Getting purpose right in business: What these Smart50 Sustainability Award judges want to see

As CEO of Snuggle Hunny and Founder of Flora & Fauna and Green + Kind, Julie Mathers has a career’s experience launching and investing in sustainable products and brands. Michel Hogan, a brand counsel, consults with brands on purpose, values and risk.

The two bring years of firsthand experience of sustainability in business – getting it right and communicating it in the right way with your target audience.

This November, they both join The Smart50 Awards again as judges on the Sustainability Award category. How should fast-growing businesses write sustainability into their products, operations and voice? (Hint: it has a lot to do with being honest!)

What’s your advice for brands investing in sustainability?

Julie Mathers, CEO of Snuggle Hunny and founder of Flora & Fauna and Green + Kind

“Be really honest. Start the conversation with your customers and say ‘Look, we know we’re not perfect, and there’s lots we need to do. However, this is the change we are making’. It could be ‘we’ve shifted our packaging to be compostable as opposed to plastic’. Or it could be ‘We’ve decided to carbon offset our deliveries’. It could be something as small as ‘We’ve got rid of the plastic coffee cups in the office’.

“I think the more honest and transparent you can be about your own journey, the more people follow you on it. If you try and wrap it up and almost claim that you’re brilliant at everything? People are very wise to this, certainly now, and they’ll see right through it and call you out for greenwashing. So my experience is to be open, honest and transparent and just be really clear about where you are on your journey. And start communicating early with it, but don’t try and be too marketing about it.

“Just be transparent and honest. I’m not sure I’ve seen any brands that have failed with that approach. But I’ve seen many brands that have failed with the ‘Aren’t we amazing, we’re doing this amazing thing’ but just not recognising actually what they’re not doing.”

What’s your advice for businesses writing sustainability into their messaging?

Michel Hogan, brand counsel

“Fundamentally, saying you’re sustainable is a promise. You’re making a promise to people, to customers, to people who work for you, to people who are investing in you, that you’re doing things in a certain way. And that you care about things like the environment. But not just the environment though, because sustainability is a bigger issue than that. The environment’s enough, but it can extend much more broadly.

“So, ‘What is the promise that you’re making and how are you keeping it?’ Is really the question that I start with, and that’s particularly relevant in sustainability.”

“When I’m working with organisations and when I’m advising them, I always start with, ‘OK, if you say that being sustainable is important to you, what is the risk? If you’re saying that this is what you care about, these are your values, this is your purpose, what is the risk to those people, to those things, if you’re not making promises that you can keep, if you’re making the wrong promises?

“I always start there by asking, what is your capacity to keep this promise that you’re making?”

Julie Mathers and Michel Hogan join The Smart50 Awards 2023 as guest judges on The Sustainability Award category. Think your biz should be celebrated for its growth, innovation and sustainability efforts? Start your entry now.