Earth Day Takeaways

This year’s Earth Day has been a weird one. In the run up there was a buzz, an excitement. The day arrived. The social media reality was somewhat more… flat.

But, that in itself is interesting. Read on for 12 key takeaways from Earth Day, that will help us all plan for next year - and other ‘awareness days’ happening this year.

Huge thanks to my colleagues and connections who contributed their ‘blinders and blunders’, including Mel Bruce’s Ecopreneur Community on Facebook.

#1 Big business deafened us with silence

The major brands, with their slick creatives and endless resources; who so often create some brilliant PR coups on days like this… Well, in the main, they chose to steer clear. 

And if they did dip their toe in the water, it was pretty low key. Nothing from the major UK supermarkets (except Tesco); nothing even from Patagonia.

One exception was AllBirds, the sustainable footwear brand, which pulled a blinder. Starting with a line that acknowledges it’s not perfect. Then challenging ‘other’ major brands to raise their game. Then offering a helping hand to make it oh-so-simple to do. Brilliant.

But no tear jerkers or game changers this year.

That’s a pretty interesting turn of events. Over the last couple of years mainstream brands have sometimes looked out of touch, and been caught unawares by a backlash against greenwashing and hypocrisy.

It looks like they’ve taken notice. Perhaps it even means they’re less likely to attempt greenwashing in the future? 

It’s mixed news for small, eco-businesses. We’re less likely to get drowned out or inadvertently get caught up in a big brand twitterstorm next year. There’s likely to be less competition for hashtags. 

But that does bring the risk that the event is more likely to pass unnoticed by mainstream consumers.

#2 Big brands took a different approach to eco-brands

Big brands tried to stay safe. They told us what they’re doing to save the world, or focused on an ‘eco product’. Small, eco-brands generally fell into three themes: education; encouraging activism; and giveaways and discounts. 

#3 Posts that encourage activism do well 

Posts that encourage people to share their own activism do even better.

‘Activism’ posts were reasonably popular among eco-brands. They consistently performed the most strongly - as long as the tone was right.

#4 The education theme

When it’s done well, it gets a fairly positive response. It works best when it’s closely related to your product. It’s useful if you’re all about ‘adding value’ - but also needs to avoid the preachy. Mind-boggling facts go down a storm. 

#5 There’s a fine line between encouraging and preachy. 

Encouragement can go down a storm. Preachy will bomb.

“Be the solution, not the pollution” was out there a few times. Let’s just say it’s readers chose to scroll on by.

Even something as innocent as “Here are 5 small changes you can make today” can seem a bit judgy for someone with eco-guilt. Or a bit behind-the-curve to a customer who’s already doing all that and more. 

Switching that to “Which of these five simple things do you do already?” encourages participation and celebration.

#6 The giveaway/discount theme

Popular among eco brands. Done well - encouraging people to try something new - it can be a fab double whammy of raising your profile and making a difference.

Done badly - when it smacks of a cynical excuse to sell more stuff - and you risk a backlash for promoting over-consumption. 

One of my all-time favourite eco-brands got this one wrong this year - which is a real shame because they’re normally social media masters. The response of their super-loyal audience to a post promoting big discounts and 3-4-2s? 

Ninety per cent fewer ‘likes’ than the most popular post of the month, and 40% fewer ‘likes’ then the worst performing post of the month.

More worrying is that it’s probably left a bad taste in the mouth for some of their most loyal customers. My suspicion is that it’s only because their customers are so loyal that they didn’t get taken to task openly. But they’ll have to be careful next time they go down the promo route.

#7 The ‘What we’re doing approach” theme

Popular among big brands. Not nearly so prevalent among eco brands. Which is ironic because the eco brands are far more likely to have something genuine and interesting to say; and less likely to get the backfire. 

The Pros of this approach:

+ It’s very easy

+Your super fans will love it.

The cons:

-It can be pretty boring if you talk for too long or get the tone wrong.

-Backfire potential is sky high. Either the eco-activists will point out what you’re not doing or the climate-deniers will troll you.  (Tesco’s 152 comments were rarely… complimentary…)

#8 The special product

Hijacking a hashtag to sell a product can be problematic. Using our planet’s resources to create a new product with a one day shelf for a day with a theme of regenerating the earth?

Oops.

“We’ve created a product that you really don’t need; that doesn’t promote eco issues; but will make you feel good and help our profits” was far less evident than in years gone by.

Sad news for the irony-meter of my post. Great news for our planet. 

Pandora has been a terrible culprit in days gone by. They seem to have learnt the lessons from two years ago, with this year’s post much more ‘on message’. But Crabtree and Evelyn were up there, overtaking Pandora for the award of howler of the year.

#9 Avoid the planet in the hand thing

Let’s just say that you won’t stand out. 

#10 Avoid the seedling in the hand thing too.

Bonus nil points if you get them both in one image.

#11 The quote theme

There’s surprisingly few of these this year. I’ve had conversations about whether quotes have passed their sell by date. Surely everyone’s seen the good ones a hundred times?

Well, no. Quotes might seem old skool. But time and again, the evidence speaks for itself. Grab a corker and you’re quote will be shared to eternity as change-makers try to embrace the spirit of the day.

#‘EveryDayIsEarthDay has taken off as a hashtag in the last couple of years. It popped up a lot in comments this year. One to bear in mind for 2022.

#12 The simple appreciation theme

Nature makes us happy; when we see nature’s beauty it makes us want to protect it. Sometimes, words aren’t needed. Sometimes, we don’t need to encourage activism. Sometimes we just need to appreciate what we have all around us. 

This Facebook video, shared times does all of that.

Which brings me to my own favourite post from Earth Day. It was on LinkedIn. It was shared by an eloquent and thoughtful CEO of a solar company, who could have found much to say. But he chose not to.

Just going to leave this here.