Key highlights from National Green Brands Forum 2010

What does sustainability mean to your business? It means more than the operational footprint of your business. Sustainability involves your relationship with your staff, suppliers, customers, community and the environment. Your business can benefit from improved business efficiency, greater employee attraction and retention, increased customer loyalty and sales, a preferred supplier status, more differentiation and an enhanced brand image.

The National Green Brands Forum on 17 June 2010 conducted by the Three Pillars Network brought international and national experts together to look at the growth of sustainability. The forum looked at the green purchasing decisions of consumers, cause marketing and crowd sourcing techniques, the value of carbon label schemes, and strategies to grow a sustainable brand successfully.   Maria Anderson from Sustainable Marketing attended the forum and is delighted to share the key highlights from her perspective.

True sustainability involves embedding sustainability into your core business (Adam Werbach, Saatchi & Saatchi). It involves a shift to life cycle thinking - considering the impact of your products or business from the creation of raw materials, manufacture, distribution, to consumer use and disposal.  Using false green claims can attract unwanted consumer scepticism and attention from government watchdogs. For example, BP used the tagline “beyond petroleum” while only investing 8% in sustainable energy production. Sustainable brands need to have a big goal that is actionable by every employee, is core to your business, solves a global human challenge, is achievable in 5 to 15 years and is inspirational.

Sustainability is now mainstream, consumers need help to activate their green intent into behaviour and they don’t trust environmental claims (Ross Wyatt, Net Balance). Findings from the new Australian Food and Grocery Council Green Shopper Survey (June 2010) revealed that 84% of shoppers interviewed were concerned about the impact of their purchasing decisions. 93% think a retailer’s effort to reduce their environmental impact is important. 89% were concerned about wrong information on green credentials and 74% were concerned with greenwash.

Social media is a powerful way to start a conversation,  be a good listener and empower your customers to be ambassadors for your brand (Alana Stocks, Circul8). Customers are increasingly seeking referrals through facebook and twitter for products or services. Companies are using social cause marketing and crowd sourcing to build relationships with customers and the community.
The Pepsi Refresh Project is giving away millions in grants to fund ideas generated through crowd sourcing. Taking $20M from their Superbowl advertising budget, Pepsi achieved more brand credibility than the ten 30 second slots of advertising would have produced.

The new voluntary National Carbon Offset Standard will provide a benchmark for businesses to assess carbon neutrality or offsets (David Walker, Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency). Paul Klymencko (Planet Ark) talked about how Planet Ark’s Carbon Reduction Label allows businesses to communicate their carbon reduction commitment to customers through an easy to understand label. Aldi will be the first supermarket to introduce the label on its everyday olive oil range.

Kraft Foods, ETIKO and Australian Paper talked about the value that carbon certifications and logos have added to their businesses. This is consistent with the AFGC Green Shopper research with 87% of the shoppers interviewed indicating they were most likely to believe green claims from a recognised environmental logo. Claims must be honest as consumers will respond negatively to greenwash. It is important to find a credible certification that aligns with your business values. Labels must be easy for consumers to understand.

Green marketing is becoming more common and green claims must be accurate and able to be substantiated (Patrick Crouche, ACCC). The Trade Practices Act applies to all forms of marketing, including packaging, labelling and advertising. Environment claims 1) must be accurate and able to be substantiated, 2) should be specific statements and not unqualified and /or generic statements 3) should only be made for a real benefit 4) must not overstate a benefit 5) should clarify whether benefits refer to packaging or content and 6) enforcement or certification should be used with caution.

Engaging your employees is the most important way to introduce sustainability into your business (Ben Peacock, Republic of Everyone). Walmart has successfully embedded sustainability into their core business and has even developed the first supplier sustainability index. Make the act of being sustainable fun. The Fun Theory is a series of youtubes that aims to change people’s behaviour for the better by making it fun.  Sustainability is a journey not a destination and we should celebrate the steps along the way.

(Maria Anderson is a certified practising marketer with the Australian Marketing Institute and is the founding director of Sustainable Marketing)