Myth vs. Truth: Sustainability as a Tenet of Brand Value

How to better understand sustainability and integrate it into every aspect of your brand

Photo by Mert Guller on Unsplash

We live in an interesting time. Humans have created such wonders and wastes that man-made objects now outweigh all living things on earth. Yet, some scientists say we are living in the dawn of the anthropocene epoch while futurist Matt Webb proposes that we are entering the “Entropocene, an era of larger, quicker, less predictable, non-linear change,” primarily triggered by the worsening climate crisis. No matter how you slice it, climate change will have a profound impact on every aspect of our lives, including the comparatively trivial domain of brand marketing.

Building a sustainable product or service is no longer just virtue signaling; it is now mission critical. In fact, if you don’t have a plan to organically incorporate sustainability into your brand experience, you will likely go out of business within the next ten years! Remember when less than a decade ago, every brand realized that they need to “go mobile-first” or risk getting left behind? Well, “go green” is now the new “go mobile,” and half-baked efforts will not suffice. Only those who act proactively can end up riding the waves of shifting zeitgeists in this sustainability revolution. To future-proof your brand is to green-proof it.

“Go green” is now the new “go mobile”

By now, most brands know that the tide is changing on the sustainability discourse. Increasing awareness of environmental challenges is having a transforming effect on consumer behavior at a rapid pace. After all, It is near impossible not to suffer “climate anxiety” and ponder the consequences of our daily actions on the environment while a seemingly endless string of climate change-related storms and floods and wildfires are wreaking havoc across the globe and dominating news cycles. And those actions under scrutiny include not just “what plastic container I should recycle,” but also “Is this product sustainably made?” and “does supporting this brand align with my values on environmental issues?”.

Yet, despite knowing that, brand marketers are still slow to take actions to green-proof their brands. Research firm Bain & Company recently interviewed senior executives at 20 of the largest European consumer goods companies. In those interviews, 100% of participants said they made sustainability a priority and are devoting more time to it. But only 5% said they had successfully embedded sustainability in their brands.

To overcome this massive discrepancy between awareness and action, brands must confront these four common objections used to argue against building a sustainable brand:

1. Sustainability is such a huge, multi-faceted issue, and it is not up to us brand marketers to tackle them.
2. Sustainability is more of an operational issue than a media tactic — all brands featuring sustainability in media campaigns risk being called out for “green-washing.”
3. Sustainability is a costly endeavor to take on for most brands, and it will cost more than it earns.
4. Consumers say they care about sustainability, but really when it comes down to it, most people wouldn’t care enough to choose sustainability over the more affordable, convenient options.

All these objections are deeply rooted in the myth that sustainability is an aspirational aesthetic that brands can choose to opt-in whenever it suits them, and not an increasingly essential part of the brand value and customer experience. While there are some real challenges to making sustainability a tenet of brand value, over-emphasizing obstacles to rationalize inaction and justify organizational inertia is a common way for companies to fall behind on market innovations. It is important, therefore, for brand leaders to dispel these myths and learn to overcome the resistance in taking action towards sustainability.

Over-emphasizing obstacles to rationalize inaction and justify organizational inertia is a common way for companies to fall behind on market innovations.

Myth #1: “We Don’t Know Where to Start”

It is understandable to feel intimidated by an undertaking as huge as combating climate change with sustainability initiatives, for climate change presents a set of complex and nonlinear problems that are often without straightforward or easily achievable solutions. Our individual action towards sustainability often seems inconsequential to such an existential issue, and some scientists say our efforts today won’t reverse the course of climate change in our lifetime, only to mitigate it for future generations. It is understandable to feel overwhelmed when it seems like there is so much to do, when none of it seems to produce immediate and tangible results.

Yet, take actions we must, for not doing so would be sealing our own fate. Thankfully, sustainability is far more tangible than climate change, and there are many ways to measure our impact on the environment. Setting a goal towards neutral or even negative carbon footprints is a good way to spur companies into action, as they look for new and creative ways to reduce their carbon footprints via things like switching to clean energy, zero-waste packaging, and upcycling to extend the product life cycle.

Setting a goal towards neutral or even negative carbon footprints is a good way to spur companies into action.

Encouragingly, some brands are already leading by example, showing that there are plenty of ways to work towards sustainability. Since 2018, Apple’s stores, offices, and data centers have run on 100% renewable energy. Last year, the iPhone maker even made a controversial decision to stop including the charging adaptor and the wired headphones that have been commonplace in iPhone boxes for years, citing that doing so would reduce the size of iPhone packages and allow it to fit 70% more iPhones onto a shipping pallet, therefore making it more sustainable to ship.

Indeed, individual companies’ commitments to tackling climate change can influence others along the entire supply chain. Pressure from companies like BMW, H&M, and Levi’s to reduce carbon footprints is pushing the likes of global shipping giant Maersk to invest in clean fuels for their cargo ships and create a greener supply chain. Besides shipping, pledging for renewable, eco-friendly ingredients, like L’Oreal recently did, or designing more environmentally friendly packaging, as Coca Cola is doing with a pilot to test paper bottles, are both low-stake places for brands to start.

Upcycling is another tactic that some brands employ to become more sustainable. Take Arc’teryx for example. The upscale outdoor clothing brand recently launched a centralized hub called “ReBird,” which expands upon the brand’s Used Gear Program to include its first collection of upcycled gear made from post-consumer materials. It will also provide access to Arc’teryx’s used gear and repair services, thus incorporating resale into its own online retail operations.

Similarly, Samsung also launched an upcycle program that aims to help customers to turn their unused Galaxy phone into a smart home device such as baby or pet monitors, or remote controllers for smart lights and thermostats. There are also startups like Replenysh that connect brands who want to recover their products and packaging with communities looking to monetize their materials and start thriving.

Even for purely digital brands, there are ways to reduce the footprint of digital activities and make an impact in the offline world. For example, Ecosia positions itself as an eco-friendly Google alternative. It offsets carbon emissions generated from online activities by planting a tree for every 45 searches run through the engine. Data centers currently account for 2% of global carbon emissions — a number that’s expected to rise to 14% by 2040, according to GreenGeeks. Therefore, it is important for brands to take their digital initiatives into consideration when thinking about sustainability too.

Myth #2: “It’s Not a Media Thing”

Some marketers may read the previous section and object on the grounds that none of those initiatives seem to be media-driven; rather, they are focused on improving companies’ carbon footprint from an operational and logistics angle, and easily dismissed “above the pay grade” of everyone in the marketing department. This defensive misconception not only ignores the huge role that marketing plays in communicating a brands’ sustainability value to the audiences, it also unfairly diminishes the power that media activations have in getting more people on board for sustainability issues. An October 2020 research by Getty Images found that 81% of people globally expect companies to be environmentally aware in all advertising and communications.

With the right brand messaging, sustainability-minded campaigns can make consumers feel justified in their purchases and create a powerful emotional connection. This is the key to fortifying consumer loyalty, and it opens up the door for brands to involve consumers in their sustainability initiatives. For example, last summer, Burger King launched its Cows Menu initiative, a commitment to change its cows’ diet to reduce methane emissions (aka. cow farts & burps) by 33%, and announced it with a meme-worthy tweet that soon organically spread the campaign across the internet. Not only was it a win for the environment, but also for Burger King’s bottom line — the campaign reportedly performed 141% higher than industry benchmarks for engagement rate.

Sustainability-minded campaigns can make consumers feel justified in their purchases and create a powerful emotional connection.

Last November, Pepsi launched the #RecycleAtHome campaign to engage with customers who are stuck at home and promote the company’s commitments to design 100% of packaging to be recyclable or biodegradable. The content shared during the campaign will highlight recycling facts and other sustainability content, and consumers who responded to the question of “Why do you recycle at home?” automatically entered a sweepstakes to win a cash prize.

Tapping into eco-influencers also proves to be a popular tactic for brands to promote their sustainability initiatives. For instance, Chipotle launched a “Real Foodprint” tracker online and in-app that shows the environmental benefits of its 53 real ingredients compared to conventional ones. To promote this initiative, which may also drive more customers to download its app, the QSR chain teamed up with Bill Nye the Science Guy to give its data some weight via a TikTok video.

These in-market examples demonstrate with their positive results that sustainability is well suited for media campaigns and activations. It is well within our responsibility as marketers to support brands’ sustainability pledges and rally customers around a good cause through creative ideas. Moreover, looking beyond traditional media, there are also plenty of innovative and emerging media channels that marketers should look into to better promote their sustainability efforts. Our proprietary Futurecaster data proves that sustainability-minded audiences favor media innovation, and can help you pinpoint the best channels to reach them.

That being said, sustainability cannot just be a media tactic to promote the brand as “economically woke.” Without all the behind-the-scenes changes laid out in the preceding section, brands will have no ground to stand on in their pledge towards sustainability. Every headline-grabbing stunt, such as when IKEA brought an 11,000-acre forest in Georgia in the name of reforestation, need to be backed up with non-media initiatives such as taking back old furniture and repairing it for resale, Media plays a key part of brands’ environmental efforts, but it can’t be the only part of the company that makes an effort.

Myth #3: “It Will Cost More than It Earns’

Another common resistance towards implementing sustainable initiatives hinges on the cost that typically comes with changing production and logistics operations. While it is true that sustainability efforts tend to incur some additional costs in the short term, it would be shortsighted not to see the long-term financial and operational benefits they would unlock for companies taking actions today.

Take customer loyalty for example. Now that we live in a world where competitor’s products are often a few clicks away, brand loyalty is priced at a premium. Yet most brands are neglecting how important sustainability is to help boost this invaluable brand asset. According to a 2020 study by the Capgemini Research Institute, adopting sustainability practices can boost a brand’s key metrics, as 77% of executives surveyed say their sustainability initiatives have led to an increase in consumer loyalty. In addition, the study found 53% of consumers say they’ve switched to lesser-known brands if they’re sustainable, further underscoring the importance of communicating sustainable efforts to consumers.

Under the right management, sustainability doesn’t have to be a cost-leader for corporate social responsibility. For auto manufacturers, shifting to electric vehicles is as much about the bottom line as it is the environment. Unknown to many, EVs are not only key to complying with tougher environmental regulations, but they are also far cheaper to manufacture.

Partnerships with the right financial organizations and NGOs also provide an easy path for brands to manage the earning potential of sustainability efforts. In April 2021, Apple announced a first-of-its-kind carbon removal initiative, called the Restore Fund, in partnership with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs, that will make investments in forestry projects to remove carbon from the atmosphere while generating a financial return for investors.

Interestingly, even ExxonMobil has also started commercializing carbon capture and storage technology to open a new, green revenue stream, as an important step to pivot its business away from fossil fuels. After all, the cultural zeitgeist is shifting, and the rise of “activist investors” will only make unsustainable businesses less profitable over time. In December, New York’s pension fund, an influential investor, announced its plan to drop most fossil-fuel stocks in the next five years and sell its shares in other companies that contribute to global warming by 2040. Before long, it won’t be financially sustainable for brands to not run an environmentally sustainable business.

Before long, it won’t be financially sustainable for brands to not run an environmentally sustainable business.

Myth #4: “Consumers Ultimately Don’t Care”

The last, and a common, way to dismiss sustainability as an important ingredient of modern brand-building is to resort to the cynical assumption that “most consumers will choose affordability and convenience over sticking to lofty social value like “sustainability” or “inclusivity” when given the choice.” The general cultural disdain towards paper straws over plastic ones is often cited as an example to support this argument.

However, people who argue this way misunderstand two things. One, paper straws are unpopular because they tend to soften after a while and thus offer a frustrating user experience that is inferior to the one that plastic straws provide. Of course, sustainability should not come at the expense of brand experience, but more often than not, this type of degradation of user experience doesn’t happen in sustainable efforts. Therefore, it shouldn’t be treated as an effective counterpoint to dismiss the value of building a sustainable brand.

Then there are the endless stream of surveys and studies that prove there is an accelerating shift in consumer behavior when it comes to not only their awareness, but also their willingness to take action in the name of sustainability. A little over a year ago, 52% of Americans saw climate change as a top priority. That number is now up to 64%, according to the Pew Research Center survey conducted in April. Younger generations are more likely to take action, as a recent Y-Pulse study found that 63% of Gen Z and millennials believe their personal behavior has the potential to help stop climate change. 37% of them say they have changed the products they buy because of climate change while 27% have changed the way they shop.

Even as we battle the uncertainty of a drawn-out pandemic, sustainability still stayed top-of-mind for many consumers throughout the past year and half. If anything, many reports and studies have shown that the pandemic has provided us with the time to reflect and rethink our priorities. Seeing all the “nature is healing” memes, many realized that if we want a better future, we cannot go back to business as usual, and it led them to focus on helping to create a healthier, more sustainable world. One global survey by Accenture found that consumers “have dramatically evolved”, with 60% of them reporting making more environmentally friendly, sustainable, or ethical purchases since the start of the pandemic.

To dismiss sustainability as a key consumer value often stems from a vantage point of Western privilege. For many people, and especially those living in developing economies and supplying global value chains, their awareness of the climate crisis is driven by deeply personal experience of the devastating impacts of fires, floods, droughts and air pollution. Striving to buy and live sustainably is not some optional luxury that many around the world can afford to feel better about themselves, it is key to the very fiber of their quality of life. The global brands therefore have a direct economic incentive, not to mention a moral responsibility, to their customers to build a more sustainable future.

To dismiss sustainability as a key consumer value often stems from a vantage point of Western privilege.

In this article, we aim to examine some of the common myths surrounding the issue of sustainability as excuses that are holding some brand marketers back from getting fully onboard. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list of myth-busting, but rather an important conversation-starter that will hopefully help your brand move closer to embedding sustainability as a key tenet of brand value.

If you’d like to learn more about how to leverage emerging media channels and technologies to answer the increasing consumer demand around sustainability, please reach out to me at ben@ipglab.com to start a conversation.