Sustainability is an enormous, often overwhelming topic. Today’s conversation is growing in both breadth and depth. No longer is it limited to the traditional areas, Race to Zero (emissions) and 1.5 degrees (of the planet); additional environmental topics, such as Biodiversity, Circularity, Nature and Adaptation, are becoming mainstream. This is before adding the Social and Governance aspects of a single company, the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and each nations growing regulations.
A single company is already complex, before considering all of these sustainability considerations. Success in business requires balancing the systemic connections across investors, suppliers, customers, distribution partners and employees and well as ongoing changes due to technologic advancements, regulatory bodies, and market shifts. And sustainability can only be success if it is endemic to it all in order to meet customer and suppliers’ requirements, as well as maintaining the license to do business at all.
Despite being enormous and complex, sustainability cannot be ignored. Its importance to business stakeholders is growing:
- Consumers & Employees: 52% consumers consider sustainability a significant factor and 81% employees are motivated by sustainability issues (both up 5-9% respectively since 2022)1
- Investors: More than three quarters (77%) of global investors are interested in sustainable investing. 57% say their interest increased in the last two years and 54% anticipate increasing their sustainable investments in the next year.2
- Supply chain: The supply chain accounts for more than 90% of most consumer goods companies’ environmental impact.3 Plus, CDP reported 65% of its corporate members used environmental metrics to inform supplier management and hold their business partners accountable to supply chain sustainability goals.4
- Regulators: Global ESG Regulation increased by 155% over the past decade, with 1,255 ESG policy interventions introduced since 2011 (compared to 493 published the previous decade)5
Marketing is a company’s natural leader in this space. Marketers are changemakers, educating the market. Marketers also are the company’s internal and external voice of market demand, brand image and competitive advantage. With sustainability’s growing importance, this is more than an opportunity for exposure and career advancement for marketers, it is a requirement to stay relevant.
Marketing’s drive of sustainability must be systemic. Just as a marketing strategy is not just a stand-along message, marketing must be connected with sustainability across the company. This includes working closely with finance and the executive teams, R&D and manufacturing, procurement as well as the commercial teams. In addition, marketing needs to be aligned to the rapidly changing agenda and priorities of the customer, who, despite being driven to buy sustainably, still requires high-quality, convenience, and competitive pricing.
This enormity of size, complexity and requirements can overwhelm and paralyze even the senior-most marketer.
- What are you fearful of?
- What are the barriers in your company for you to lead sustainability systemically? For instance, can you work with your supply chain today?
- What do you need to lead strategic innovation directives to improve sustainability?
But It Is Possible!
Here are 10 actions to help you get started:
- Start & End with Authenticity & Transparency
- Educate & Inspire your Teams & Stakeholders
- Work with Sustainable Firms
- Be Inclusive in your Marketing
- Be Eco-Friendly in Design
- Understand your Customers Agenda
- Integrate Sustainability Deep into your Value Proposition
- Build your Sustainability Narrative – Internally & Externally
- Track with Data & Improve
- Start by Making Today’s Decisions Greener
Be empowered by the impact that can be made working together across this massive, systemic eco-system of business. Who do you need to get engaged with next… to make sustainability systemic in your company?
We will not change the world with 10 people working on sustainability perfectly, but we will change it with millions of people doing it imperfectly.
Let’s get started!
- Flinn and Wilson, 2023
- Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, 2024
- McKinsey Sustainability, 2016
- Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), 2019/20
- ESG News, 2023