Boost your marketing with sustainability accreditation
There is hardly a field of human endeavour, where you are the only person in your field, you will have competition. In some fields, the competition is so strong that getting your products or services noticed is not just difficult but quite expensive.
Every now and then, the opportunity to distinguish your product or service from the competition presents itself. If you are switched on, this could be the change you have been looking for to show potential customers that you are different from the competition.
Enters the sustainability conscious consumers
Trend setters and trend watchers would have noticed the slow, steady, and now explosive growth in consumers voting with their wallets by spending their money with businesses with ethical and environmental sustainability credentials. A lot of businesses and organisations are yet to catch up on this trend. If the industry sector in which you operate is one of those, this could be your opportunity to distinguish your business from the competition.
Demonstrating your business’ sustainability credentials
In the early days of sustainability awareness, a business or a website just needed to have a statement saying they were aware of the environment and doing their best to minimise their environmental impact.
Today, for your sustainability credentials to be believed, you need to be certified by a third party. Before going into the third parties, considered to be the giant of sustainability certification. In the first instance, you can use the carbon footprint calculator at IncredibleCarbon.com to calculate your impact on the environment. For a small business or an individual, a tool like that is adequate, but what if you want to make a stronger case for your business’s environmental credentials? This is when you need to “go large” and invest some money in third party environmental and ethical certification.
Some well-known third-party ethical and environmental certifications
Details about each of the certifications and the body or organisation behind them are beyond the scope of this article. It does, however, give you some information and a lead to follow should you be interested in acquiring any of the certifications for your business.
- ISO 14001 – International standards organisation
- BCorp –
- Future Fit Business
- https://www.planetmark.com/
- Ethical Company Organisation
- One Planet Living
- Responsible 100
- SDG Compass
Less authoritative but more confidence-inspiring external ways to validate your sustainability credentials includes:
Hosting your business website on a green web hosting service and adding graphics that validate it to your site.
Stating the positive climate action your business has taken
If you work in a sector where modern slavery is an issue, having a statement and a policy on your website about the issue.
Conclusion
When all is said and done, spotting an opportunity is easy. Taking advantage of that opportunity and turning it into action that transforms your business and gives you an advantage over your competitors is the key. The current exponential growth in demand for ethical and environmentally conscious products and services is one your business can capitalise on today.