – it’s probably struck you that our...
View ArticleTeaching Kids So They Can Teach Us
As crazy as it may seem to readers living in some parts of the country, kids start going back to school in a couple of weeks in much of the South. If you’re a parent, the words “back to school” have...
View ArticleThe Biggest Benefit of Telling Your Sustainability Story – the Flywheel Effect
At Shelton Group, we’ve written a lot about why you should tell your company’s sustainability story. Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve said in the past: B-to-B customers expect it. According to our...
View ArticleDo You Believe in God? How About Climate Change?
We just downloaded our 2016 Eco Pulse findings with our Shelton Inner Circle members this week, and in order to contextualize the stats on belief in climate change, the Shelton research team decided to...
View ArticleSustainability and American Identity, Part 1
This year’s Eco Pulse study came back with a really surprising statistic: 45% of Americans say buying/using eco-friendly products is an important part of their personal image. What’s amazing about this...
View ArticleWater conservation is the next big thing. Have consumers gotten the memo?
Here at Shelton Group, we talk a lot about consumers and energy – how they use it, how they perceive the companies that bring it to them, and what it will take to convince them to be more efficient....
View ArticleIt’s Time to Start Connecting Environmental Impact to Home Energy Efficiency
I’m about to make an about-face. For years, I’ve been telling you, “Look, I get it that making one’s home more energy efficient is the best, most important step anybody can take to curb their impact on...
View ArticleIf your organization is committed to curbing water waste, make that...
Are you, as a company or brand, committed to conserving water? If so, do you talk about it? In a way that consumers can hear you and value the message? That’s a topic very much on our minds here at the...
View ArticleConservatives are sliding under the climate change tent. How do we keep them...
Over the years, I have had some “lively” dinner conversations about politics and public policy with my family. Last year’s Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving Miracle skit particularly resonates. In...
View ArticleGo Bold
Last week was a big week. Shelton Group celebrated its 25th year in business, we pulled together a small group of clients for two days of deep discussion around sustainability-related marketing at our...
View ArticleWhy do we keep making sustainability so hard?
Years ago, I used to rant in this blog about how Americans said they wanted to buy greener cleaning products, but they either weren’t going to walk from the regular cleaning products aisle all the way...
View ArticleSustainability Made Easy
Last week I wrote a blog post entitled, “Why do we keep making sustainability so hard?” and ranted a bit about the challenges of trying to actually own and charge an electric vehicle. In the interest...
View ArticleIt’s time to talk turkey about the environment.
Once upon a time – back when we first started marketing energy efficiency and sustainability – we told our clients that if you wanted to get consumers to save energy, the last thing you should do is...
View ArticleYes, Americans are divided – but not on the environment
The results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election exposed some deep rifts in the American psyche and leave many of us feeling more divided than ever as Donald Trump takes office. But according to our...
View ArticleThe Mainstreaming of the Circular Economy
If you read our insights regularly, this won’t be a news flash: Most of us can recall a time when we’ve considered a company’s environmental record as we’ve made a product purchase. About a third of us...
View ArticleThe Fun, the Bold, the Risky: Super Bowl Ads
The sustainably focused Kia Niro ad stole the show for laughs in my highly unscientific focus group (the 16 people eating pizza in my living room). It was quick, hilarious and an indirect rip-off of...
View ArticleStay the course. And then change it.
I talk with a lot of people working in energy and the environment every week. And for the most part, when I ask the pointed question, “How is your company responding in the wake of the Trump...
View ArticleSurvey says: EPA under Scott Pruitt is less trusted; companies should stay...
As a regular reader of our work, you received a short poll earlier this week intended to help us gauge your perceptions of the EPA in the wake of Scott Pruitt’s confirmation. American consumers also...
View ArticleGlass Recycling: A Problem of Alignment
When it comes to recycling, I’m spoiled – I have single-stream, curbside recycling pickup at my house here in Knoxville. When the city recently announced it would no longer accept glass in the curbside...
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