All together for the green stuff

With household bills rising, you would be forgiven for thinking that environmental credentials are falling down consumers’ list of priorities when doing their weekly shopping. Yet recent research by The Climate Group and Lippincott shows that people are now not only clearer about what they can do to tackle climate change (up 11% from 2007), but also more prepared to adapt their lifestyles to do it (up 10% from 2007).

There is a lingering perception that green means more expensive. Brands with climate change truly integrated into their business strategy can demonstrate that this is not the case – neither for them, nor their customers. These brands are finding there are business opportunities in making green consumerism easier and cheaper.

In fact, a new trend towards eco-collaboration is emerging in the UK: companies working in concert to engage consumers.

Together, the UK’s biggest consumer-focused climate campaign, has already seen a couple of examples of this amongst its partners. In January, The Sun and Scottish Southern Electric gave away 4.5million energy saving lightbulbs (brokered by Cool Energy). At the same time B&Q, British Gas and the former mayor of London set up a bulb amnesty.

Outside of Together, and indeed beyond climate change, Marks and Spencer and Oxfam launched a joint initiative where customers who donated unwanted M&S clothes to Oxfam received £5 off their next purchase at the store.

The potential of brand collaboration to make tackling climate change easier for the consumer is clear. Together’s Energy Savers’ Guide highlights that energy-saving products offered by its partners could help UK households save up to £1,144 per year – a valuable saving in these cash-strapped times.

The benefits also extend to the participating businesses. Feedback from the brands involved in collaborative offers indicates that they are reaching new consumers. For example, B&Q noted different people in store during the light bulb amnesty, potential new customers.

Collaboration also appears to create consumer incentives that one organisation alone would struggle to deliver. M&S reported increased in-store sales as a result of collaborating with Oxfam. In the case of the bulb amnesty, British Gas provided the bulbs, B&Q the venue and the mayor of London the publicity. In addition to pooling their brand trust to attract consumers, there is an opportunity for businesses to share expertise among themselves.

More collaboration is likely to come. At the Together anniversary event last month, B&Q and British Gas announced a joint initiative to offer free home insulation to the over-seventies and those on benefits, whist RSA offered reduced premiums to those with energy-efficient cars and homes, promoted to members of the National Trust.

Tesco has recently collaborated with manufacturers of certain product lines to introduce a carbon-labelling scheme, reinforcing Tesco’s commitment to make it easier for consumers to choose green.

At the same time, collaboration is counter-intuitive for many businesses and it is difficult to say whether the current economic climate will make companies more or less inclined to go down this path. A lot of joint projects start out as small-scale trials, and often don’t progress beyond this stage.

As Together begins an ambitious international expansion, leading brands may well persuade millions more citizens of the biggest greenhouse gas-emitting nations – including the US, China, India and Australia – about how affordable it is to tackle climate change. Earlier this month, the launch of the campaign in the US saw unprecedented collaboration between eight major US businesses – such as JP Morgan Chase, Dell, Target, Nestlé Waters, Timberland – seven cities and eight non-profit organisations, including The American Red Cross in Greater New York and the National Wildlife Federation.

US Together partners Lenovo and Dell are both promoting energy-saving tools for laptop users – an example of direct competitors promoting the same message. It is still early days for collaboration in the US, but leading brands are expected to join Together to announce a major national collaboration next month.

Brave steps towards new methods of collaboration start to build the case that addressing climate change is not an overhead – it is a value-creation tool. My bet is that brands getting that right now will be that brands that we stay loyal to in the long term.

Emily Farnworth is director of corporate engagement at The Climate Group.
efarnworth@theclimategroup.org
www.theclimategroup.org