10 years to save the world

Where to begin? The subject of sustainability is mammoth, complex, and nuanced. As marketers we’ve been struggling to get our heads around this for years. Even as I write this article during a third pandemic-driven lockdown, we have to recognise that it’s sustainability not Covid that will profoundly shape commerce, consumer behaviour and politics over the next decade.

I’ve just finished reading “Greener Marketing” by John Grant, a new book written for marketers by someone who’s spent many years working in communications agencies and advising clients on sustainability issues.

Before I refer to the book, it’s worth understanding some of the reasons why this is such a tough subject and specifically, one which is complex for marketers to navigate.

Challenges

• Time frame.  Addressing climate change, now widely called the Climate Emergency, will deliver benefits (or more accurately, avoid catastrophic disbenefits) at a point in time when most politicians and company leaderships will be doing different roles than they are today. Leaders who are more interested in the near-term, lack incentive to act.
• Game of chicken. Early on, it’s often possible to take sustainable actions that benefit both environment and the company (think towel re-use in hotels). Once all that “green gold” has been found, sustainability actions almost always have a short/medium term impact on profits. Game theory suggests that even when everyone stands to gain, individuals will not take the “right” action and risk a loss, if they cannot trust others to do so as well. On the face of it, the company to be more sustainable forgoes short term performance and becomes (at least temporarily) disadvantaged versus its peers. The same is true for countries, of course.
• Difficult business case. Many businesses want to see a 3-5 year return on major investments, so pulling together a plausible business case is tough. It either requires a longer time horizon, values-led decision making, or some creative presentation of data. 
• Lack of systems & infrastructure. Most countries & markets currently lack the infrastructure to improve environmental outcomes. As unsexy as it is, being more sustainable is 95% about changing systems, rather than different marketing. Take recycling as an example, in common with many countries, the UK has a disjointed recycling infrastructure - one that quietly relies on shipping waste overseas for “recycling” (when at least some of it ends up in landfill or simply blowing around in the wind above another country).
• Competing interests. Who are we to tell Brazil to stop deforestation? The Amazon rain forest is a globally significant resource, but along with most other natural resources, it has an owner. Our current system of pricing and ownership of natural resources, frustrates the sort of cooperation that is required to address the climate emergency.
• Most consumers don’t care. Any marketer “worth their salt” knows that what the public claim often doesn't correlate with their behaviour. Research will tell you consumers care deeply about sustainability issues, but sales data will tell you that they value benefits like convenience and low price more. When push comes to shove, Covid shows us that people prioritise themselves over the planet - evidenced in 2020 by a massive increase in single-use plastics for everything from PPE to coffee cups.
• Greenwash. Instances of brands making creatively-brilliant green claims about initiatives with low/no practical impact have done nothing to enhance consumer trust. Perhaps because they own the communications budget, acting on behalf of their companies marketers have often been guilty of much more “say” than “do”. 

The ozone layer has begun to recover since CFCs were banned - the hole above the Antarctic has shrunk in size by an area the size of India - 1.5 million square miles - since the year 2000.

Hope

But – do not interpret these challenges as reasons to give up. Alongside these enormous barriers, there are many reasons to be hopeful.

• More consumer recognition. Recently we have seen some unlikely activists step-changing consumer attitudes and, perhaps more effectively, embarrassing business and governments. Among others, Greta Thunberg & David Attenborough have had a huge impact on debates about climate emergency and pollution.
• Investor demands. Despite the scourge of short-term speculation/trading, investors now expect companies to report on more than financial performance. Unilever has shown that it’s possible to attract investors with a longer-term view – 15 years ago before introducing its Sustainable Living Plan, shares were held for an average of 17 weeks and company results were managed quarter-by-quarter; now they are popular with pension fund managers and held for 7 years. Global standards like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have created a framework that allows companies to be compared against each other.
• Technology. The introduction of more technology will make sustainable practices ever more mainstream For example, the cost of alternative energies has been falling rapidly. Wind power is 2x cheaper than 10 years ago and in the UK it is expected to be cheaper than existing natural gas installations within 2 years. Technology will accelerate these trends - for example robots are set to inspect and maintain offshore wind farms, removing some of the 40% of labour costs associated with current operations.
• Regulation. Increasing amounts of legislation are mandating ‘greener choices’ in many industrial sectors. In construction for example, by law developers and builders must work with materials and construction methods that reduce carbon footprint. Meanwhile governments are channeling tax money towards the decarbonisation of existing housing stock.
• Global collaboration. Despite trade wars and anti-globalist sentiments, the direction of travel remains towards global collaboration. The UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDG’s) identify the areas government and business should tackle. With a change in US government, the Paris agreement (signed by over 100 countries pledging to limit carbon emissions) looks set to regain one of the world’s largest carbon emitters as a signatory.
• History suggests we can do it.In the 1970s and 1980’s scientists found that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were breaking down the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer and accelerating global warming. CFCs were invented in the 1920’s and became widely used in manufacturing aerosols and refrigeration systems. However in 1987 the Montreal agreement sought to reduce their production and use - which it has successfully done by about 98%. Okay, this was successful action around a single issue, but it shows globally-coordinated initiatives can work.

The role of the marketer

With regard to sustainability we must be honest and recognise that there are limits to the marketer’s role; areas where they can make an impact but many areas they should avoid. That is not an obvious or popular position, so let me clarify…

The case for firms to be more sustainable is compelling. There have been peer-reviewed scientific papers about the effect of carbon on global warming for over 150 years. There is now a wide scientific consensus that we have until 2030 to drastically reduce CO2 and avoid the worst impacts of global warming. 

But let’s be blunt. For many businesses the most environmentally friendly thing they can do is to shut up shop and stop asking people to buy their stuff. However, that would involve societal breakdown, so the next best thing is to change how business is done to be much more sustainable – an approach sometimes labelled “profit with purpose”.

Many discussions on individual sustainability issues logically lead to undesirable outcomes for firms. That’s not a reason to give up, but it helps explain why sustainability is so nuanced and bloody complicated to navigate for business people.

“Profit with purpose” relies on delivering initiatives across the company. Less so brand-by-brand. These initiatives are often in the areas of souring and supply chain, product reformulation, packaging reduction and redesign, waste management, etc. These have to be driven hard (not just endorsed) by the CEO & CFO who in turn need to manage shareholders. The marketing function is often involved, but it might not lead things and it certainly must not operate alone.

A sustainability-minded marketing leader whose goals are not shared by their boss or C-suite colleagues, will potentially do more harm than good. It is likely that their convictions combined with the personal desire to “make a difference” will lead to green marketing that unravels under scrutiny. If the balance between doing things more sustainably and “talking about it” tips towards communications, then the veneer rubs off pretty quickly. 

It is perhaps no coincidence that many of the fastest-growing enterprises are built on a belief in sustainability (think Oatly, Patagonia, Clipper, etc). It’s a kind of ‘given’ in their DNA, and as a result marketing teams tend to be more commercial than you may expect.

Greener Marketing

In ‘Greener Marketing’ John Grant highlights how much has changed in the last 12 years in terms of consumer awareness of environmental issues. This awakening has been precipitated by more widespread, impactful protests (such as Extinction Rebellion) and prominent cheerleaders like Attenborough and Thunberg. Indeed, a MORI poll that found concern about climate change amongst the UK population grew from 60% in 2013 to 85% by 2019.

Grant clearly understands business and marketers. He makes some useful distinctions which are helpful to marketers in this complex area. For example, he asserts that green marketing is “about making green things seem normal, rather than making normal things seem green”. This implicitly recognises, I believe, that whilst lots of people express concern, real change only happens when you work in sympathy with consumer habits. We also get far more positive impact if ‘eco’ is done at scale, rather than relying on the small minority of green activists who are prepared to substantially change behaviour in order to be greener.

The author presents another important foundation for successful greener marketing - that ‘sincerity’ is the key. Put simply, an organisation should be led by a belief in being greener, rather than a belief in appearing greener. IKEA spent 12 years “getting its house in order” before it ever started communicating green credentials. It consistently scores well on sustainability credentials and enjoys remarkably high levels of brand trust, despite never really shouting about it. Conversely a few years ago, BP spent $200m on its ‘Beyond Petroleum’ campaign, now held up by academics as an example of ‘greenwash’ on a grand scale. 

‘Not bad’

The first section of ‘Greener Marketing’ is titled ‘Not Bad’. This acknowledges that the businesses must first set out to do less harm in their operations. Boring work but essential. Although I found it a little disorganised, this section includes a good primer on the principles of circular economy, explains the importance & severity of our current situation and highlights how climate change is being successfully re-framed with more urgency - as a crisis/emergency. 

For me some of the best content in this section includes the many well-explained examples of brands getting it wrong. These serve to underline Grant’s starting premise that it’s all about doing the spadework first to understand and start addressing the complex issues, before communicating (and only then doing so in ‘moderation’).

In 2018, Iceland ran a Greenpeace video online to demonstrate its commitment to removing palm oil from own label products, but some environmentalists claim this has simply increased the demand for even less sustainable oils in foods

‘Net Good’

The book’s second section is built around the concept of enterprise putting back more into the world than it extracts. In this part, the scope broadens to include more on social causes and activism, as well as the environmental dimensions introduced in part one.

Grant highlights the growing sense people across the world have that ‘the system’ is not working for them. He examines emergent spaces (like plant-based foods, social enterprise) where brands can help address social inequalities and environmental problems whilst building a viable, profitable business.

Started in 1970, Natura has become the largest personal care brand in Brazil. Now owned by Avon, Natura's founders have a long-standing commitment to using natural ingredients & promoting self-esteem

The author highlights that simply having a sustainable product is no guarantee of success. For example, the Linda McCartney brand has been operating in meat-free foods since the early-1990's, advertised on TV in 1995 and is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of vegan and vegetarian foods. However, the brand has struggled to stay relevant as startups like Beyond Meat have cultivated a cooler brand image and registered exponential sales increases.

Founded by Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat has become one of the fastest growing foods companies in the US

Fair trade vs food miles

Grant discusses the huge impact that big brands can make compared with the more eco-minded start-ups (e.g., it’s implied that Adidas sold more sneakers in its ocean plastic range that all ethical footwear brands put together). 

Grant states “you can only be ethical if you make decent margins” since those margins allow you to pay fair prices for raw materials and treat stakeholders well. However, not a lot of attention is paid to mass-market firms who are making adequate but not huge margins. In FMCG & retail, this is a great many businesses.

I would like to have seen the issue of reconciling conflicting sustainability goals explored. For example, a food brand can invest in developing sustainable sourcing (e.g. supply of raw materials such as fruits, cocoa and oils) to better sustain livelihoods in developing countries, but it is also reinforcing a system of carbon-hungry intercontinental trade with all the environmental downsides that entails.

There are other challenges facing marketers, that would have been good to discuss in more depth. For example, how do you define the right issues to tackle? On which environmental or social issues does you brand have ‘permission’ to take a stand? Logic suggests that prioritising issues where there’s an obvious category connection will have more of an impact and be easier to explain to consumers (like a tuna brand committing to sustainable fishing practices).

When does an issue become too ‘lofty’ to be owned by a brand? In 2017 in India, P&G brand Vicks featured the transgender mother of an orphaned child in an online video than achieved over 9m views. The ad met with mixed reactions – from people delighted to see such diversity reflected in advertising, to outrage from some others. However, some consumers simply couldn’t understand why a decongestant rub chose to make a stand on that particular issue.

In-conclusion

The author wraps up with a 15-step roadmap for business leaders to redesign their operations by putting sustainability at their heart, then finally a provocation to the reader about what actions they will personally take to take the principles of greener marketing into action.

I found many parts of ‘Greener Marketing’ very thought-provoking. The book contains a wealth of accumulated experience and examples. The author’s expertise and enthusiasm are evident throughout.

I did however struggle with the disjointed flow and a structure which, for me, didn’t make for a smooth read. 

In terms of take-outs, the book reinforced that ‘sincere’ sustainability starts with a period of organisational reflection and then re-engineering. That’s something a CEO, business owner or perhaps an influential marketing director, are best-placed to influence; but not, if we are honest, the vast majority of marketers. 

Another of the most striking takeouts from this book are the perils of 'green-washing' - that the well-intentioned urge by marketers “to do something” must not default to deploying the communications budget to simply ‘scream green”.

Which brings me back to my contrarian position - as marketers we must recognise there are limits to which we alone can drive a sustainability agenda if that vision is not shared by business leadership. So my suggestion to those marketers is work on changing their minds, or work on changing your employer.

This article was originally published in Choices, our 15min monthly read for marketing leaders. To get newsletters direct to your inbox, please signup here.