Growth-hacking, news-jacking, omni-channel. These are buzzwords that never really left the marketing communications industry. My worry is that when it comes to sustainability, it doesn’t become yet another marketing platitude.
Granted, sustainability is complex and can mean anything from tackling overconsumption and reducing carbon emissions to recycling and thinking about renewables. It’s time to focus and make it matter.
For businesses, there is now an undeniable competitive advantage in developing or adopting products and services that can help change behaviours and/or actions that respond to some of the universal concerns for our planet.
Here are some words of caution:
- Focus on excelling in solutions where low carbon business models are better for the business and the consumer – and therefore better for climate. Don’t view it as a low carbon issue alone; it has to be centred on people and behaviours.
- Clearly identify your target market and then talk about low carbon technology,
not in terms of costs, but how that impacts on the business performance. - Be ambitious, make whatever you do scalable and be open minded to partnerships that can accelerate your progress.
As business leaders it’s important to prioritise. Here are a five things to consider:
1. Radical innovation
To hold the global temperature increase to below two degrees above pre-industrial levels, we need to dramatically cut emissions on a global scale (and fast).
Implicit in these goals is the need to significantly de-carbonise the energy sector, which accounts for two-thirds of global emissions. The good news is that a surge in innovation and more affordable pricing is making tech available to businesses and consumers, inspiring them and putting them in control of their own energy consumption.
2. Renewable energy
The impact of the ongoing slump in oil prices is still unclear, but the future for renewables looks brighter. Businesses such as Ikea and Google are already investing in renewables. But renewables require storage for the surplus energy generated and to make up the difference between supply and demand when generation is low.
Storage typically takes the form of batteries and making these is an energy-intensive process in itself. The Tesla battery, Nest and other smart controls already simplify choice for consumers and put the power in their hands, which will revolutionise the way we consume energy in our homes – and the way homes are built.
3. The way we live
Imagine a future where new disruptive market entrants will buy and sell your energy and potentially your white goods, so you get a heated/cooled home with all the connected gadgets you need. You will have solar panels on your roof, use your own energy and sell what you don’t need to the grid.
Household waste management is another area being addressed by responsible companies. For example, a London housing estate in Deptford has become the first in the capital to enjoy heating and hot water generated from residents’ household waste.
4. Use of water
The water crisis is the number one global risk based on impact to society.
Colgate’s Super Bowl ad, which encouraged people to turn off the tap while brushing their teeth, was a very convincing message that clearly said leaving it running can waste more water in one tooth brushing session than many families around the world get in a week. In the UK, Marks & Spencer addressed water scarcity by using systems that have reduced water use (by more than 45%) for its UK fruit-growing.
5. Social and economic sustainability
It is not just the environment – sustainability practices are about integration with the day to day, with issues such as migrants and refugees, the declining birth-rate in Europe, the changing nature of commerce and the growth of mega-cities. Businesses will be forced to respond to the changing dynamics of our planet and the people who inhabit it. We need to understand and respond to these long-term trends to create a better, more prosperous and sustainable world.
Risk-averse investors are shifting their portfolios from industries and companies reliant on old fossil fuels to those engaged with renewable energy and waste-management sources as they seek to future-proof their investments. Whole new markets are opening up and accelerating the process towards a zero carbon economy. With all of this change on our horizon it’s not a case of whether business leaders should choose to take action, but what they opt to act upon first.
Kate Howe is managing director of gyro London
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