Introduction:
From a marketer’s perspective, sustainability has three important facets:
- There is doing right, by becoming a leader in educating your organization about the expectations, responsibilities, and opportunities for achieving sustainability, by practicing sustainability in your marketing programs, and by supporting sales and other departments in their sustainability efforts.
- Sustainability is demonstrated by achieving metrics and ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) scores that attract investors, partners, and employees.
- Finally, there is communicating your sustainability commitment in a way that enhances your brand, attracts loyal customers, builds trust, and expresses authenticity. In a world of greenwashing, this may be the most challenging task—but it’s also very rewarding when you get it right.
In this three-module course, taught by Gemma Butler, co-founder of Can Marketing Save the Planet Ltd., you will learn about all three facets and how to use them in your organization, begin a sustainability program, or enhance and accelerate one you already have.
Moreover, completing this three-module course—just six hours of training–will earn you a Certificate of Sustainable Marketing, the first offered anywhere in the U.S.
Marketing has a significant role to play in sustainability and ESG. Using their skills and powers for good, and ensuring transparency and authenticity is critical. How we communicate sustainability and ESG is critical to its progress and success. Marketers must ensure they are educated and aware in order to protect their brand’s reputation, build trust and feel confident that the claims they are making are considered, substantiated, and demonstrate commitment to the triple bottom line.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand the state of sustainability endeavors and expectations in 2024 and 2025.
- Learn about the changing landscape of sustainability, including consumer, legal, and regulatory perspectives.
- Find out who’s leading sustainability efforts, and what they’re doing (the answers may surprise you).
- Discover the many opportunities to begin, or increase, your sustainability efforts. You don’t have to start at 100.
- Learn about “circularity” —what it is and why it matters.
- Learn how marketing fits into the sustainability picture.
- Find out the steps you need to get started.
- Learn about “greenwashing”, why marketing professionals often take the heat from it, how to avoid it, and what to do instead.
- Learn how to use evolutionary storytelling to communicate effectively and authentically.
- Learn how to identify messaging opportunities, and how to use them in a compelling way.
- See examples and case studies: who’s doing it right, who’s doing it wrong.
- Bonus: Self-audit you can use to validate your green claims and instill trust.
Module 1: Sustainable Marketing–The future of business and business for the future?
Module 1 of this 3-part masterclass is an introduction to the sustainability model and operating environment. You’ll understand how things are changing, including regulations, mandatory reporting, legal challenges, consumer behaviors and expectations, and stakeholder wants and needs. You’ll learn about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how you can choose among them to incorporate sustainability into your business.
You’ll also explore what sustainability means for organizations:
- Challenges.
- Opportunities.
- The B-Corp movement.
And what this means for marketers:
- Becoming part of the solution.
- Building the business case.
- Communicating sustainability and ESG.
Module 2: Greenwashing 101.
Module 2 focuses on the rise of “greenwashing” (using marketing and PR to convey environmental responsibility where none exists) and “greenhushing” (a refusal to disclose a company’s ESG information). You’ll learn how they hurt organizations authentically incorporating sustainability and how to combat them in your messaging. You’ll explore what they are, how to spot them, see examples, and learn why everyone needs to be responsible.
How we talk about sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and what kinds of green claims we make can be the difference between speeding up progress and slowing it down. After all, negative attention is never good for brand reputation.
Regulations and guidelines continue to tighten globally in response to greenwashing and greenhushing. While the responsibility sits with the organization, marketing professionals often take the lead on sustainability communications—and take the hit when it goes wrong. Education, awareness, and effective storytelling are the keys to success.
Module 3: Sustainable marketing in action.
Module 3 of this masterclass series dives into sustainable marketing action. We’ll explore what it looks like and how to do it. Sustainable marketing isn’t about totally reinventing marketing but rather about rethinking all aspects of marketing through a responsible lens. You’ll look at:
- How to communicate sustainability and ESG for both B2C and B2B audiences.
- How to use words, language, and storytelling to effectively communicate sustainability to your audiences.
- Understanding effective marketing tactics and the impact of marketing activities themselves.
This class is packed with case studies, examples, and ideas.
How to Convince Your Boss Why You Should Take this Class:
Business is very different today than it was 10 years ago. As awareness continues to grow around climate change, sustainability and ESG remain dominant conversations both in B2B and B2C. Business is under increasing pressure from investors, regulators, employees, and society to take the lead, make bold commitments, and establish new sustainable markets that give back to people, planet, and profit.
The landscape and operating environment is changing, and stakeholder demands are increasing:
- Consumers believe organizations should:
- Operate in a way that improves their lives (86%)
- Demonstrate they are following through on promises to people, the planet and society (82%)
- Encourage consumers to support social or environmental issues (65%)
(Source PORTER NOVELLI PURPOSE PRIORITIES REPORT 2023)
- Investors interest continue to grow:
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- Individual investors (77%) globally say they are interested in investing in organizations that aim to achieve market-rate financial returns while also considering positive social and/or environmental impact.
- (57%) say their interest in sustainable investments has increased in the last two years, while 54% say they anticipate boosting allocations to sustainable investments next year.
- 80% of global investors consider a company’s reporting on its carbon footprint and commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
(Source Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, January 2024)
- Employees want to work for organizations who align to their values:
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- 55% of Gen Zs and 54% of millennials research a brand’s environmental impact and policies before accepting a job.
- 17 % of Gen Zs and 16% of millennials say they have already changed jobs or sector due to climate concerns
- 69% of Gen Zs and 73% of millennials actively trying to minimize their environmental impact – this has a major impact on their lifestyle choices.
(Source Deloitte 2023 GenZ / Millennial Survey)
Regulation, policy, and reporting are evolving. Sustainability reporting for large organizations will be mandatory, and greenwashing is no longer being ignored.
Equip yourself to be a force for good, unlocking innovative solutions, new ways of thinking, and better ways of communicating that go beyond your company’s products and services.
The Presentations:
- The workshops are hands-on and practical.
- The workshops are live so that you can ask your questions. If the course doesn’t fit in with your calendar, you can take the course as a recorded class.
- Step-by-step instructions are in numbered lists with links so you can do this yourself.
- Included are lots of illustrations and examples.
Download Material:
- Video of the presentation with slides and audio.
- Recommended podcast episodes from Can Marketing Save the Planet.
- Access to the Sustainable Marketer Action Plan.
- Access to Sustainable Marketing models—traditional models, hacked through a sustainable lens.
- Access to the Can Man Marketing Save the Planet Learning Zone and 100 points challenge.
- Become a supporter of the Sustainable Marketer Manifesto.
- List of questions to ask and actions to consider.
Who is the course for?
This course is for Marketing Executive Management and Social Media, Marketing, PR, Digital, and Content Marketing Managers who are responsible for managing the social media presence of their company. Also, for account managers of Social Media and Digital agencies.
The Presenter:
Gemma Butler
Gemma Butler teaches courses at the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California in a three-module series that leads to a Certificate in Sustainable Marketing. The courses focus on the challenges but, more importantly, the opportunities for marketers to be part of the solution in building sustainable markets and shaping new behaviors. Sustainable marketing isn’t about totally reinventing marketing but rather about rethinking all the guises of marketing through a responsible lens.
- Currently, I am the co-founder of Can Marketing Save the Planet Ltd, a company on a mission to support responsible marketing by educating and supporting approximately 10.6M marketers on the planet. Gemma also teaches for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Cambridge Judge Business School, the executive business school of the University of Cambridge.
- 2 x published author with Bloomsbury, ‘Sustainable Marketing—How to Drive Profits with Purpose’ and soon to be released (Jan 2024), ‘Can Marketing Save the Planet? 101 Practical Ways to Use Sustainable Marketing as a Force for Good.’
- Creator and co-host of the podcast series, Can Marketing Save the Planet? A podcast series that interviews a wide range of guests (including Philip Kotler and Seth Godin) about all things sustainable, with the objective of raising awareness and highlighting the significant role marketing plays in driving a more sustainable future.
- Written/contributed to multiple publications—Raconteur’s Special Report, The Drum, Sustainability Magazine.
- Certified Carbon Literate by the Carbon Literacy Project.
- Awarded ‘‘Outstanding Contribution to Marketing’ in 2022 for driving sustainable marketing transformation by Women in Marketing Awards.
- Starting her career in product marketing at Xerox and value proposition development and product marketing at Sony, Gemma went on to become the Marketing Director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing – representing and informing the marketing profession, driving the importance of professional development and educating and inspiring the next generation of marketers.
- Keynote speaker and panelist at multiple events, webinars, and conferences for both universities and businesses.
- BA Hons Degree in English Literature and Linguistics—University Portsmouth.
- Website: https://www.canmarketingsavetheplanet.com/.
- Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/butlergemma/.
