- Lauren, welcome.
Despite all of the talk about sustainability
and the environment, are we mainstream yet?
- Unfortunately, no.
I think we're making progress
and there is plenty of growth
of sustainable products and services
and lots of companies making renewed commitments
or bolder commitments
but there's still a lot of work to do.
There's honestly a huge gap
between what consumers say and what they do
because maybe 80% or more that we've measured
of consumers are saying they're interested,
they're concerned about sustainability, but when it comes
to action, when we're forcing them to make trade-offs
it's only maybe 10
or 15% in different categories and markets
we tested who are actually making the sustainable choice.
Because there are trade-offs,
it's not easy to make the sustainable choice now.
- How do you bridge that gap?
Where do we start?
What are the first steps to take?
- Well, honestly, I think we need to flip the script.
We need to start from what actually drives consumer choice,
what are their core needs?
And if we understand those,
then we can connect them to sustainability.
We can understand where we can broaden the dialogue.
Where is there an opportunity to talk
about sustainability as an and, not an or?
So “My alternative protein is tasty and nutritious
and better for the environment”,
or “My electric vehicle is fast
and sporty and it actually has a lower cost
of ownership and a lower footprint.”
And if we can do that, that's one big step.
But beyond that, there are real barriers.
There are convenience, accessibility,
innovation barriers we need to solve
and that's going to take real work.
- So there's lots of challenges there.
How do we overcome them?
- Well, I think that one thing we need to do
is actually integrate the objectives
and integrate into the commercial team.
So many of the clients that I'm working with,
they have bold sustainability ambitions
but they are managed separately
from their commercial objectives.
And there's this constant short-term, long-term trade off.
I think the opportunity actually is to say,
we're trying to solve for all of that.
We are trying to solve
for what is good for consumers and driving consumer demand.
We're trying to solve for what is good for the business
and we are also trying to solve
for what's good for the environment.
But that means we have to have integrated objectives
and we also need to put all those teams together,
the ones that are looking at marketing
and consumer insights and what drives consumer choice.
We need to put the financial team
and the incentives that drive
total shareholder return together,
and the innovation team, R&D,
all of those things have to come together
to say how do we solve this challenge?
- Are there any brands at the moment
that are doing this well
or as well as can be or best practices that we can look at?
- There are certainly some that are doing a good bit.
I honestly think we all have a lot more work to do
but there are some who are much more forward looking.
For example, Reckitt has done a lot to integrate,
for example their Finish brand
to talk about how can you actually
use the dishwashing detergent
that not only saves busy families time
but it also saves water if you can skip the rinse.
They've made the product more effective
and they've marketed it in such a way
that it actually reaches a core consumer need.
Because realistically,
what I want when I wash my dishes
is not to have to do any extra work,
but my dishes to be clean, right?
And for example, electric vehicles.
I think Tesla has been really interesting because you think
about why did the first people adopt an electric vehicle?
Well, they were maybe willing to go well out of their way
but since then, it's because that car is trendy,
because it's fast.
It goes zero to 60 in a few seconds.
It has a big dashboard and it's sporty.
There's a status symbol associated with it,
and that's actually starting
to then take into the mainstream.
Google Maps went from talking
about what is the eco-friendly route,
which some people would choose to take,
to what's the fuel efficient route?
Well now it saves you money, it saves you fuel.
By the way, that is also still the eco-friendly route
but it's talking about it a different way.
There's also personal care categories
being totally reinvented.
So Arcaea is a venture established by Chanel
and others to think
about how do you completely rethink products
in a way that is disruptive,
better for the consumer and better for the environment.
There are a lot of examples like that
but we certainly need a lot more.
- Lauren, thank you so much.
- Thank you.