Welcome to Episode 75

https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep75

It’s becoming increasingly vital to PROVE your sustainability claims.

Yes, part of that is to do with increasing levels of regulation around what you can and can’t say. But when it comes to growing your brand, the part that often gets overlooked is providing proof, in trustworthy, credible and consistent ways, to your potential consumers.

We’ve had a couple of technology based solutions on the show in the past, including Austin Simms from Dayrize back in episode 11, and Akhil Sivanandan from Greenstory in episode 27. Both are great solutions, but to date mostly focused on supporting the fashion and textiles supply chain due to the huge life cycle data sets available.

But I recently came across another incredible platform that I wanted to share with you on today’s show. Instead of generating transparency for fashion brands, this one is focused on supporting the credibility of thousands of brands in the personal care, cosmetics and home cleaning spaces.

So my guest today is Jessi Baker, MBE, founder of Provenance, a UK-based technology platform bringing blockchain level transparency to sustainability marketing.

For so many reasons I think this might be one of the most important episodes we’ve ever done on this show. My gut feel is that 2023 marks an epoch change in sustainability marketing, from the wild west where you can say anything you want, to a more professional era underpinned by regulation and much more enlightened, cynical and educated consumerism.

Proving what you’re doing with certifications is just one thing. You need to be able to surface that up in a consistent, compliant, recognisable and trustworthy way across all your channels and all your geographies. That becomes an ever more daunting prospect as you grow, and one where tools like Provenance offer the next generation in marketing support.

Welcome to Episode 74

https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep74

If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you’ll likely have picked up that as a keen diver, the ocean plastics problem was one of my key motivators in setting up Sustainable Ecommerce.

So, there’s a special place in my heart for entrepreneurs working to solve that problem by using or averting ocean plastics.

When my friend Peter Donnelly from the Sustainability Champions podcast let me know about today’s guest, I knew immediately he was someone I wanted to chat to.

Ben Ridding is the founder of Cornish brand ULU Ocean Explorer. The brand helps people connect with and explore the ocean with their range of dry bags, but it’s their journey to using ocean-bound plastic to make their products that really piqued my interest. As we dive into the conversation, it becomes clear just how powerful and congruent their brand story is, and as more and more brands talk about using recycled plastic, how important it is to weave in an authentic story of impact to really resonate with consumers.

Welcome to Episode 73

https://sustainable-ecom.com/ep73

Back in the first show of the year, I proposed the brand collaborations were going to be one of the most important marketing strategies for 2023, so I though it was well and truly time we explored what that actually means, and how to do it effectively.

Over the years I’ve had many conversations with brand owners about doing brand collaborations. Some, like Maxim Gellman we heard from in last week’s show, viewed them as pivotal to their success, but most have expressed at best a mediocre result, often describing them as a complete waste of time.

So to explore this topic and give you the critical understanding and insights you need to turn your collaborations from Meh to Marvellous, I asked the wonderful Jess Rhufus, founder of Collabosaurus to join us today. If you’re not familiar with it already, Collabosaurus is one of the world’s leading collaborations platforms, kind of like match-making for brands.

With experience from seeing just about every type of collaboration across the 10,000+ brands on her platform, as well as seeing how the strategy has evolved over the past decade, Jess brings some refreshing clarity to this topic.

Get ready to take notes as you listen to today’s show, because the actionable tips come thick and fast!