The afternoon of the Little Red Rooster Summer Showcase turned its attention to the topic no brand is able to ignore. Sustainability.
In ‘Communicating Sustainability’ we looked at the way brands navigate their audience while avoiding the public pitfalls of greenwashing – as they build trust through a more transparent approach.
We were honoured to be joined by Anna Batten, SDA (small domestic appliance) product manager at Smeg; Magnus Wiberg, co-founder of audio brand Transparent; Aron Jahn, marketing communications lead at Framery; Charlotte Metcalf, associate editor of Country and Town House and editor of Great British Brands; sustainability journalist Emma Henderson plus Little Red Rooster’s founder Victoria Ruffy, who was able to talk about our agency’s two-year journey towards becoming a B-Corp Certified company.
The talk was moderated by Roddy Clarke, design writer, speaker and consultant, who focuses his work on the positive social and environmental impacts design can have, while drawing on his own passion for craft and creativity.
Everyone agreed that sustainability was an evolving situation for brands, the landscape is changing week-by-week. And that, if anything, new language was now needed around the conversation.
“We must not put up with it,” said Charlotte Metcalf, of brands’ constant greenwashing. “The word ‘sustainable’… we should ban it. It’s become meaningless.”
Here’s a handful of the points the panel discussed.
Be honest
The environment is a long-term problem, and it requires long-term thinking. There’s no point in brands pretending they can become carbon-neutral overnight. Being honest about what’s achievable is a great way to build trust and show that you’re above greenwashing. Very few people can honestly say they’ve cracked it yet. But explaining what steps you’re taking, as a brand, brings humility. And it makes consumers connect with you.
“We’ve done an overhaul on our SDA [small domestic appliance] products,” said Smeg’s Anna Batten. “Plastics is obviously a bad topic that most people don’t want to touch on. We have quite a lot of plastics in our products so we’ve been looking at how we can create more recycled content to make things more environmentally friendly. Also, using things like steel and glass, and making things a bit more modular. And then looking at packaging, making sure that we’re eliminating things as and when, where possible.”
All these steps add up.
Sustainability makes business sense
It’s no secret that consumers expect good environmental practice from their brands as standard now. It’s something many existing brands now have to work hard to retrospectively fix. For new brands they need to build sustainability in from Day One.
“It’s quite simple,” said Framery’s Aron Jahn. “You have to realise that decarbonisation… there’s a business case in it. If you try to scale around it, if you try and cut corners today and save a bit of money, you’re going to lose out in the long term. So there’s a financial incentive there to decarbonise. And that means looking at your value chains so that you get the raw materials sustainably so you’re building for the future.”
Happily, the conversation is up and running
“What’s so great about this [panel] discussion is that two years ago this would not be happening,” said Charlotte Metcalf. “Two years ago, when I decided to do a special edition of Great British Brands for COP26 [the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference] nobody would talk to me. There was no way they would put their heads over the parapet because they were not doing enough. The fear around it was so extraordinary.”
One by one the luxury brands approached by Charlotte have all had to come round. Today they’re putting environmental concerns are front and centre.
“And, of course, it was the best thing we ever did, because everybody realised everyone was scared and nobody had the answers,” Charlotte said. “But, hey, we’re all in it together. And since then we’ve been asked to do so many events like this [Summer Showcase], to really talk about it.”
Cut through the numbers
Brands love to bandy around figures – amounts of carbon saved, number of trees planted by off-setting, etc. But without comparisons these figures can verge on meaningless.
“Some of these numbers I find infuriating,” said Victoria Ruffy. “When we’re talking to people the first thing is always ‘What are you doing now?’ Because it’s great to tell me you’ve reduced something by 20 per cent. But where was your base? Where did you start from? When [brands] put together these documents or these press releases, they’re not just press releases, you need to think of every single possible question that someone is going to ask you. And have an answer.”
To catch up on the session in full, you can check out the full video here.
