Always Be Content, a leading firm of creative strategy consultants, is calling on UK businesses to view sustainability as an opportunity rather than a cost for their organisations – and to stop pushing the responsibility for tackling climate change onto their customers.
Always Be Content (ABC), which last week won at the Marketing Masters Awards in London, is the creator of the sell-out book ‘Dare to Care’. The guide aims to show businesses how doing good helps them to do better, and urges them to be open and honest when communicating around sustainability.
The challenge to businesses comes ahead of COP26, where world governments and global businesses will have the opportunity to lay out their commitments for tackling the climate crisis.
Pete Martin, Head of Strategy at ABC comments: “Businesses need to see sustainability as fundamental to the success of their business. It’s not a cost or a tick-the-box marketing campaign, but a genuine business opportunity. The evidence is clear. Study after study shows that companies with strong sustainability metrics generally do much better, both operationally and financially.”
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already said that COP26 needs “credible action, not face-saving slogans”. This is Dare to Care’s maxim.
Comments Pete: “Increasingly, you see businesses asking individuals to change their behaviour to address the climate crisis – whether that’s advising people to wash at lower temperatures, turn down their thermostats or recycle old clothing. However, we believe this kind of messaging actually turns people off. The public are not mugs. Everyone knows that businesses have a far greater impact on the planet and have more power to change the world than individuals do.
“Before pushing responsibility for the climate crisis onto customers, businesses should be taking the lead. Companies need to hold their hands up and, first and foremost, show what they are doing themselves to make the world a better place. We hope that COP26 will set the framework for high level systemic change that supports and spurs businesses in the transition to a low carbon future.”
ABC will be producing a guide to COP26 highlighting its key takeaways from the conference to help businesses communicate more effectively around their sustainability goals.
The Dare to Care book shares insights for businesses who want to do better and shows examples of achievable sustainable strategies that make a material difference to people, profits and the planet. The online edition is free for a limited time at https://d2c.alwaysbecontent.com/.
