Why brands must take responsibility to inspire planet-positive consumer action
Brands have a unique and privileged position when it comes to influencing how consumers think and inspiring planet-positive behaviour change. How can they ensure this opportunity doesn’t go to waste?
From remote working and more online shopping to fewer commutes and less overseas travel, the pandemic changed how people looked at the world, and also led many consumers to change how they choose to behave now and into the future. Some of these changes have had a positive effect on the planet: global fossil fuel emissions dropped by a record 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020.
“Now is a great time to re-evaluate and decide that [how we lived before the pandemic] was not the best we could do,” says Karen Winterich, Susman Professor in Sustainability at Penn State University. “It is too early to say whether the positive impacts will endure, but consumers have experienced some kind of awareness-awakening.”
Sure enough, 60 per cent of consumers said they are making more environmentally friendly, sustainable or ethical purchases since the onset of the pandemic. But despite this new environmental awareness, research suggests that people are still confused about which of their actions has the biggest impact on their carbon footprint. This is where brands have a critical role to play.
Brands inspire consumers to take positive action
Fabrice Beaulieu, EVP Group Marketing Excellence at hygiene, health and nutrition company Reckitt, says that brands can help consumers to behave more sustainably by giving them the information and convenience they need to break old habits and make smarter decisions.
“People buy products to do a job, but they may not know the impact of using them,” says Beaulieu. “Simple facts, if they are relevant and explained clearly by the brand, can ignite a lot of small changes. Over time, these small changes aggregate into big transformation.”
One example of this is Reckitt’s work with National Geographic to build public understanding of water scarcity. As the manufacturer of dishwasher detergent Finish, Reckitt has created campaigns that explain to consumers that machine-washing dirty dishes uses only one-tenth of the water that washing them in the sink does and that pre-rinsing dishes can use up to seven times the amount of water as one dishwasher cycle. In this US, where 73% of households report pre-washing their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, this equates to nearly 682 billion litres of water waste every year.
By educating consumers to skip pre-clean rinsing, the Finish #skiptherinse campaign in the US has pledged to save over 25 million litres of water, which is the equivalent of nearly 2 million dishwasher cycles. “If everyone does it, cleaning the dishes with the right product in the right way can add up to a positive, large-scale change,” says Beaulieu.
Consumers know greenwashing when they see it
More and more customers are now alert to greenwashing — whereby corporates claim sustainability credentials that they do not live up to in practice — and are ready to boycott and publicly shame guilty parties.
“We have had so much greenwashing by brands, which has led to a lot of consumer scepticism,” says Winterich. “Brands are going to have to work really hard to overcome that by building trust through transparency.”
Too many brands, she says, choose “generic ‘save the earth’ themes” that do not match up to how people live their lives and are difficult to quantify with hard evidence. Instead, what consumers need is specific, practical information from the brands they think are best placed to offer it.
Clever brands stick to the facts (and keep it simple)
Global reuse platform Loop is a great example of this. It works with popular consumer goods brands, including Finish, Heinz and Pantene, to create reusable versions of familiar packaging. When they purchase a product, consumers pay a deposit for the packaging, which they return to Loop to clean and reuse when they have finished with it.
And although platforms such as Loop are still relatively new on the market, their growing popularity shows just how valuable an opportunity awaits.
Brands that get this right could gain significant value from their efforts to drive sustainability, says Beaulieu. “We are talking about better business — for the company and for all of its stakeholders,” he says. “We can take consumers on a journey towards embracing sustainability through simple changes that all of us can manage. It starts with providing the facts.”
