Challenge
Sustainability has moved to the top of the political and corporate agenda. Yet while the environmental impacts of production, manufacture and business operations have received considerable attention, the environmental impacts of the communications industry have been largely overlooked.
Noughtilus aims to help marketers address this problem. Noughtilus is an online tool kit tailored specifically for the communications industry. Noughtilus measures the environmental impacts associated with marketing campaigns and activities, enabling you to monitor, control and improve environmental performance.
Who uses Noughtilus
- Client-side marketing professionals aiming to manage their environmental performance and demonstrate their commitment to responsible and sustainable marketing.
- Agency-side professionals aiming to provide their clients with full environmental impact disclosure when proposing campaigns.
- Marketing professionals who do not have the time, or funds, to initiate and manage external environmental audits of specific campaigns.
Why?
Both the commercial environment and natural environment is changing. The IPCC's (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 4th assessment report was released in February 2007 warning that climate change poses the single biggest threat to businesses and societies. The effects of global climate change and the exhaustion of natural resources are becoming increasingly evident. These global changes are shifting government, investor and consumer expectations of brands and companies.
As the pressures associated with non-sustainable business practices continue to mount, it is almost certain that agents of change will seek to intervene with increasing conviction. Forward thinking companies will anticipate these changes and avoid costly regulatory developments by acting now to incorporate sustainability into their core business strategy.
The investment community will be evaluating how effective corporations are at managing the risks associated with sustainability moving up the agenda. Demonstrating responsibility by using Noughtilus to measure and manage communications will contribute to an investor perception of effective risk management.
As consumers become increasingly expectant of companies' wider commitment to pressing contemporary environmental and social concerns, embedding a sense of sustainability and social responsibility becomes a key contributor to overall customer satisfaction. Consumers are increasingly looking to brands to help them find agency in the face of these issues, and so in order to remain competitive, it is imperative that brands evolve in line with these changes to the wider social and political climate.
Businesses are made of people, and people are more motivated and inspired where the aims of their employers more fully reflect their own values. To this end, sound ethics and forward thinking business values can help inspire higher levels of productivity, participation, creativity and loyalty. What's more, it will improve a company�s ability to attract and retain the best talent.
Some firms have tried to reap the strategic benefits of responsible business by making claims or commitments without any real substance. There's another term for this; lying. Given such practices, we can't really blame consumers for being cynical and coming up with terms like 'corporate greenwash'. Consequently, it's of critical importance that any claims, policies or commitments are backed up by comprehensive audit reports. These help track progress and highlight a genuine commitment to working towards a more sustainable future.
If any corporate division can be said to be 'talking the talk', it's marketing. Despite this, our research has shown that traditional marketing and communications activities are hugely wasteful. If you're trying to build corporate social and environmental responsibility into your core values, your communication methods could be broadcasting alarmingly conflicting messages. It is time for marketing and communications divisions to 'walk the walk'. Communications professionals all over the world have to start living the very value propositions that they espouse, and the first step is to build an understanding of the environmental impact of marketing campaigns.