10 Simple Ways to Make Your eCommerce Brand More Sustainable (episode 379)

28th March by April Buencamino-dy

Chloe’s been busy researching how to make an eCommerce business more sustainable, including reducing carbon usage and offsetting. During her research, she’s found a LOT of ways you can very easily take the first step on the path to net zero. AND found a lot of tools that will also improve your marketing AND help your customers make better buying decisions. So…. she’s pulled the best 10 of them together in this episode for you. Listen to find 10 easy ways to quickly make your business more sustainable. We’ve got tips, process changes, and several Shopify Apps! (which also work with other platforms!!).

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#1 Sign Up To Ecologi (04:31:00)

Ecologi is an offsetting marketplace that will help you compensate your carbon footprint, fund climate projects, and set eco goals.

For eCommerce businesses that want to try out Ecologi, you can test it with a plant-a-tree campaign for the following:

Every order placed
Every email sign up
Every SMS sign up

Visit Ecologi’s website

#2 Reduce Company Travel (09:11:00)

At eCommerce MasterPlan, Chloë has:

Banned flying
Added offsetting costs for face-to-face meetings
Avoided travel
Encouraged commuting whenever possible

Create a policy for this in your business, and get your team’s suggestions as well.

#3 Get The EcoCart Plugin (11:00:00)

Give your customers a sustainable shopping experience by using the EcoCart plugin.

What EcoCart does is calculate the carbon footprint of purchase upon checkout. Customers who want to make their orders carbon neutral only need to pay a little extra, which EcoCart will put into projects such as forestation and clean water.

The best part is that EcoCart is free, allowing both big and small brands to participate in this sustainability effort.

Visit EcoCart’s website

#4 Use what3words (14:01:00)

Failed deliveries are not only wasteful, they can also decrease customer satisfaction. What what3words has done is divide the world into 3-meter squares, and gave each square a unique combination of three words, making it easy to find exact locations.

With what3words integrated at checkout, customers can pinpoint where they are, thereby increasing the success of first deliveries.

Visit what3words’s website

#5 Take A Pledge (15:55:00)

Chloë gives us three ideas for pledges:

Fashion Declares, which aims to raise awareness of the climate, ecological and social breakdown
Million Tree Pledge by Ecologi – a 2-part commitment that plans to:
- Plant over 1 million trees by a specific date
- Find at least 2 other pledgers to do the same for exponential growth
The “Sustainable Marketer Manifesto”, which aims to educate marketers more about sustainability to affect real change

#6 Join A Community (18:39:00)

Joining a community will help accelerate your learning about sustainability.

Here are three communities Chloë is a part of:

#7 Use sustainable packaging with Packhelp (22:45:00)

Packhelp is a leader in packaging supplies for eCommerce businesses. Not only do they have amazing custom packaging services, but they’re also sustainable, ethical, and renewable.

What’s even better is that Packhelp offers affordable sustainability, so even small to medium enterprises can become sustainable without compromise.

Check out Packhelp’s website

#8 Assess your impact with Dayrize (28:44:00)

Find out the sustainability impact of your products with Dayrize.

Dayrize uses five criteria to measure the sustainability of a product:

Climate impact
Biodiversity impact
Circularity
Livelihoods and wellbeing
Purpose

When you get your product’s score, you’ll be able to add it to your website and your marketing, and help your customers make better buying decisions.

Check out Dayrize’s website

#9 Join GoodCarts (30:38:00)

GoodCarts is a free eCommerce app that has an active community of retailers “recycling” post-purchase traffic and sharing resources and opportunities.

After installing GoodCarts, you can select the network you want to join, which will allow you to put your business in front of customers who purchase from retailers within your circle.

GoodCarts is made up of brands that are sustainable, who are committed to ethical and impact-driven initiatives.

Visit GoodCarts

#10 Think about what happens to your product after it’s bought (36:28:00)

As a retailer, you need to think about how to extend the life of your products after they’re purchased.

Specifically in fashion, a couple of startups can help you with this endeavor:

Shwap, which is now being rebranded as Owni: a second hand marketplace that is the world’s first circular marketplace
Nuw: a fashion exchange app that aims to get brands involved in the equation

If you like this episode, then take a listen to Chloe’s net zero journey podcast – Beyond Net Zero Journey – where she’s sharing our own journey to net zero – beyondnetzerojourney.com.

Related Episodes

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