From large retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target, to big-name brands in the fashion industry, sustainability has become a hot topic.
As consumers are more and more concerned about environmental issues, brands, and retailers recognize the benefits of a sustainable business model and are implementing sustainable practices.
In addition to purely environmental practices, sustainability programs are often also addressing social issues since environmental and social issues are closely connected.
It’s clear that the majority of consumers prefer sustainable brands and therefore, it is critical for brands to communicate effectively about their sustainability initiatives.
How to communicate your sustainability initiatives
With growing consumer awareness of environmental and social issues, proper communication is an essential part of your sustainability strategy.
Publishing sustainability reports with broad claims and general statements full of buzzwords doesn’t impress consumers anymore.
You need to reach your consumers, show them clearly what you stand for, and what are doing on the ground.
Your consumers want transparency in a format that they can easily understand.
Sustainability maps are a powerful medium to convey an authentic message that consumers believe in.
Best Practices for sustainability maps
Maps are a clear and visual way to share important information quickly and effectively.
Product lines
We recommend organizing your sustainability map by lines of products so consumers can easily drill down on the products that are the most relevant to them. For example accessories, apparel, footwear etc.
Information to include
It’s not always easy to provide detailed information about your manufacturers, but, this level of transparency is what gives real credibility to your sustainability message.
For each manufacturer or distributor, we recommend including information such as
- Company name
- Location and address
- Product lines and names
- Demographic statistics about the workers such as minimum age and male-to-female ratio
In addition, including some photos can go a long way to reinforce the authenticity of your message.
Updating the information
Brands, especially large ones, have frequent changes in their manufacturing base. It is essential to keep the information on your sustainability map as up-to-date as possible. Make sure you include your latest update date on your map.
You might not have all your manufacturer information available, so let your customers know how much of your manufacturing sites are being covered.
Example of sustainability map
David Jones, a leader in ethical sourcing is proudly committed to making their name products ethically and responsibly. They collected data from over 100 factories in more than 18 countries, across 14 different categories of products. With this data, they created a sustainability map as a transparency tool to communicate about their Good Business Journey sustainability initiatives.
David Jones’s Sustainability Map reassures customers that DJ’s is a mindful, responsible retailer who cares about people and the planet. In their own words, “David Jones is committed to becoming a leader in ethical sourcing by driving positive social and environmental change through our supply chain.”
David Jones uses Mapme to show exactly how and where they are doing this important work.
How to use Mapme to create your sustainability map?
The Mapme platform makes it easy to create sustainability maps. No coding or technical skills are needed.
You can customize the maps to match the look and feel of your brands with your colors, fonts, and logo.
You can create categories for your product lines, and assign the manufacturing plants to those product lines.
For each location, you can include a text description, photos, PDFs, and even videos.
You can continuously update the information on the map by adding, removing or editing locations. This allows your customers to check in regularly and see your ongoing commitments to your sustainability journey.
The map can easily be embedded on your website as well as shared on your social media.