Sustainable Branding Practices

You cheer for women one day and ignore them tomorrow. Two weeks ago, my LinkedIn was flooded with brands paying anything to book women creators for Women’s Day. It happens every year. The grand celebrations, the inspiring quotes, the LinkedIn love. But what happens on March 9th? As a woman entrepreneur, I don’t just deal with challenges once a year, I fight them every damn day and every woman entrepreneur will relate to it. The funding battles, the societal expectations, the constant need to prove myself. And yet, once the hashtags stop trending, nobody talks about it. Here’s what people conveniently forget: → Investors hesitate when they see a woman at the helm. Less than 2% of VC funding goes to women-led businesses. The bias is real. We’re told to “think big,” but when we do? We’re “too ambitious.” → Women are expected to run businesses like they don’t have families and manage homes like they don’t have businesses. The pressure is relentless and the guilt is huge. → Speak up, and we’re “aggressive.” Play it safe, and we’re “not leadership material.” We’re stuck in a game where the rules were never made for us. Women don’t need a holiday. We need funding, hiring, investments, opportunities and recognition EVERY DAY. Not just when it’s trending. So if you really want to support women in business, put your money where your mouth is. Invest in them. Hire them. Fund them. Amplify their voices. And don’t just remember us when it’s convenient. #womenentrepreneurship #womencreators

As International Women’s Day nears, we’ll see the usual corporate gestures—empowerment panels, social media campaigns, and carefully curated success stories. But let’s be honest: these feel-good initiatives rarely change what actually holds women back at work on the daily basis. Instead, I suggest focusing on something concrete, something I’ve seen have the biggest impact in my work with teams: the unspoken dynamics that shape psychological safety. 🚨Because psychological safety is not the same for everyone. Psychological safety is often defined as a shared belief that one can take risks without fear of negative consequences. But let’s unpack that—who actually feels safe enough to take those risks? 🔹 Speaking up costs more for women Confidence isn’t the issue—consequences are. Women learn early that being too direct can backfire. Assertiveness can be read as aggression, while careful phrasing can make them seem uncertain. Over time, this calculation becomes second nature: Is this worth the risk? 🔹 Mistakes are stickier When men fail, it’s seen as part of leadership growth. When women fail, it often reinforces lingering doubts about their competence. This means that women aren’t more risk-averse by nature—they’re just more aware of the cost. 🔹 Inclusion isn’t just about presence Being at the table doesn’t mean having an equal voice. Women often find themselves in a credibility loop—having to repeatedly prove their expertise before their ideas carry weight. Meanwhile, those who fit the traditional leadership mold are often trusted by default. 🔹 Emotional labor is the silent career detour Women in teams do an extraordinary amount of behind-the-scenes work—mediating conflicts, softening feedback, ensuring inclusion. The problem? This work isn’t visible in performance reviews or leadership selection criteria. It’s expected, but not rewarded. What companies can do beyond IWD symbolism: ✅ Stop measuring "confidence"—start measuring credibility gaps If some team members always need to “prove it” while others are trusted instantly, you have a credibility gap, not a confidence issue. Fix how ideas get heard, not how women present them. ✅ Make failure a learning moment for everyone Audit how mistakes are handled in your team. Are men encouraged to take bold moves while women are advised to be more careful? Change the narrative around risk. ✅ Track & reward emotional labor If women are consistently mentoring, resolving conflicts, or ensuring inclusion, this isn’t just “being helpful”—it’s leadership. Make it visible, valued, and part of promotion criteria. 💥 This IWD, let’s skip the celebration and start the correction. If your company is serious about making psychological safety equal for everyone, let’s do the real work. 📅 I’m now booking IWD sessions focused on improving team dynamics and creating workplaces where women don’t just survive, but thrive. Book your spot and let’s turn good intentions into lasting impact.

There’ll be no shortage of cupcakes, hashtags and ‘inspiring women’ panels over the next few days. But if you really want to know how well your organisation is supporting women, don’t look at the party. Look at the leadership team. Look at your returner stats. Look at your company's gender pay gap report (companies over 250 headcount are legally required to report and post - link in comments). Look at how many women are quietly disappearing from your business long before they hit senior leadership. If companies want to celebrate IWD, the real work is in fixing the structures that push women out in the first place. That means (for starters): Proper, guilt-free flexibility for everyone (not just mothers). Genuine pay transparency. Clear pathways back in after career breaks. Leaders who actually role model the balance they say they support. So by all means, celebrate the brilliant women in your business - but if you’re not tackling the structural issues, it’s just window dressing and gender washing. Are you with me Hannah Porteous-Butler? Jacquie Duckworth, Sian Hawkins I'm sure you'll have a view here too! #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2025 #TalentRetention #FlexibleWorking #FutureOfWork

Sustainability communication is shifting toward authenticity and impact 🌍 Getty Images’ latest VisualGPS: Sustainability at the Crossroads report highlights a critical shift in how sustainability should be visually communicated. Drawing on extensive global research conducted between 2022 and 2025, the report reveals that consumers increasingly expect brands to convey sustainability narratives with realism, transparency, and inclusivity. With visual storytelling playing a central role in shaping perceptions, the report outlines evolving preferences and expectations that should inform visual strategies across industries. A key finding is that while climate change remains a top global concern, “sustainability” as a concept is not equally prioritized. Consumers respond most strongly to issues with direct and visible consequences, such as extreme weather events. As a result, visuals that depict the tangible effects of climate change perform significantly better than abstract or symbolic representations. Getty Images data shows that audiences are disengaging from imagery such as polar bears or melting ice caps in favor of more grounded depictions of real people taking meaningful action. This shift comes amid widespread skepticism. Nearly 90% of consumers believe businesses should use their resources to improve society and the environment, yet two-thirds doubt their commitment to sustainability. Greenwashing concerns are high, with 76% perceiving “green” labels as marketing tactics. In this context, visuals must do more than signal good intent, they must substantiate it with clarity and evidence. Getty Images emphasizes the need for visuals that reflect authentic, results-oriented efforts rather than idealized scenarios. The report also identifies regional differences in visual expectations. European audiences demand unfiltered depictions of environmental impact and policy response, while Latin American consumers prefer visuals grounded in reality, with a focus on collaboration and protection. As sustainability becomes a core expectation, consumers are looking beyond isolated campaigns. They want to see sustainability embedded across all facets of a company’s operations, from product design and supply chains to packaging and employee practices. Getty Images refers to this as “quiet sustainability,” where actions speak louder than declarations, and visuals must reflect this integration to build credibility and trust. The visual landscape is moving away from abstract symbolism toward real-world representation. Consumers want visuals that are inclusive, honest, and grounded in action. For brands, this presents an opportunity to align visual content with the expectations of a more informed, cautious, and values-driven audience, delivering authenticity as both a creative and strategic imperative. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #storytelling

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻. 𝗕𝗘 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.  Every year, I will be approached by several companies to deliver keynotes or facilitate workshops for IWD events. While I value these opportunities, it’s clear that organizations need to rethink their approach to International Women’s Day initiatives.  Here’s what I’ve observed:  👉🏼 𝗜𝗪𝗗 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀.   👉🏼 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮 𝘂𝗻𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 - without any reduction in their regular workload.   👉🏼 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 “𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿” 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.  The message this sends?  "We don’t value the contributions of our female workforce enough to allocate a budget to celebrate them. Their time, and the time of external speakers, isn’t worth compensating."  If your organization truly values equity, here’s what you should do instead:  ✔️ Don't use words like "empower", "celebrate", use "hire", "promote", "fund", or "invest in" - from the brilliant Cindy Gallop ✔️ Share specific strategies to close the #GenderGap in your company.   ✔️ Make real commitments, backed by action, that demonstrate how your organization plans to uplift women and achieve equity.  Without action, these celebrations are not only ineffective - they’re counterproductive.  𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.  What’s the one thing your company is doing this year to truly #AccelerateAction"? If you are looking for an unconventional approach to accelerate your IWD event this year, dm me!

Until you embed sustainability into every single aspect of your marketing, you are going to constantly be at risk of greenwashing, purposewashing or socialwashing, depending on your stance! And the reason being - you need to practice what you preach and that means marketing itself needs to align with its company's wider sustainability stance. But first you must understand how your marketing is working for or against sustainability and that means a deep dive into 11 core areas: 1. Target audience - who are your customers? Do you have people in your marketing team that reflect your audience? Do you make additional considerations around whether your audience actually 'need' your product or service? What kind of data do you collect on them? 2. Product/Service - does society or the environment improve the more product or service you sell? Where do your products end up at end of life? What do you do with the products you cannot sell? 3. Price - How do you set your price? Are there variations in price depending on who you are targeting? 4. Place - Where do you sell your products / services? Can you list all the websites that your digital advertising strategy currently funds? If you sponsor events, what criteria do you have in place when sponsoring them? 5. Promotion - Does your product/service rely heavily on impulse buying? Does your marketing depict a sustainable lifestyle? What advertising approaches do you use to persuade your customers to buy from you? 6. Growth strategy - How often do you encourage customers to repurchase? Do you have sales on your products / services and if so, why? 7. Governance - Do you have policies and processes in place to prevent certain things from happening? Do you have a full breakdown of where your advertising spend is being spent? 8. Suppliers - Which agencies do you use? Are they on the Clean Creatives F-list? What criteria do you consider when choosing a supplier? 9. Team - Is there a gender pay gap? Does your team accurately represent your audiences and the society within which you operate? Is there a fair representation of DE&I throughout the senior marketing structure? 10. Performance - What are your metrics for success? What factors do you consider when trying to improve your success rates? 11. Operations - How many events do you attend in person? Do you travel abroad to get footage for your marketing? How much marketing material goes to landfill each year in terms of event stands, brochures, merchandise etc? To do a proper deep dive, we list all the questions for each section in our book! Only once you have this analysis done, can you start to understand how and where you need to change how you operate in order to ensure that you are embedding sustainability into every single aspect of your marketing and thus reducing the risk of diving into the greenwashing etc camp! #marketing #advertising #sustainablemarketing

Walk down any store aisle today, and you’re surrounded by a sea of green claims. 'Eco-friendly', 'natural', 'plant-based' – the labels are everywhere. While the intention to choose better is growing, this wave of buzzwords has created genuine confusion, making it harder than ever to know what’s real and what’s just good marketing. This is the haze of greenwashing: the practice of making misleading or unsubstantiated claims about a product's environmental benefits. It’s more than just clever marketing; it’s a significant problem. It erodes consumer trust, puts truly sustainable businesses at a disadvantage, and ultimately slows down real, measurable progress for our planet. So, how do we look beyond the label? It starts with asking tougher questions. ➡️ Look at the whole picture, not just the marketing campaign. A company might run a high-profile recycling campaign, but what is its core business's total environmental footprint? ➡️ Scrutinize the full ingredient list, not just the claims on the front. A product might claim to be "surfactant-free" while containing derivatives like SLES, which are, in fact, surfactants. Transparency is key. ➡️ Question the fundamental alignment. We see oil-producing nations hosting climate conferences. As with businesses, we must ask: do their core activities align with their green statements? At Beco, we believe the responsibility falls on businesses to lead with radical transparency. It's our job to not only use genuinely sustainable materials and formulations but also to be honest and clear about what goes into our products and why. Building trust is as important as building a great product. The age of easy green claims is ending. True sustainability is rooted in transparency and demonstrable impact. As consumers, investors, and industry players, the critical questions we ask and the choices we make based on real evidence are what will finally separate the genuine from the greenwash.

"Women don’t need a ‘Happy Women’s Day’ text. They need real opportunities." International Women’s Day just passed. And as always, LinkedIn was flooded with appreciation posts, #BreakTheBias speeches, and corporate campaigns. But here’s the real question: What happens the next day? Because the truth is—one day of celebration doesn’t change the fact that women still struggle for equal pay, funding, and financial independence. Here’s what most people don’t realize: 👉 Women reinvest 90% of their income back into their families and communities. 👉 Closing the gender gap in labor markets could boost global GDP by $28 trillion. 👉 Companies with more women in leadership outperform those without them. Yet, we still hesitate to hire women after career breaks. We still underfund women-led businesses. We still pay them less for the same work. If we’re serious about ‘empowering’ women, we need to go beyond hashtags and celebrations. ✅ Fund women-led businesses. ✅ Pay them what they deserve. ✅ Give them decision-making roles. ✅ Normalize financial independence for women. Because when women win, the economy wins. Society wins. Everyone wins. So, what are YOU doing beyond Women’s Day to make that happen? #WomenInBusiness #FinancialFreedom #WomenEntrepreneurs #EqualPay #WomenEmpowerment #GenderEquality #InvestInWomen

Every March, social media fills up with posts celebrating women, shoutouts, graphics, and campaigns tying brands to International Women’s Day. But beyond the optics, real change means something deeper: backing women, not just showcasing them. The social media industry is fuelled by young female talent. From content creators to strategists, community managers to brand storytellers, it’s women shaping the voice of businesses online. Yet, despite driving engagement, revenue, and innovation, many remain underpaid, undervalued, and overworked. Real support looks like: ✨ Paying women what they’re worth (exposure doesn’t cover rent). ✨ Hiring them in leadership roles, not just behind-the-scenes execution. ✨ Respecting the emotional labour that comes with managing online communities. ✨Creating work environments that support flexibility, because burnout shouldn’t be the price of success. So this month, before posting another #IWD tribute, ask yourself: How is my business actively supporting the women who drive its online success? Let’s move beyond lip service and make real change happen. #TheSocialMediaCoach

How do you talk about sustainability and climate issues in your company? If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to make sustainability resonate with your team, you’re not alone. At Microsoft, for example, they’ve found that speaking the right "language" makes all the difference. Being a tech company, their conversations around sustainability are deeply rooted in a quantitative, data-driven approach after all, they’re engineers at heart. They use the same principles that drive their technology to frame sustainability risks and opportunities. But what if your company isn’t full of engineers? Every organization speaks its internal language, whether that’s the analytical mindset of finance, the creativity of marketing, or the operations-driven approach of manufacturing. Tailoring sustainability messaging to align with these unique perspectives can bridge the gap, making it easier for employees to see how it connects to what they do every day. One thing is clear across all industries though: the language of science is essential. Whether you're talking to your marketing team, engineers, or executives, scientific facts are the backbone of any meaningful conversation about sustainability. Data on carbon footprints, climate risks, and environmental impacts provide a foundation everyone can work with. According to the IPCC, we need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 to stay on track with climate goals numbers. Take Unilever, for example. They made sustainability a part of their company culture by translating climate goals into everyday actions for each department. Their marketing team talks about sustainable sourcing, while their R&D team focuses on lowering the carbon footprint of products. By embedding sustainability into every part of the business, Unilever is empowering all employees to contribute, leading to a 32% reduction in their environmental impact. Sustainability isn’t a one-size-fits-all conversation. But when you frame it in terms that make sense to your team, it becomes part of how your business thinks and operates every day. So, how will you start the conversation within your organization?