One of the important next steps for business leadership to take on climate change, especially in the wake of COP26, is to think through how to engage their customers on climate. Climate action costs money, so pioneers risk being disadvantaged — unless they can learn how to create value from their climate leadership. Unlocking this value is not just a commercial business opportunity; it is a vital enabler of climate action at scale.

For companies serving corporate customers, the routes to commercial value are relatively clear. Corporate customers are pursuing their own climate transition efforts, creating opportunities to help them through differentiated products that decarbonize their supply chain — through joint problem-solving efforts that deepen the customer relationship or through playing new roles as value migrates along the chain.

Companies serving consumers have found the challenge much harder. The opportunity looks attractive: Research consistently shows that as individuals, we care a lot about climate change, and we say that we are happy to pay more for sustainable options. Yet many companies have stories of climate-friendly products and services they have launched that have had next to no take-up. And consumers remain mostly unaware, and unengaged, with the climate efforts companies are making.

This is not a failure of individuals; this is a failure of companies to figure out how climate leadership translates into value.

The challenge companies face is in getting consumers to recognize, connect with and value their efforts. We offer three tactics that we see achieving this in our work.

  1. Tactic 1: Make sustainability core to your brand
  2. Tactic 2: Make it about me, not you
  3. Tactic 3: Focus on now, not the future

Read the full article about focusing on climate action by Simon Glynn and Alex Paine at GreenBiz.