Circular Thinking
We’ve known for a while that the maths is bad; that endless economic growth divided by finite physical resources doesn’t add up. But judging by the pace of change towards sustainability, you could argue that we didn’t really get it. Then coronavirus came along. In four months of lockdown, we learned some truths about our own consumerism. We didn’t buy so much, and that was okay. When we did shop, it was mainly for groceries ordered online. At 25,000th in the queue, we felt an urge to be more self-sufficient. Vegetable seeds all but sold out in the UK. We gazed through windows at birds going about their business with what seemed very much like increased joy, and realised how our activity can stifle nature. And as we refreshed our newsfeeds, we feared for the health of loved ones, and our anxiety connected with the understanding that coronavirus has its origins in humanity’s encroachment into wilderness. We felt nature bite back, and it hurt. Our individual understanding about our species’ dysfunctional relationship with nature went from theoretical to felt, moving from our heads, all the way down to our guts.
Meanwhile, nose-diving consumer spending may have been great for air quality, but it was disastrous for the economy. Major high-street retailers collapsed. Airlines folded. Small businesses closed their doors forever, and thousands of jobs were lost. It begs the question, is our duty to the economy at complete odds with our duty to the environment?
Just a few days before lockdown began, we were lucky enough to meet up with an inspirational man whose answer to that question is a resounding ‘it doesn’t have to be’. Former president of the World Wide Fund for Nature, the environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev is an advocate and scholar of what he believes is the emerging commercial paradigm — the circular economy. His message is that manufacturers cannot endlessly take resources and pollute the environment with waste, because the result is environmental disaster. And when the environment collapses, the economy will follow. In a circular economy, products are designed and manufactured with their disposal in mind right from the start, reducing waste or making waste that benefits the environment instead of poisoning it. Essentially, Pavan is asking brands to consider their legacy from the word ‘go’.
His long-term thinking about the economy’s relationship with the environment is a major challenge to the boom-bust, short-termism of conventional economics. And he got us thinking about what positive purpose and long-lasting legacy looks like for brands operating in the ‘new normal’.
We believe that consumers’ reaction to coronavirus will accelerate an already-growing demand for sustainable products made by brands with strong values. Brands with a higher sense of purpose have experienced a brand valuation increase of 175% over the past 12 years, compared to a median growth rate of 86%*. Strong evidence that consumers seek out brands that help them express their values, and that they support business with well-articulated, positive legacies.
Our experience backs this finding, but from the other side of the sales desk — from businesses themselves. When working with brands, one of our first questions is “what sort of legacy do you want to leave?” With growing frequency, we find that sustainability — once just a CSR tick-box — is front-and-centre of our clients’ answers. This is even true of quite unexpected businesses, including mortgage companies, car manufacturers and cement producers.
We predict that terms like ‘circular economy’ will gain greater circulation and currency as our general understanding about sustainability increases, thanks to the work of campaigners, advocates and educators like Pavan. But it’s not only the scholarly value of his work that convinces: he is a charismatic communicator. When we met that day in March, he told with great humour the terrifying tale of a nine-billion-tonne hamster — which you can read about here. Coronavirus continues to be a global human tragedy, and an economic disaster. But they may be prompting us to reflect on our relationship with the rest of nature, and accelerating our shift towards long-term thinking. You could say that in 2020, ambitions for a circular economy came of age, so let’s make like the birds and sing — oh yes, our hand-washing song — Happy Birthday.
*Source: Kantar Consulting Purpose 2020 report, “Inspiring Purpose-Led Growth”.
