Observing Marketing Communications of Sustainable and Ethical Brands
Do you like browsing through sustainable brands? I do.
I usually follow content creators and blogs featuring sustainable alternative products and services. It makes me hopeful to see companies that are not just focused on profits but are kind to the planet and people. And the geeky side of me also admires the marketing these brands do. I want to learn and compare the good and the bad copywriting practices.
If you're a sustainable or conscious business owner or marketer, are you using the following in your communications and promotions?
- Hurry, Buy Now
- Last 2 Seats
- Don't Miss Out
- Ending Soon, this is your last chance
- Last coaching session
- BOGO (buy one get one)
And if your company is environment-focused, are you using these too?
- Eco-friendly
- Planet-friendly
- 100% natural, organic (without 3rd party certification)
- Green
- Sustainable
- Biodegradable
- Climate-neutral (without added info)
If you answered yes to both, then this blog is definitely for you. I’ll be sharing a communication style you might want to look into - a style more fitting for your sustainable and conscious brand.
The Problem with Copywriting for Sustainable Brands and Conscious Businesses
These phrases the first cluster of words above, are everywhere - in sales pages, emails, social media ads, you name it. They're part of the same old advertising loop we've been stuck in for decades.
Now, the second cluster of phrases. They're what we typically trot out to position our brand as sustainable. Depending on how you use them, these buzzwords can also mean Greenwashing (misleading claims) for your brand.
Here are the two common problems with marketing communications of sustainable brands:
Unintentional Greenwashing
Copywriting that falls into the many traps and loopholes of greenwashing due to knowledge and skills gaps on how to communicate green claims.
Misaligned Values and Message
The use of traditional copywriting tactics moves you away from the mission and values for which your company stands.
Here are some examples of what I mean in translation to sustainability copywriting:
Zero-waste stores promoting hyper-consumeristic behavior with flash sales, Black Friday, and buy 3, get 1 free promos.
Conscious business coaches claiming it's the last course of its kind, only to relaunch the same program next year with minor tweaks.
Greentech software offering exclusive VIP access to a masterclass that's actually open to your entire client list.
Sustainable toys marketing to kids or guilt-tripping parents into feeling bad for not purchasing them.
Green creatives exacerbating their customers' pains or capitalizing on their anxieties and fears.
CPG brands engaging in unintentional greenwashing by using fabricated logos or words.
If you resonate with producing similar copy for your business, know that it's not your fault.
We've all been spoon-fed this stuff for decades, marketers, copywriters, you, me - the whole lot. It’s the way theoretical education has been imparted in universities and online courses. It's the way templated copywriting headlines and writing frameworks are formulated using traditional styles that are promised to work. It’s our exposure to overly-used green buzzwords that make us think conformity is harmless.
Why Fix This Gap In Sustainability Copywriting?
Our planet and society are in dire need of the positive change it brings.
With the sporadic growth happening in the sustainability and conscious business space, we have to fix the prevalent “wrong” communication style. Otherwise, the unideal practices will just be copied and pasted in an unending cycle.
I know that at the heart of your business is your desire to offer a better alternative in the market, to address an unanswered existing need.
You want to produce products and deliver services that lessen the harm we bring to the planet, care for animals, and serve humans better.
Yet, to foster genuine behavioral change, we must rectify this communication dilemma. It's imperative to instill the right values in our clients. We want our customers to buy our products whenever it’s right for them, but also to support our causes.
🍂 If you’re a zero-waste store, you want your customers to refill at your shop and continuously live a sustainable lifestyle.
🍂 If you’re a sustainable toy company, you want them to purchase not just yours but also other plastic-free toys to reduce the number of toys that end up in landfills yearly.
🍂 If you're a carbon offsetting company, you want clients to enroll in your program while also adhering to other carbon reduction efforts like clean energy.
🍂 If you're a green creative, you want your clients to avail themselves of your services, knowing you can assist them well.
What Green-Conscious Copywriting Is NOT
Before I tell you about what Green Conscious Copywriting is I need you to know what it's NOT.
Green-Conscious Copywriting moves away from 2 things:
#1 Traditional Unethical Copywriting Techniques
#2 Greenwashing
Traditional Unethical Copywriting Techniques
Traditional unethical copywriting techniques encompass a range of strategies and tactics that prioritize deception, manipulation, or exploitation over honesty, transparency, and integrity.
Here’s a quick rundown:
- Fear-based Copywriting
- Fake scarcity
- Loss Aversion/FOMO
- Fear of Being Inadequate
- Fear of Regret
- Manipulative Price
- Guilt
- Shame
- Pain
- Exaggeration
- Binary thinking
If you want a more in-depth reading about this topic, after this post I suggest you visit my other article: COMMON UNETHICAL MARKETING AND COPYWRITING TACTICS EVERY SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS AND MARKETER SHOULD AVOID.
Greenwashing in Sustainable and Conscious Industries
⚠️Warning: Sustainability jargon ahead. Lez getz started!
Greenwashing is the intentional or unintentional misleading information about a company’s sustainable practices and efforts. It can range from using environmental imagery, vague labels and statements, and cherry-picking data highlighting green practices while hiding harmful ones.
If you’re thinking of keeping quiet instead about your company’s sustainability, this is also a shade of greenwashing, called Greenhushing. There are several kinds and different shades of green. I suggest you familiarize yourself with them.
Intentional greenwashing is the deceptive practice of making their company or products and services seem more sustainable than they actually are to sway consumer preferences and drive sales.
Unintentional greenwashing is a result of a lack of knowledge in sustainability communications. An article by Sustainable Brands highlights a study revealing the widespread "capability gap" among marketers in effectively communicating sustainability practices.
Intentional or not, there is a definite need to resolve the growing greenwashing issue. By continuously allowing companies especially the big ones to greenwash, they are reaping the benefit of getting more sales while retaining their unsustainable practices. This aggravates the environmental and societal problems we are trying to solve in the first place.
Greenwashing’s impact also hits you directly - as a customer who is being deceived and lied to. Imagine you're on a strict organic-only diet due to medical reasons. And a company (big or small) advertises its products as 100% natural and organic. Whether purposeful or not, it’s a blow to your well-being. That’s why companies bear the obligation to be mindful of their marketing communications.
What is Green-Conscious Copywriting
Green-Conscious Copywriting
is a type of ethical sustainability copywriting that combines non-manipulative messaging with positive persuasion and is inspired by Green guides to drive you into action.
It encourages informed decisions, values formation, and genuine behavioral change that would create societal and environmental impact.
It’s ideally shaped for sustainable and conscious brands in their marketing and promotions. It views marketing as a relationship-building activity through communication, not sales promotion.
As such, our aim is not instant sales but sustainable growth built on informed decisions, trust, and the desire to shape “good” values and behavior.
The Need For Green-Conscious Copywriting
The green industry is booming. MarketsandMarkets projects the global green tech and sustainability market alone is set to skyrocket to USD 28.6 billion in 2024. It is expected to grow to USD 134.9 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 29.5%. Greenwashing is on the rise, too. 42% of online sustainability claims were found to be “exaggerated, false, or deceptive” in a high-profile study by the European Union.
If marketers don't adapt, greenwashing will be widespread.
Can we not maintain the status quo? Is there a true need to shift the way we do marketing? Or am I imagining things?
Searching for terms like "conscious copywriting," "ethical copywriting," and "sustainability copywriting" in Ahrefs reveals less than 100 monthly searches. Last year, it was only around 30. Then 60 a few months back. Yes, it may seem insignificant, but it indicates a growing demand from individuals like you and me for a different approach to marketing and copywriting.
This led me to discover The Conscious Marketing Movement, of which I am a founding member. I met fellow marketers, entrepreneurs, and founders who are also tired of traditional, aggressive marketing tactics. Like them (and like you), I once felt stuck and wanted to market and grow a business differently but didn't know where to start. I felt anxious if this alternative approach would work. Our community has proven it can!
The need for this sustainability copywriting style is clear. One is because of the growing issue of greenwashing. Two is our urgent need to affect mindset and behavioral changes to make our present and future environmental and societal situations better.
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Components of Green-Conscious Copywriting (Plus Examples)
Let's break down what makes up this style. I'll throw in sample ideas too to help you apply them to your brand.
We have 3 Main Pillars.
1. Conscious
2. Green-Guide Inspired
3. Positive Persuasion
We then envelop these components into a unified storyselling.
Conscious
I’ll use Carolyn Tate’s description of what it is. It’s what the Conscious Marketing Movement uses too.
“It means ensuring your marketing activities are aligned with your higher purpose – the WHY behind what you do. Promoting your offering with honesty, transparency, and congruency and with messages of hope and humanity...”,
- How to Become a Conscious Business Leader by Carolyn Tate
I see conscious marketing as communicating with humans as humans. To see a person in every customer, a relationship beyond transactions, and a higher purpose beyond business.
Translating this into copywriting means not manipulating people to simply push them into buying more and faster. Rather it’s about communicating with humans who are meant to be understood, guided, and helped to achieve their higher purpose through your products or services.
"Check, I love this existential talk, but how does this translate to marketing communications?”
"I like what you’re saying but, how does this apply in the real business scenario?"
"How do I grow my sustainable brand or even sell my products because I need it to continue this business?"
I get you. Let me just give you some ideas of its applicability.
Here's an example of Conscious Marketing in action:
Only sending sales emails and promos
→ Nurture emails on how to progress their journey in resolving their problem
Black Friday Sales (Shop Till You Drop Campaign)
→ Green Friday (Buy Mindfully or Don’t Buy Anything Campaign)
Here's an example of conscious copywriting:
Last chance to make your life greener and better
→ Live healthier and feel good about it too
Removing manipulation that suggests if they don’t buy your product or service now, they’ll never resolve their problem/s
Lust-Worthy Lips
→ Self-Loved Lips
Instead of glamorizing immorality like lust, we foster positive values like self-love.
See the difference? How you think and do your marketing and copywriting changes the message and values we’re shaping in our customers and society.
Green Guide Inspired
Sustainability communication is broad. It covers the planet (environment) and the people (societal and community). This is one of the core focuses of this copywriting style - green communications. It includes studying the jargon, natural sciences, laws, and advertising issues.
There is regulatory guidance around ‘green’ claims and it differs per region. I refer to FTC's Green Guide and EU’s Green Claims Code as foundational sources. They offer core principles for making truthful and substantiated environmental claims in advertising and marketing materials.
Although our intentions are good, we have to be extra cautious. Not following these guidelines can mislead your customers with your claims, obviously Greenwashing. You may end up losing your customers when you break their trust. Or worse, losing your entire business and even paying penalties for lawsuits just like what happened to Truly Organics where they had to pay $1.9M for marketing as organic. You can read the case details on the FTC website.
Our goal is to effectively communicate sustainability without greenwashing. It means converting copywriting like these:
Our packaging is compostable → Our packaging is home compostable
Our factory runs on clean energy → 50% of our production runs on solar energy
We are 100% organic → No proof? Drop the 100% organic
This notebook is made from recycled material. →This journal is made from 50% recycled fiber
Which means knowing:
✓ Words to Avoid like eco-friendly, good for the planet, carbon-neutral
✓ Substantiating claims for 100% green energy powered, recyclable,
✓ Adding proof for B Corp, organic, natural, fair-trade, and vegan
✓ How to Write a Sustainability Webpage and other informative content you should be building
✓ How to talk about the sciences without being boring
✓ and how to stand out from all the other green companies
⚠️ A caveat if you're planning to get my sustainability copywriting services: Although I do due diligence and mindfulness in copywriting, I am not a greenwashing lawyer or a sustainability consultant. As such, I encourage brands to best consult and verify green claims with these professionals to verify and substantiate some green claims). ⚠️
Positive Persuasion
Copywriting is meant to persuade. This is what makes it different from content writing. It is being able to drive your audience into action. Traditional direct-response copywriters are paid high because they compel your audience to act, again using the tactics I’ve mentioned earlier.
Our goal is not to make instant sales with copywriting. It's to build relationships and inspire sustainable behaviors and continued action.
What is Positive Persuasion?
Positive Persuasion is the use of positive and empowering language to drive a desired action. It is not only effective in influencing decisions but it aligns with ethical communication practices and branding.
The results are still to drive action. It can be smaller feats that are simple like clicking a link, subscribing to a newsletter, or sharing content on social media. Or do bigger acts of commitment such as buying the product or subscribing to services.
We can achieve positive persuasion by leveraging positivity and empowerment. It's meant to build a long and well-nurtured relationship with your ideal and existing customers. With it, there’s no need for tricks, coercion, or fear to convince your audience.
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Storyselling
Two truths: One sustainability communication already entails hard facts. Two, nobody wants to be sold to. How do you engage your audience about sustainability when they’re avoiding you?
Through storyselling.
It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Storyselling is not about closing hard sales and transactions. It is the telling and selling of not just your brand but your mission. The goal is to onboard more people into your advocacies.
It doesn’t mean telling narratives about your company so you can sell your products ALL the time.
Storyselling means sharing relatable stories you can link to your audience, your brand, and your advocacy. You connect with your customers and help them move through their journey.
And yes, it can drive sales conversion (as with sales pages, emails, and case studies), but it also builds a deeper relationship.
Sample story idea as part of your sustainable marketing campaigns: Customer Transformation
If you run a zero-waste store, you can share how your customers are finding ways to cut down on their plastic waste. Show the real challenges they experienced and how they overcame them. Highlight how your brand played a role in resolving these challenges. Share the results you've achieved to encourage others that it can be done, and they too can join this mission.
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What are the Disadvantages of Green-Conscious Copywriting
As with anything, there's always a positive and a negative aspect. It would be unfair and untruthful of me to tell you only one side of it. So here are two major drawbacks that I could think of.
Long Copy
Because this style tends to add so many disclaimers, expect lengthy and detailed writing. We need facts and supporting evidence, and we need to state and reiterate. It also requires creating additional content pieces to guide your customers on their journey and make sure information is easily accessible and genuinely helpful.
Lose Instant Sales | Longer Sales Cycles
It's easier to get instant sales through deceptive tactics. And because we are not duping our customers to buy faster and more, there’s a chance of losing accidental sales. You know, those customers who later regret buying. Secondly, it can also mean having a slower but meaningful sales conversion process. Simply because we don’t want to promote hyper-consumerism which is one of the issues we have with traditional marketing.
What are the Benefits of Green-Conscious Copywriting
Now that you know what it is, I know you have some idea of the good things about it. Let me point out a few benefits of Green-Conscious copywriting for your sustainable and mission-driven business.
Values Alignment
It ensures a 360-degree alignment of your values in every word of your copy. I say 360 because values shouldn’t just be reflected on your mission-vision, "about us," or CSR page. They should manifest and be ingrained in every piece of communication you put out. (And if you’re into branding, they should also be evident in every customer touchpoint).
Trust
"With the rise of Gen Z, trust building is evolving. The basic strategy includes reliability, transparency, honesty, and authenticity to gain trust across Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z.
But you need to add two more to gain their trust. Gen Z trusts brands that are embracing Purpose and Social Responsibility. So your marketing communication needs to show these. Forbes article even mentions CSR as the only marketing strategy by this Gen-Z brand.
There is a high distrust for sustainable brands. More than half actually, of global customers according to the YouGov Survey.
Safe from Greenwashing Backlash
Criticism over your sustainable business practices is inevitable. But because you are conforming to industry communication standards, your chances of committing sins of greenwashing are lessened. If done right, instead of backlash, you get support and endorsements from your ideal customers, actual customers, and even industry peers.
Sustainable Growth
With informed decisions, sales conversions are more genuine. Buyer remorse is lowered, and trust increases. Moving away from transactional to relational, expect loyalty and repeat purchases as an upside benefit of this style. Not to mention having solid advocates doing referrals and recommending your brand to their network.
Does Green-Conscious Copywriting Work and Is it Effective?
The answer depends on the goal and metric you have for it. Unlike traditional marketing and copywriting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), this style includes other metrics such as:
✅ Positive emotions toward it
✅ Values promotion in the copy
✅ Long-term relationship-building
✅ Industry guidelines conformity
I know you’re still thinking, so does it work? Can it persuade? Drive Action? Drive Sales?
The answer is yes it can, but again, not in the traditional sense of things as what this blog has been demonstrating.
Imagine copywriting as eating.
Traditional copywriting gives you fast food. Everybody knows fast food. They’re everywhere. You order it. You get to eat in minutes. Delicious food that is most likely unhealthy and not good for you. You’re full and satisfied. End of story.
Green-Conscious Copywriting is akin to a specialized food truck parked just around the corner. Known to a few, the feel-good, positive-vibe crew serves you mouthwatering home-cooked cuisine. And healthier too. Overall, a pleasant experience leaves you satiated and delighted, prompting you to tell your friends and family about it.
In this example, both achieve their initial goals, but in different ways. It’s the same with the two copywriting styles. You can achieve certain goals, but the execution and the future impact are different.
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Traditional Copywriting Vs. Green-Conscious Copywriting
In summary, traditional copywriting often utilizes bro marketing styles. This includes manipulation and psychological triggers, to push people into transactional actions.
Green-Conscious Copywriting, on the other hand, uses greenwashing-free, ethical, and positive persuasion to build a long-term relationship.
This matrix shows the foundational concepts between the two.
Browse through my blog and follow me on LinkedIn to learn copywriting the green-conscious way.
Is Green Conscious-Copywriting Only for Purpose-Driven Brands?
Although it was originally intended for sustainable and conscious companies, the benefits it promises are not exclusive. Because at the heart of green-conscious copywriting are ethics and humane communications. Every company is communicating with humans, even in B2B contexts. As long as we're dealing with humans, I see no limits to its industry application. The majority of companies incorporate some level of sustainability communication and CSR within their operations, so yes, it can benefit different verticals.
What kind of Sustainable and Ethical Companies should use Green-Conscious Copywriting?
Here are some business and sub-niche examples:
⁂ Sustainable products like zero-waste brands, sustainable toys, fashion brands, vegan, fair-trade brands and ethical CPG goods
⁂ Green tech and renewable energy such as solar companies, smart homes, agritech
⁂ Green finance and investing
⁂ Sustainability consultants and Mindful coaches including sustainable tourism consultants
⁂ Green creatives like marketing agencies, SEO consultants. graphics designers, illustrators
Final Thoughts
In a nutshell, Green-Conscious Copywriting is an alternative communication style built on values, ethics, and green guides ideal for sustainable and conscious businesses. With it, we get to flip the script on traditional marketing tactics to align every word with your brand's values and mission with less sustainability criticism. It's not just marketing—it's a whole new way of connecting with your audience, nurturing relationships, and making a positive impact. With it, you get to grow both your brand and values-driven customers and society.