Smart brands enlist to fight the war on waste

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the environment, and sustainability is becoming the mantra for brand longevity, says Melanie Howard

CHANCES ARE that you are one of the large majority of the UK population who would agree with one of the Future Foundation's longest-running proprietary survey questions: ‘I am personally concerned to do what I can to help the environment'. As we have responses to this statement going back more than 25 years, during which time the proportion agreeing has more than doubled, we can predict with some confidence that such attitudes will continue to represent the mainstream of British society for the foreseeable future.

Environmental concern has shown a classic long-term trajectory of a value-led trend from counter-cultural minority – what could be more radical than rejecting the choice and freedom of the consumer society in 1960s America? – to being the norm. Nowadays it may be more instructive to think about why the minority don't agree since this group now represent the counter-cultural minority, although not one that we believe will grow. The failure of the scientific community to agree on what constitutes incontrovertible evidence, and lack of clear guidance on the best ways to act to avert global warming, may be part of that story. But it also represents the heart of the challenge to the majority who do want to act.

And while many of us may feel guilty about the size and extent of our carbon footprint as we continue to jet off abroad and enjoy our cars, there is one area in which consumers have adopted a range of environmentally friendly behaviours with the gay abandon of the newly converted.

We call this the ‘war on waste’ and it represents a powerful and significant factor that all brands and retailers are increasingly building into their products and services. The collaboration between the Marketing Society and Business in the Community in developing and presenting ideas to Prince Charles at Clarence House, as to how to positively encourage greater sustainability among consumers as part of his Start programme, should leave us in no doubt that taking these matters very seriously is now mainstream marketing behaviour too. As a community we should both reflect and lead the society of which we are a part.

War on waste illustrates what happens when there is a happy coincidence between shorter-term pressures and longer-term value shifts. In this case, the personal need to save money now works very effectively with the underlying desire to save the planet, and is fundamentally changing our relationship to material goods.

The three ‘Rs’ mantra of the simplicity movement in the US just ten years ago (as expounded in their mysteriously glossy magazine Real Simple) seemed more like a quaint and unlikely aspiration for those with too much time on their hands.

Now reduce, recycle and reuse are increasingly describing the everyday behaviours of the British consumer, swept along by the supportive intervention of government. Three-quarters now recycle regularly. And when asked what they are doing to reduce waste, two-thirds claim to buy less and 60 per cent say that they are repairing and maintaining things to make them last longer.

You may remember a media story from 2009 in which Oxfam highlighted the negative effect this was having on the stock in its shops. Shortly afterwards, in a genius initiative, it teamed up with Marks & Spencer to offer vouchers to people donating high quality clothes to its stores. Retail expert Mary Portas has shown that she believes reuse is here to stay with her Living and Giving shop in the Westfield Shopping Centre. The cynic might see this as a ploy to promote her ‘queen of charity shops’ series, but it is generating good funds for Save the Children.

Only 27 per cent say they are buying fewer clothes now. But this is a healthy minority set to grow – due in part once again to government support for behavioural change.

Before Central Office of Information ad budgets were savagely cut by the Government, Defra had been spending heavily to promote the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign and cut down the 8.3 million-tonne food mountain we had been chucking out each year, along with the common practice of providing food waste boxes.

And the proportion of people who claim to be wasting less food increased by 50 per cent in a two-year period. When Tesco announced that it would be offering shoppers the chance to remove excess packaging at the till, and invested in 3,500 units around the country, it was clear the store was reading the same signs and taking them seriously.

There are many initiatives under way – from Coors’ thinner glass bottles, to the growth of car clubs such as Street Car, and the fact that 60 per cent have transacted on eBay.

The smart brands are already looking at how they can cut waste from everything they do. Their investment surely signals their belief that the war on waste is an enduring and important trend.

Melanie Howard is chair of the Future Foundation.

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