5 Steps to Communicating Sustainability as an Eco-Conscious Brand

Due to raging wildfires, alarming hurricanes, and the threat of climate change, there has never been a better time for companies to integrate sustainability into their business practices. In fact, about half of consumers in the United States express a desire to change their shopping habits for the good of the environment. Not to mention the mountain pressure from employees, stakeholders, and international government policy is getting brands to prioritize sustainability as a focal part of their communication strategy. Here are five ways that brands and companies can correctly address the communication gaps in their sustainability message: 1. Seek the Correct Certification The truth is that consumers find it either too difficult or time-consuming to properly research which brands ring true with their sustainability claims. Many times, consumers don’t just simply take the brand’s word for it, and they lack information about such claims. This is why seeking the correct certification for your brand is highly recommended. But don’t just go for any standard owner. Some have more relevance than others according to your brand, hence you must ask the question: Which standard is relevant to my business and target audience? There are many types of labels, such as B Corporation, Fair Trade, and COTTON USA™ to name a few. Such standards will require you to pass rigorous performance standards across both environmental and social platforms. 2. Localize Your Message Sustainability to a consumer in one part of the world may mean something different to someone from another. Consumers around the world are going to associate sustainability and eco-friendly products with different focus areas, according to research. For example, consumers in North America mostly associate sustainability with recycling and circularity. In Europe, the Middle East, and African shoppers usually link sustainability to a fair price being paid to workers, whilst those in Latin American countries take alternative sources of energy into account, and for those in Asia, their main concern is minimizing the harm caused to the environment. 3. Strive for Transparency Consumers often lack verified information about how garments are made. Supply chain transparency calls for textile companies to thoroughly investigate what is happening in their supply chains and to disclose this knowledge both internally and externally. According to a study conducted by MIT Sloan School of Management, researchers found that consumers were willing to pay between 2% to 10% more for products from companies that provided greater supply chain transparency. In this study, consumers ranked highly information about materials, where products came from, and the conditions in which they were produced. Brands and companies set the level of disclosure they wish to establish. It is necessary to decide on how to meet the regulatory requirements and stakeholder demands, in addition to how this information will be communicated. This can range from divulging a code of conduct to sharing traceability information in the raw materials at the source of the supply chain.
4. Visualize Your Supply Chain Once we’ve identified and prioritized the primary risks, the next step is to visualize the target supply chain. This will help us to gain a more thorough understanding of good flows, map suppliers and processes, as well as exposing existing information gaps. The collection of this data should help to align with the company’s objectives. A useful tool used by businesses is the Open Apparel Registry (OAR). This is an open-source tool that maps garment facilities worldwide and assigns a unique ID number to each one. OAR is free to use for businesses to update and standardize facility names against the database, check affiliations of current and prospective facilities, and find credentials of potential suppliers. A strong way to make transparency feel real is to give your customers a kind of “peek behind the scenes” of your workers, their environment, and the business practices. 5. Communicate concrete benefits of sustainability It’s very important that your customers understand the positive impact your business is making from its sustainable practices. An example of this is to produce visuals, showing how the brand has had a positive effect on the everyday lives of its workers. Another example is expressing efficient use of energy in dollar terms rather than in energy savings, as most people understand money better than scientific data. Metrics such as these can be expressed in terms that people can relate to, such as the energy consumption and air pollutants of a train journey. These communication strategies can help brands to achieve more value from their sustainability goals overall. It is also advisable that marketers partner with departments that go beyond marketing and sustainability, including sourcing, operations, and product development teams. When effectively carried out, these practices can help brands to build trust with consumers through education as well as giving them the “behind the scenes” insight.