So, you want to sell eco-friendly products.
Sustainability matters now more than ever for consumers—according to the World Wildlife Fund,
over the last five years, the demand for sustainable products grew by 71%,
and surveys conducted in the US show it’s especially prominent in buyers from the Gen-Z and Millenial generations.
The time to sell eco-friendly products is now, but there’s a few things you need to keep in mind before you start.
What is greenwashing?
Hey, I’m Ilze. In this video we’ll talk about greenwashing
what it is and how it can harm your brand.
I’ll offer some insight from our own practices on how to ensure that your green marketing doesn’t turn into greenwashing.
The fashion industry has a sustainability problem—but you’re probably not surprised to hear that.
The demand for eco-friendly, responsibly-produced clothing is growing.
Reducing waste, increasing the transparency of the supply chain, and introducing energy-efficient manufacturing
these are a couple of initiatives that businesses undertake
in order to decrease the harm to the environment.
But when a business’ sustainability efforts start and end with marketing—that’s where greenwashing enters the picture.
Greenwashing means presenting a product as more eco-friendly than it actually is.
Let’s go over a few examples.
When a company uses catchy words like ‘conscious’, ‘all-natural’ or ‘green’ in their marketing campaigns,
without having clear and sufficient info to back those claims up—that’s greenwashing.
Or when you pick up a product in plastic packaging
and see a bright green certificate slapped on it that says “earth-friendly” or “all-natural”
or any other vague slogan—that may be greenwashing, too.
In both of these examples, a company wants you to believe
that this item has been produced sustainably, but can’t provide detailed information to back its claims up.
Greenwashing comes in many forms, and it isn’t always intentional.
Often, it can be quite hard to catch. As a business-owner, you can unknowingly engage in greenwashing,
but, even if you mean well, it can still harm your business.
When you make big claims about your products that you can’t back up, you’re essentially breaking down your customers’ trust in your brand.
To add to that, in many jurisdictions, greenwashing is considered unfair business practice
and thus, highly monitored by local consumer protection agencies or organizations.
For example, in the US, where greenwashing is monitored by the Federal Trade Commission,
a number of companies have gotten in trouble over empty eco claims.
In 2019, the retailer Truly Organic had to pay a settlement of over one million dollars
for making false claims that their products were ‘100% organic’ or ‘certified organic’,
when in fact, they were not. The best way
to ensure you don’t end up pulling green wool over your customers’ eyes
is to integrate sustainability into your brand.
Build your business around sustainability, not just your marketing strategy.
How to communicate your sustainability efforts
When you work on your brand voice, think about how you’ll talk to your customers about sustainability.
What kind of language will you use and what will you avoid?
Here’s a few tips from us.
Avoid buzzwords
‘Earth-friendly’, ‘100% recyclable, ‘green’ are all good and well,
but they sound very vague.
If you can’t provide information that explains why your items are environmentally friendly,
think twice before using these words in your marketing, even if they are very popular.
For example, it might be helpful to create a document for yourself,
with guidelines on how to avoid greenwashing.
In the document, you can include the definition of greenwashing, a couple of real-life examples of what it looks like
and a list of those buzzwords that you want to avoid.
Having a document like this, that explains everything in one place, will help you out a lot.
It’s like a cheat sheet that you can always look at, if you feel like your marketing is veering a little too much into greenwashing.
Remember, all of this applies to your SEO as well.
Use keywords that are true to your brand, otherwise you might just cause trouble for yourself
by making your brand look like something it’s not
your customers will find you untrustworthy and you might even end up getting fined.
Define what eco-friendly means for you
Before you can create your eco-friendly collection, you first need to understand what kind of eco-friendly products you want to sell.
A product can be eco-friendly in different ways
it can be made from recycled materials, or
materials that don’t use up a lot of resources.
Let’s take a look at Printful’s own collection. We have a wide range of products
that are labelled as eco-friendly for different reasons.
For example, our Unisex Organic Cotton T-shirt consists of 100% organic ring-spun cotton
whereas our All-Over Print Bikini consists of at least 81% recycled polyester.
Will your eco-friendly collection only consist of 100% organic or recycled materials?
If not, then what’s the threshold for you? It’s good to figure these things out,
as the sourcing process will be much easier, if you know what you’re looking for.
It will also help you communicate with your customers about the sustainable products in your store.
At Printful, for example, we used to define a product as eco-friendly if it consisted of over 30% organic or recycled materials,
or a blend of both. We’ve recently lifted that threshold to 70%
which means we’re redefining what eco-friendly means to us.
As a result, our eco-friendly definition is stronger than it was, and even though a few of our products didn’t make the cut,
we’re now more confident about this collection that ever before.
Ensure transparency
Be honest with your customers about your sustainability efforts.
Everyone starts from somewhere. A good way to communicate your sustainability journey
is to create a separate page, where you summarize all the ways how you try to minimize your impact on the environment.
You can take a look at our sustainability and responsibility page as an example.
We’ve included a timeline of our own journey, so you could see where we started and how far we’ve come.
Our page also includes the ways we’re trying to reduce waste, ensure more efficient shipping
and other measures we’re taking to help combat climate change.
Another good way to ensure transparency is to choose suppliers with the right certifications.
Some of the most important certifications you should look out for are GOTS, OEKO-TEX or GRS amongst others.
These are internationally recognized certificates that prove that the product has been sourced and produced responsibly
or that it doesn’t contain harmful chemicals.
For example, a GOTS certified product must consist of at least 70% of organic fibres, and the entire production process must be closely monitored
starting from the seeds used to grow the material, to the harvesting process, to, finally, the production of the item itself.
Working with suppliers that build their business around sustainability and transparency
will help you feel confident about the product you’re selling.
For our own eco-friendly collection, we’ve chosen to work with partners who have the same values as us,
and are able to provide certificates to back those claims up.
You can see the supplier certificates for each of the products we offer in the product description.
So, here’s a quick rundown. Don’t oversell—use realistic, down-to-earth language
when you talk about your sustainability efforts.
Be transparent. And back up your claims
it’s better to give your customers the information before they even ask.
Alright—now that we’re done with What is Greenwashing 101, you can head over to our product catalog
and take a look at our eco-friendly collection—I’ll link it in the description below.
Why wait? Start your green marketing journey today.
But remember—we at Printful are also on a journey, just like you. Our efforts are by no means perfect,
and there’s still so much more we’re planning to do in order to make our operations more sustainable.
I really hope you liked this video. See you next time!