Is sustainability just another marketing flash in the pan?

As I speed date to find myself a new employer, the above question has been asked of me by several potential bosses. The question usually comes up when I start talking through case studies of organisations who are Standing Out for Sustainability, as evidence of how many more could possibly do so, if they had a marketing agency (enter employer) with the CSR brains to do so.

It is a fair question coming from media industry bosses who are used to a short news cycle and are the ones responsible for identifying trends that their clients could “leverage,” as we like to say. Media and marketing agencies are not only the ones that get their client companies on the bandwagon, they are supposed to oracle as to when the bandwagon is going to arrive.

The issue of climate change not going away. This is what makes sustainability a different business issue to every one that has come before. It’s not a cyclical problem. And it’s not just a business problem – it will directly affect every single one of us. And it will affect our children even more.

Since this sleeping beast awoke two years ago, sustainability marketing has centered on companies profiling their own internal practices, as a way of differentiating themselves from competitors either to consumers or employees. So discussion may have centered on how organisations use renewable materials in manufacture, how they ensure their supply chain has ethical practices in place, or their own programs designed to reduce their carbon footprint.

But the game has evolved. In the Sydney Morning Herald today is an article about how big brand name companies are working together in an initiative called Together which is designed to provide advice to consumers as to how they can reduce their carbon footprint. The scheme has been running for a year in the UK, with consumer brand behemoths Tesco, Marks & Spencer, B&Q, BSkyB, Barclaycard, Royal & Sun Alliance, British Gas together selling 20 million products such as low-energy light bulbs or housing insulation on the cheap to consumers concerned about the environment. The campaign has saved more than 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 4.6 per cent of Britain’s overall reduction. Now the colonials are exporting the scheme over to us and Westpac, NRMA Insurance and Origin Energy have already signed up. http://www.together.com/

This is a new product line. So rather than companies just being on the defensive about sustainability, this represents that they are now on the offensive.

Yay! I’m looking forward to the day when internal company practices around sustainability aren’t something that companies can “leverage” to better their reputations. It should be something that they (we) all do.

And although I’m a greenie, I am a business woman. So I know that companies have to make a buck out of something to get behind it. But I don’t care. I am cynical of greenwashing and I am informed. But if something is a genuine initiative that can bring some benefit to me and to the environment, I don’t care if the reasons behind it aren't completely altruistic.

Hats to it, in fact, for demonstrating how being green equals being (in the) black.

Promo video avec celebs is now here -