Sustainability and The Agency Business

As more and more clients are moving sustainability initiatives out of the CSR ghetto and into the main channel of business thinking;
marketing, purchasing, innovation, Russell Davies reminds his agency brethren via his weekly column in British Campaign Magazine on the things agencies might want to worry about as climate change enters the mainstream. “Not out of a philanthropic urge or for the sake of your children’s children; these are things that will affect the short-term future of your business. Walmart’s recent focus on sustainability has done to their suppliers; all around the world businesses that have never worried about climate change before are being forced to do so because Walmart says it’s important. Already, one major UK advertiser is making the sustainability score worth 15% of the ‘marks’ available for a pitch. He believes that the agency business is uniquely positioned to deliver on this one. There’s also an upside in really understanding this stuff; you could be the first business to rigorously interrogate the science and work out how to talk about it in a persuasive, motivating way. Read the entire article here.