Sustainability marketing

Including sustainability in your promotion strategy can lead to a competitive advantage and attract new customers. Talking about sustainability helps your customers understand your business values and positive impact.

Consumers often associate sustainability with

🏅 higher quality,

💼 professionalism and

💯 premium products and services.

Including sustainability in your marketing efforts can help you seize some new market opportunities.

If you’re making environmental claims about your products, services, and operations, it’s important to have evidence to avoid risking claims of greenwashing or greenhushing.

• Greenwashing: Making unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company.

• Greenhushing: Staying silent about genuine sustainability achievements, often because of fear of criticism for not doing enough.

Tips for successful sustainability marketing

✅ Be specific as possible. Do not just say "our products and services are eco-friendly", instead point our what you do differently from your competitors.

Example: our hotel uses linen of high-quality organic cotton with "better cotton" certificate which prevents risks of negative impacts in the supply chain and offers better experience to our customers.

✅ Use evidence, provide real data, achievements and certificates. Mention what you managed to achieve with your innovation and sustainability efforts.

Example: our hotel received EU Ecolabel which confirms alignment to strict sustainability criteria. We generate electricity from own solar panels which covers 70% of our needs, our irrigation system is connected to rain collecting system and food waste is turned into organic fertilizer for our garden which supplies out breakfast buffet.

✅ Raise awareness and educate. Many consumers might not be aware of the negative impact their choices have on the environment and community. Showcase how your product and services generates value for people and the environment.

Example: our hotel procures 90% of food products from farmers within 50 km supporting local community, reducing emissions related to transport and providing higher-quality products to our customers.

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Sustainability marketing needs to be rooted in real efforts and evidence. This includes having in place sustainability policy, sustainability action plans, sustainability reports and certificates confirming alignment of products and services to sustainability standards such as eu ecolabel.

Sustainability Office can help you with

• establishing an effective and future-ready sustainability management system,

• achieve EU Ecolabel accommodation certificate and

• help develop a VSME-aligned sustainability report.

Get in touch