How to walk the sustainability talk

Sustainability is everywhere. From high-street brands like Zara and Puma, premium ones like Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci and Bottega Veneta, masstige brands like Nestle and Starbucks and home-grown brands like ITC, everyone is singing the sustainability tune.

In an attempt to supposedly outdo the competition and enhance their consumer outreach and brand equity, brands of every shape and size are busy profiling their eco-conscious avatar. Gone are the days when sustainability stood as the unique selling proposition (USP). Today, it has become a "must-do''. Research indicates that brands should toe the sustainability line in order to survive and thrive. Sustainable products and offerings not only attract more buyers but make them spend more. A Nielsen estimate reveals that 30% of consumers are willing to pay a premium on products that deliver on the sustainability quotient, while 73% are willing to change their shopping habits to positively impact the ecology. Another estimate by Unilever shows that 88% of shoppers in India admit towards feeling better when they buy or invest in products that are sustainably sourced and produced.

With the global market for sustainable products roughly estimated to be over €2.5 trillion and consumer trends in favour of sustainable products, the potential for brands appears huge. Even a global conglomerate such as Reliance Industries has jumped onto the sustainability bandwagon through its latest initiative of converting used plastic bottles to clothes and is said to be processing 2 billion used PET bottles already.

Brand experts say the millennial consumers of today seek out nuanced and unique experiences and sustainability is the core of such experiences, "since it allows consumers to be a part of something responsible and eco-conscious.''

Brand expert Harish Bijoor says that brands who "give back to society and the environment are perceived as soft brands, and these soft brands gain an edge in the competitive market as consumers think of them from a holistic and inclusive perspective and love them more.''

"But at a closer look, it is seemingly crowded. Today everyone speaks on sustainability. The competition has thus peaked," feel experts.

It is, therefore, the right time for brands to make sustainability part of their core DNA, instead of doing mere lip-service. "As the key differentiator for brands now lies in the kind of effort and investment that they make towards the ecology by promoting production and consumption of sustainable products. Right from research and investments to growing, sourcing, harvesting, packaging, and selling, the entire supply chain should reflect the sustainability focus," feel experts.

According to Karan Vasani, senior vice president and chief winemaker, Sula Vineyards, right from the seeds to the final sip, the brand takes care to minimise any negative impact on the ecosystem. "In 2018, half of the energy we used was generated through solar power. We also recycle and reuse 100% of water from all our wineries. Our supply chain emissions have also reduced by using lighter bottles and biodegradable materials. At our production facility, we use every part of the grape, right from the seed for making grape-seed oil to using the residue as manure for our farms."

According to Malika Sadani, founder and CEO of The Moms Co, which makes natural and toxin-free products for mothers and babies, even as their products are made without parabens, sulphates and mineral oils, they are also conscious about their packaging. "We look to minimise our use of plastic and we use recycled paper."

Brands like Boheco and B Label are focused around the usage of hemp in their products. "Sustainability is the very essence of hemp as it needs less water, no pesticides, has soil remedial properties and growing hemp reduces water and soil pollution and limits soil erosion," says Yash Kotak, co-founder of Boheco and Boheco Life.

Brands feel that challenges abound in their quest towards becoming holistically sustainable. Sadani says they wrap all their products with a shrink wrap. "While we would love to move away from any additional plastic, a shrink wrap is currently the only way to ensure completely safe products reach the consumer. We are working on an alternative though." The accessibility and affordability of sustainable products is another big challenge for brands, as high final costs and limited availability in stores limits the consumer reach.

"Scalability and the lack of alternatives (such as hemp replacing plastic) is the biggest challenge. There is a wide space that has not been explored with hemp due to the lack of funds for research and development. This often places the price of hemp a notch higher than other sources such as cotton or linen. We have also taken small steps such as using recycled paper to package our clothing and limiting our usage of plastic to 5% while eliminating this 5% is our constant goal. Notwithstanding these setbacks, we strive to keep our prices affordable," says Kotak.