Friday 5: Social Marketing, REGO's, Jobs, Incentives, World Hunger Day

How do we market (social) marketing?

We’ve just returned from the first African Social Marketing Association Conference, held in Johannesburg last week, where?SKY Girls, our multimedia social marketing programme addressing social and health issues across Africa, picked up the award for Best Intervention. In social marketing circles, we like to think of it as the Best Film award at the Oscars (with less controversy and no on-stage fighting).

The Conference brought together academics, practitioners, and social policy makers to consider how social marketing, social enterprise, innovation and behaviour change can help solve the big social, health, economic, security and environmental challenges we all face.

We’ve talked a lot at Good Business about how purpose and profit go hand in hand, and we were founded on the belief that if you want to change the world, you need to change your business and that by changing your business, you can change the world. Social marketing was where we started, and while we now spend a lot of our time figuring out how to rewire the corporation to deliver better sustainability outcomes, we’ve never lost sight of the power of brands to create social change.

So, as we polish our trophy ready to take pride of place in the Good Business awards cabinet, we’ll be reflecting on how we can revitalise the conversation, and get brands excited about the possibility of changing hearts and minds for good, as well as for profit.

Shades of green

Switching to a renewable electricity tariff is one of the more straightforward – and impactful – steps that we can take to reduce our carbon emissions.

In principle, a renewable electricity tariff is simple: the energy you consume is produced by the wind, sun and water, rather than the mix of energy sources including fossil energy. But in practice, all electricity is just electricity once it is fed into the national grid – there’s no way to tell where it has come from or how it is produced. The electrons that power your office plugs and lighting systems could have come from any number of sources, even if your energy bill tells you they are “green”. To deal with this, energy companies can use certificates called REGOs that demonstrate how much electricity that an energy company has sourced is from renewable sources. The more REGOs, the lower carbon that particular energy tariff is at the point of generation.

But since companies can buy these certificates rather than generating the energy themselves or buying it directly from renewable energy sources, questions have been raised – including by the consumer champion?Which??and by the?UK government?– about whether these certificates are helping the green energy transition or actually contributing to greenwashing and confusion. Ovo Energy set out to address these questions with?research it commissioned?and the short answer is no: REGOs are not increasing the amount of renewable generation capacity which will be added to the electricity system, and they risk misleading customers into thinking they are supporting incremental renewable energy generation rather than simply acting as a form of offsetting. As a result, OVO has?taken the decision?to stop purchasing REGOs and will instead put this money towards wind and solar projects that it knows will generate the renewables it needs, as well as investments in smart meters and home insulation.

So what does this mean for the many companies that rely on REGOs to hit their emissions targets? In terms of pure emissions accounting, nothing has changed: these renewable tariffs still qualify as zero-carbon under the market-based accounting method. So for now, if you currently rely on REGO tariffs to reduce your scope 2 emissions as a business, you can continue to do so.

But the idea of more specific requirements about the purchase of renewable electricity is a topic that has come up in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s?recent consultation?on its scope 3 guidance. We will be keeping a keen eye on how the conversation develops, and how the updated guidance deals with this conundrum when it comes out in a couple of years.

A work in progress

It’s a very good time to become an AI and machine learning specialist, and a less good one to become a bank clerk, based on an assessment of the fastest growing and declining careers over the next five years. Published this week, the?Future of Jobs Report?from the?World Economic Forum?explores the rapid and unprecedented shift currently occurring in the job market, in response to macro trends that are causing some industries to bloom, and others to dwindle.

The digital revolution, new technology, and a greater appetite for ESG standards are among the main macrotrends pushing this shift in the world of work, with AI and machine learning specialists, sustainability specialists (hurrah!) and analyst roles expected to be the fastest growing jobs in the next five years.

But the growth of these industries and trends, in combination with global economic decline, is also resulting in a rapid decrease in traditional roles such as bank, postal and ticket clerks, whose jobs are becoming increasingly redundant in the face of growing automation and digitisation. The effect of this is that in the next five years, 23% of jobs are expected to change, with 69 million jobs being created and 83 million eliminated, resulting in a reduction in employment of 2%.

The reality is that there is a skill mismatch between the jobs in decline and those growing, meaning many employees who will be pushed out of their existing roles may struggle to benefit from the rise in opportunities elsewhere. There is a lot of talk (although arguably still not enough) about the need for a just transition in terms of the path to net zero. We need to also be thinking about a just transition in the digital revolution. For companies, the challenge lies in navigating this transitory period responsibly to facilitate a structural shift with minimal human damage. For businesses, this begins with confronting the inevitable change that will occur in the coming years and considering how to protect employees, perhaps through effective training, new job opportunities and constructive social dialogue. Don’t be surprised to see “changes in structural employment trends” appear on your list of material sustainability issues in the near future.

All in it together

The carbon conversation is evolving and developing. While we are still spending much of our time helping companies calculate their carbon footprints and set reduction targets, we are now increasingly having conversations with our clients about how, exactly, they are going to achieve these targets. One area where there is scope to make significant progress is scope 3 emissions, specifically those emissions outside a company’s direct control that come from the products and services it buys or from the way in which the products and services it sells are used by its customers.

Until now, much of the emphasis has been on “sticks” – requiring disclosure of carbon emissions, prioritising those suppliers that have already made good progress on emissions reductions. This approach filters out those businesses that are not playing an active role in the transition to a low carbon economy. However, this risks missing the opportunity that comes from raising the bar, through well thought out incentives (the “carrots”). Happily, we are seeing more of these examples come to light.

Vodafone, partnering with?CDP?and?Citi, has introduced a programme that offers preferential financing terms to suppliers that report on their carbon emissions; for companies squeezed by rising input costs, being paid early is a huge incentive. Nike, meanwhile, has established the Supplier Sustainability Council with ten of its strategic suppliers which provides hands on support to them to develop carbon reduction programmes as well as giving them tools and technical assistance to deliver them.

At the other end of the value chain, business customers are also being targeted with incentives for lower carbon behaviour.?Grosvenor, one of London’s largest commercial landlords, offers?green leases?to kickstart conversations with tenants and help them measure and reduce their emissions, either by providing them with the tools they need like smart meters, or providing access to better and greener energy tariffs. And of course,?Net Zero Now's work with?Coca-Cola?and?Pernod Ricard, which helps their bar and restaurant customers work on measuring and reducing carbon.

These value chain engagement processes are crucial if we want to be net zero by 2050. Compliance measures can only get us so far, and these incentives are likely to play an increasingly important part. From a commercial perspective, it makes sense to broaden your pool of suppliers and offer them a helping hand, too, rather than just shutting the door on those who have not yet made it to the carbon reduction threshold.

As always, if you need some help with this,?give us a shout!

Host a sustainable supper

In this week’s Goods, we’re marking the start of?The Hunger Project's 2023 campaign ahead of World Hunger Day on 28th?May. Brought to our attention by Rebecca, via our Friday 5 inbox (we really do read all your emails) the campaign launches this week, aiming to tackle hunger and amplify the voices of those facing it.

More than 800 million people?around the world face hunger, and you might be surprised to hear that number has been rising since 2015, after falling steadily for decades. The focus of the campaign is Sustainability, recognising the interconnectedness of food security, climate change and biodiversity loss, and the importance of creating sustainable agriculture and food systems. It also looks to draw attention to the importance of food waste, in the food system before it reaches our plate, and in our homes.

The Hunger Project is asking us to overhaul our usual Sunday dinner in aid of the campaign by hosting a ‘Sustainable Supper’ on World Hunger Day to raise awareness and funds for the cause. Encouraging participants to consider where their food comes from and the impact of the systems that produce it, The Hunger Project asks that you buy seasonably grown, locally produced food with no waste. With sustainable recipes designed by chefs from around the world available online, this is sure to be a dinner your family and friends won’t forget.

For more information about the campaign, and to download the Hunger Project’s toolkits with guidance on how you can get involved, as an individual or as a business, click?here. And, if you have a story, an event or a cause you’d like us to put on our readers’ radar in a future Friday 5, get in touch?here.