Sebastian Gray is Founder of Everclime and a farmer’s son combining passion for agriculture, sport, digital media and tech.
Imagine a future where every purchase you make has a direct, positive impact on the world. Consider buying tickets for your favorite sports match as a show of support for your team and a powerful tool to combat pressing social and environmental challenges. How can a small choice make such a big difference?
In 2021, Real Madrid sold three million jerseys. Beyond team loyalty, these iconic shirts symbolize a global fanbase united by passion. But what if we could leverage these fans’ love beyond the match? What if they could actively contribute to solving one of our planet’s most pressing problems? Consider this: With just a tiny fraction of a jersey’s cost (about 2%, roughly $2), fans could remove one kilogram of plastic pollution from the ocean. If we extend this to every jersey sold, Real Madrid fans alone would pull the plastic out of the ocean, equivalent to the weight of 25 Boeing 737s. Now consider the top 10 football clubs globally, selling nearly 17 million jerseys per year. Applying the same logic, that’s 17,000,000 kilograms of plastic pollution removed—equivalent to 125 Boeing 737s—in just one year. This impactful solution surpasses any other currently available. And it all starts with fans buying their favorite player’s jersey. This approach can be applied to other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where passion can drive meaningful change.
The Sustainability Challenge
In recent years, there has been a significant emphasis on rethinking the role of business in our society, one that prioritizes the well-being of both people and the planet. This shift aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and brings the triple bottom line—focusing on people, planet and profit—to life.
Sustainability and its importance barely need an introduction. Still, one critical question remains unanswered: How can we establish a win-win situation for both consumers and brands based on transparency and profitability? On one hand, brands are under pressure to achieve sustainability goals. The path forward, especially from a commercial perspective, remains unclear. On the other hand, consumers want to contribute, but they often need help understanding the most effective ways to do so.
Enabling a Win-Win Economy
The win-win economy thrives on the idea that doing good can benefit businesses. Companies prioritizing sustainability attract conscious consumers, enhance their brand reputation and reduce costs. It’s a virtuous cycle where impact and profit go hand in hand. The main barriers to achieving this economy involve making sustainability information accessible to consumers and operationalizing it as a commercially viable path. To democratize sustainability knowledge, consider distilling complex reports into easily understandable information. This empowers consumers to support brands and projects aligned with their sustainability goals. Ensuring sustainability’s commercial viability for organizations is key to long-term success and scalability. But how to make it work?
The Birth of Impact as a Service
Impact as a Service (IaaS) is a concept that enables companies to address and report on complex social issues at scale using technology. It focuses on integrating sustainability and social impact into business operations. IaaS involves two key components: impact commerce and impact media.
Impact Commerce: Beyond Transactions
Impact commerce goes beyond transactions. It focuses on creating customer value while leaving a positive mark on the world. Whether offsetting carbon emissions, supporting local communities, or cleaning up oceans, impact commerce transforms shopping into a purposeful act. Companies can allocate a portion of their sales to fund environmental and social initiatives efficiently. This approach enhances transparency, allowing customers to see the direct outcomes of their purchases. Such transparency fosters customer loyalty and trust, as consumers are more likely to support brands that visibly contribute to positive change.
Impact Media: Stories That Inspire Action
Impact media amplifies stories. Imagine Real Madrid’s jersey campaign highlighting ocean cleanup efforts. Fans join a movement, turning their purchases into statements for the future. Impact media transforms consumers into advocates. To achieve this, companies reallocate advertising budgets to support sustainability projects. Brands align marketing with environmental goals, creating campaigns that drive positive impacts. Brands that collaborate with audience owners—cultural institutions or community groups—reach targeted audiences while supporting relevant sustainability initiatives. This dual-focus approach amplifies the brand’s message and engages consumers effectively.
Aligning Teams To Drive Impact Change
Embedding impact action into a business requires close collaboration and alignment on objectives and budgets across commercial, sustainability and marketing teams. Commercial teams can drive operational efficiency, strategically allocating funds to impactful global projects. Sustainability teams are crucial in simplifying reporting and compliance, using detailed dashboards to track progress and meet internal KPIs. They also curate sustainability projects that align with the company’s values, creating a cohesive strategy that other departments can support. Marketing teams can amplify these efforts by integrating sustainability into their campaigns, using visual tools to showcase the positive impacts of their initiatives. By aligning their strategies with sustainability goals, marketing efforts enhance the brand’s appeal and engage customers who prioritize corporate responsibility. This collaborative approach ensures that sustainability is not just an add-on but a fundamental part of the business strategy, driving both commercial success and positive environmental and social outcomes.
Conclusion
To make sustainability a commercially viable path, consider ways to distribute it cost-effectively, such as leveraging impact commerce and media. By allocating a portion of sales to fund environmental and social initiatives, businesses can transform everyday transactions into powerful drivers of positive change. Impact commerce enables companies to align their financial goals with their sustainability objectives, making it easier to justify the costs involved. Impact media amplifies these efforts, turning marketing campaigns into platforms for sustainability. Companies can enhance transparency and customer loyalty by reallocating advertising budgets to support initiatives that align with different SGDs objectives. This approach ensures that sustainability costs are not seen as inconvenient but as integral investments in the company’s future.
Article Credit: forbes