Most consumer companies are making green claims, and most know they must at least try to live up to them. That means taking steps and making investments to clean up their energy act, before consumers label them as greenwashers. It's a self-imposed variatiety of the "pull" marketing strategy.

But does that apply in the business-to-business world? I find business-to-business marketing claims to be more conservative, in part because B2B procurement processes include verification or certification, whereas consumers are more likely to take green claims at face value. Some companies' B2B marketing does, however, tend to get ahead of their green initiatives.

The December 2008 issue of BtoB (an Advertising Age companion magazine for business-to-business marketing managers), includes a special report that asks whether green marketing will continue to grow during the downturn.

Editor Ellis Booker, in an introduction to the section, wrote, "marketers will continue to play up their companies' legitimate initiatives -- not because green is deemed an admirable social cause but because 'sustainability' will be tied to messages about tangible benefits such as energy efficiency and cost-savings, which are perennial interests of businesspeople."

In other words, he thinks where quantifiable benefits are the main B2B marketing message, sustainability will serve as a supporting message.

I disagree -- I think sustainability is a main message that has become a "perennial interest of businesspeople" because B2B customers demand it.

Forrester Research says businesses are gravitating to green operations and green suppliers because they are being compelled in this direction by their trading partners. That's consistent with what I see in my day-to-day work. Suppliers in the U.S. that have major global customers find themselves required to report their carbon-of-goods-sold, or to comply with certain EU industry standards for greenness. Otherwise they risk losing a big slice of their business.

In turn, this creates an instant business case for investing in products and services that help them to meet those expectations -- for example smarter lighting, more efficient HVAC, and cleaner energy sources. It also creates a need to tell the marketplace about those energy- and carbon-saving investments.

In an interview in BtoB, Joel Makower of Green Order (a sustainability strategy and marketing consulting firm) said hundreds of companies are integrating environmental considerations into their procurement criteria, requiring suppliers to comply. Companies that fail to do their homework, he says, are most at risk of being accused of greenwashing.

According to a report in September 2008 by Duke University, marketing heads are distracted by the downturn and are placing less emphasis on cause-related and environmental issues. Makower said green marketing "has fared fairly well," and companies are cutting back less on green marketing than they are cutting back on marketing overall. If both are right, then green marketing is not purely "'cause-related or environmental."

More green marketing creates more need to fulfill promises to reduce carbon footprints. That pulls along more investment in reducing a company's consumption of fossil energy. Each cycle ups the ante. Long live the marketers!