Running a green/sustainable/environmentally friendly brand is obviously a big deal now. Following retail giant H&M‘s promises to use its water responsibly (under the watchful eye of the World Wildlife Federation), we figured we’d revisit the issue.

The public is understandably skeptical of such “sustainability” pledges, especially when made by notorious polluters like BP. It’s sort of like Apple promising to stop using child labor to build your iPhone or McDonald’s swearing by “certified sustainable fish” for its seafood McBites: how much of this is for real and how much of it is just another “greenwashing” corporate reputation stunt?

It’s one thing for a brand to release ads highlighting its environmental efforts but, as the Greenpeace Stop Greenwashing project tells us, most of these companies aren’t really all that interested in making their practices more sustainable–especially if they operate in the energy, automotive or forestry industries.

BP is a great example of a brand that just doesn’t have much credibility in the environmental sphere, no matter how many enthusiastic press releases its team writes. Puma, on the other hand, has begun publishing regular accounts of its supply chain’s influence on the environment, making clear that many of its practices have a serious impact and setting related goals that can be measured statistically.

So tell us: which brands do you trust on the sustainability front? While we’re at it, we have a couple more questions:

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One of the few downsides of doing great branding work is that the public’s familiarity with your name can be easily exploited. Thanks to the explosion of social media, “brandjacking” is a growing phenomenon.

In some cases, brands may benefit from being hijacked (see fictional characters like Lord Voldemort popping up with their own Twitter handles, thereby actually promoting the Harry Potter series). But most brand imposters operate with devious intentions: they either want to steal business from the company, purposely damage the company’s brand image, or create clever parody or satire. In the example below, we see a combination of the last two — a clever campaign created with the clear intent of doing harm to Exxon Mobil.

Look and sound familiar? That’s because it’s a virtual clone of recent Exxon Mobil ads like this one. This is brandjacking at its finest (and perhaps most dangerous for the brand being hijacked).

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Greenpeace recognized World Water Day (March 22) with its latest stunt, tied to the ongoing Detox program targeting fashion brands. In the clip above, people around the world wipe down posters on city streets to reveal a “secret” about the damage that the fashion industry is doing to the world’s rivers.

In some ways, we wonder if the video isn’t more effective because the organization was able to splice other images like the dirty water in the buckets and the crisp rushing river. It hits home in a way that a passerby, curiosity piqued by the secret, wouldn’t experience.

Greenpeace has filmed its own version of a Nike commercial to persuade it (and Adidas) to take steps to disassociate their brands with textile companies in China that are releasing toxic chemicals in the water.

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Greenpeace has filed a lawsuit against Ketchum and its client Dow Chemical, as well as Dezenhall Resources (formerly Nichols Dezenhall) and its client Sasol North America (formerly CONDEA Vista). The organization alleges that the PR firms and their clients hired a private security firm, Beckett Brown International (BBI), and used “unlawful means” to gather information about the organization and used it to stifle their education campaign.

The lawsuit alleges that BBI was paid a total of $325,000 for their services.

Ketchum spokesperson Jackie Burton told O’Dwyer’s: “We understand that a complaint has been filed. We have not formally received the papers yet and, therefore, cannot speak to any of the specifics in the complaint. We will review it thoroughly and address it in the appropriate venue. As a company that views integrity as fundamental to our values, we take this matter seriously.”

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