Our ethics
We’re an impact-driven content consultancy passionate about people and the planet. Our values, principles, and mission have been formed to serve this purpose.
Our marketing campaigns aim to not only be low carbon. We also actively inspire positive behavioral change, amongst citizens and within the marketing community, paving the way to a cleaner, brighter, and more just future for everyone. We do this through our client work but also our impact work.
Our impact foundations
We’re still on the journey to defining our impact as a consultancy and how to do good in this world beyond client work. Defining this is very important to us because impact is the foundational structure of our business.
In addition to client work, we regularly engage with the marketing as a force for good community. We build connections and bring people together over these topics, locally and globally.
We dedicate half of our agency’s billable hours to advocacy and education on this topic. Through social media, we engage and inspire creatives and marketers to step into the ecomarketer role. Locally, we create literature to support local marketers and attend regular events to spread the marketing as a force for good message.
We’re also active members of Clean Creatives and Creatives For Climate, having made the ethical pledges to divest our talents from fossil fuel companies and their affiliates.
Working with you
Our impact is also defined by the businesses and people that we choose to collaborate with on projects. We work with clients from a variety of industries and every client goes through a screening process before our commitment to the project.
The checklist is a range of questions that range from their commitment to social and environmental responsibility, to whether they would be a good fit for us.
The screening process helps us to find companies and people that fit our ethical values and consultancy mission.
We aim to only work with clients, and on projects that reflect these principles.
- The company is a certified B Corporation, or they’re on the certification path.
- The company doesn’t work with fossil fuels or their affiliates.
- Their mission or purpose puts social, ethical, and the environment first, promoting long-term well-being and the planet.
- The company is committed to ongoing innovation to evolve itself and achieve long-term sustainability for all.
It goes without saying that we firmly don’t work with fossil fuel or high-carbon clients that don’t align with our principle values. Furthermore, organizations that actively lobby against positive environmental and social change aren’t for us. Those who work in the gambling, tobacco, or unhealthy products aimed at children don’t have a place in our portfolio.
We recognize that sustainability is a journey. There is no such thing as a perfect company. On occasion a company might approach us that doesn’t align with the above, however, they would need to show a commitment to transitioning towards more sustainable and ethical structures. We take these clients on a case-by-case basis and are always honest and transparent about our screening choices.
Our anti-greenwashing policy
The foundation of our consultancy rests on our mission to do better for people and the planet. To fulfill that commitment, we need to acknowledge our ethical guidelines and how they are directing our creative work.
Content and creativity are powerful tools to drive consumer behavior. While we’re not always perfect, we do our best to only work on projects that do better for people and the planet. We create campaigns that use our talents to promote positive and sustainable behaviors. We never give away our power and our talent to drive unethical behaviors or pollute our planet.
Not only do we allocate our creative resources exclusively to these projects, but we also live by the moral code of No greenwashing.
This means that we always prove our environmental claims for ourselves and our clients.
To not greenwash, we follow these points:
- Honest comparability — There is no room for fake or manipulative statistics in our business. We write content and sustainability reports with a baseline to ensure that the story is told honestly, ethically, and transparently.
- Transparent traceability & fact-based evidence — We always link to the data source that we credit. It’s either in the context of an editorial blog content, by linking to high-level, authoritative resources that are institutions, universities, or notable thought-leaders. Or if it’s a sustainability report, we acknowledge that we publish reports that are based on the GRI-reporting standards (or the impact report guidelines published by B Corp).
- Certifications — We communicate certifications that are accredited by an institution, or political body like the European Union. We advise against any first-party company certifications. We don’t create labels that mislead citizens.
- Responsibility — We take responsibility for the words, campaigns, and creativity that we create for ourselves and our clients. We always strive to live by our ethical values, and welcome citizens to challenge our creative approach (when it doesn’t align with our ethics outlined above).
Have a question about what you’ve read here? Feel free to send Megan Thudium at megan@contentforgood.co
