Harriet Easterbrook

Digital Account Manager

3 min read

19 | 11 | 2021

5 Steps Towards A Sustainable Marketing Strategy

The recent COP26 conference has bolstered the ongoing issue of sustainability, pushing the emphasis on businesses to operate ‘greener’ to the forefront of mainstream consciousnesses. For marketers, joining these conversations will be fundamental for developing future proof strategies that align with ‘greener’ values, while also meeting the needs of increasingly environmentally-conscious consumers.

At Reeds, we’re committed to introducing and maintaining sustainable marketing strategies, embodying these values to position your business at the forefront of these inevitable changes.

Since 2008, our company mission to reduce our carbon footprint has accelerated, and over the years we have grown our portfolio of environmentally friendly solutions to help our customers to connect to theirs sustainably.

The results of our efforts have been transformational, and today 95% of our waste materials are recycled, plus we’ve reduced our landfill contribution by 80%.

Curious about sustainable marketing? We’ve rounded up 5 ways that your business can incorporate these values into becoming more environmentally aware, read on to find out more.

1. Carbon neutral website hosting

We believe that hosting a website should not contribute to your carbon footprint.

The average website produces 1.76g of co2 per page view.

A website with 100,000 page views per month would emit 2,112kg of co2.

That’s roughly the weight of an adult Rhinoceros!

Low performing websites produce more CO2 due to the energy and time required to load them. Using our custom content management system and our partnership with a UK based hosting partener, we’re able to build powerful websites that load quickly, helping our website clients to reduce their carbon footprint.

2. Environmentally friendly signage

Signage is a sector of the print industry that has been assigned negative connotations around environmental concern, but we’re using our own innovative approach to challenge this historic notion. In-depth research has helped us to achieve significant successes in our sign manufacturing offer, with demand increasing for more natural fibres and less plastic.

We’re dedicated to sourcing environmentally friendly materials such as GreenCast, a 100% recycled acrylic sheet using that uses less water and produces less C02; installed at Lowther Castle, or Ecologique, an innovative MDF panel which is formaldehyde free, FSC certified and 100% recyclable; installed at Brockhole Visitor Centre for the Lake District National Park. As well as this, we’ve installedPriplak, a world leading environmentally friendly alternative to PVC & 100% recyclable, at Tullie House Museum.

3. Offset carbon emissions from your printed products

In 2015 we became one of the first businesses in the country to join the Woodland Trust Carbon Capture Scheme. This initiative calculates our customers carbon production by each print job, and then the same amount is offset by planting sustainable native UK woodland. To date this partnership has been directly responsible for the planting over 36,000 square meters of UK woodland – that’s more than five times the area of Wembley football pitch!

Between July 2020 and June 2021 our partnership with the Woodland Trust Carbon Capture Scheme has directly resulted in the planting of 2,500 deciduous British trees in UK woodland. 930 of these are additional to the trees used to fulfil our customers print.

This is more than carbon-neutral, this is carbon-negative.

4. Vegetable-based inks

Did you know that mass-market inks are usually petroleum oil based and can often contain glycerine, gelatine and even beetle shellac?

At Reeds, we help our clients to deliver more sustainable marketing campaigns by sourcing environmentally friendly materials where we can, and this includes the use of vegetable-based ink. Vegetable-based inks are not only cruelty-free they have up to 35% lower emission rates, but they are also environmentally friendlier while still offering the same vibrancy and quality as traditional inks

5. Ensure transparency

While conversations around sustainability have been amplified by the COP26 conference, consumer behaviour had already began to shift towards prioritising these considerations prior to the event. Moving forwards, organisations that demonstrate a commitment to sustainable marketing will grow in influence as this issue becomes even more prominent in day-to-day life.

If you intend to market your business as "eco-friendly" or "green", making sure that you have the information to support this claim is essential. In 2015, we were the very first company in Cumbria to achieve the international and independent ISO 14001 certification for environmental management, placing us in the top 300 energy efficient companies in the UK. Since then we've been on a companywide mission to reduce our environmental impact, whilst helping our clients to reduce theirs too — showing our commitment to transparency.

Jonathan Nagle, Reeds Head of Sales & Marketing commented on the roundup, “Marketing to an audience with an environmentally-conscious mindset requires some consideration, but doing so now will set your service offering apart from competitors.

Having this awareness shows that your business is in-tune with wider societal matters, and the importance of sustainability is only becoming more evident.”

Get In touch with us today to learn more about how we can help your business to prepare for a greener future with our bespoke sustainable marketing solutions, including, SEO and web UX design .