Consumers are waking up to the fact that sustainability is an urgent matter. They are asking: How do I live a sustainable life? Is my health sustainable? Is my job sustainable? Is the economy sustainable? Is my child’s future sustainable?
Can I make a difference by changing my light bulbs? Buying a front-load washer? Carrying my own shopping bags to the grocery? Driving a Prius? Recycling?
Sustainability is the focus of so many of today’s personal, social, corporate and legislative challenges. The Sustainability Opportunity has big implications for brand relevance.
Healthy, wellness, fitness, fresh, free-range, organic, natural, reduced, reusable, recycled, biodegradable, green, global warming, climate change, carbon footprint, eco-friendly, locally sourced-these are no longer fringe ideas.
Safeway is focusing on developing a line of
organic products branded simply with the letter “O.” Wal-Mart is selling organic foods, moving organics from Haight Street to Main Street, and is the largest U.S. seller of organic milk. A new American vodka brand, 360 Vodka, is positioned as the world’s first environmentally friendly vodka. is packaged in an 85% recycled-content glass bottle, and all labeling, packaging and promotional materials use 100% recycled paper, along with water-based inks.
GE has made eco-imagination the focus of its future. The Sundance Channel has an initiative called “The Green” with programming and tips on eco-business, eco-innovations and eco-automotive initiatives.
Jerry Powell, editor of Resource Recycling magazine, pointed out in The New York Times, “What used to be done by a guy who wore Birkenstocks and drove a Volvo is now being done by someone who drives a Ford 250 with a gun rack” (Larry Light, Advertising Age (Midwest region edition). Chicago: Nov 12, 2007. Vol. 78, Iss. 45; pg. 34, 1 pgs).