What does it mean to be green? Sustainability should not be about marketing hype or embracing the latest contemporary zeitgiest. Sustainability must be a business model first and a branding strategy second. And, by now, it should be abundantly clear to any lucid decision-maker that sustainability is here to stay. What began as an article published on NPICenter.com in 2001 quickly became the foundation of many articles and speaking engagements. Twenty years later, “The Green Imperative,” in one form or another, has undeniably become a necessary part of an organization’s operations and marketing strategy.

First, let’s revisit what sustainability really means. It is more than just social responsibility; it is an organization’s ongoing commitment to meeting corporate objectives (revenue and profit) and consumer needs in a way that demonstrates continuous improvement toward minimizing negative impact on society and the natural environment. When I first sat down to write this piece, I thought it would be interesting to update the model for modern times. Green Imperative 2.0! But alas, I found that revisions were largely unnecessary. Indeed, the original model has weathered the test of time rather well.

So, how are you doing with your sustainability efforts? Are they measurable? Authentic? Ongoing? Transparent? Or do you still need to work on this?

The Sustainability Trend

Many businesses in every industry have, for a variety of reasons, employed strategies to address the growing concern for human health and the natural environment. This is clearly a trend, not a short-lived fad. The pioneers can all be found in the natural products industry. Partly a backlash against the “Better Living Through Chemistry” zeitgeist of the early and middle 1900s, the healthy foods movement, which is now an industry in the hundreds of billions of dollars, was also a response to the environmental devastation that was perhaps best illustrated in Rachel Carson’s early 1960s blockbuster Silent Spring. “Is what makes the Cuyahoga River catch fire also in our food and water supply?” The environmental problems that began to be addressed around this time raised social consciousness beyond that of simply focusing on the steamroller of economic development that occurred after World War II. Was it worth having these technological advancements at the cost of the ecosystem’s health? Apparently not.

The term “Green Marketing” is a colloquial one. It may have been coined by Jacqueline Ottman, author of the book Green Marketing in the early 1980s. The term also appeared in Dr. Philip Kotler’s famous Introduction to Marketing textbook around that time, so it is difficult to say to whom the term’s origination should be attributed. These terms quickly infiltrated both industry and academic circles, and it is difficult to assign derivation to such common words. Nevertheless, the term adequately described a company’s efforts to address what is more scientifically termed, “Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility,” and unfortunately the word has been used liberally to describe all manners of commitment (or lack thereof) to sustainability efforts.

With its start in small “hippie” health food stores and “pill shops,” the natural and organic products industry began to boom in the late 1980s, driven by the growth of the nutritional supplement category and the beginnings of mass distribution. In the U.S., the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) ensured that vitamins, herbs and all manners of supplements remained available to consumers over-the-counter, and also outlined a list of regulatory requirements that remains in the process of development even as of this writing. Soon the functional foods area began to grow, as an increasing number of consumers began to prefer their supplements in food or beverage form rather than a pill, tincture or powder. The profound growth of natural and certified organic products of all kinds followed as channels of distribution widened to meet growing consumer demand.

The double-digit growth of the natural products industry over a period of many decades has influenced companies in many other categories of consumer and business goods to address this social trend in other types of goods and services. From raw materials to the end user, sustainability is now part of the process. It is true that consumers are fickle, and that current social attitudes toward sustainability may take a back seat to concerns such as terrorism and the economy, as we have seen recently, but the practices that have been integrated into industries at all levels cannot be easily changed if efforts to be more sustainable have been made in good faith. Sadly, this is all too often not the case.

The “Why” of Sustainability

Indeed, there is some evidence that the authentic sustainability efforts of many businesses have gone unnoticed, lost in a sea of green washing, The Green Imperative is all about the “why,” and so sustainability plans are developed and implemented for the following reasons:

• Target Marketing: A sustainable marketing strategy, with products that are properly positioned, will address the growing target market for goods that are green in some way, whether natural, certified organic, recyclable, made from recycled materials, dematerialized, etc. Numerous market segmentation studies have identified a growing market for greener goods and services among Americans.

• Sustainability of Resources: Ensuring the availability of resources to continue to make and sell goods is another imperative that suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers must embrace. Cutting down all the trees does not help the shareholders of paper companies, let alone everyone else.

• Lowered Costs/Increased Efficiency: There are countless ways to save money and increase efficiency so that marketers can enhance the bottom line and stave off the narrowing of margins that occurs in every industry as it reaches the maturity stage of the life cycle.

• Product Differentiation and Competitive Advantage: Every marketer knows that in this hyper-competitive business environment it is crucial to maintain demonstrable advantages over competitive and substitute offerings. Green products are often a “tie-breaker” when consumers are comparing products offering the same benefits.

• Competitive and Supply Chain Pressures: When competitive organizations and their products adopt sustainable business models and green positioning, it often pressures other companies to follow suit, especially in the case of market leaders. Walmart and its recent environmental and social initiatives illustrate how powerful supply chain members can force companies around the world to adopt more favorable social and environmental policies.

• Regulation and Risk: Regulations at all levels of government are on the rapid rise, so organizations need to not only remain in compliance but also proactive regarding impending legislation. This practice reduces shareholder risk.

• Other Stakeholder Demands: Activist shareholders, NGOs (non-govermental organizations), the financial sector, and the media all work both independently and in concert to ensure that companies are cognizant of their impact on people and the environment.

• Brand Reputation: Any able marketer knows that a brand’s reputation is of paramount importance and being sustainable enhances that reputation among the majority of stakeholders.

• Global Market Forces: Global concerns about climate change, looming energy problems and a recent growing backlash against globalization among many others factors all point toward the necessity in addressing sustainability issues.

• Customer Loyalty: A brand’s attitude toward sustainability is just one of the many variables that factor into the decision-making processes for consumers.

• Employee Morale: A wide body of research points to the fact that adopting a more sustainable business model enhances employee morale.

• The Ethical Imperative: This concept is simple. It is not ethical to degrade the environment and the people in it in the name of commerce. Embracing sustainability is simply the right thing to do, and stakeholders are sensitive to this.

A careful examination of the above reasons for building a sustainability model into your business and marketing strategy reveals these efforts should lead to the magic words, “Return on Investment.” This is simply good business. And all of this was first written 20 years ago.

Authentic Efforts

Much of marketing is exaggeration, a common practice sometimes known as “puffery.” This and the utter proliferation of marketing messages over the past several decades have taken a toll on the consumer. We are bombarded with thousands of messages each day, and our filters are becoming rather effective at message selection. This is a reason so many people are still skeptical about industry’s commitment to greener business practices, and still too many downplay the efforts of the most angelic of companies. Still more are unaware of the company’s efforts in the first place. Others are left to sift through the marketing clutter to assess which organizations are the real deal, and which ones are engaging in odious activities, such as virtue signaling, greenwashing and appealing to what is proving to be a highly divisive concept called “wokeness.” So how does a marketer avoid inauthentic pandering to social and environmental issues? Simply put, just be authentic.

In the name of complete transparency, the best way for a company to employ a green marketing strategy is for a sustainability audit and plan to be available on a company’s website and updated annually with measurable objectives for improvement in the following areas:

• The nature of raw materials and composition of products offered

• The nature, consumption and recapture of energy

• The use of water

• Impact on land and biodiversity

• Reduction and recovery of emissions, effluents, and waste

• Distribution issues, such as packaging and transportation

• Cause related involvement

• Human resources and vendor partner policies

Commitments to any of these areas can be easily incorporated into a product’s brand identity and crafted into a message that embodies a concern for people and the natural environment. These days there are numerous models to follow as well as a variety of experts one can employ to ensure objectivity, thoroughness and an adequate level of expertise. Conducting an audit across the factors listed above, setting measurable objectives for continuous environmental and social improvement, and monitoring the results is the best way to build a foundation for communicating authenticity.

So, now is the time to ask the very same question I asked 20 years ago, “How is your brand’s sustainability plan coming along?” NIE

A 30-year industry veteran, Darrin Duber-Smith was president of Green Marketing Inc. (from 2000-2016), was the recipient of two Wall Street Journal Awards, and has been one of the most frequently interviewed marketing experts in the country since 2005. He has been a senior lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2003 and can be reached at [email protected].