Preserve the environment, reduce social inequalities… so be it! These are very noble objectives, but what is their place in a company ? 

Are you a leader and you hesitate to devote the time and money? 

Are you an employee and looking for arguments to give to your managers?

In this series of articles, we pragmatically expose the benefits for your organization apart from the positive environmental and societal impact generated !

Benefit 1: Differentiate yourself from your competitors or open up to a new market

Differentiate from its competitors, find new customers or retain existing ones, these are perpetual quests for all companies. The key word is the customer . 

The objective is to understand what he is buying, what he has bought and especially what he plans to buy again to be sure to find his products / services at home.

However, your customer is not just about buying behavior for goods or services. He is a citizen who carries values. According to a study carried out by Ethnicity in May 2016, 75% of people say that "sustainable development is a necessity  ". 

On the B2C side

When you speak in B2C, you have surely heard about responsible consumption. What is it about ? 

For 50.5% of French people, consuming responsibly is above all consuming differently: consuming less but better replaces the logic of less expensive at all costs.

But what exactly are these new consumers waiting for?

Well we are going to make a little differentiation in this group between alternative and reasoned consumers.

Even if the delimitation is not straightforward, the former are in a strong break with conventional production and distribution methods. Particularly committed, they rely heavily on collective organizations and buy from cooperative distribution channels, in short circuits from small brands directly. 

The latter favor a renewed approach to consumption, mindful of social, environmental or local development considerations, but without a major break with their usual lifestyles. They are looking for products and services carrying credible and relevant signals such as labels (AB, Max Havelaar, BCorp, etc.) 

In both cases, they have a better understanding of the issues associated with the production of products and their environmental and social impacts. It is important to learn the codes of this new transparent communication and without greenwashing, we will do an article soon on the subject.

As you can see, the demand is already there and continues to grow. For example, organic products are the precursors of this movement, they have been growing steadily since 2015 when they jumped by + 15% in one year.

In 2016, 65% of consumers already said they were ready to pay more for a product with a positive impact on the environment or society. 

On the B2B side

Are you addressing companies and organizations? And yet, these are the people you have in front of you. Some of them are themselves committed and are part of these alternative or reasoned consumers, they will be sensitive to an eco-responsibility approach led by their supplier. Even if it does not particularly concern the product / service purchased - which is the case for intellectual services - the care taken in an internal CSR approach applied to all your support functions will be equally appreciated.

As for your customers who themselves sell to the general public, they are driven by the market, you can transfer our article to them!

So what are you waiting for?