Credit Manager Magazine 9/2021

64 CREDIT MANAGER MAGAZINE WRZESIEŃ / SEPTEMBER 2021 fecma The story of (un)credible sustainability communication in 2021 The past few years have not been an easy ones, dominated by COVID-19 as well as political and human rights issues. We still find ourselves in the middle of a global health pandemic, while floods, droughts and forest fires during this summer are making climate change increasingly tangible for the average person. Next to our ongo- ing climate crisis, new health and social issues have also dominated the debate, with an increased focus on the responsibility of governments, companies, and individuals - in times of crisis. Erik Elvingsson Hedén Managing Director & Founder, SB Insight & Sustainable Brand Index The urgency to act Despite (or even because) of the past years, our focus on sustainability has not disap- peared. Data from Sustainable Brand Index™ 2021 shows that the majority of Nordic con- sumers discuss sustainability on a regular basis with friends and family and around 68 - 74% is affected by sustainability when mak- ing a purchasing decision. Especially when choosing an energy supplier and when buy- ing food, beverage, or consumer electronics - the average consumer is highly affected by the environmental and social impact of prod- ucts and brands. The sustainability demands of consumers and businesses might differ de- pending on the industry or type of product, top priorities across the board are: climate action, recycling (circularity) and local pro- duction and working conditions. This year, around 1/3 of Nordic consumers have also expressed an increased interest in sustainability as a direct result of the COV- ID-19 pandemic. This increased interest has often been related to a sense of urgency and a better understanding of what the implica- tions of a future social or environmental crisis could mean in a globalised world. The urgen- cy to act more sustainably is only growing. The declining credibility of green claims The landscape of 2021 is however not always making it easy for consumers to understand what the most sustainable choice is. As con- sumer interest in sustainability is increasing and sustainability is a part of most compa- nies´ agendas, communication around it has skyrocketed over the last years. Sustainability messages are everywhere. This, in turn, has led to both false and, at best, vague claims from brands. Brands are often so occupied by getting into the debate, that there seems to be little time for creating authentic and rele- vant communication. Adding a second chal- lenge that brands are often scared of getting ambushed or questioned around their work, sustainability messages are becoming in- creasingly vague, tiresome and careless. This development also shows in the data from Sustainable Brand Index™ 2021. Around 30% of Nordic consumers think that sustainability communication from companies is not cred- ible and around 20% is explicitly negative to- wards it. A worrying trend. Greenwashing is not a new concept but has definitely led to new debates over the last “Data from Sustainable Brand Index™ 2021 shows that the majority of Nordic consumers discuss sustainability on a regular basis with friends and family and around 68 - 74% is affected by sustainability when making a purchasing decision.” year. We see it in growing complaints at the advertising ‘ombudsman’ and we see it in growing national and international legisla- tion around making green claims. Let’s take the European Commission’s most recent ‘sweep’ of websites as an example. This ‘sweep’ exercise is carried out each year to identify breaches of EU consumer law in online markets. For the first time ever, this sweep was aimed at greenwashing - examin- ing (false) green claims made by companies. Hundreds of websites were scanned by the European Commission on their green claims. The results are alarming: - 50% of cases did not provide sufficient in- formation to judge the accuracy of the claims, - 37% of claims included vague statements such as; ”conscious”, ”eco-friendly” and ”sus- tainable”, - 42% of claims was believed to be false or deceptive.