Eco ethics
Fiona Lund, MD of Brouha Marketing, PR and marketing specialist for the built environment, examines how all businesses, especially those that supply products to improve and maintain buildings, must make the ‘green agenda’ a priority.
The term Eco Ethics is one I’ve borrowed from a customer, Giovanni Laporta from Smart Ready as I couldn’t think of a better way to describe what I want to write about: climate change and our response to it as a sector.
The recent sober tones of a study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes clear that there is very little chance of keeping the world from warming by more than 1.5C.
Overshooting is risky, because it might trigger lines in the sand that we cannot ever cross back over, like the melting of permafrost and release of vast amounts of warming gases. It also means that it’s even more urgent to get to net zero ASAP. How we get there is the subject of so much debate that it can sometimes feel like ‘green-washing.’
Communication shifts in a big way
However, one thing that can be agreed on is that more and more legislation will be implemented in the UK in the near future.
We will definitely see the impact of that on the new build, home improvement and social housing sectors, especially when combined with the Heat and Building strategy and recently released billion-pound Social Housing Decarbonisation Wave 2 Funding.
These changes will impact the ways in which door and window businesses operate, what skillsets / workforce are needed, what materials you can and can’t use, quality management systems etc. And like any seismic societal shift, these changes will also impact on our brands, communications and how we market ourselves.
A commercial advantage
At the onset of WERs, when I was representing Edgetech almost 15 years ago, I was working alongside the BFRC and Andy Jones on an industry piece that explained that environmental considerations were not just the domain of ‘new age thinkers’ but offered real commercial points of difference.
Things have changed again since then because climate change is no longer a future-possibility – it is a very real and very present situation. It’s not about marketing USPs or making hay while the sun shines. The sun is shining but it’s shining too hot and our current ‘something’ isn’t offering anyone enough shade.
We all know how competitive the market is and customers are looking for what’s beyond product and price; ethics are a massive part of doing business in 2023, encompassing innovation, customer service and sustainability.
In fact, the latest research shows that 81% of consumers prefer to buy from sustainable sellers, and 87% of consumers want brands to act now about implementing sustainability into their operations.
This is such a huge opportunity for us as an industry as long as we are not afraid to ask the difficult questions.
Eco-credentials are a must
It doesn’t matter where you’re selling doors and windows into new build, social, trade or retail, eco-credentials are not a bonus selling point; they are an absolute requirement.
If your target audience is retail, look at the stats. UK homes use around 35% of all the energy on the grid and emit around 20% of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.
Furthermore, over 80% of those existing homes will still be standing and be occupied in 2050. In summary, 28 million existing homes must be made greener which equates to one home being retrofitted every 35 seconds between 2022 and 2050.
If you’re selling into social housing and you don’t have a sustainability policy, CSV schedule, apprentices, or offset carbon footprint KPIs, you will not be welcomed.
New build, always one of the first to move with tighter legislative demands, is about to see the NHBC move to remove the night vent position on a window to use trickle vents only, driven by a balance it claims between security and green air quality.
Smoke and mirrors and relying on delaying tactics won’t work anymore – patience and the appetite for that nonsense is running out. At the point of writing, the country is reaching boiling point with storms and flooding with warnings that 40degree summers will be become the norm. No one can claim they are ignorant of the consequences if we continue the way we are.
These are the type of conversations we had in our Green Building series of our ‘BrouHappy’ podcasts, following our first, successful social housing series. Throughout the series, we had the pleasure of sharing conversations with Rosie Toogood, CEO of Legal & General Modular Housing, Russell Smith, MD and Founder of Parity Projects and RetrofitWorks, Richard Braid, MD of Cistermiser Keraflo, and Karl Wallace, MD of Thermatic Homes.
Check out the latest episodes at https://brouhamarketing.com/brouhacademy or email hello@brouhamarketing.com