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Charlotte, our Director of Marketing, and Natasha, our Head of Post Consumerism, chat about the tricky subject of greenwashing, the importance of companies getting it right, and the value in finding an authentic, transparent brand voice when it comes to a companies sustainability initiatives.

 

"We Share Freely". The change we want to see in the world is bigger than we are. So, we're sharing our knowledge, resources and ideas to help more people and organisations take steps forward towards our vision of a green and thriving planet, where everyone can enjoy happy and healthy lives within the Earth's limits.

 

As part of this, we've launched our "5 Minute GAP" series, a collection of five minute conversations that will share how we work and what we're working on. We'll talk about what we're trying to achieve and why, how we function as an organisation, and the thinking behind our plans and strategy.

 

We'll be regularly sharing these conversations, which will feature different members of our team and trustee board, as well as external experts.

 

We hope you enjoy listening in to our chats, getting to know our team and finding out what makes us who we are. 

 

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Audio only version:

 

If you prefer to read rather than watch, the transcription is here: 

 

Natasha: There's different shades of green on the greenwashing scale from, you know, the oil and fossil fuel companies who are.... it seems quite purposefully only showing you know, the renewable bits of their business and they never kind of use the rest in their communications. To businesses who are really trying to do the right thing. And just, you know, maybe communicating in a slightly overenthusiastic way. 

But, you know, there is clear guidance now from the ASA on what is acceptable and, you know, making sure that whatever kind of messages are getting out there are really specific about, well, you can't just use terms like “greener” or “more sustainable” now, you have to really kind of say what you're doing. But there's an art to that that is not just talking in really boring technical language, but communicates that in a way that inspires hope and inspires, that your  audience is going to feel like they're part of your story, of your brand story, of moving in the right direction and that it feels exciting. And that's something
your customers want to be part of, whilst being specific enough to to get it right, rather than the wishy washy language that is getting a lot of companies into trouble. 

Charlotte: Yeah, you're right. But that's incredibly difficult, isn't it? Because you've got to talk about something technically accurately, wholly accessibly, using words that people will understand. And yet you can't use the fluffy words that people have got used to like “eco friendly” because they're too fluffy. While being realistic about the challenges and while engendering a sense of hope. It's just. It's a kind of communication, kind of.... well, one of the biggest challenges of our times. A really, really hard to disentangle. 

And I suppose that's where our friends from Common Cause were very useful in their advice is that they said you know, that there are some sort of safe places that you can kind of locate your comms within, for example, community action. You know, if you talk about what you're doing within the community and how you're helping a community, it's meaningful for people, isn't it? They understand that that's good. And they understand that that's of value and it is environmental. But maybe didn't necessarily have to kind of badge it with those words because it's clearly of benefit to people and to planet, but sort of sidesteps perhaps the need to make kind of claims about your environmental record on a broader level, which is hard for any big company when we know that their supply chains are so riddled with complexity. 

I was reading about what Iceland have done. I think that's a great example because they did some genuine... you know through covid and coming out of covid with their kind of micro-loans and their, you know, Tuesday over 60’s days and things like that. They genuinely took steps to benefit their community and that, you know, essentially that... you and I would call that environmental action because it was helping people to consume in a way that they need to and that they want to.  

Natasha: And it's yeah, I think we also saw some research from Ipsos Mori that was saying actually the public don't necessarily see environmental and social as separate and different and it needs to feel aligned and joined up. So if you're just... if you're doing something fantastically environmentally. let's say reducing your carbon footprint in some way, but actually treating your staff terribly, that comes across really badly. You are perceived in the eyes of customers in a much less positive way. It needs to feel joined up. It needs to feel like taking care of people and taking care of the planet. Come together in joined up ways of business trying to make the world a better place. And communicating it like that, which is why, you know, we come from a place, at GAP, where we we do talk about, you know, it doesn't have to be overtly and obviously environmental for it to be having a positive impact. It can be, you know, talking about like you say benefits to communities are going to be... are positive things that businesses can do and will be received really, really well. 

Charlotte: I mean, ultimately, it's all down to authenticity, isn't it? Which is unfortunately a terribly overused word. But in this instance, there isn't really a better concept because actually if you if you talk about genuine things you are doing to genuinely help people that come from the core of your brand and are spoken in a way that your brand speaks and it feels true to them, you know, that cuts through the mistrust and the confusion and the tech and all of the kind of chaos that we're talking about and is just a sort of honest reflection of who and what you're doing. 

And I suppose if we had any advice to agencies and  communicators trying to navigate these different spaces, just keep bringing it back to the sort of authentic heart of your brand and strip away perhaps some of the stuff that you're trying to pile on to make it feel like this kind of attractive green brand. Actually, just go back to your own roots and your own authentic connections with people and communities and locate it there. 

Natasha: Yeah, absolutely. Being authentic. Yeah. Is also kind of keeping it simple. And that's all part of normalising it. So the more that brands are speaking in their own authentic, normal brand voice, not trying to suddenly become something different, but saying “we're still x brand and this is what we did and this is what we do well. And we're on our journey to becoming a more sustainable business as we all are.” It helps to really kind of normalise the conversation in society as well and be a kind of catalyst for that real cultural change because it feels so normal.

I mean, the example we've used so many times is the Greggs vegan sausage roll, they’re still making a great sausage roll, they’re just taking that step to do it...to provide a vegan one and communicating it still very much in their Greggs style and branding. They haven’t tried to become this holier than thou, worthy, you know, quite boring communicator. They've done it in a really fun way. So I think that's an excellent example of where it’s been done really, really well and from an authentic place.