Businesses and marketers often use terms like ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ to appeal to environmentally-aware consumers.
However, these terms are more than buzzwords and are not interchangeable. As an ecomarketer, I want my marketing peers to know the difference between green vs sustainable marketing—so more businesses know what it really entails to craft marketing campaigns that do better for the people and the planet.
In this article, I’ll show you:
- What sustainable marketing is,
- What green marketing is, and
- Why the difference matters.
Let’s get into it!
Green vs sustainable marketing
When it comes to the ‘green vs sustainable marketing’ discussion, the real impact lies with sustainable marketing.
The reason?
Sustainable marketing is a more solid transformation of the marketing discipline into a force for good.
It goes above and beyond selling green products! It looks at the discipline itself and how marketing contributes to the planetary and social crisis, by promoting overconsumption and using manipulative marketing tactics to continue business as usual.
What is sustainable marketing?
Sustainable marketing is a comprehensive marketing approach that puts people and the planet first. With sustainable marketing, all aspects of sustainability are considered: it focuses not only on the environment but also on social and economic factors.
Here, we’re focused on the bigger picture.
Sustainable marketing can be an overarching and transformative approach to marketing as a discipline, rethinking its intentions and tactics for positive social and environmental good.
It often includes the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as the core basis and going beyond mere environmental factors, it also considers financial, physical, psychological, sociological, cultural, and ethical aspects.
Or, as the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) defines it:
Sustainable marketing is a purpose-driven practice that works to orient businesses, brands, and society towards a sustainable future. It influences appropriate awareness, aspiration, adoption, and action across economic and sociocultural systems by taking necessary accountability for its impacts and opportunities. In doing so, it serves the long-term well-being of all.
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Sustainable marketing: Patagonia’s ‘Worn Wear’ program
Patagonia, a renowned outdoor clothing brand, has constantly pushed the boundaries of sustainable marketing.
With its ‘Worn Wear’ program, the brand encourages customers to buy less and make their clothing last longer. The initiative promotes the repair, reuse, and recycling of Patagonia clothing. Customers can bring their worn or damaged Patagonia gear to stores or send them in for repair.
Patagonia also sells refurbished and second-hand items through its online store, extending the life cycle of its products—the opposite of promoting new products every season, which is often the norm in the fashion industry.
But Patagonia’s sustainable marketing goes beyond campaigns like the ‘Worn Wear’ program. It’s part of their greater company vision: ‘build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis’.
Its sustainable initiatives are built around this commitment to sustainability, which reflects across all business areas like marketing, including Patagonia’s purpose statement, ‘The Earth is now our only shareholder’.
All in all, you can’t have sustainable marketing without being a sustainable business.
What is green marketing?
On the other hand, green marketing is reduced to product marketing of green products, without considering the broader aspects of sustainability. It focuses only on promoting, endorsing, or selling a product, service, or even an experience’s green aspects, without considering the bigger picture.
Green marketing is a ‘business as usual’ strategy but painted green.
We’re talking about overconsumption and even manipulative sales tactics (e.g., ‘buy two, get one free’) to increase profit through sales. It doesn’t matter if the product is ‘green’. The goal is to sell to an environmentally-conscious audience and build a greener image without revising the brand message with a sustainable lens, for example.
While green marketing doesn’t necessarily lead to greenwashing, more often than not, that’s what happens.
Green marketing: H&M’s Conscious Collection
H&M, one of the world’s leading fashion retailers, has a green marketing strategy emphasizing its commitment to offering more sustainable clothing options and reducing its environmental footprint.
With its Conscious Collection, H&M sells garments made from sustainable materials such as organic cotton, recycled polyester, and TENCEL™ lyocell. The Conscious Collection is sold side by side with its regular pieces, which form the majority of the retailer’s offers.
Here, they’re profiting from increasing profits and consumption by labeling it ‘sustainable’.
However, the retailer still focuses on fast fashion, an industry under constant scrutiny not only for its environmental impact but also for the ethical and societal issues around fashion manufacturing.
Despite setting ambitious sustainability goals, such as using 100% recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality across its operations by 2030, the Conscious Collection is an example of green marketing, and could in many ways, be considered greenwashing.
Why does it matter?
In conclusion, the distinction between green and sustainable marketing is crucial for businesses and marketers who prioritize people and the planet over relentless growth and profit.
It matters because sustainable marketing goes beyond green product promotion; it leverages creative talents to encourage sustainable behaviors and foster societal change. Authenticity is key, emphasizing transparency, and avoiding greenwashing by making customers the heroes of the sustainable transformation journey.
Sustainable marketing offers a more comprehensive understanding of green and social issues, leading to a marketing process that can positively transform the environment and society.
At Content For Good & Co., we actively apply a sustainable marketing lens to all our content work. If you’d like to learn more about whether our services are right for your team, review our packages or book a meeting.
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