As with all things sustainable the answer is often complex and multi-layered. This question is no exception.
Just like many consumers I’ve sifted through all the general data and detailed product specifications to try to work out how sustainable a brand, or a individual item actually is.
How much damage am I doing to the environment? How recycled and recyclable actually is this product? How much carbon is produced in its production, its transport and even its recycling process?
Clearly there are some businesses and products that truly save on carbon emissions and harmful practices in every sense. But even these products incur some footprint through their very existence, even if as a whole they do more good than bad.
It seems the only way to categorically have a decisive positive impact is to buy less things. Specifically new things. If everyone buys one new item a year when they would usually buy 2, then all the negative impacts are reduced by 50%.
This 50% is unequivocal. And 50% absolutely worth having.
The only certain way then, to reduce our damage through consumption is to buy less, and of course by inference, produce and sell less.
The less we buy the better. The less we sell the better.
But how can this give hope of survival to any retail business, even totally committed sustainable ones? If the goal has to be selling less, selling considerably less, where is the demand for our businesses?
The answer of course is about market share. It is about the total market share of consumer goods that are bought from ‘sustainable retailers & brands’, and it is about the market share gained by individual ‘sustainable businesses.’
And of course we are not talking about people stopping buying. We are not talking about a non-industry. Populations are rising globally so there is a genuine demand. But the demand from consumers who ‘already have too much’ must fall.
Various regulations are already creating a shift to more ‘sustainable products’ and consumer awareness and sentiment is catching up with the size of the problem.
Particularly, the second-hand markets are growing quite dramatically, with agencies such as ThredUp predicting that the average wardrobe will soon be made up of more second-hand clothes than fast fashion.
As sustainable brands we must trust the market trends and believe in a bigger market share to play for.
And we must trust in our own sustainable credentials, practices and processes to ensure we are always a credible and attractive part of this growing market.
And finally we will need to learn to be competitive in our own market. There are already many amazing ‘sustainable’ brands. Many amazing competitors. Yes, we are fighting for a growing market share. But a share of a small total market. The smaller the better!
To be commercially successful, to survive and carry on our sustainable work, we must have the mind-set to compete and beat other equally sustainable brands. Isn’t this simply the reality of any free market?
Maybe that will be the biggest challenge for responsible brands. To develop an over-riding competitive mentality. A winner takes all attitude.
I suspect that the types of responsible businesses that will survive and flourish in this new marketplace, will view growth in a more collaborative and community based way. Where growth for survival and stability is enough growth? Where sustainable market growth is as important as individual business growth.
Where the ‘winner takes all’ ethos is replaced by the ‘there is enough for everyone sustainable’ mentality.
Of course, the first challenge is to increase the overall market share of ‘responsible & sustainable brands.’ The good news is that this will very much be driven by the responsible commercial growth of individual sustainable businesses.