ustainability management isn’t exactly the first keyword that comes to mind when you’re asked about marketing’s responsibilities. Yet, whether we like it or not, as climate change progresses this topic will soon affect all departments – including the marketing department. On the one hand, our marketing activities consume resources, even if we don’t notice any of it sitting in front of our laptops. That’s something we should address! On the other hand, with the right strategy and our communication skills, we can influence the behavior of customers and partners toward acting more responsibly.
Green marketing. Most marketing managers have heard of it, and some already have a green marketing strategy. You too? The term is interchangeable; many also talk about sustainable, ecological, or eco marketing.
Fair production conditions, as few transport routes as possible, production preferably domestic rather than abroad, environmentally friendly packaging, avoiding plastic. All approaches that make companies more sustainable. However, they relate almost exclusively to production, and in some cases also to sales and distribution.
The purpose of green marketing, at least as most understand it, is to communicate these aspects and convince environmentally conscious customers. So far, so good. But it’s no longer enough.
In sports, people often say: “Do the basics!” Meaning: before practicing a 40-meter long shot in soccer, your short passing game should be solid. The same applies to sustainable approaches in a company. But what are the basics of a sustainable marketing team?
Various studies show that remote work saves massive emissions compared to traditional on-site work. If not a marketing team, then who can work a lot from home? It doesn’t always have to be 100 percent remote; hybrid models work just as well—and save a lot of energy in large office buildings.
What else counts as the fundamentals? Of course, paper consumption. Promoting sustainability externally—and then printing the strategies on hundreds of pages of paper? A no-go! These are the basics for resource-saving work: energy-efficient devices, avoiding unnecessary power consumption, and digitization. In many companies, marketing can be a pioneer for other departments!
A large part of a company’s CO2 footprint still largely depends on the selection of suppliers and subcontractors. Imagine you depend on a supplier who—put kindly—doesn’t make quite as much of an effort with sustainable production and sales processes as you do. That can worsen your CO2 footprint in no time at all.
Sure: Not every company is big enough to join major shared goals like those of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). This initiative defines specific frameworks that can be used to achieve climate targets. So instead of “XY percent less,” it’s more like: “This is how you reduce the emissions of process X by Y by Z percent.”
This is where marketing comes into play: Not every subcontractor, every partner, every customer is familiar with such projects and goals. You can give them a leg up. Design marketing campaigns aimed at your partners. Share knowledge, create relevant content, and in doing so not only raise awareness among your current partners, but also become attractive to new ones.
Because: Like attracts like—and sustainability is no exception. Ideally, you’ll end up finding new suppliers and subcontractors that benefit your ecological footprint. All thanks to smart campaigns.
All good things come in threes: After one obvious and one more abstract example of how marketing can help reduce CO2 emissions, things are about to get simpler again. Influencer campaigns, video production, content creation – your daily bread, and that of many other marketers.
There’s also an approach here for more sustainability. CO2-neutral advertising sounds pretty time-consuming at first? Not to worry! Let’s take a step back. There are obvious levers:
For advertising films, you don’t have to jet halfway around the world. Consider local shooting locations and alternative methods.
Does it really have to be 50,000 flyers and 100,000 printed posters? Use such promotional materials selectively; often a digital version is enough.
If you do opt for print: recycled paper instead of standard paper. Avoid promotional materials that cannot be reused. A creative idea, for example, is business cards made from seed paper instead of regular paper.
Good to know: All data centers worldwide are responsible for around two percent of all greenhouse gas emissions globally. That’s the same level of emissions produced by the entire space and aviation industry. So how about a CO2-neutral website? You can find information on this, among others, from the Green Web Foundation.
That’s far from all! Switch computers or ads from a white background with black text to a black background with white text. This saves significant energy on OLED displays. You see: There are many ways to help reduce CO2 emissions further, even directly through marketing.
By the way: There are analytics firms that measure the CO2 footprint of campaigns, e.g., influencer campaigns. This makes it clear what causes how many emissions. And if there’s one thing marketers love, it’s a clear and multifaceted data basis!
Every day, you deal with various software types in your MarTech stack. Chances are you’ve already integrated several complex solutions into the stack in cooperation with IT. All valuable know-how for greater sustainability! Because a necessary system to prove your sustainability and track the reduction of CO2 emissions is CSR software (CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility) or CO2 accounting software (also CAS for Carbon Accounting Software).
Do you know whether you already have CSR software in use and who is responsible for it? If it’s not within your area of responsibility, you can definitely support here with your knowledge and experience. In any case, sooner or later you’ll work with the CSR software, because of course you can and should use the reports created from the software for your marketing campaigns (as a rule, the reports are exported directly in the corporate design). This gives you—and closes the loop—an excellent foundation for your green marketing.
Are you still looking for the right CSR software? Our database includes over 30 CSR software providers from Europe, especially from the German-speaking region, which we have clustered and evaluated according to various criteria.
This means for you: you only need to invest a few minutes and you will be presented with the three CSR software providers most relevant for you as a suggestion – selected precisely according to your individual needs. How does it work? With Matchilla’s matching process. Start the Matching Assistant for CSR Software now and match yourself conveniently with the right providers instead of searching for them in a time-consuming and arduous way.
Ulrich Theves is Head of CSR Matching at Matchilla and is deeply involved with the technical solutions (i.e., software and tools) in the sustainability field. He has one of the best overviews of the market and shares his expertise in MatchZINE.
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