Whiplash Team 17th June 2022
Sustainability is a great opportunity for brands
Consumers demand from organisations a purpose connected with their needs, but which is also responsible with the Planet. The challenge entails a unique opportunity for those brands that assume the commitment to contribute to building a more responsible society. The Net Zero initiative, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero, is growing on a global scale. In Spain too.
Sustainability is a great opportunity for brands. More and more brands are joining the commitment to help improve living conditions on the planet, not only from an environmental point of view, in which the crusade against plastic has become the spearhead, but also in the social and economic aspects too.
The growing awareness of consumers in general that organisations have an obligation to do their bit in building more responsible societies, makes it unavoidable for them to assume the commitment.
Companies and brands for a world without greenhouse gases
For brands, it is a great opportunity to return to their raison d’être and to address society’s demands.
Aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 12, dedicated to sustainable production and consumption, more than 500 companies around the world (27 of them Spanish) made a public commitment, within the framework of COP25, which took place in Madrid from 2nd -14th December , 2019, to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030. That is, 20 years before the goals set in the Paris Agreement for 2050.
Another 17 Spanish companies, including Acciona, Cellnex, Iberdrola, Inditex, Indra, Meliá, Siemens Gamesa and Telefónica and, outside Ibex, Tubacex, Sacyr or Puig, have joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). What they propose is to limit the increase in the planet’s temperature to 1.5 degrees through a series of commitments and short- and long-term objectives established by the SBTi to eliminate net emissions of greenhouse gases.
Long-term goals indicate the degree of emission reductions that organisations must achieve to gain net zero according to the criteria of the SBTi Net Zero Corporate Standard. These goals must be achieved no later than 2050 (or 2040 for the electricity sector). Long-term goals are developed by companies that want to set net zero goals under the Net Zero Corporate Standard.
Responsibility is a broad concept
But the responsibility of companies is not limited to the environment.
According to a study carried out in Spain, among others by Dirse (the Spanish association of social responsibility managers), responsibility is a broad concept that encompasses many things: “it is about whether a company pays taxes where it generates profits, whether it takes into consideration its employees, whether or not it outsources its activity, whether it avoids bad practices such as bribery or fixing prices with other companies in the sector or whether it applies the principle of precaution and prevention in relation to the environment, also if it manages the risks in relation to the unwanted impacts (social, environmental and economic) caused by its activity”.
Christopher Smith, CEO and Founder of BrandSmith, explains that, in the digital context, where the personalization of experiences, products and services is the trend, we must also talk about the responsibility of brands. “In this scenario, we consider responsible brands to be those that apply business ethics in obtaining and using data from their users, since the fact that we have certain information does not give us the right to use it arbitrarily for our own interests,” says Smith.
The enhancement of the intangibles of the brand with an ethical and responsible sense through all points of contact with society –the behaviour of people, the staging of products and the development of sustainable innovation projects–, exerts positive pressure on the brand’s reputation by making its commitment to work together for the common good visible.
This is the key to the survival of brands, because, in the era of sustainability, responsible consumption prevails, and consumers are sure that those companies whose sole and fundamental objective is their own growth should disappear.
