The Big Win with Sustainable Branding
I recently submitted a first draft of a 50-page, A3 landscape booklet to a client.
In order to provide feedback, they printed the document to scale multiple times, handed them around the office, compiled the ideas via handwritten notes, and delivered this pile of paper back to me to make amendments.
Yes, there are a lot of things that have gone wrong here. Don’t worry, I learned from this mistake.
One of the things that struck me was the waste involved in printing a 50-sheet, ink-heavy document, and driving the thing to my home-office, when the technology exists for the team to add notes to the PDF in Adobe Acrobat and email it to me. This saves time, money and paper.
Your brand is as much what you say you are (logo, website, copywriting) as it is what you do (customer experience, office atmosphere, email tone of voice).
Brands who care about the planet but leave sustainability out of their messaging are missing out on potential customers, profitability and positive impact on the environment.
I’m not talking about greenwashing (please join us in protecting the planet by recycling this unnecessarily single-use plastic), but genuine effort to protect, enhance and respect this planet.
When our products, attitudes, conduct and branding encourage sustainability in contextually relevant ways, we open the door to greater impact.
Does your brand care about sustainability? If it does, how are you communicating this through your brand?
Examples of sustainable branding:
Print your next annual report on recycled paper (or go digital!)
Set climate related goals and share progress
Have ‘cycle to work’ weeks (busses or walking are also great options)
Switch your office to a green energy supplier
Find ways to rewards customers for sustainable behaviour (like discounts on coffee with reusable cups)
Explore B-Corp certification or go climate-positive with ecologi.com
Encourage customers to go paperless and avoid printing emails or attachments
Tell honest stories about your supply chain
