In honor of Marketing Brew’s sustainability month and Planet Earth dying “faster than we thought,” November’s edition of our CTA event series attempted to answer the question: How can brands—especially ones that have a clear impact on the environment—market their sustainability efforts in a way that’ll spur interest, not eye rolls?
Marketing Brew reporter Ryan Barwick sat down with senior manager of ESG strategy for Delta Air Lines, Ashley Sherman, to figure it out. Watch the full event recording here, or read our biggest takeaways below.
On Delta’s current steps
Sherman explained that 98% of Delta’s carbon emissions come from fuel burn…so what’s the company doing to lower its emissions?
Weight reduction: Because more weight on a plane = more of said fuel burned. Sherman told us that Delta has opted to remove complimentary magazines from planes in order to bring down total lbs. The company also has its passengers pre-select their in-flight meals so they don’t bring more pounds of food on the plane than necessary.
Retirement: Last year, Delta also retired around 200 of its least fuel-efficient planes, according to Sherman.
On communicating sustainability efforts
Because one of Delta’s brand values is (obviously) traveling, Sherman said showing consumers how seeing the world can actually make someone more interested in protecting it is important to the company. Additionally, she noted that Delta, which announced its plans to go carbon neutral in February of 2020, put messaging around its sustainability-related commitments on the back burner once the pandemic hit.
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During the early days of the pandemic, Delta centered cleanliness and safety in its messaging, as its data showed customers cared more about getting on the Covid-safest plane than they did about the brand’s sustainability efforts. As lockdowns lifted and that data began to change, Delta began sharing its steps towards carbon-neutrality more and more. Case in point: The sustainability campaign it released in September.
On greenwashing
Less is more: “When you lead with communications, you get into this space of greenwashing and people feeling like, ‘Are you really being sustainable?’ So we really try to lead with action, which means we talk a lot less than what we do,” Sherman said.
Bottom line: The easiest way to avoid being criticized for greenwashing, according to Sherman? Not doing it. “If you get into a space where you’re trying to over communicate to customers every little action you’re taking…[people] would look at that and say, ‘Is that greenwashing?’” she said.