{"id":7395,"date":"2020-01-10T10:04:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T07:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=7395"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:47","slug":"sustainability-is-not-a-novel-for-brands-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/01\/10\/sustainability-is-not-a-novel-for-brands-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability Is Not A Novel For Brands Anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For\nthe past decades, many brands have done things that are good for the\nenvironment seemingly as a public relations exercise. In an era of\ngreenwashing, a creek cleanup or basic recycling program could wash away the\nstain of using millions of tons of crude oil each year to make everyday\nproducts. Parents could feel good about putting sunscreen on their baby from a\nrecyclable bottle, while unaware that the sunscreen itself was derived from\ncrude oil \u2013 and so was the bottle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real\nchange was slow going. Why? Companies did not know how to make their products\nmore sustainable and the technology to do so often did not exist. Nobody talked\nabout where their products came from, and when the beginning of life story was\ngrungy and filled with fossil fuels, it is no surprise companies did not want\nto shout it from the rooftops. More importantly, brands were not convinced that\nconsumers cared or would pay for sustainable products. That made it risky \u2013 and\nended the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\ntimes have changed. Now sustainability is a real, non-hype priority for global\nconsumers, and products like plant-based meat and compostable sneakers have\nbecome popular. Consumers want to know where their products come from, and\nhaving renewable, naturally-derived or recycled ingredients is increasingly a\nmust-have. Seventy-three\npercent of Millennials<\/a> are willing to pay more for products\nmade from sustainable ingredients \u2013 or are made clean \u2013 and more than half of\nconsumers pay more for sustainable products designed to be reused or recycled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nproblem is clear: consumer demand for sustainability has outpaced what the\nindustry is supplying. But it is not because making more sustainable products\nis too hard, or too expensive, or requires technological wizardry.\nBiotechnology today can transform renewable sources like plants or agricultural\nwaste into the chemicals and ingredients that make up our everyday products. By\nswapping out crude oil, natural gas, and coal- the traditional inputs \u2013 for\nrenewable sources, we can often reduce the greenhouse gas emissions related to\nmaking our everyday products by more than 50 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nbig brands making headlines for adopting natural ingredients and improving\nsupply chains \u2013 and consumers loving it \u2013 why are brands not doubling and\ntripling down sustainability? There is still plenty of talks \u2013 and not enough\naction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, overhauling an entire supply chain is not easy, particularly with billions of capital sunk into manufacturing assets than do not deliver sustainability profiles in line with what is demand today, and there is no one size fits all solution. Corporate inertia research shows that it is actually riskier to NOT embrace sustainability. Sustainability wins in the marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Allbirds Launches the Mizzle Collection, a New Take on Water-Resistant Shoes. The Daily Beast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\nare seeing a new generation of successful companies with sustainability at the\ncore of the business \u2013 and they are being rewarded by the consumer. Consider Allbirds<\/a>,\na shoe company \u2013 which sold more than a million pairs of shoes made from\nnaturally \u2013sourced fibers and ingredients in their first two years after\nlaunching. The brand has become synonymous with sustainability \u2013 and was\nrecently valued at over $1 billion. Such companies are a new force that\nmainstream brands must respond to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nbest way for established brands to stay ahead of this insurgent sustainability\nand seize this burgeoning market is to get involved \u2013 and breathe life into\nsustainability initiatives. These initiatives bring together brands to act\nsustainably. These meetings of the minds to share ideas and overcome obstacles\n(logistical, cultural, financial) mark real progress taking sustainability from\na charming niche to an economic powerhouse. Critically, these discussions also\nhelp brands hold each other (and themselves) accountable for getting it done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology is here\ntoday for brands to begin slashing the oil consumed to make their ingredients\nand take command of the surging \u2013 and real \u2013 the market for sustainable\nproducts. It is up to us to band together and delivers.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past decades, many brands have done things that are good for the environment seemingly as a public relations exercise. In an era of greenwashing, a creek cleanup or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}