The recent launch of social media site BrandKarma has raised alarm bells through the marketing industry. The site ranks good and bad brands based on customer service, environmental performance and employee satisfaction. This suggests a fundamental shift in the way we view our brands and the need for companies to step up if they want to be regarded as truly sustainable.

Founder, Craig Davis explains, “Brands are the public face of the economy. In a world facing great challenges brands are massively influential for better and for worse. We all have skin in the game and we all have the right to our opinions. None of us is as smart as all of us.”

However, there is also a wide discrepancy in consumer perception and actual sustainability performance as detailed in the recent US study, MapChange 2010, by Maddock Douglass. This looked at the sustainability activity of over 90 firms and compared it to the view of 2,000 Americans. The results showed widespread confusion.

Companies who want to align their brand with sustainability are facing a tough challenge ahead. How can they communicate genuine sustainability performance in a way that is authentic and understood by the consumer?

In its 3rd year, the National Green Brands Forum 2010 brings together Australia's leading business innovators and entrepreneurs to offer strategies for marketing their sustainable products and services and devising an authentic their brand.

This year’s forum is led by renowned marketing guru Cari Jacobs, Global Director of Brand and Strategy at Saatchi S (USA). Cari is joined by a plethora of leading global brands willing to share their knowledge and experience - Unilever, Origin Energy, Australian Paper, ETIKO, Cadbury, SENSIS, among others. The forum also hosts a special presentation from Orange Power, on how they responded to recent allegations of ‘greenwashing’ against them to build a truly green brand.

To find out more, visit Green Brands Forum or call Cheryl on 02 9555 2358

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