Jacquie Ottman's
Green Marketing Blog
Doing Well by Doing Good for Your Employees
March 30, 2010 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Employees are more than worker bees when it comes to green marketing. They are potential advocates in the community, and engaging spokespeople for the brand. By investing their time, they become stakeholders more than mere employees. Ideally, their beliefs, thoughts and ideas should be aligned with a greater sense of brand values. Timberland and Starbucks are two companies that share an understanding of what it takes to green one’s the workforce, align employees with brand values, and turn employees into advocates.
Timberland
Timberland provides an excellent example of how fostering a positive internal environment for sustainability has the potential to foster community and a sense of shared worth. This is valuable for brand awareness, reputation and loyalty. CEO Jeffrey Swartz’s mantra that “doing well and doing good and inextricably linked” flows through every part of the brand, and that especially includes the work environment and internal culture.
In addition to buildings and production facilities that set standards for sustainability, Timberland institutes “good” community-building measures for its workers. These include a fresh produce market and an incentive-based program to reduce carbon usage. Also, employees are encouraged with paid time off to partake in community service events.
Starbucks
Starbucks also understands the value of good employee engagement. They believe, in addition to good benefits and work conditions, employees should be educated on key partnerships and practices. One example integral to the brand is C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmer Equity) Practices. This set of guidelines, along with Fairtrade and the Small Farmer Sustainability Initiative (SFSI), inspires a positive culture within and around Starbucks. This belief system leads to happier employees and consumers, as well as a greater sense of brand value.
By translating the virtues of the Shared Planet initiative internally - that “what’s good for coffee is good for the world” - Starbucks is positioning itself as the green option compared to such competition as Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonalds. Starbucks understands that in order to maintain brand strength and reputation, continued employee engagement and key sustainability partnerships are vital. This is part of the reason why Starbucks has been so successful at turning sustainability initiatives into returns on investment.
This post was excerpted from Jacquie Ottman’s new book on green marketing, due out in Fall 2010. Sign up here to be notified when the book is available.
Jonathan Rabunski contributed to this post.
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