Without a story, a great innovation can be reduced to a clever invention among a million clever inventions. With a story, it can help educate consumers, drive them to positive behavior change, and perhaps even inspire greater, more fervent climate action. Not bad for a new product or service.

Indeed, by reducing transport and material costs and modifying licensing restrictions, the entire industry could explode by moving to a more pervasive distribution model, while maintaining a low carbon footprint.

High tech or relatively low tech, companies selling revolutionary or poorly understood products must first take the time to educate their audiences about the product itself, often putting their branding aside.

Where marketers have gone off course and betrayed consumer trust is in not asking themselves how their product truly delivers on what the consumer wants.

In 2009, there were about 1,500 new product launches that featured claims such as "sustainable," "environmentally friendly" and "eco-friendly." With all that noise and inevitable confusion, marketers will find success for their green products by concentrating on the personal, rather than global, impact.