Logos to identify green products and packaging are becoming increasingly common, but as manufacturers use a library of more or less similar themes and design devices to indicate how “eco-friendly” their products are such as the green colourway itself, the recycling symbol, nature images etc, the problem will arise of keeping their company logo design looking unique,  that after all is the primary function of a logo, especially in the highly competitive consumer food and drink marketplace.While such green logos and devices have the benefit of providing an immediate indication of green efforts, a plethora of them could lead to consumer confusion and conflict between many brands.

Organisations that have developed their own branded logo do not want others to use it, which means consumers will be forced to make environmental choices, not on the basis of recognised symbols which indicate a product is recyclable for example, but on lots of new, little logos featuring trees, bunnies, whales, dolphins, tractors etc.Manufacturers in the food and drink sectors especially will have to have to keep the environmental information given in their packaging clear and straightforward to keep it easy to dispose of. A green logo in itself is a good thing as it will aid consumer understanding of the efforts made by the company, whether that’s  in ethical sourcing, sustainability or recycling of packaging,  but it must be explained in very clear terms what that symbol means and what it represents.   This is true of the packaging itself, but must also be carried through into other promotional areas like flyer design to publicise the new products.

Packaging firm Tetra Pak for example launched a brand new logo designed to demonstrate the company’s green credentials on its packaging.It featured a rather nice symbol to signify more trees above a ‘minus CO2′ sign, encircled by a ‘renewability matters’ logo.   That seems like a lot of effort to go to when they could have simply used the existing symbols for recyclable packaging, but their argument was using the same symbol that appears on all their competitor’s packages would have diluted Tetra-Pak’s core visual identity.Similarly, the launch of the European Commission’s logo for organic produce scheduled for 2009 was delayed following complaints by German supermarket Aldi that the proposed marque was too similar to their own logo.

Competitors who produce similar products will, of course, prefer to have them easily distinguishable and not have common branding or logos. Equally, if they are really that eager to demonstrate the efforts they are putting into supporting sustainability and reducing their carbon footprint, they face many challenges in communicating that information quickly and simply while maintaining the integrity of their brand through the consistent application of their, often long established, logo.When it comes to green advertising and greening your logo, the key is to keep it simple but informative without changing the brand logo beyond recognition and keeping it as visually consistent with previous iterations while remaining as unique as possible which is certainly not easy. That approach also needs to be carried through into every piece of marketing communications, from advertising hoardings to humble compliment slips, letterheads and branded envelopes.