Green marketing is priceless for business success

Hajrija Dergić, Doctoral Researcher in Marketing, blogs about SMEs who are successfully practicing green marketing.

The practice of green marketing by SMEs has provided significant benefit to those practicing. In particular, integrity and authenticity with green marketing activities is so important to bring credibility to actions, and confidence from consumers. As an academic and practitioner, I’ve seen green marketing done so well by smaller organisations, adding priceless value to their businesses. 

With 99.9% of SMEs making up the UK economy, the small business landscape is limited with tools and techniques for businesses to understand and practice green marketing successfully. Instead, we see large organisations flouting their green activities, rather than seeing the influence and efforts of how small businesses are practicing green marketing, and what we can learn from their own strategies. 

Green marketing has the potential to win customers and make an impact when done well. Here we take a look at three small businesses each from different sectors that have successfully propelled their brands and gained a loyal following by using green marketing techniques. 

EcoWulf based in Wolverhampton is a small zero waste retailer doing big things, with its core focus on reducing plastics, the business has gone from strength to strength, drumming up support through its eco warriors scheme, which recognises environmental champions doing good. The business has developed its social media presence to connect with its audience, talking about global matters and making them local and relevant to their audience by involving their consumers and sharing the amount of plastic waste they have saved. EcoWulf advocates small but impactful changes to its consumers to aid their plastic free shopping habits, aiding them to think and act more sustainably in the process. The business itself works with local suppliers, considering the distance of products travelled, with neighbours also coming together to place their order in local areas, rather than travelling individually to shop. 

Genius Hub is another example of an active small business making a difference, the Birmingham-based business specialises in smart home heating systems and works to control energy usage in homes and buildings. The business directly works with installers and homeowners providing training, videos and news coverage of their environmental activities. They boast a detailed environmental policy focusing on their responsibilities, in which they transport goods using their hybrid vehicles, engage in recycling and focus on waste minimisation, with employees encouraged to use sustainable methods of travel and engage with eco activities on site operations, whilst also purchasing eco-friendly products where possible. Their activities are honestly shared through their blogs, employee meetings, videos and training events. 

Lowfield Timber Frames is a small timber business aware of its big responsibilities to the environment, located on the Shropshire border in Shrewsbury it is well known in the construction sphere for their environmentally friendly build approach, whilst being PEFC certified. The carbon neutral material produces the lowest CO2 emissions of all building materials, and minimal waste. It holds both a Environmental Policy & Purchasing Policy which is ingrained into their day to day operations. The business benefits from LED lighting, and a small biomass boiler run on timber waste, which provides all the heating for the hot water and space heating to the factories, offices and even the pub next door. Even the employees are committed, with the uptake of the cycle to work scheme bringing benefits to their health & wellbeing, as well as the environment.  

Small businesses are leading the way and consumers are recognising their efforts by actively seeking out such businesses which are concerned about the environment and doing it for the right reasons. 

If you would like to share your own experiences as an SME, or would like to know more about green marketing please contact Hajrija at H.Dergic2@wlv.ac.uk