Customers want to buy from sustainable brands. Brands that care about the planet and show responsibility. Thus, forward-thinking companies are increasingly focusing on reducing their carbon footprint in response to the climate emergency and consumer choices. And some brands have really gone out of their way to make sustainability their business:

Patagonia 

The fast fashion industry is a huge contributor to the climate crisis. Making just a single pair of jeans requires up to 10,000 litres of water! Thus, lower prices and shorter fashion cycles mean shoppers are encouraged to keep buying more to stay in style – at a high cost to the planet.

To combat this, Patagonia has been running some pretty clever anti-consumerism marketing campaigns urging people to buy less to promote sustainability. For example, each year, the company hijacks Black Friday but tells its customers not to buy their products (or any products for that matter) to raise awareness of consumerism’s issues.

This brave step is not all Patagonia is doing to tackle the fashion industry’s carbon footprint: through DIY repair guides and a used clothes scheme on their website, the company actively encourages its customers to reduce their consumption of new items. Plus, 1% of their total sales go towards the preservation of the natural environment.

Waitrose

Ever since Blue Planet, plastic pollution has become one of the most talked-about environmental issues. As the rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them, we need more sustainable alternatives to plastic waste and waste in general – particularly when it comes to our daily lives, such as going to the grocery store.

To combat this issue, Waitrose is committed to reducing waste and eliminating single-use plastic. The company pledges to make all own-brand packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2023. Additionally, the grocery giant has introduced a number of refill stations in their stores to cut out the packaging altogether and encourage their customers to bring their own containers.

But it’s not only packaging waste that Waitrose is aiming to reduce. As one of the first supermarkets in the UK, the company has committed to a Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, with a target of cutting down food waste by 50% by 2030.

Brewdog

Ask most companies about their sustainability goals, and the answer will be “to become carbon neutral”. Not for Brewdog. The beer brand has long exceeded becoming carbon neutral and is now carbon negative! Through their huge sustainability commitment, the company now emits twice as much carbon from the air as it emits.

Brewdog has invested heavily in wind energy, which does not only power their brewery but also all of their UK bars.

The spent grain, the biggest byproduct of beer production, is being turned into biogas used for renewable vehicle fuel and organic fertilizers. For their logistics, the company uses electric trucks and opts for local brewing wherever possible to reduce the distance the beer has to travel.

To reduce their packaging waste, the company has recently teamed up with the sustainable packaging solutions company Loop that eliminates single-use packaging from supermarket supply chains by offering zero-waste packaging, which can be cleaned, refilled and reused, again and again.

There’s more! In 2020, the eco-brewery purchased a 9,308-acre plot of land in the Scottish Highland. In 2023, they will begin planting their own trees on this land, embarking on one of the largest reforestation projects the UK has ever seen.

A truly inspiring move.

Has your brand gone green yet? Our creative marketing agency is truly focused on sustainability, and it is our mission to support brands at this time in adapting and thinking ahead to the future. So let’s make the change together. Contact us.

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Written by

Alisa Hufsky

Date

29.11.21

Alisa Hufsky

Alisa Hufsky

Alisa is CuCo’s Marketing and Communications Assistant. She moved to Bournemouth from Germany in 2014 to study for her BA in Marketing Communications at Bournemouth University, for which is she is on track for a first. Alisa is accredited by the CIM and has a wide understanding of marketing principles, including branding and brand management, digital communications, consumer insights and campaign development. Alisa thrives in fast-paced environments, and has experience working in the photography, radio and hospitality industries. Alisa enjoys cooking, going for long walks and on the weekend’s you’ll find her at the beach with a beer and her dogs Chilli and Pepper.

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