Brands have the power to inspire positive change towards sustainability. They can create trust, desire, and movements by making sustainable choices easy and normal. To truly be sustainable, brands must understand societal needs and customer desires, and use their influence to address long-term challenges and connect their value to a better future. Brands should ask themselves what value they provide, what sustainability issues are most pressing, how they can foster meaningful connections, and how to leverage their greatest assets, to help save the world.

1. A sustainable brand
is a sustainable brand
What Next for Brand?
Saïd Business School, Oxford
5 April 2011
Patrin Watanatada
sustainability.com London | Washington | New York | San Francisco | New Delhi

3. This is about as scary as
today’s Tube journeys get.

4. It was a different story in the 1860s.

5. An early example of
branding for
social change?
5

6. Who is SustainAbility?
A think tank and strategy consultancy
working to inspire transformative business
leadership on the sustainability agenda.
Founded in London, 1987.
London Washington New York San Francisco New Delhi

7. Brands can help
save the world.

8. We are facing
serious challenges.

9. # of planets we live on…
9

10. …# of planets we seem to think we live on.

11. We’re running on ancient sunlight.
11

12. 2050
16,020 babies were 9 billion?
born since this
conference started. 2011
6.9 billion
1987
5.0 billion
1000 A.D.
275 million

13. We’re heading towards 9 billion of us.
We still have just the one planet.
13

14. 2010 2030 2050

15. # of planets we’d need if we all lived like
Europeans.

16. # of planets we’d need if we all lived like
Americans.

17. Our individual
(and collective) decisions
to eat, use, or buy stuff
matter.

18. How many ounces
of crude oil goes
into making a
cheeseburger?

19. Pollan poured
27
shot glasses of crude oil
19

20. China is now the world’s
largest emitter of CO2...
…but around 1/3 of that is from
making goods to sell over here.

21. Over a Unilever product lifecycle
66%
of GHG emissions
50%
of water use
happens during
the consumer use phase
…2 billion times a day

22. What we do
really matters.
But changing
what we do
isn’t easy.

23. Guilty pleasures.

24. Information
overload.

26. The greatest technology
in the world…

27. …won’t matter if
people don’t use it.

28. It’s the nut everyone’s trying to crack...

29. What causes us to change?
Values (not incentives).
What your friends (and enemies) are up to.
Stories (not data).
An easy choice (or no choice at all).

30. We need help.
This is where
brands come in.

32. Brands create trust.
Brands create desire.
Brands create movement(s).

33. Brands have
power – how do
we use that in
ways that matter?

34. Brands create trust –
both before and after.

35. Brands create desire –
and change our ideas
of what’s normal.

36. Brands create
movement
by making things easy
– and
movements
by ‘creating the crowd’.*
*Bruce Macgregor
IDEO

37. Sustainability = modernity*
*Dorothy Mackenzie
Dragon Rouge

38. Traceability = story

39. Societal Customer
needs desires
A truly sustainable brand

40. Societal Customer
needs desires
A truly sustainable brand

41. Brands can help
save the world.

42. A few questions to ask of your brand…

43. What’s the value you’re delivering?

44. What long-term challenges lie ahead?

45. Is there an opportunity to create a connection?

46. What’s your biggest asset?

47. A few questions to ask of your brand
What’s the value you’re delivering?
What long-term challenges lie ahead?
Is there an opportunity to create a connection?
What’s your biggest asset?

48. Thank you
Patrin Watanatada
watanatada@sustainability.com
www.sustainability.com
twitter @SustAbility