Sustainable Content Marketing: How To Keep Your Content Green in 4 Simple Steps

As consumers become more conscious of the impact their purchases have on the planet, businesses must recognize the importance of incorporating eco-friendly practices into their operations. This is where sustainable content marketing comes in.

Sustainable content marketing is when a brand creates and shares ‘green’ content that boasts its authentic responsibility to sustain the environment and solve issues such as waste, climate change, pollution, and deforestation. 
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Creating marketing content that promotes your brand’s environmental values can help you earn the attention and trust of consumers with the same values and increase a consumer’s interest in purchasing from your brand.

For a brand to show they are sustainable, they need to get more thoughtful about what stories to tell with their content, what formats to use, and what messages those stories should communicate to their potential customers. 
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Here are some examples of sustainable brands:

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• eBay pioneered re-commerce, or circular commerce, by selling second-hand products. They now partner with several organizations to advocate for climate action and sustainable business practices.
• Patagonia runs several environmental campaigns, including Protect Our Ocean, Save Wild Rivers, Protect Wild Places, and Community Energy. The latter aims to bring the benefits of clean energy to thousands of homes.
• Clean Living International creates eco-friendly and refillable household products to help reduce plastic waste.
• Who Gives A Crap uses fast-growing bamboo or recycled paper for their toilet roll to reduce paper waste.
• Bamboo Clothing aims to achieve a zero carbon footprint by 2030, along with zero waste to landfill, zero pollution, and zero wasted water. 
• Aromatherapy Associates uses 100% renewable energy in its headquarters in London, England.
• Dame launched the first reusable tampon applicator, which has saved more than 2.5 million single-use tampon applicators from being thrown away.

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Here are four simple ways to show consumers that your brand is sustainable and build authenticity with green content: 

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Make and Encourage Charitable Donations 

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Corporate profits in the US increased to $2.60 trillion in the second quarter of 2023. So, it’s understandable for consumers to assume that businesses care more about profit than people - but you must prove them wrong.

Use your brand to contribute to the greater good by making donations and getting involved with charitable campaigns, and make sure that your content tells your followers where your profits are going. 

For example, Turtle Bags have written in their Instagram bio: “10% of profits to Marine Conservation Society”. This attracts consumers who want their money to go towards the charity’s work on cleaning and protecting oceans. 
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Here are some more examples of brands that donate to charity: 

• Eco-conscious candle brand Selfmade donates 5% of profits to Black Minds Matter, a charity connecting the Black community to free mental health services. 
• Patagonia donates 1% of annual sales to grassroots environmental groups working to solve environmental crises.
• The world’s first zero-waste beauty brand, Ethique, donates 20% of its profits to environmental causes.
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You can also create content encouraging your followers to get involved with charities that align with their values. This increases positive sentiment, helps your brand stand out from competitors, raises awareness of a good cause, and raises brand awareness.
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Avoid Greenwashing 

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If you are new to creating sustainable content marketing, you must do your keyword research to avoid greenwashing your potential customers by blinding them with green or eco-friendly language. 

Some greenwashing brands will use a lot of buzzwords such as “recycled,” “natural,” or “pure”, but unfortunately aren’t as eco-friendly as they seem. Some consumers will consider it a red flag if a brand uses this generic language, so be careful what your content includes.

Make sure you conduct research into sustainability to use the appropriate language for your products or invest in content marketing services to ensure you aren’t greenwashing your potential customers.
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Be Transparent

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To build trust, you need to use marketing content to publicly show your consumers the steps you are taking to achieve your sustainability mission. You can do this by:

• Publishing your sustainability records and regularly giving updates on the actions you are taking to achieve your sustainability goals.
• Blogging about your carbon footprint goals for the future and what you have achieved so far. For example, low-cost airline JetBlue has a publicized set of carbon commitments.
• Sharing updated information about the sustainable materials you are using for packaging.
• Promoting reusable products. In the US, landfills are filled with more than 11.3 million tons of textile waste yearly.
• Promoting campaigns and charities that align with your values.
• Sharing personal, behind-the-scenes footage of how you’re working towards your goals.
• Encouraging customers and followers to live a greener life and support the cause.
• Creating clear brand guidelines that align with your mission.
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Be Consistent 

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It’s not enough to run just one campaign dedicated to sustainability and then carry on with your usual content. Your content should be used to renew your commitment to sustainability frequently and remind your customers and followers of who you are and what you stand for.

People want to know they can trust your brand and sustainability efforts, so you must continuously work towards your mission and update consumers along the way.

Also, if your brand has recently turned green, it’s not too late to trim parts of your existing content and give yourself a new, utterly sustainable identity.

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Author Bio

Neve Wilkinson

I'm a content writer at Solvid Digital with a passion for writing about marketing and technology. I'm proud to have work published on The Sun, Yorkshire Evening Post, HackerNoon, and Future of Commerce. Feel free to check out my Gravatar and Twitter!