February 2016 – Daniel Lau's Blog

Impact reporting is not just a trend but is also becoming the tool and golden nugget that an increasing number of CEOs, such as those of Timberland, Nike and Lego, are demanding to be incorporated into their companies and investing human capital and resources into making sure that it is executed well. So exactly is impact reporting? IT is a comprehensive all-in-one account for a company’s social impact, environmental and sustainability progress, and financial performance. Thread, with a motto of “responsible fabric from Ground to Good”, has started to produce impact reports in the early stages of its business amongst many other “responsible fabric” companies alike that have developed a completely traceable and transparent supply chain with rich and robust data.

With a plethora of numbers and statistics complemented by appealing graphical figures, it is very easy to dismiss these claims as a marketing gambit or a feel-good factor tool despite them being backed by raw facts and data. However, Thread has been able to overcome this common misconception by making sure that its impact report give insight into the way that it runs its business and measures its success, strongly believing that what they measure is what matters. Impact reporting only becomes stronger and more credible as years and decades pass by because not only will a company be able to scale its operations to become more efficient and sustainable, there will also be historical data that will allow readers of the impact report to discover and recognize its trends and see the bigger picture behind a company’s story.

At the end of the day, impact goals are tied to financial goals, production, and sales targets amongst other components of a company in this chain effect, which ensures what Kelsey Halling, the Impact Director of Thread, calls “buy-in across the entire organization”. The impact report ultimately reflects a triple bottom-line company in the truest sense and has grown into a powerful marketing and sales tool that has appealed to investors and consumers. Impact reporting is power.

Link: http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/startups/kelsey_halling/start_now_benefits_annual_impact_reporting_beginning

According to Natural Marketing Institute’s shades of green, I would most probably fall under the “conventionals” category describing myself as someone who is aware and for the environment but does not always uphold sustainability because of laziness and costs, which play into my lifestyle choices and purchasing power. Personally speaking, with this mentality I am only most likely to purchase sustainable products if the masses start adopting and purchasing these new green products as trendsetters. In parallel but on the supply side of the story, the same chain effect is happening with companies in the consumer goods and services market.

Companies are responding to consumers’ behaviour shift like a trend. Conglomerates like Levi Strauss, Nike and J&J amongst many of the big players out there are adapting to the new market of green products and adopting this new emphasis on green products. Levi’s claims that its jeans are made from just about eight recycled plastic bottles and Nike claims that its knitted sneakers cut manufacturing waste by 88 percent. As evidenced by a survey conducted by brand consultancy BBMG in 2013, “more than a third of global consumers, including 40 percent of millennials, view style, status and environmentalism as intertwined”. To these consumers, sustainability has changed from being “the right thing to do” to being “the cool thing to do”, shifting the emphasis of valuing the need to do it to the want to do it. Based on this new change in perspective, for companies it is really not about offering a niche green product but rather offering a green band through building sustainability into the bloodline of the company in every single process no matter how big or small.

Companies are slowly but gradually shifting their segmentation, targeting and positioning from offering products that fall under the “feel-good factor/transient” quadrant that encompasses altruism and an external locus of control to the “value parity/green differentiation” quadrant that encompasses economic motives and an internal locus of control. Offering green products to the market is not enough to gain a competitive edge over competitors anymore, the new era of consumer preferences are now demanding companies as a whole to become green and this in fact is the new way to gain a competitive edge over competitors.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/green-new-black-levi-s-nike-among-marketers-pushing-sustainability-153318

Month: February 2016

Start Now: The Benefits of Annual Impact Reporting from the Beginning

Green Is the New Black: Levi’s, Nike Among Marketers Pushing Sustainability – Responding to a Consumer Behaviour shift