An eco-friendly marketing campaign promotes sustainable products, services, initiatives, organizations, and drives.
Green marketing is holistic work incorporating branding, marketing, advertising, and other promotional methods like environmentally friendly packaging, running off renewable energy, and supporting climate change charities.
Sustainability in Action
Eco-friendly business practices encompass green marketing and sustainable corporate actions. The business should draw in like-minded customers by practicing and living out its values.
That might seem daunting since there are so many operational areas, global issues, and standards to be concerned with. However, everything makes a difference and even small steps matter.
Here are some strategies and steps companies can take to promote corporate sustainability and green marketing.
Promote green marketing messages
The easiest thing to do is a marketing campaign promoting sustainable ideas or positioning the business as an eco-friendly option.
But be careful! Businesses that sell based on sustainability while failing to adhere to these principles can get in trouble with the market and end up with a damaged image.
Sustainable packaging
Cut down on resource overconsumption, landfill waste, and pollution by switching to sustainable packaging.
Sustainable packaging is made from responsibly sourced renewable materials, is recyclable, is designed to be safe and effective, and uses minimal resources.
Companies can extend their responsibilities to the community by encouraging customers to reuse or recycle packaging. Improperly disposed packaging is killing wildlife, poisoning waterways, and creating pollution. Packaging can be designed for reuse, or companies can offer recycling services.
An ethical value chain
Make your supply, production, and value chain clean, eco-friendly, and people-friendly. This sustainable practice encompasses ethical sourcing, renewable energy use, toxin-free manufacturing, green shipping, and more. There is a vast array of ethical and green practices to look into.
For example, a business can purchase renewable energy credits or certificates in order to balance out its current use of nonrenewable sources. Or focus on using fair wage labor from marginalized or at-risk people.
Sustainable packaging, utilization of repurposed recycled material, and an ethical value chain are great ways to lower your carbon footprint.
Give back to the community
Celebrate a milestone in your business or community by giving back with a green marketing project. You can sponsor or create a community initiative, such as planting trees, cleaning up trash, holding an educational seminar, or meeting some other eco goal.
Another option is to donate to a worthy charity already making an impact. Make a one-time donation in honor of a local hero, business event, or holiday. Or commit to a long-term charity sponsorship.
Partner with an eco-friendly organization
It’s not always easy being green. If sustainability is a little too much for your small business to take on, look for an organization to collaborate with.
Some organizations focus on building ethical supply chains, getting to carbon neutrality, caring for wildlife, or offsetting carbon emissions.
Look for specialist solutions in the area your business cares about the most or needs the most work on.
7 Successful Eco-Friendly Marketing Campaigns
LEGO
LEGO launched a holistic sustainability initiative intended to help build a better future through responsible business practices, sustainable materials, environmental protection, and children’s education, skill-building, development, and inspiration. It has several sustainable practices and green marketing strategies underway.
It aims to make all its packaging sustainable by 2025, make all core LEGO products from sustainable materials by 2030, reduce its CO2 impact, and eliminate factory-produced landfill waste by 2025. It partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to reduce its emissions and waste, maintain a cleaner supply chain, invest in renewable energy, and encourage employees to adopt cleaner practices.
With LEGO Replay, consumers can turn in LEGO bricks to be passed on to new users. This circular economy initiative has repurposed almost 750,000 lbs of LEGO bricks, donated to almost 225,000 children.
Most of LEGO’s marketing is focused on children – its intended customer base. These initiatives include RE:CODE, Build the Change, Play Days, crisis response disaster support, and local community engagement.
During Play Day for Children, LEGO invites deprived children to its factories for a free day of play. Other Play Days are run just for employees.
LEGO’s RE:CODE programs are learning events themed around recycling, air pollution, water pollution, and wildlife conservation. Children learn about real-world sustainability issues while building vital 21st-century skills, engaging in STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, art, and math), and inventing, creating, and coding robotic models. These programs take place in partnership with municipalities, private organizations, and local groups or can be offered through downloadable sessions.
Build the Change invites children to create LEGO models of ways to solve various environmental problems. One challenge asks them to invent a sanctuary that can keep koalas safe from wildfires. Another invites them to build a safe haven to protect seahorses from ocean pollution. The children learn about biodiversity and environmental problems and can send their ideas to a LEGO gallery.
The LEGO Foundation and Emergency Relief Response project support families in regions with armed conflict and natural disasters. The company also runs local community engagement programs where employees volunteer to bring transformational play to children.
LEGO is an example of a company embracing sustainability in everything it does.
The Dole Sunshine Company embraces #ZeroWaste with Ananas Anam
The Dole Sunshine Company is working towards a healthy and sustainable future for all. It’s working towards this goal with value chain innovations, strategic collaboration, and responsible business practices.
Dole is turning trash from its largest pineapple plantation into eco-friendly, plant-based materials. Its partner for this sustainability initiative is Ananas Anam – a developer and producer of pineapple trash-based textiles and leather alternatives. It’s partnering with Musa Fabric and the Kasilak Foundation to turn banana waste into sustainable fabric woven by marginalized communities.
Other green marketing campaigns include sponsoring an ocean race, creating NFT art, malnutrition facts advertising, and writing a letter to Pope Francis.
The Body Shop
The Body Shop is B Corp Certified and committed to a sustainable triple bottom line. This company has always been a pioneer in sustainable, ecological, and responsible business. In the beginning, its green business practices were limited to ethical sourcing and using natural ingredients.
Today, it’s sourcing plastic from marginalized Indian waste pickers, reducing its virgin plastic consumption, helping customers recycle their packaging, offering vegan and vegetarian products, and campaigning for cruelty-free and environmental legislation.
Social media plays an important role in raising community awareness around various social and environmental issues. The Twitter profile sparks conversation around topics like democracy, young people in politics, healthy oceans, the climate, and more. A serene and photogenic Instagram feed offers visibility into its value chain, educates customers on sustainable sourcing and natural ingredients, and encourages responsible consumption. Its Facebook page features green marketing promotions with convenient shopping options.
Chobani’s Giving Tree
Chobani celebrated its 10th anniversary in business by placing a Giving Tree in Grand Central Station. This marketing campaign invited commuters to activate the tree and give free yogurt to children in need. The Giving Tree featured large chimes and a digital overhead canopy that would light up and grow when visitors planted seeds.
The green marketing campaign donated more than 250,000 cups of yogurt to children in need and became a memorable example of experiential advertising at its finest.
Aerie and ONE TREE PLANTED
For the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Aerie and ONE TREE PLANTED collaborated to donate 5,000 trees. Aerie launched this green marketing venture to celebrate an Earth Day milestone.
Aerie and its parent company, American Eagle, are engaged in a larger plan to become carbon neutral by 2030. The company is working with farmers and manufacturers to lower its carbon footprint, reduce water consumption, source from sustainable farming, and incorporate recycled plastics into its clothing. It’s also working to help customers recycle used denim through AEO stores.
However, companies don’t have to revolutionize their industry, start value chain initiatives, or make long-term commitments to make a difference. This campaign was a one-time event, but it still made an impact and showcased Aerie’s values.
Heineken’s Packaging the Future
Heineken aims to become Carbon Neutral by 2030 through its far-reaching Brew a Better World undertaking that touches on zero waste, carbon neutrality, water impact, inclusion and diversity, safe workplaces, community impact, responsible alcohol use, and other sustainability goals.
One initiative is its Packaging the Future program launched to drive its packaging suppliers towards carbon neutrality. Heineken held an online summit with suppliers across its value chain and competitors like PepsiCo and Carrefour. It’s sponsoring suppliers to go through a Climate School that will help build sustainable competencies.
Packaging the Future’s green marketing also included social media posts on Twitter and LinkedIn, targeting both consumers and the business sector.
O’Neill Real-Time Recycling Experience
O’Neill is a surfwear brand dedicated to protecting and caring for the ocean. It uses sustainable materials, adheres to standards set out in the ILO and the UN Declaration on Human Rights within its supply chain, and takes on projects to preserve the ocean and combat pollution.
One of its green marketing programs was a green marketing event getting passers-by to reconsider their plastic use and how single-use products are treated.
An O’Neill ambassador approached glasses-wearing individuals who had tossed plastic into a bin and asked to take a selfie with their lenses on. After that, the ambassador chucked the glasses into the bin. The ambassador showed them how single-use plastics could be shredded and repurposed into other objects, leaving them with a miniature 3D-printed surfboard as a keepsake.
This sparked a conversation about why some plastics are seen as durable and valuable whereas others are simply discarded. Demonstrating shredding and 3D printing gave a real-time demonstration of the tangible benefits of recycling.
Green Marketing Made Easy
DailyKarma makes it easy to be green with done-for-you sustainable marketing campaign solutions.
We’ve recently gone beyond that and partnered with the World Sustainability Organization to help brands and their customers offset shipping-related plastic consumption.
Interested in learning more? Book a demo or email DailyKarma at patricia.dao@dailykarma.com.
