My somewhat sudden spark of interest in exploring topics surrounding sustainability marketing lead to me stumbling across an article on Advertising Age – “Turning Billboards Into Beer Coolers: Behind Coors Light’s New Environmental Push”. The article explores how Molson Coors, the world’s third largest brewing company, is in the process of launching an effort to turn kegs into barbeque grills and the company’s billboards into beer cans. The article refers to the initiative as a response to continuously growing consumer trends that favor sustainability-driven organizations. For better or worse, my immediate reaction was that of skepticism – skepticism about the extent that the company embraces sustainability at its core.
However, I learned that this effort to integrate sustainable practices does not simply stop there – all major breweries operated by the organization have recently reached the mile stone of diversion of 100% of waste from landfills. As someone who has consumed Coors products many times before, I was particularly fascinated by the fact that I had never recognized the sustainable efforts the brewing company has adopted for up until this point. Even what at a liquor store with friends that have historically made and continue to make efforts to adopt greener lifestyle, I have never heard anyone associate the beer company as more sustainable then its counterparts. While not originally founded on sustainable principles, the organization has truly embraced sustainability in many of its core operations.
I then delved into the website and stumbled across a section entitled “Our Responsibility”. Here, the organization publicly claims that they have a responsibility to the following: its consumers regarding alcohol consumption, governance & ethics, its employees, responsible sourcing, and most importantly the environment and our planet. Upon further reflection, I came to an unsurprising but important realization regarding my own purchasing habits: I am far more likely to buy into and embrace the sustainable efforts of an organization that shows a genuine intent to improve the burden on our planet. The greenwashing efforts that rival beer companies have adopted in the past have been relatively simple to detect. Personally, this finding connected to a much higher level concept surrounding marketing’s responsibility to shed light on the values that companies actually hold.
Links:
http://www.molsoncoors.com/en/responsibility
http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/coors-light-s-environmental-push/307703/
