Our guide to greenwashing and more!
For this month’s newsletter, we’re putting the spotlight on all things sustainable. We’ve been working on a number of projects with an environmental focus and wanted to share some of our insights. Read on for our tips on avoiding greenwashing and how to nail your sustainable messaging. You’ll also find links to some upcoming sustainability events you can get involved with!
Guide to Greenwashing and How to Avoid It
Greenwashing is when a company falsely markets themselves as more environmentally friendly than they are. So how do you sincerely market your sustainability without falling into this trap? Here are our top tips:
Watch Your Terms - Though you may see words like green, sustainable, and eco-friendly being used interchangeably, they don’t all mean the same thing. Have a think about which terms are the best fit for your business before putting your message out there.
Offsetting Isn’t Everything - Schemes for offsetting carbon emissions have become increasingly popular but shouldn’t be used as a free pass to continue harmful business practices. If you want your business to be more sustainable, you must look inside to see how you can make positive changes.
Progress Not Perfection - We all need to do as much as can to tackle the climate emergency. We also need to be realistic about what we can achieve. Audiences appreciate transparency and will respond better to an honest account of your sustainability journey than to grand claims you can’t possibly keep.
Reflections from Marketing Your Sustainability Webinar
Our strategic director Dr Marieke Sjerps was invited to deliver a webinar on Marketing Your Sustainability for Backing Essex Business. Here are some of her takeaways from the session:
“One of the participants wanted to know why they weren't seeing results from a new marketing campaign. She had started promoting the sustainable qualities of her farm's products, using the same channels she always used. But she wasn't seeing a rise in sales.
So, what's going wrong? When you are trying to win NEW customers with new messaging, you need to look critically at the channels you're using. If you use the same channels, you will only reach the same audience, who have probably already made their decision on whether to buy from you.
If you want to reach new clients who care about sustainability, make sure you're actually putting your messaging somewhere that it hasn't reached before.”
More of Marieke’s tips, check out her blog!