Leading up to Advertising Week of this past year, I recall seeing press for Grey’s Green-It-Forward initiative as it launched in September. While I appreciated the call-to-action for Madison Avenue to green up its act, I was a bit disappointed with the site’s “What You Can Do” tips which were pretty generic. I was, however, somewhat inspired by a few of the actions Grey boasted taking, such as offering corporate discounts and secure storage for bikes, working with food vendors to procure locally grown food, and ensuring the majority of their office products are made of recycled, biodegradable, or compostable material.

After recent discussions with a few of my colleagues and a supply chain consultant about greening our agency, I thought it would be the perfect time to revisit Grey’s site. Nearly four months since its launch, Green-It-Forward only lists one non-Grey agency on-board with its efforts. This doesn’t necessarily trouble me considering the time it could take for other agencies to internally approve being involved with such a project, if they choose to be involved with a rival’s efforts at all. What does disturb me is Grey’s apparent lack of involvement, and overall heart, with its own public project.

On Green-It-Forward’s very flashy (and Flash-y) intro page, Grey boldly proclaims its goal to share ideas the firm has on reducing its environmental impact, inspiring employees and clients to do the same. Further, it aims to provide this digital forum for sharing ideas with other advertising agencies. The problem is neither the “Discussion” nor the “Blog” buttons on the site directs a user to either of those areas. In fact, I had to do a Google search to find the lazily designed and overall shoddy blog which has about eight entries in total, three-fourths of which were posted in September, and none beyond November. The few substantive posts are actually decent at discussing such issues as corn-based ethanol, but NONE of them actually chronicle Grey’s supposed green transformations.

Grey says it’s “anything but”; I certainly don’t think it means Grey is green. If its efforts are authentically green intentioned, Grey’s execution fails to convey anything beyond industry-specific greenwashing. Personally, I remain committed to making my agency more sustainable–it’s just a shame I can’t rely on Green-It-Forward to help get us there.

P.S. I’ve included the only Green-It-Forward YouTube video I could find in under Good Fun. I love the simple focus on U.S. paper waste with an equally simple tip to use both sides of a paper when printing. I just wish Grey would do more with Green-It-Forward.

Nothing makes for a snappier and more fun summary of 2007, than the “Best of…” and “Worst of…” lists bloggers and journalists love to post. What particularly intrigued me this year was how my inbox found two polar opposite lists, published within a day of each other, that agreed on one very special nominee: British Petrolem (or “Beyond Petroleum” if you bought into BP’s forceful advertising).

BP was among the top five best “Greenwashers of the Year” and the “Five Worst CEOs of 2007″ by the liberal leaning Treehugger and conservative slanted Free Enterpriser (via Townhall.com), respectively. Who says liberals and conservatives can’t agree on anything?

BP’s criticism, from both green and business blogs, proves that embracing corporate social responsibility and going green cannot rely on glossy PR and slick ad campaigns. Stakeholders do not easily forget a recent record of human rights abuse and environmental and safety disasters. And stockholders will only support CSR initiatives that do not lose sight of profit. Corporations can receive acclaim from both sides–if they incorporate triple bottom line objectives into their operations first and let the good press follow.