Blog Post #11: Sustainability is Not "Going Green"

When you hear the word “sustainability,” what does it mean to you? Stop and think about that for a second. You might think about the massive explosion of “go green” movements across the United States and the world. You might think about cleaning up the world, bit by bit. Simply put, we have finally begun to see the impacts of our practices on the world around us and have started to clean up our act. But is “going green” enough?

We're all familiar with movements like this, but are they enough?

You are probably wondering exactly what I mean with that question. Well, it all comes back to the idea of sustainability. When you are sustaining something, that means that you are being consistent, you are keeping up with whatever it is that you are doing. I feel that a lot of what I have seen with regards to the “go green” movement that claims sustainability left and right is that there is an absence of the concept of sustainability in many cases. Sustainability is not about “going green.” It is about going green and staying green.

There are many respectable environmental preservation efforts that are great ideas but are not acted upon in the right way because they do not always go to the source of the problem. Sustainability starts with the doers. Cleaning up and restoring a polluted ecosystem is honorable and a great thing to do, but the problem will not be solved if the polluted ecosystem is simply treated. The problem will be improved upon and hopefully solved if the ecosystem’s well being can be sustained. This means tracking down the source of the pollution and creating a sustainable solution for the source. This is easier said than done, as we have dug ourselves a huge hole, but we need big solutions for big problems.

If you have been wondering how this all ties into marketing concepts, you are about to be enlightened. You may have been able to guess it, but the concept of sustainability also extends to marketing. Sustainability is all about everyone’s future welfare (since we are all in this world together), which is exactly what sustainable marketing is all about. Sustainable marketing is not only about environmental concerns, though, it is also about the concerns of customers. It is about environmentalism and consumerism. I am assuming for the most part that you know a lot more about environmentalism than consumerism, so for the rest of this post I want to explain some consumer-based sustainable marketing practices: consumer-oriented marketing, customer-value marketing, innovative marketing, sense-of-mission marketing, and societal marketing.

Consumer-Oriented Marketing

This type of marketing is focused on seeing everything from the viewpoint of the customer. This allows a company to easier consider both the present and future wants and needs of consumers. Companies need to remember, though, to also consider the present and future wants and needs of the company.

Customer-Value Marketing

Customer-value marketing is all about considering the long-run value of a product or service for the customer. So many promotions are targeted are short-term sales and growth rather than long-term. If investments are made into long-term value-builders rather than short-term ones, companies will begin to see that sustainable practices lead to sustainable growth.

Innovative Marketing

Innovative marketing is about real improvement. Successful, sustainable companies are not the ones that sit around on what they have and pat themselves on the back. If products and services are continuously improved upon in real ways, customers will see the change positively. Again, if these activities are sustained, companies will prosper.

Sense-of-Mission Marketing

This all comes back to mission statements. Successful mission statements are not focused solely on the product or service being offered by a company. A mission statement is all about conveying the values of a company to the consumer. This is what gets consumers to buy-in for the long run. If mission statements are not so specific and product-focused, customers will possibly begin to identify themselves with your company. Before you know it, you have a loyal customer for years. That is what sustainability is all about.

Societal Marketing

The final concept that I want to talk about is societal marketing. This is a consideration of a combination of stakeholder groups’ interests. Societal marketing takes into consideration consumer’s and society’s long-term interests all while keeping the interests of the company in mind. This is all about offering desirable products rather than deficient products, salutary products, or pleasing products.

As you can see, the idea of sustainability greatly extends into the field of marketing. Even in marketing, sustainability is about going green and staying green. Sustainability, though, is not all about the “green” necessarily. Sustainability is about more than just the environment. Sustainability is about creating a better place for us to live in now, but also for those who have yet to come.