Across all sectors, consumer demand for sustainable options has never been stronger.
But the other side of the coin is the uptick in “greenwashing” – how can consumers distinguish green companies from brands that just marketing themselves as green? And how can businesses communicate effectively to their customers to drive demand for their sustainable products and services?
A panel session at the Transform Conference — held at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) on 23 March by the Green Building Council of Australia — brought in leaders from companies and brands to talk about how to attract consumers to green products, including in the property sector.
The host was Ben Peacock, founder of sustainability brands consultancy Republic of Everyone. In the panel on-screen and on-stage was:
- Officeworks head of ESG and corporate affairs Ryan Swenson
- Country Road brand community and impact manager Fabia Pryor
- 4 Pines Brewing Company sustainability and social impact advisor Ttobie Arowobusoye.
The panel also shared the GBCAs work on understanding consumer thinking in the residential sector as seen in Green Star Homes work.
Globally, 85 per cent of people have shifted their purchase behaviour towards being more sustainable in the past five years, according to The Global Sustainability Study 2021 from Simon-Kucher & Partners.
In summary, the main ways to appeal to eco-savvy consumers are:
- start on the workplace culture with well imbedded sustainability, and then follow through with an ambitious commitment
- make sure the marketing and sales people can understand and communicate to customers
- be loud about the story of transitioning to renewables
- raise credibility by working with other socially and environmentally responsible brands
- make sustainable choices affordable, accessible, high quality, and easy to understand
- be transparent and traceable
- offer closed-loop end-of-life solutions
- collaboration and partnerships instead of competition is what drives change
- good consumer research can help back company’s decisions to drive sustainability
- ensure than capacity and capability for change is supported
Sustainability and social impact advisor of 4 Pines Brewing Company Ttobie Arowobusoye said that communicating the sustainability of a brand is only going to get more difficult in the future as customers become more aware and educated about greenwashing and drive companies towards authenticity.
“I don’t think it’s going to get easier, I think it’s going to get harder. I think consumers are going to be a lot smarter,” she said.
Customers expect authenticity, transparency and information from brands. Meaning that while some brands can attempt to greenwash, consumers are going to call them out a lot faster.
“Marketing teams are going to have to get a lot smarter and a lot savvier within this space. Their job is not just to tell consumers what they want to buy, it’s also going to be an educational piece for consumers.
“So marketers are going to have to get on the journey of understanding what sustainability looks like.”
4 Pines Brewing Company is a B Corp and a member of nonprofit organisation 1% for the Planet. The company is donating to community renewable companies installing solar panels on roofs to help the wider community. The brewery has collaborated with more established “activist” ice creamery Ben & Jerry’s. Collaborating with socially and environmentally responsible brands is helping the brand to increase credibility and authenticity.
One of its sustainability projects is a collaboration with not-for-profit Landcare the reforestation of a local hops farm (its main supplier) to make the farm resistant to drought, which also benefits the brewery as it increases crop yields.
“The government is doing what the government is doing, which is not much. So how can we bridge that gap and get others along on that journey?” Arowobusoye said.
Marketers sometimes “want to get the quickest, easiest story – but with sustainability it’s not that easy. We have to spend a bit of time explaining that the story is clear and as true as it can be.”
Like 4 Pines, another consumer company that is collaborating with Landcare is clothing retailer Country Road.
The company is “giving back” to the environment by restoring cotton farms around Australia by bringing back increased biodiversity in the farming ecosystems. It has also put end-of-life options in place for diverting clothes from landfill and donating to Red Cross in order to reduce “fast fashion” and give back to the community.
The company has put responsible sourcing methods and traceability in place, to show customers that they are delivering on the sustainability offering.
Brand community and impact manager Fabia Pryor said that customers are increasingly wanting to know about the “story” of where their products come from.
“80 per cent of our customers want to know where the product comes from,” she said.
“It’s about transparency and traceability. And really we know, they are the fundamental building blocks.”
The reason that 4 Pines chose Landcare?
“Consumers like things that are easy to understand,” Arowobusoye said.
Making the sustainability story easy to understand is part of what drives consumer demand.
“It’s not just about selling the product, but about educating people and bringing them along that journey, and doing it in a way that is easy and engaging,” Ryan Swenson from Officeworks said.
“The majority of Australians want to make more sustainable choices, but they need it to be made easy, they need it to be affordable… and it needs to maintain quality.”
“Don’t talk about technical attributes. People don’t get it, people don’t want to hear that stuff. What you gotta talk about is the benefit,” Peacock said.
Arowobusoye said the way to do this is by engaging and educating the marketing team.
Marketers sometimes “want to get the quickest, easiest story – but with sustainability it’s not that easy. We have to spend a bit of time explaining that the story is clear and as true as it can be.”
“Get them to understand the story so they can talk to our customers about that very clearly,” she said.
Swenson was also quick to point out that it is easiest to start with a “well-imbedded sustainability” story.
“It’s about focusing on the culture,” Swenson said. “Making sure we’ve got a really embedded understanding of sustainability. And from there, everything else becomes much easier. Having ambitious commitments and demonstrated actions… listening to our customers and getting clear insights they can act on.”
Sustainable products such as highlighter pens manufactured from recycled plastic are now growing “three times faster” than other offerings at the stationery retailer.
“Once we’ve got the culture, and once we’ve got the insights from customers… the rest really follows quite easily,” he said.
“It’s about focusing on the culture… Making sure we’ve got a really embedded understanding of sustainability.”
It’s not just about selling the sustainable product, it’s also about bringing the product back to contribute to the circular economy. Customers’ understanding of sustainability and circularity is quickly evolving.
“They are increasingly expecting these types of closed loop solutions.”
So, workplace culture, data, ambitious commitments, clear communication, collaboration, transparency, and thinking about the whole product life cycle… these are all ways that a business can cut through the greenwash and appeal to eco-savvy consumers.
“This isn’t something we’re holding close to our chests. We want to share this with others… Because there is a real need to drive change,” Pryor said.
“The future looks great, but a lot harder,” Arowobusoye said.
