This past weekend I made some good progress on finishing some home projects that have gone unattended for the past five years.  Being an entrepreneur is part of the excuse — a lack of time and money.  But a bigger part of it is that the projects include painting, and I don’t like painting.

Part of my dislike of painting is, or was, the nasty smell as the paint dried.  That smell comes from VOC (volatile organic compounds) as the paint dries. 

Fortunately there are now lower VOC paints that are supposed to perform as well as their more toxic counterparts.   I really noticed a big difference when I was painting this weekend.  I was taken in by the Eco Options label that Home Depot is now using.  Glidden has a low VOC drywall primer.  But I didn’t know that it was low VOC or why it had the Eco Options label.  I just took it on faith that this was the paint I should be buying.

My first thought on seeing the sticker was “greenwash”.  It was only after I started writing this post that I actually figured out what the Eco Options label means by going to the Home Depot website.  I really wish that there was more information available in the store.  If I am going to be paying a premium, even a small one, it would be nice to know what I am buying. 

I had a similar experience at Sherwin-Williams.  The paint I needed had a Green Sure logo on it.  It made me feel a little better, but I had no idea what that meant. 

At the risk of contradicting my post on having a corporate green/CSR tab on a company’s website, I really think there is a need for in-store information as well.  Both of these companies missed an opportunity to really get me talking positively about their products by failing to provide me with information at the point of purchase.  And anybody who has shopped at Home Despot knows that company could use positive customer support.  But that is another story.

Rants and Raves: I have to give Home Depot credit for having a link to their Eco Options information on their home page.  I had to dig two or three pages on the homeowner side of the Sherwin-Williams site to find their green information.   The information provided is pretty weak.  Strangely, the professional’s side has a prominent link that leads you to lots of good information.  What is really strange is that with my short attention span, I couldn’t find any green information on the Glidden website.  You would think that they would be bragging about their paint being the only Eco Option paint at Home Depot.

Entrepreneurs:  Make sure that your marketing efforts support each other.  You probably can’t do everything you want to do, so make sure that what you are able to do is synergistic.  Don’t let opportunities like a special relationship with a distributor go unnoticed or unsupported.

Suggested readings:If you are new to painting and the issues of VOC’s Elle MacKenna has a nice article on them.