3 ideas for green marketing
By: Fiona Livingston
Tags: Green, Marketing Strategies, Sustainability, Business Strategy, Green Marketing

The benefits of making your marketing efforts authentically green

©Fiona Livingston

My background is rooted in wanting to make a positive impact on the environment and nature. I studied a Masters in Environmental Conservation and worked in the environment sector for a number of years as a researcher and also managing urban natural habitats before I fell into marketing. But my passion for the environment has never wavered and I have always tried to bring elements of sustainability and environmental awareness into all of my roles. In my current role, I am proud to be part of an active Environmental Working Group and to have satisfied the requirements of making the company carbon neutral. There is still so much more we can do and we are working on how to make classical music travel more sustainable, venues more energy-efficient, and making sure that the environment is featured in creative programming.

The environment is not just an important thing for me but is important to millions of people to the point where they will not engage positively with a company if their ethical and environmental values do not align with their own. Why would they buy products from an organisation which has a huge carbon footprint and wasteful practises when they could buy from a company with carbon-neutral status, transparent working practises and supply chain, and utilises recyclable materials? No brainer isn’t it?

In 2019 environmental issues were very much at the foreground with Greta Thunberg, #waronplastics, being carbon neutral and the protests and marches by Extinction Rebellion. In 2020 the main focus is on society heightened by COVID19 with emphasis on showing appreciation to key workers, community, humanity, it exposed inequality #BLM, and also exposed businesses not doing right by their customers and being exposed as villains. These trends from the last two years show that it is important for any organisation whether you are a product or service-based company to realise that the interconnection between nature and society is extremely important and increasingly visual. Any kind of bandwagoning should be avoided and only real authentic support of causes will be tolerated. Society has realised that we must make sustainable changes to save us and the planet.

So how can marketing meet and address these important societal and environmental concerns and bring them together in an authentic, caring way, and create real positive change?

Three things to do to make your marketing green:

UN Sustainable Development Goals

1: UN Sustainable Development Goals: These were developed in 2015 and consist of 17 goals to transform our world. They are a to-do list for people and planet, to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years. The goals address the needs of people in both developed and developing countries, emphasising that no one should be left behind. These goals were originally intended for governments to act, but can be applied to individual organisations too. To simplify this for business I recommend looking at the Good Life Goals which break down each of the UN goals into what they actually mean and creates actions from them. So you could select №2 Zero Hunger Goal, and Good Life Goals breaks this down into five actionable points such as action point No.2 ‘enjoy more fruits and vegetables’. Jeans manufacturer Levi’s got behind Goal №6 Clean Water and Sanitation Action point No.4 ‘Save water when cleaning’ with their “don’t wash your jeans” campaign. Select one or two goals and actions points which you think you can realistically implement and get behind in your organisation. Make your goal part of your long term strategy and avoid short-termism as this is the enemy of sustainability.

2: The Green Recovery after COVID19. 2020 saw a number of very exciting projects arise such as Global Centre for Green Finance and also the EarthShot Prize conceived by David Attenborough and Prince William to encourage people to provide solutions to the world’s environmental problems by 2030. How can your company support initiatives like this, or can you group together with likeminded organisations and create your own green forum or action group?

3: BOGOF Reinvented: This is the ‘pay it forward’ concept where you think about your product and who would benefit from it but can’t afford it. How can you set up a programme to provide access to your products? Think about TOMS shoes, Mindful Chef or Hey Girls for inspiration.

Photo by Andreas Gücklhorn on Unsplash

Benefits of Green Marketing