A huddle of C-suite executives is clutching coffee cups and thrashing out the imminent steps they need to take to boost the company’s sustainability efforts. The enterprise is mid-sized with a modest technology budget, but the eager executives want to achieve more and make a bigger impact.
Underneath the low lights, someone has a bright idea. We may be small, they exclaim, slapping their palms on the walnut table, but our network isn’t. Every organization shares the same sustainability enabler, but many fail to recognize it: their customer base.
Carbon-cutting initiatives often focus on the sustainable transformation of an organization, be that an offsetting program, green technology drive, or alternative energy supplier. However, empowering customers to support environmental efforts, yours and their own, can enable your organization to make a more significant impact.
One way to achieve this symbiosis is through embedded climate action. It’s an approach to customer-centric sustainability that incorporates actionable steps to combat the effects of climate change into the customer journey. And the benefits of the technology are far-reaching.
What Are the Benefits of Embedded Climate Action?
First and foremost, embedded climate action enables customers to take direct steps to measure and reduce the carbon emissions that come when they engage with your brand. These facilities are embedded into your customer-facing applications.
As well as supporting your company’s sustainability efforts, the interaction enables customers to take action, too. Consequently, you can boost your sustainability credentials through a transparent, simple mechanism that displays your commitment to climate action, a valuable asset in a business landscape where climate consciousness is a prerequisite for many consumers.
While promoting your sustainability commitments, embedded climate action also enhances the customer relationship, creating a new dynamic of joint participation and co-creation. Finally, embedded experiences are a simple way to take actionable steps toward a more sustainable future in an increasingly complex and often expensive carbon-cutting industry.
What Solutions Are Available?
Patch: Patch enables companies to select from a comprehensive list of global climate initiatives, partnering with those most aligned with the organization’s values. Companies can then program various insights into user applications that demonstrate the environmental impacts of their customer journey with the brand.
An integrated widget enables customers to purchase fractional carbon credits that they can donate to the causes supported by the organization through Patch. Company-wide contributions to climate action are accessible through a single interface, and the results are sharable.
Pledge: The Pledge solution is split into two distinct bands — logistics service providers and brands. For logistics, emissions calculations accredited by the Smart Freight Centre are incorporated into each shipment quote via a shipping dashboard. Customers can then choose to offset these emissions through various offsetting Pledge partner projects.
For brands, Pledge can embed accurate emission data into customer applications across multiple sectors in the e-commerce space and beyond. Organizations can offset further emissions via the Pledge marketplace.
Lune: Lune excels in simplifying sustainability efforts by providing low-code/no-code climate action embedded solutions for digital assets. There are options to add offset links to customer correspondence and widgets for point of service (PoS).
Beyond this, the platform enables API (application programming interface) integration for in-app carbon removal. Lune’s services are optimized for three core use cases: payments, logistics, and retail.
Interestingly, Lune focuses on diversification when it comes to supporting projects. As well as supporting carbon reduction initiatives, Lune also partners with projects focused on biodiversity, endangered species protection, and social improvement.
Wrap Up
Embedded climate action ticks a lot of boxes and is a simple way to start your sustainability journey. However, it can’t be the only initiative in your toolkit.
While incorporating your customers into your sustainability strategy has many benefits, if this is your sole effort, you may well come across some criticisms. Instead, look at independent offsetting and other CO2 reduction options, some of which are available through the platforms covered in this article.
While your customer base is a powerful force for good, you still need to be seen as contributing your fair share and taking the lead.
For timely insights from Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans and a roster of leading CXOs on the hows and whys of sustainability’s impact on business processes and profits, please join us for the Acceleration Economy Sustainability Impact Digital Summit on January 26, 2023. Register today for your free streaming pass here.
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