Marketing has helped create some of the world’s most successful brands and businesses.  Yet our profession has also promoted wasteful consumption and profit at any cost, while prioritising customers and shareholder interests over those of wider stakeholders and the planet.  As organisations grapple with the sustainability challenge, perhaps it’s time for marketing to become part of the solution…

Earlier this summer, I renewed my Chartered Marketer status with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.  As I do every year, I questioned whether it still reflected the work I do today.  Having spent the last 20 years working in sustainability, it can feel as though I left marketing behind.  But on reflection, I haven’t. I still use marketing skills every day — just in a different way.

Today, I use those skills to help organisations develop commercially viable sustainability strategies and responsible business practices.  That benefits the businesses I work with while contributing to broader sustainability goals.  It also brings a greater sense of purpose than many traditional marketing roles ever did.  And it raises an interesting question: what if more marketers applied their expertise in the same way?

Delivering against clear plans

One of marketing’s greatest strengths is strategic planning.  We understand how to distinguish objectives from tactics, outputs from outcomes, and strategy from activity.  We know how to set goals, define measures of success, monitor progress and adapt when circumstances change.

These capabilities are critical when developing sustainability strategies, net zero roadmaps and decarbonisation plans.  Without clear plans and effective governance, long-term success is unlikely.  Marketing’s planning discipline can help sustainability teams — and operational functions such as transport and logistics —turn ambition into measurable and impactful action.

Making sustainability commercially relevant

Successful sustainability programmes must deliver value to both the organisation and its stakeholders.  Marketers are experienced in stakeholder mapping, audience research and insight generation.  We know how to identify who matters most to a project, understand their priorities and build engagement around shared objectives.

Whether through desk research, competitor analysis, surveys, focus groups or stakeholder interviews, marketing professionals can help organisations identify what is truly material to their sustainability agenda.  This ensures sustainability efforts are aligned with commercial priorities while meeting the expectations of employees, customers/ clients, suppliers, investors, communities and other key stakeholders.

Communicating the journey

At Not Sustainable, we often support sustainability professionals with communication challenges.  While specialist sustainability expertise is essential to avoid greenwashing and greenhushing, marketers are uniquely equipped to translate complex sustainability activity into clear, relevant messages for different audiences.

Marketing does not need to own sustainability communications.  However, it can play a vital role in helping organisations communicate progress credibly, engage stakeholders effectively and realise the commercial value of their sustainability efforts.

Collaborating to deliver results

Marketing has always been a collaborative discipline. Whether working with product teams, customer service functions, agencies, researchers or clients, marketers are skilled at bringing diverse groups together to achieve shared goals.

These collaboration skills are equally valuable in sustainability, where success often depends on engaging suppliers, community partners and cross-functional teams. Marketing can collaborate with subject matter experts and help build the relationships and momentum needed to deliver meaningful outcomes.

A profession with more to offer

Many marketing departments still have some catching up to do when it comes to sustainability.  However, our profession has far more to offer than simply reducing the impact of marketing activities themselves.  Our expertise – from planning through to collaboration – can help organisations develop sustainability programmes that are commercially focused, strategically aligned and capable of delivering measurable results.

So for that reason, I continue to value my Chartered Marketer status.  Marketing has the skills, influence and reach to make a meaningful contribution to sustainability. It’s not too late for our profession to put itself on the right side of history and use those capabilities to create positive change.