Woke, Zero Bills, Farmwashing, Book Club & Gilets

1. "Go Woke, Go Broke?" Think Again

Right-wing commentators often use the phrase “Go woke, go broke” to criticise companies adopting progressive values, suggesting that businesses embracing inclusivity will suffer financially. However, a new global study challenges this notion, showing that inclusive ad campaigns can in fact boost profits, sales, and brand value.

Research conducted by Sa?d Business School for the Unstereotype Alliance found that brands using inclusive, stereotype-free advertising saw up to 16% growth in long-term sales. The study, covering 392 brands across 58 countries, revealed that inclusive content persuaded 62% of buyers to make a purchase and increased brand loyalty by 15%.

The study cuts through the disproportionate amount of noise that a few clumsy attempts to align with progressive causes have attracted (yes, Bud Light et al) and includes some great case studies of brands that have actively worked to dismantle stereotypes and include more inclusive portrayals of people in advertising. These include the work of Bayer Consumer Health in Brazil to dismantle the idea that fathers are distant authoritarian figures and Rexona’s work to get more girls playing football. The study also sets the business advantage of these out clearly.

Ultimately, the study emphasises that commitment to inclusivity benefits both society and the bottom line – something we at Good Business are definitely on board with! Brands that stick to their values and build strong, loyal markets, are proof that “Go woke, go broke” is simply an unsavoury slogan, nothing more.

2. Zero Bills

Octopus Energy, one the UK’s leading green energy tariff providers, caught our eye this week with a bold new target – to deliver 100,000 “Zero Bills” homes by 2030.

Launched in 2022, the Zero Bills project aims to create homes that are fully kitted out with renewable energy technology, allowing their occupants to pay no energy bills. Octopus has partnered with major home builders to deliver its target, through new developments and retrofitting, and is inspiring some to take the initiative even further, with regional housebuilders Verto and GS8 committing to build all their future homes as “Zero Bills”.

The paradoxical nature of this project makes it particularly intriguing – by delivering more “Zero Bills” homes, Octopus is essentially putting itself out of business, highlighting that, as climate action intensifies, businesses will need to rethink their business models in fundamental ways. The challenge is not just in reducing emissions – it’s also in transforming the way they generate revenue, and we look forward to seeing how Octopus continues to navigate this transition.

With this intriguing proposition, Octopus has set a target that captures the imagination – something we’d like to see more of in a regulatory landscape where target setting is becoming increasingly rigid – and continues to set the bar for the energy industry in the UK, leading the charge towards a future where green living can come at no extra cost.

3. “Farmwashing” Exposed

British farmers have launched a campaign against "farmwashing," exposing what they see as deceptive marketing practices. "Farmers Against Farmwashing" calls out big supermarkets for using fake farm brands and Union Jack imagery to mislead customers into believing they're buying from small, independent British producers when products may have come from so-called “mega farms” or overseas.

Guy Singh-Watson, founder of Riverford Organic Farmers and campaign leader, warns: ?“British farming is at a breaking point. The public cares deeply about where their food comes from — the supermarkets know this and are using that trust to steal farmer stories and to hoodwink shoppers into thinking they are buying from those small-scale, traditional British farms.”

While he clearly has a point to prove, this practice threatens to turn conscious consumers into unwitting accomplices in the decline of British farming. Research shows that 60% of well-meaning shoppers seek out the Union Jack on supermarket products, unknowingly supporting a system that threatens local agriculture.

Consumers have the right to demand transparency about a product's journey from farm to shelf. To protect British farming and empower consumers, the campaign calls for honest marketing practices and clear, truthful labelling that accurately reflects product origins.

Without intervention, these deceptive practices could contribute to the demise of small-scale British farms, and well-meaning shoppers, tired of being misled, may lose faith in sustainability altogether.

4. Good Business Book Club – Material World by Ed Conway

At Good Business, we enjoy a non-fiction book, particularly one that’s filled with interesting facts and that makes us see the world differently. And Material World by Ed Conway hits both those buttons, as it goes deep into six of the materials (sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium) that underpin the modern economy and life as we know it. We may think we are all going digital; the truth is that the digital world is built on a colossal and largely hidden set of systems that span the globe and which require the extraction of millions of tonnes of basic substances that power everything we consume and almost everything we do.

Material World looks at these substances in depth. Where do they come from? What role do they play? And at what cost are they extracted? The social and environmental costs of our unsatiable appetite for these basic requirements for everything we take for granted – from roads to computers to plastic to the food we eat – are laid bare in this book. Weaning ourselves off oil means relying more heavily on batteries – which requires lithium. Digital working may save on transport costs but requires enormous amounts of copper and glass-based fibre optics to facilitate this. And our twin goals of decarbonisation and economic development are likely to collide as the solutions to a low carbon economy require us to rethink our dependency on the materials that underpin the world as we know it.

This has everything to do with sustainability. The quantity of materials extracted in 2019 was more than in the whole of human history up to 1950 and the availability of these materials may well be the limiting factor in future economic growth. Changing a business requires a deep understanding of critical materials, where they come from and the impact they have. Material World should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in this area.

The Goods: Warm Jackets, Cool Planet

Could the energy saving hacks devised in response to rising energy prices help cut carbon emissions? This week saw a 10% increase in the UK energy price cap, leaving 7.7 million households in England struggling to heat their homes.

Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert released a guide to ‘heat the human, not the home’ to cut bill costs. It explored cheaper ways to warm up such as hot water bottles and electric blankets, and the electric gilet, costing just 4p a week to run, piqued our interest. Heating a family of four over winter with these gilets could cost less than ￡5, after the initial purchase, a far cry from the ￡1,717 average annual energy bill.

The carbon savings are equally impressive. Heating a home with gas consumes approximately 6,780 kWh of energy, emitting 1,245 kg of CO2e per year, while one gilet consumes just 23.3 kWh of electricity over winter, emitting approximately 6 kg of CO2e per person. While gilets won’t completely replace the need for gas heating, turning down the thermostat by 2°C could save 3,090 kWh per year, which when accounting for additional emissions from the gilets, reduces emissions by 562 kg of CO2e (45%) annually.

But how far can the power of the heated gilet go? Could businesses follow suit (or gilet) with a combination of heated jackets and lower thermostats to reduce emissions from their offices? This may seem far-fetched, but many companies lack the power to switch from gas boilers to heat pumps in leased offices, and with the cheap-to-run jackets costing as little as ￡35, the cost savings could be significant.