Virgin and Sustainability - A Step in the Right Direction

There is praise all around for Richard Branson. The billionare has recently pledged to spend $3 billion US over the next ten years on sustainability. Not only is this a step in the right direction, this is an intelligent business decision. Sustainable products and services are not going to be the wave of the future because of their 'feel good' nature, which is how marketers have been trying to persuade us for the last ten years. When it comes to purchase intention, the bottom line is usually the bottom line. They tried to make sustainability fashionable and people like Marc Stoiber at Change Advertising in Vancouver are doing a great job at making sustainability sexy, just look at what they've done for Shared Vision (above). However, for the average Wal-Mart frequenting shopper, bottom line is king.

But even Wal-Mart is listening. Hate them all you may, but they have recently announced that they are reducing all packaging by 5% and are introducing an organic line. This is only part lip service. The other part is reality. Packaging is a tangible quality, as are aisles of affordable organics.

It goes back to individual, of course, but the onus is what the market, and their dollars, are willing to buy. The system isn't going to suddenly throw up its hands and say, okay, let's not be a capitalist entity anymore. Consumers and advocates need to create a market, with money to spend, and things will change.

Along comes Richard Branson. He has seen the market. And he will profit greatly from it. This isn't a sucker move, or even a generous one. It's a brilliant strategy. Again.

Pulling at heartstrings has garnered attention for the movement. But there was a while there where it also summoned disdain. In fact there was a rash of anti-environmentalist products, movies, campaigns and media following some of the annoying attention-getting that happened in the mid to late 90s. But now the pendulum has swung again, and now the movement is speaking from the pocket.

It's simply cheaper to keep your home airtight. It saves gas to put less baggage in the car, fill your tires and get your exhaust fixed. Admittedly, the madcat is still growling around the streets, but it's part of her character, which brings me to my next point. Why don't people buy things that will last forever anymore? If they did, there would be a greater demand for clothing designers and automobile manufacturers to provide us with durable products that will last for years.

Thrift shops and garage sales and auction houses keep things in circulation indefinitely anyhow. The biggest problem these days is the dump. That is going to be the big issue of the next twenty years. Forget about greenhouse gasses or global warming. Once the garbage starts coming into our lives and the rats and vermin along with it, there will be problems. There is only so much space out there, and garbage and landfills are taking up heaps of it.

Richard Branson, as smart as he is, should be figuring out a way to take every cent made from his transportation profits (as he pledged to do) and putting it towards profitable waste-water treatment systems. Whole countries could benefit, starving nations could have water and governments, concert goers, and of course corporations willing to have their name embrazened across the entrance gates to be forever used in their advertising and public relations, would all benefit.