The current state of sustainability

It’s increasingly clear that we will fail to keep the temperature from rising 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels by 2100. Cue more extreme weather events, loss of biodiversity, glacial melt and rising sea levels that threaten many low-lying Pacific nations. Companies are receiving pressure on all sides to get green and reach zero. But does the logic and need of achieving net zero business apply equally to using it in your communications and promotion?

Sustainability can be defined as ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Terms like; eco-friendly, environmentally safe/sound, natural, clean, and “committed to being green” have become the familiar green vernacular, but at what cost?

Research conducted on behalf of WARC revealed that 77% of UK consumers simply don’t understand what brands mean when they talk about sustainability. Further confusion is added when technically true statements aren’t practically true; an example is 100% recyclable packaging. Only 9% of all plastic has been recycled. Many recycling centres don’t have the capability to recycle 100% of the plastics sent to them and further damage is done when waste is shipped out to other countries and then logged as ‘recycled’ under UK standards.

Brands playing on green connotations that allude to sustainability, with no evidential support, have landed in hot water. Panorama and other documentaries have exposed just how insidious greenwashing is leading conscientious consumers to verify fact from fiction.

Given our current political climate, it might be fair to say that public scepticism is at an all-time high. Unsurprisingly, therefore consumers are getting more cynical about greenwashing. WARC found that 81% of consumers didn’t trust brands when talking about sustainability and environmental goals, while only 4% said they ‘completely trusted them’. This begs the question, if few trust green campaigns, are they helping or hindering?

A growing number of employees want their company values to align with their personal ones; there’s a reluctance to join marketing agencies whose clients are making headlines for the wrong reasons. As many as 210 agencies and 600 creatives have joined Clean Creatives, pledging not to work for the fossil fuel industry. CIM found that 49% of marketers are wary of working on sustainability campaigns due to the fear of being accused of ‘greenwashing’. There’s also a risk of being called out by others in your industry, Hill+Knowlton Strategies are one of the latest firms to be accused of greenwashing.

If the public is confused, distrusting and wary, what value does sustainability messaging do for the average business? In the current climate (pun intended) is it still worth factoring sustainability into marketing campaigns?

There are two potential routes:
Follow the acts not ads school of thought and don’t talk about it. What difference does it make what you say you’re doing as long as you’re doing it? As Greta said, no more blah blah blah.

Quietly obtain environmental/sustainable certification schemes (think BCorp, ISO14001 etc). Consider ‘life cycle assessment’, the process of auditing a supply chain to understand the impact of products from creation to disposal; partner with an NGO; or offer recycling schemes whereby customers can receive a discount if they turn in old items.

If every brand is hopping on the ‘purpose’-led bandwagon, why not veer down a different path and simply aim to stand out? In other words, don’t try to do and say too much. Effectiveness doesn’t require rational messaging, let alone purpose-led messaging. Daniel Craig’s recent foray into air-humping and a short-lived game of spin-the-Belvedere-bottle proves that brands don’t need to say anything to attract attention. It could gain you some extra attention and interest. As Mark Ritson noted, ‘the game is empty salience’.

big group have been busy making strides towards carbon neutrality; you can read more about it here. We’ll highlight what steps we’ve taken and what our qualifications mean so other agencies can get started on their sustainability journeys.