Becoming a Sustainable Brand

As businesses look to improve their sustainability efforts and business practices, showing prospects and customers that caring for the planet in which we all live, is important.

Not only can businesses be a voice for building greater awareness for the need for sustainability, but they can also build deeper relationships by connecting with customers in a new way.

Most people think sustainability belongs in the operations department of organizations. But really, it belongs everywhere throughout your business, including your branding and marketing efforts.

How you tie your sustainability efforts to your brand image is important. Here are some ways to incorporate sustainability into your branding.

Host Your Website Sustainably

AISO.net is the only website hosting platform that runs its servers entirely on their own solar power. There are more than 1 billion websites on the internet. Imagine the energy strain all this website hosting takes.

Move your website to this sustainable hosting platform and put a small note on your site sharing the information with your visitors. You can feel good that you’re making a difference and showcase your commitment.

Plant a Tree for Every Print Project

At Design Positive, we’re partnering with trees.org to plant a tree for every print job we complete. Print is still an important marketing medium for many industries. While we might not be able to eliminate printing entirely, we can help give back a new tree to help diminish the impacts of print marketing.

The awesome part about working with trees.org is that they do more than just plant a tree. They work with local farmers in Africa to teach them how to farm food within the tree’s shade. When those farmers become successful at tilling the land, they become ambassadors and train others to farm as well.

So not only does trees.org help the environment by planting trees, but it helps end food insecurity for families in need.

Start Giving Back Now

New business owners know the stresses of financials when it comes to getting started. It’s easy to say you’ll give back once you reach a certain size, number of customers or income goal.

Instead, find little ways to give back now. Even if you’re only planting one tree per year, you’ll be reinvesting in your community and building goodwill with customers and prospects. Start small but get started making an impact now.

There will always be another goal or another marker that makes you say “tomorrow” when it comes to offering financial support for sustainability causes. Don’t keep moving the goal post. Take action now, even a small one will do.

Decrease Your Carbon Footprint with Remote Work

When businesses sent their employees to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, global emissions went down 17 percent in April 2020. That’s thanks to a reduction in the amount of harmful emissions from their cars on the roads. Within the U.S., transportation accounts for 29 percent of the country’s total energy usage. And 60 percent of those emissions are from cars.

In addition to reducing emissions from commuting, you also reduce your energy costs, electricity usage and your business is less likely to need to build new facilities.

Your business can lead the way in making some work-from-home positions permanent or offering your team a work from home day per week to reduce your company’s carbon footprint.

Leverage Sustainability Certifications in Your Marketing

As you look for companies to partner with who share your views on sustainability, look for certifications. And pursue getting your business certified with a third-party to prove your sustainability efforts.

We list some common sustainability certifications on our website and offer some commentary on the best ones to pursue.

Environmentally Friendly Business Operations Changes

In addition to these large changes that you make to your brand and your business operations, there are also many small changes in your day-to-day practices that you can change to become a sustainable brand.

· Use recycled toner inks and paper

· Purchase a dehumidifier water cooler

· Stop printing unnecessary mock-ups since computer monitors are so well color calibrated

· Before allowing employees to print, program a notification asking if they really need to print the document (sounds obvious, but it is effective)

· Put a byline on digital PDFs indicating that they are optimized for digital viewing not printing

· Digitize your annual reports to save on paper, ink and the energy it takes to print, ship and deliver paper versions

· Get your whole staff involved by hosting cleanups and group sustainability exercises as team-building activities

At our core, Design Positive is a strategic branding and accessibility agency for businesses constantly thinking about the greater good through conscious capitalism and sustainability. We strive to do the same in our business, so you can rely on us for dependable branding, website design and marketing support that aligns with your company’s mission.