What Is A Sustainable Brand?
With the Sustainable Brands 2010 Conference quickly approaching, consumers are asking more and more the same questions: What is a sustainable brand? How are they different from the rest?
Back in 2008, Delia Bonfilio asked the same question when writing for Fast Company. Back then, the term ‘sustainability’ was only connected with the growth potential of a given brand.
Nowadays, the definition of what makes a sustainable brand is broader, and is commonly associated with green and/or ethical businesses. Sustainability now stands for the triple bottom line: planet, people, profits. Nonetheless, sustainable, green or ethical brands (whichever term is more alluring to you) must still meet the old-fashion sustainability requirements in order to survive.
So How Do We Define A Sustainable Brand?
In order to own a truly sustainable brand, businesses must integrate environmental, social and economic sustainability across the 3 brand elements:
Products/Services: the products or professional services that the company offers and the markets/clients that it serves.
Business Standards: the unique tools, processes, business strategies, delivery methods, knowledge base, core values and techniques that the company brings to a project.
Company Style: the organization’s personality, the way that businesses communicate and relate to the marketplace, and the distinct flair that the company possesses.
But this is not enough. To own a sustainable brand, businesses must also:
1. Have a policy in place, documenting all the values and standards the business stands for and acts on.
2. Incorporate the principles of environmental, social and economic sustainability into each of the business decisions.
3. Supply environmentally and community friendly products or services that replace the demand for the non-sustainable versions of the same product/service.
4. Be greener and more socially responsible than traditional competition.
5. Make an enduring commitment to environmental and social principles in its business operations.
Where To Start
It can be a daunting task to implement sustainable practices across the multiple areas of a company. A practical example of how to build a sustainable brand is brought to us by Unilever and its Brand Imprint Process. The Brand Imprint Process provides a structured framework for brand teams to understand and assess how sustainability issues impact – and are impacted – by their products. The process and its metrics help integrate sustainability considerations into the everyday business processes of the categories and brands. This holistic architecture helps organizations integrate social and environmental sustainability into the corporate business strategy.
Unilever's Vitality Framework
Taking Sustainability To The Next Level
Nowadays, sustainable organizations can no longer afford to implement eco and socially responsible practices only within their business – organizations must now look upstream and downstream, and assess if these practices are being put to work by the company’s partners, the partner’s partners and even by the organization’s clients. A company today isn’t just responsible for the product it sells anymore; it’s also accountable for all the components that go into that product, and how the product is managed across its lifecycle, including when the product becomes obsolete.
Impacts and Influences of a Sustainable Brand
For instance, Nestlé was heavily criticized for doing business with Sinar Mas, the largest producer of palm oil in Indonesia. Sinar Mas supplies many food, drink, cosmetic and biofuel companies worldwide, and is breaking Indonesian law by clearing protected forests for its palm oil plantations. When Nestlé went under fire for doing business with such an unsustainable company, the famous food company cancelled all its contracts with Sinar Mas. But despite the contract cancellations, palm oil from destroyed forests still remains in Nestlé’s supply chain: the other Nestlé suppliers still buy from Sinar Mas. The result: stronger criticism.
Another example of how demanding customers and communities are nowadays is the increase of legislation demanding companies to implement take-back programs. Businesses now are legally bound to implement processes to repossess products at the end of their lifecycle, hence decreasing the amount of waste that end up in landfills. We’ve seen this trend especially in the electronics markets, with Nokia and HP leading the way.
The Bottom-Line
In order to build a sustainable brand, businesses must develop a brand that is positioned to grow, consistently integrating environmentally and socially responsible values across everything the company does, from operations and its supply chain to its products and services, clients, partners and even investors.
Recommended reading:
Turning green into gold: a green marketing webinar
5 tips on how to successfully market your green business
The argument for green marketing
Thank you for this post. It’s a timely addition to a conversation that is also happening between David of thegoodhuman.com, the staff of Sustainable Life Media (The producers of the SB conference) and others from the world of corporate sustainability. I encourage you to check it out and add your thoughts. http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2010/05/05/greenwash-of-the-week-sustainable-brands-2010/
Specific to your post, perhaps the only point I would amend would be the 2008 arrival of sustainability as a green consideration and not a purely financial consideration. Gil Friend wrote about 2005 being the year Sustainability hit a Tipping Point (http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004172.html) and other companies like Nike were already well into the SOL Sustainability Forum collective by then. I think your point is well taken though, the meaning of the “Sustainability” of a brand has morphed over the years from long term viability coming from consumer awareness, to long term viability as a result of the company’s efforts to address ecological, social, AND financial considerations.
What I particularly appreciate about this post is it lays out some benchmarks for a “not-yet-fully sustainable” company to gauge their progress against cries of “greenwash”, and that is: it is not just about bringing one product or service to market, labeling it “green” and calling the whole company a “Sustainable Brand”. This is where much of the (rightfully deserved, IMO) criticism is being leveled against Sustainable Brands conference. Giving a company like, say Clorox access to the marketing potential without addressing the serious environmental consequences of the operations of the company is the epitome of Greenwash. Your post gives a framework for stakeholders–including those that do or do not choose purchase their product–the metrics for determining if a brand is worthy of the term “Sustainable”. Right now, it seems, all they need to do is write a sponsorship check for a high profile conference.
Thanks again for this addition to the conversation.
Together on Earth,
Chris
@Kiwano I asked myself that question a while ago http://www.melodiesinmarketing.com/2008/... though I’ve probably expanded it
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RT @Kiwano: How do we define a sustainable brand? http://ht.ly/27cy8
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RT @Kiwano: How do we define a #sustainable brand? http://ht.ly/27cyx
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