When you’ve done something good there’s a natural temptation to tell the world about it. Whether you succumb to that urge depends on how much you need the recognition and whether you give a second thought to how interested others will be.
And it seems from our recent experience the same applies to a brand or business’s sustainability-driven activities.
“Hey, we’ve switched all our lightbulbs to LED, put a turbine on the roof and now all the crap from our factories gets taken away to get reused. I’m gonna brief marketing.”
In reality, not all sustainability activities are born equal. Some make a big contribution to your targets, others don’t. Some things you do are interesting to the outside world; others they couldn’t care less about, or think you’re doing already.
The reality is that a lot of the stuff you need to do to hit your sustainability goals has zero interest for normal people – you just need to get on and do it, and if you can find an interesting story to tell about it then consider it a bonus. In contrast, there is probably stuff that makes little real impact on your targets or the planet but makes for a great brand-led story that helps to engage a new audience or get people to see you in a different light. These are well worth the investment because they help establish your sustainability narrative and credentials in the minds of customers. And of course, the few things that make both an impact and engage an external audience should be your priorities – and what you become famous for.
When resources for sustainability initiatives are under pressure and you require more focus, you need to know which are your “Heroes” and “Captivators” so you can shout about them, whilst you execute the “Imperatives” at scale, and question whether the “Distractors” are really about sustainability after all.
In this week’s news
- Spreadsheets still rule – nearly half of companies still using spreadsheets to manage ESG data
- Can AI take the pain out of sustainability data crunching? Some challenges in New Zealand
- Poking the bear – some interesting provocations from our friends at Revolt on sustainability in the USA
- Is the UK leading the way for climate and sustainability innovation?
Nick Pye
Co-Founder
Mangrove