On our 16th CMO goes Tech event on the topic of Building Sustainable Brands, we talked about how to win new business by building sustainable and purpose-driven brands. Seen as a commodity by many but at the same time hard to archive. It was a night filled with good conversations, interesting topics, and knowledgeable people. Thank you for joining – and we hope to see you again, next time!
Kaj Török, Chief Sustainability Officer at MAX Burgers talked about how MAX invested in becoming climate-positive, changed its business model to help save the world – and how a brand could appeal to a growing, socially conscious audience. They even changed their name as part of this journey.
It becomes a constant balancing act to communicate enough of your sustainability efforts. Some companies even conclude that the downside is greater than the upside and sustainability communication is kept to a minimum. The strategy has been given its own name, "greenhush".
Instead, talk more about your sustainability efforts. Everything matters. Talk sooner. You’ll probably never be perfect.
We need dialogue and communication to affect stakeholders.
People will notice. MAX Burgers is top-of-mind for many people when thinking about companies that take responsibility for the climate.
We talked more about purpose-driven brands 5 years ago. Companies have realized they need the results, too.
Maria Wetterstrand, CEO at Miltton Europe, former leader of the Swedish Green Party Miljöpartiet, and member of parliament covered upcoming EU directives and laws against greenwashing.
Don’t give a false impression of your environmental impact or benefits. Greenwashing misleads market actors and does not give due advantage to those companies that are making the effort to green their products and activities.
We need regulated guidance, standardization, and a unified framework for talking about our sustainability efforts and substantiating green claims. This is how we win consumer trust.
EU is formulating a proposal to substantiate green claims through the EU taxonomy and by making it mandatory for companies that claim to be sustainable to prove it.
We need to be better at talking about sustainability, otherwise, it risks being watered down. Be truthful in your communication.
People will choose brands that make sustainability clearer in their marketing.
Sustainability communication should be based on three pillars; honesty, openness, and transparency.
Dare to communicate around things that are difficult.
Mathias Wikström, CEO, and co-founder of Doconomy, talked about Impact Applied™ as a service and provided us with some very interesting numbers.
If you’re not sustainable, you won’t be a brand for long. Consumers increasingly choose brands they believe are doing social or environmental good.
You need to move from brand being perception to brand being performance.
Sustainability may be boring, problems are not.
If you gonna lead the way it entails going somewhere where no one has gone before. The frontrunners are showing the rest of us the way.
Knowing is not enough which is why we talk about implied impact. We must act on the knowledge.
60% of your individual carbon print is linked to consumption. Engage the crowd and connect consumption to its impact on the planet
Impact transparency will become a regulatory standard. Environmental calculations will influence all financial transactions in the next decade
The formula for the power of the crowd? – Transparency-driven responsibility
Loyalty could be driven through accountability.
The amount of customers that care deeply about what kind of impact brands are making in the world is increasing. it’s become clear that this is an opportunity to differentiate by finding a true sense of purpose.
We’re looking forward to seeing you again for our next CMO goes TECH event in mid-may!
