Grace Reith is Sustainability Communications Director with creative agency Bray Leino. She’s the former head of marketing for Origin coffee and a B-leader, meaning she’s been trained by the B-lab to help businesses becoming B-corp.
In this episode Grace joins Katie Sandow to talk about sustainability in business, and the framework that B-Corp can provide for doing that. Grace is phenomenally knowledgeable about sustainability and talks about the benefit to business both from an ethical perspective, but also why commercially it’s about future proofing.
Grace shares how marketers and communicators can take steps to avoid the nightmare pitfalls, such as green washing, and why successful marketers need to have really acute business acumen.
You can listen now wherever you usually podcast, via the links below or watch on Youtube.
Studies/resources specifically cited in our chat:
‘Grow the Pie: How great companies can deliver both purpose and profit’ is by Alex Edmans, a professor of finance at London Business School
The 2019 Deloitte study I quoted was The Purpose Premium (see ‘talent’)
We chatted about packaging citing refill stations and innovations i.e. Notpla seaweed packaging. Great case studies for eliminating plastic in packaging can be found here.
General sustainability resources
– B Corp (Impact Assessment – free tool to inform a framework and improvement plan for sustainability strategies. Packed full of resources to s)
I would also encourage people to read Larry Fink’s (Blackrock CEO) 2022 letter to investors
Podcasts
– Mary Portas – The Kindness Economy
Books
– Better Business – How the B Corp movement is remaking capitalism. Christopher Marquis
– Truth Be Told – How Authentic Marketing & Communications Wins In the Purposeful Age. John O’Brien & David Gallagher
Environmental
– edie (industry news – great to see what other businesses are doing plus the latest news & policies)
– Ellen Macarthur Foundation (business models, packaging etc)
– WWF – resources to help business understand & reduce environmental impact. (WWF have some incredible business partnerships)
– Ad Net Zero (Ad Association’s Environmental Workstream, with an action plan for reducing negative impact/having positive impact, and great resource to support. Relevant for agencies & client-side marketeers)
– AdGreen (Part of Ad Net Zero – advice and resources to support in reducing environmental impact in TV and stills productions)
– hubbub – a great source of inspiration on actions to take. Also some good resources to explain and debunk sustainability terms e.g Net Zero.
Measuring a business’ carbon footprint (it’s critical to start measuring this)
https://compareyourfootprint.com/about/
And to help individuals within a business to engage, check out Giki Zero (an app to help you measures your own footprint, with recommended, accessible measures to reduce it)
Training
https://ipa.co.uk/courses-qualifications/ad-net-zero-essentials-certificate A 5-module/10hr course aimed at supporting advertising & marketing services industries understand the climate crisis & the actions to achieve net zero emissions from the development, production and media placement of advertising by 2030. £60 for members, £120 for non-members).
– AdGreen Sustainable Production Training Definitely worth doing if you look after productions (TV, stills) in-house or the questions to ask agencies if you outsource it.
Codes to be familiar with to ensure against greenwashing:
– CMA’s Green Claims Code
– CAP Code Section 11 (environmental claims)
– BCAP Code Section 9 (environmental claims)
– I’ve penned my key outtakes in this article
ED&I
– All In Action Plan (Ad Association’s Inclusivity Workstream, with an action plan and resources to support positive change. Relevant for agencies & client-side marketeers).
– BRiM framework (a huge amount of brilliant resources are linked through these)
Training
https://managingbias.fb.com/
https://ipa.co.uk/courses-qualifications/diversity-and-inclusion-essentials-certificate A 5-module/10hr course aimed at supporting advertising & marketing professionals in taking positive action to drive forward change in the industry and world at large. Covers seven diversity metrics, why they’re important to business and barriers facing different groups in the workplace. It also explores understanding your own biases and clear actional tips & guidance to make positive change. £60 for members, £120 for non-members.
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