Are consumers growing tired of the preachy, finger-pointing rhetoric that some challenger brands use to communicate sustainability? As Quiet Luxury sweeps fashion, it’s time to ask whether Quiet Activism might be the smarter path forward.
LEGO have tied ESG performance to bonuses for all 18,000 of their salaried employees – a bold, pioneering move. But will psychologist Albert Bandura be proved right? When everyone is responsible, is anyone really responsible?
England’s Euro 2024 squad announcement is the perfect prompt to ask what ‘Total Football’ can teach businesses about sustainability. Success won’t come from lone individuals – it requires a team-first mindset and the kind of internal collaboration that most organisations haven’t yet cracked.
Three times this week someone has thrust their solar panel app in my face. Annoying? Yes. But it’s also a perfect real-world example of social proof in action – and a timely reminder of the irrational tools marketeers should be using to accelerate behaviour change.
Greenwashing gets all the bad press, but could greenhushing be equally damaging? The growing reluctance to talk about sustainability progress – for fear of being called out – is quietly eroding brand goodwill with consumers, customers and stakeholders.
A trip to Earthfest in Kings Cross was a timely reminder of why it pays to get out of the office and reconnect with sustainability at the grassroots. The real leaders of this movement are quietly making a difference, driven by hope and the optimism of possibilities – not weighed down by a corporate agenda.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Fashion Revolution. After a decade of campaigning for greater transparency, barely half of the 250 largest fashion brands disclose their primary suppliers. The clock is ticking, consumers are watching, and the industry cannot afford another 10 years of inaction.
When performance pressures bite, sustainability investment is often the first thing to go. But the indirect costs of scaling back can be just as damaging as the direct ones – and the impact on employee trust, motivation and goodwill is frequently underestimated.
Going for B Corp status is exposing – even with nothing to hide. It got us thinking about transparency: admirable, yes, but is it necessary? We think authenticity is the ultimate currency, and how a business chooses to respond is a decision only they can make.
When Mangrove gained B Corp certification in 2022, the news was largely met with blank faces. Has awareness really moved since then? Justin Wright looks at three lessons B Corp could learn from Red Tractor to hit the mainstream tipping point.
Most mainstream audiences switch off when faced with doom-and-gloom sustainability messaging. But what if there’s a more light-hearted way in? The folks behind Liquid Death certainly think so – and their approach holds a great lesson for any brand wanting to make sustainability genuinely engaging.
Is the sustainability sheen wearing off? COP 28 passed with little fanfare, ESG-focused investors are pulling back, and consumers are refusing to pay more for sustainable products. Justin Wright asks whether we’ve slipped into the trough of disillusionment – and why a ‘wait and see’ approach would be the worst possible response.
