This post is authored by Jane Tabachnick of Jane Tabachnick Marketing.
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Websites are the frontline marketing for any business; often the first impression of your company. I have written about this a few times over the years; in a report entitled “What’s Your Website Done for you Lately” and in the NY Enterprise Report article entitled “Is It Time for a Website Upgrade?”

For sustainable organizations, the website is even more critical to your business; it holds the key to your reputation.

Take for example the company running an advertising campaign that touts their green product line. In an effort to get more information about the company and products you visit their website. There is little or no information to support their ad campaign. Your conclusion could easily be that the company is greenwashing. This may not in fact be the case, but the perception of greenwash or even just a suspicion, can be as damaging to your reputation as the act of intentionally misleading the public.  Take the "Good Green Website Survey" and let us know if this has happened to you.

The good green website has to do better than most companies are doing. Even those businesses with firm environmental or 3BL commitments, policies and products fail to provide appropriate supporting information online. Or if it is online, it is not easy to find. I think of it as the great green scavenger hunt. Most visitors are going to leave your site before finding the information they are seeking, never to return.

Here are the keys to a "good green website":

• Easy to find information
• Multiple ways to find the information [home page, about us, product pages….]
• Varying degrees of detail – appropriate for specific audience [architects and consumers may need different levels of information]
• Data supporting claims
• Contact information for further details [human answered is best]
• 3rd party verification wherever possible

The Green Challenges concurs that companies are falling short on their websites and need to do better stating: “There is a breakdown in communication of sustainability programs and policies from leadership to employees, stakeholders and consumers.”

A large part of the success of sustainability programs is in the corporate communications both internally and externally. The website, therefore is the perfect and necessary tool to be the epicenter of company’s sustainability programs and success.

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Jane Tabachnick is a marketer focusing on sustainable business. She is the creator of the Stand For Green™ marketing tool, www.standforgreen.com. Her firm Jane Tabachnick Marketing www.janetabachnick.com offers consulting, training and marketing. Jane blogs at myrepurposedlife.com.