Thursday, May 28, 2020

Your Sustainable Athleisure Brand isn’t Actually Sustainable. Oops.


Think About Tomorrow's Customer

As a sustainability professional, I’m wired to think longterm. If we close our eyes and look at the future — one, three, five, or twenty years — are consumers more or less informed about sustainability? It’s a simple question with an obvious answer. (They will all be more informed. Want to consider something different? Let’s talk — oliviagossettcooper.com) Yet, so many brands use sustainability messaging that is counter-productive to this insight.

Their Trust is Everything

The most important thing we can build with our customers and potential customers is trust. With trust, they buy our food and know it will not give them food poisoning, or recommend our shampoo with the piece of mind that their friend’s hair will not fall out.

Held Accountable to Our Claims

When we talk about sustainability and use sustainability claims today, we’d better make sure they can hold up to our customer’s level of sustainability standards tomorrow. If they don’t, be ready for backlash from better-informed customers, or should I say ex customers — including b2b.

A Story of Doing Sustainability Marketing Wrong


Here’s what this might look like in real life:
Athleisure brand KickinIt* decides to make all of their clothing out of polyester made from recycled ocean plastic. They are excited about this initiative and know that it will give them a ticket to jump on the sustainability train. Marketing team meets with supply chain team and they come up with a kick-ass Instagram and TikTok ad campaign. The ad reads “Sustainable Workout Clothes for Kickin’ ass, not the planet”, and shows a woman kick boxing in their new line.
The next few months KickinIt is picked up all over the internet as a cool new Sustainable athletic brand. They’ve got newly acquire customers galore. All coming to them for the piece of mind that they are wearing sustainable athletic clothes. The founder is on panels talking about sustainability and they are praised for their good deeds.
Here’s KickinIt’s dirty secret — their athletic clothes aren’t sustainable. Every time you wash their clothes made of ocean plastic, the plastic goes right back into the ocean in the form of micro fibers. Ooops. 
Over the next year, new athleisure lines start coming out claiming to be plastic-free. People start asking questions. The same publications that hailed KickinIt start telling their readers about microfiber plastic pollution. 
KickinIt customers are left scratching their heads. “But, if these KickinIt leggings are sustainable, like I was told, then why are they polluting my water and marine life with micro plastic? WTF KickinIt? Why did you tell me these leggings were sustainable? Not only am I never buying from your brand again, but I’m going to comment on your social media posts, letting 250 other people know your lie, and I’m going to tell all my friends, and possibly make a petition telling that big box retailer you just landed, where I recently bought your clothes, that they should stop carrying your brand or everyone who signs this petition will think that they are a lying brand too.”

Don’t be like KickinIt. What can your brand do if you have a sustainability initiative you want to market, but don’t want to come into the office to find an anti-your-brand petition sitting on your desk?

Sustainability Marketing Safety-Nets

Here are some safety-net guidelines for sustainability marketing that will help you avoid biting your tongue. They are concepts I share with anyone who comes to me for sustainable storytelling help (reach me at oliviagossettcooper@gmail.com or through Companies vs Climate Change.)

Don’t Use the Term “Sustainable”
The most sustainable thing a consumer can buy is nothing. Your offering might be more sustainable, but, it’s unlikely to fit into the very few categories of things that actually help holistically sustain the natural world. For those in-the-know, when a brand touts the term “sustainable”, in any of its forms, it’s a red flag for greenwashing. It makes them want to dig and see if the claim is legitimate, and, usually, it’s not. Don’t forget, tomorrow’s customer is even more in-the-know.

Be Specific
Market and tell a story around exactly what you are doing. Trust that people will come looking for it as they get more informed. If you are making your cups out of compostable plastic, say that rather than “sustainable cups”. If that is indeed what your brand is doing, then it leaves it in the consumer’s hand to determine if that is “sustainable” or not. So, when they get more informed later, they can only blame themselves, and know that your brand was just trying to do what you could at the time.

Show Your Progress
This might be counter-intuitive, but “sustainable” is really just synonymous with “we care” to consumers. If your brand is on a path to being more sustainable and offsetting your carbon emissions is first step, and, in the meantime you are trying to find a way to use zero-emission fuel but haven’t gotten there yet — talk about it. They won’t blame you for not getting there yet, they will walk away knowing you care.

Do Your Research
This is when marketing and sustainability science need to work very closely together. Bottom line is make sure your next sustainability initiative is
a) actually something that is good for the planet
b) actually something that your specific target cares about

Ask A Sustainability Friend
If you have no time do to any of this, or are just too lazy, this is a last resort. (But a good idea for everyone to do, anyway.)

A no-fail test is to run your concept by the most eco-warrior-minded people you know. What red flags do they see? What questions do that have? Ask different demographics to see how they react, helping you craft the story around your sustainability initiative, but keep the level of eco awareness the same across the board.


The rise of the term “sustainable” is a good sign, it means that brands are starting to recognize the demand, and that consumers are being bred to look for sustainable practices in brands. It’s a beautiful loop. And, right now, it’s probably doing great things for brands. It will get them by, for now, but, ultimately, they will get called out on unsuspecting lies.

It will be frustrating, because these brands meant well and they put a lot of resources towards their sustainability initiative. And, they genuinely thought they were doing something sustainable, something good. Yet, there they will be, facing a wall of angry, better-informed consumers.



*Fictional name

Your Sustainable Athleisure Brand isn’t Actually Sustainable. Oops.

Think About Tomorrow's Customer As a sustainability professional, I’m wired to think longterm. If we close our eyes and look at th...