???羅布?薩繆爾斯是釀者之徽公司（Maker’s Mark）的首席運營官，同時也是創始人老比爾?薩繆爾斯的孫子。他在肯塔基的家就在公司釀酒廠所在的自然保護區附近。家里有一個吧臺，吧臺后面放著釀者之徽釀造的第一瓶酒，已經有54年的歷史了。

????“假如我們今晚就把這瓶酒打開，它的味道會和我們現在生產的酒完全一樣，”薩繆爾斯說。

????釀者之徽可能是世界上最環保和最具社會責任的酒業公司，但是薩繆爾斯認為，公司所采取的許多舉措只是在商言商。大多數消費者只需要知道，每次剝去紅色封蠟所得到的酒物有所值就好。

????談及公司對環保的重視，薩繆爾斯說：“它是釀者之徽基因的一部分。”他說：“我祖父是個什么樣的人在某種程度上就決定了我們與消費者之間的聯系方式。他非常謙遜。我們并不想跳出來大吹大擂，告訴大家我們有多環保。”

????消費者的環保意識日益強烈，很多企業都希望利用這一點賺一筆，因此無數的產品都開始將“綠色”標志作為自己營銷活動的一部分。甚至連瓶裝水和乙烯基壁板這樣的因破壞環境而臭名昭著的產品，現在都開始吹噓自己擁有綠色證書。

????但是，許多真正在環保領域推陳出新的企業卻并不愿意赤裸裸地用綠色和環保吸引消費者的眼球。或許是擔心人們會覺得冠冕堂皇，或許是認為消費者對企業的社會責任缺乏了解的興趣，又或許是因為一大批競爭對手都自稱肩負著同樣的使命，但結果卻不盡相同，總之，許多成功企業在宣稱自己的環保貢獻之前，都會三思而后行。

????“重要的是消費者和產品之間的匹配性，”芝加哥大學布斯商學院（Booth School of Business）的營銷學教授桑杰?達爾稱。“必須評估消費者的需求和動機，以及將綠色環保特性與產品結合的重要性。”

????達爾表示，某些產品的碳足跡可能會讓消費者興味索然，而另一些產品的綠色證書或許會讓人聯想到質量低劣。

????20世紀后期的環保產品往往很昂貴，而且外觀丑陋，質量低劣（想想第一代混合動力汽車就知道了）。達爾稱，老一輩的一些人仍然抱有這種成見，但隨著新一代進入消費經濟，這種觀念已經過時。

????“年輕一代的綠色環保觀念非常明確，”他說。“他們成長于一個更具社會責任的世界。”

????釀者之徽的策略是，只向參觀其位于自然保護區的肯塔基州總部的消費者宣傳其酒的質量并詳細介紹生產過程。

????在這里，已有10多萬參觀者了解了釀者之徽公司堅持使用當地的原材料生產以及回收副產品為其工廠供電的做法。參觀者還能了解現場污水處理廠的運作。處理廠在旱季，會將清水排放到附近的溪流中，而釀者之徽的長遠目標是做到碳平衡（通過計算二氧化碳的排放總量，然后用植樹等方式把這些排放量吸收掉，以達到環保的目的——譯注）。

????At the Kentucky home of Rob Samuels, the chief operating officer of Maker's Mark bourbon and grandson of founder Bill Samuels Sr., not far from the nature preserve on which the distillery sits, the 54-year-old first bottle the company ever made sits behind the bar.

????"If we were to open that bottle tonight, it would taste exactly like what we produce today," he says.

????Maker's is possibly the most environmentally friendly and socially responsible alcohol company in the world, but Samuels believes that the many initiatives the company has taken are just part of doing business. What most customers need to know is only that every time they peel off that red wax seal, they'll get what they are paying for.

????"It's part of the DNA of Maker's Mark," Samuels says of the company's devotion to the environment. "The way we connect with consumers is in part about who my grandfather was. He was very modest. It's not about standing on top of a mountain and screaming the loudest that this is happening."

????The "green" label has wormed its way into the marketing campaigns of countless products as businesses try to capitalize on the growing environmental consciousness of consumers. Even environmentally damaging products with notorious reputations like bottled water and vinyl siding now boast their green credentials.

????But many of the most genuine corporate innovators in the environmental space prefer not to throw it in their customers' faces. Whether it's coming from a fear of sounding disingenuous, a perceived lack of customer interest in corporate social responsibility, or a slew of competitors claiming the same mission without the same results, many successful businesses are thinking twice before screaming green.

????"What's important is looking at the fit between customers and products," says Sanjay Dhar, a marketing professor at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. "You must assess the needs and motivations of your customers and the importance of integrating the message of green with … the product."

????While one product's carbon footprint may inspire a complete lack of interest among consumers, another product's green credentials may trigger associations with inferior quality, he says.

????Environmentally friendly products of the late 20th century were often expensive, ugly, and inferior (think first-generation hybrid cars). Some in older generations still cling to that idea, but it has faded as a new generation enters the consumption economy, Dhar says.

????"The younger generation has a clean slate in their mind when it comes to green," he says. "They are growing up in a much more socially responsible world."

????Maker's strategy is to advertise the quality of its alcohol and introduce the details of its manufacturing process only to customers who visit its Kentucky headquarters, which is a nature preserve.

????There, more than 100,000 visitors have learned about how the company uses locally sourced ingredients and recycles the byproducts to power its plant. They can also learn about the on-site wastewater treatment plant that pumps fresh water into nearby creaks during the dry season and the company's long-term goal of becoming carbon neutral.