How To Make Your Brand More Sustainable

Want your brand to do its bit for the environment? Here are a few suggestions for the best ways…

The importance of preserving the planet has fallen on deaf ears in the past. But in the last few years, more and more people seem to be listening. And a number of the world’s leading companies have already put in steps to see their brands become more sustainable. From e-commerce giants like Amazon to cosmetics kingpins such as L’Oréal. The fashion industry, which is one of the biggest causes of pollution in the world, is also making much-needed changes.

For the small and middleweight brands, it is just as easy to make sustainability a priority. And Sourcing Playground has come up with a few ways in which you can implement the necessary steps.

Focus on Sustainability From the Beginning

Start-ups and new brands have something of an advantage when it comes to sustainability, as they can make it a priority from the outset. Long-established companies and brands have had to experiment and adjust to lower their environmental impact. A start-up can have sustainability as part of its business model and just build on that as they grow. Just start by identifying where your industry is detrimental to the environment, then research ways you can combat that.

Understand What Your Consumers Want

As we said in the intro, sustainability is no longer something only a select few are caring about. You will find that any target market is going to have some environmental issue in the back of their mind that they want your brand to address. In the research stages, it is worth finding out how your consumers want you to show you care about sustainability, and then act accordingly.

Switch to Sustainable Options

It doesn’t matter what industry your brand relates to. Whether it’s fashion, cosmetics, whatever. You should try to make adjustments wherever possible. This can be something as simple as a more sustainable type of packaging for your products – recycled or reusable packaging is always a go-to. Or it can be a complete overhaul in the way that product is made, such as finding an alternative fabric for a clothing line. While recycled fabrics like rPET and Econyl are up-and-coming in the fashion industry right now, front runners such as linen and hemp are also highly sustainable.

You need not limit your efforts to your product line, but all aspects of your business. Use recycled resources for your business cards and other marketing materials, for example.

Show How Your Efforts Are Making A Difference

Keep your consumers informed about how your experiments and adjustments have helped the environment. Or, at least, affected your environmental impact.

And transparency is something the majority of consumers appreciate from a company.

So, even if your adjustments didn’t help matters like you planned, make that known and you plan to act on the results. “We tried this, and it didn’t work. So now we’re going to try it a different way.”

Happy Sourcing!