Written by Nikki Guevarra

Director & Head of Strategy

Agency Inc Sustainability series:

We ask clean tech leaders – how sustainable are you off-duty?

 

Brands thrive by being consistent. Going beyond visual identity, it’s a deep consistency around values and behaviours that make a brand feel authentic. So naturally, it’s a company’s people that deliver on a brand’s authenticity, embodying these values and behaviours consistently in day-to-day business. At trade fairs, on customer calls, on LinkedIn, even on email footers, manifesting brand values through employees is critical to deep consistency.

But if it’s only whilst ‘on-duty’, is that deep enough? For instance, if a brand’s values are grounded in sustainability, how on-brand should (or must) you be, out of hours?

 

Take this example

As a company, Agency Inc are on a climate positive journey. In partnership with Ecologi we’ve planted 5,500 trees and offset 61.8 tonnes of CO2 emissions, supporting preservation programmes in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, through to wind power projects in Vietnam.

And aligned to our values is our work, marketing brands who are all united in their goals to drive sustainability for future generations.

As individuals however… there are zero plant-based diets. Zero electric car owners. Zero personal carbon offsets. In other words, we’re not so net zero.

 

 Does this make us all eco-hypocrites? Well. Maybe? 

It was important for us to get other perspectives to weigh in on this – to understand how aligned personal and professional environmental values should be – according to popular opinion.

Among those we spoke to was a self-proclaimed ‘clean tech evangelist’ at an industrial intelligence company, and a pragmatic digital leader for a major tech conglomerate.

All behind brands who fiercely advocate for energy efficiency and carbon neutrality. Enabling their customers with technology to drive the collective shift towards a more sustainable world.

But despite this…

‘We are all eco-hypocrites…It’s a systemic problem. Our entire society is built around fossil fuels. We all do what we can given the environment in which we operate’

 

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll dig into 2 key areas – electric cars and smart solar homes – and ask professionals:

 Does selling “Sustainability” mean you have to live and breathe sustainably?

 Stay tuned, the answers might surprise you…

 

Agency Inc
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