9 minute read
INDUSTRY THOUGHTS
Products of Change’s Ambassador for Partnerships, Tracey Richardson on why purpose-driven partnerships take time.
Partnerships with purpose, that’s what we like to call them. Bringing together the world’s leading brands, charities, and licensors to deliver measurable funds, impact, and social good. The licensing industry is a growing pool of such collaboration, and with a 30-year history in the sector, Louis Kennedy proudly sits at the centre of a good many. Good things happen when a brand finds a purposeful partnership. Look at the pairing of the B Corp certified Ella’s Kitchen with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Smurfs and the United Nations, Popeye and the Sea Cleaners, or a little closer to home with our own, particular, West Country manufacturer and its work with Children in Need.
Partnerships with Purpose can be measured in the development of innovative, sustainable products and campaigns which help all parties succeed. But slowing down and taking time to nurture such things is integral.
We started working with our manufacturer ten years ago. Brief after brief, they have delivered – expanding their recycled and recyclable materials as we grew a portfolio around them. It’s given us the scope to collaborate with them on a new concept we’ve developed for our long-time charity partner, BBC Children in Need.
BBC Children in Need has raised over £1bn since its annual fundraiser began in 1980. Louis Kennedy’s contribution is evidenced by both the long-standing partnerships and development of innovative Pudsey Bear campaigns.
This year, we’ve created Sportacular Collectables made from recycled fridge and car parts. We developed the concept, managed the design, procurement, and partnership and also wrote and produced a fun video demonstrating how they are made, narrated by Matt Lucas.
The support of our partner manufacturer was integral to the campaign. ‘Success breeds success’ the hypothesis claims. Well, it can certainly be applied here: a partnership with purpose delivered by a partnership with purpose.
“POSITIVE CHANGE IS IN THE BLE DNA”
Anna Knight, svp licensing, Global Licensing Group
Brand Licensing Europe 2022 dedicated Day Three to sustainability, diversity, and purpose. We wanted to showcase diverse voices and talent and work alongside industry partners to drive positive change within the industry. So that’s exactly what we did.
From the opening Peppa Pig sustainability-focused case study with Hasbro, to the Culture & Unity Catwalk in partnership with Black Lives Matter, our sustainability catwalk curated by the POC team with the amazing Junk Kouture fashion collection (pictured) and the presentation from Caroline Petit about the UN’s 17 SDGs; it was a BLE like no other. But focusing on purpose wasn’t a tick box for us. We said it last year when we partnered with Products of Change to build the Sustainability Activation, and we’ll say it again. This isn’t a one off. This is our DNA and you can expect to see it every year. We believe in what we are trying to do. I couldn’t be prouder.
If there’s one thing the Products of Change community does best, it’s think; because creative thinking is the food for innovation and the key driver for a better industry of tomorrow. We round up the thoughts and insight from the Products of Change Ambassador network and beyond.
Tina Salt, founder of MAI Clothing
Sustainability is the only option for businesses starting out today. I say that having spent 14 years in the fast fashion industry and wanting to do something that did less damage to the environment.
Built on sustainable and regenerative principles, MAI Clothing (which stands for Making Animals Important) donates 5% of all profits to aid conservations efforts around the world.
Our business is GOTS certified and operates a strategy developed in partnership with the Soil Association. We choose to only work with sustainable fabrics. On top of that, all packaging is plastic-free and products are transported using only land methods.
For me, starting a sustainable clothing brand was the only way. Starting a new business today, the only option should be to be sustainable, if you want your business to succeed. People will only want to work for sustainable businesses in the future.
I believe that sustainable businesses will create more jobs and people will only want to work for sustainable companies in the future. The more ‘green jobs’ there are out there, the better choices for employees, which will ultimately be better for the planet and for people.
As we look to scale the Mai Clothing business our plans centre very much on introducing more circular principles to the business model. In the future, we want to launch a buy-back programme, and we do currently have our products available with a leasing company. We’re going to sell our samples online when a product range comes to an end and 100% of the proceeds from these sales will be going to our conservation charity.
COLLABORATION, CONNECTION, COMMUNITY AND CANADA
Products of Changes Ambassador for North America and Canada, Brenda Seto gives us a run down on the latest from Canada. And buddy, they’re going big!
Canada stood proudly among the 194 countries to sign up to the Paris Agreement with the United Nations in 2015, putting us firmly on our sustainability journey with those 2030 targets in sight. It cheers me to say, there have been plenty of developments since.
These have emerged from all key corners of the sustainability story; from government, organisations, manufacturers, and retailers. We’re turning off the plastic tap and banning the manufacture – and importing – of single use plastics by the end of 2022.
This is big. This means that by December 2023, the sale of single use checkout bags, plastic cutlery, food service plastic utensils and hard-torecycle plastic will be prohibited. The ban will be extended to the export of these listed plastics by the end of 2025.
That’s right, Canada means business.
Organisations like Canada Plastic Pact have created a roadmap to that 2025 target. It will take collaboration between companies, organisations, and governments across the plastics value chain. Notable members of that Pact include Walmart, Unilever, Club Coffee, Danone, Mondelez, Canadian Tire, Terracycle, PAC Global, the David Suzuki Foundation, and more. It was last month that Canada attended the United Nations General Assembly and where President Justin Trudeau participated with global partners on macro topics as health, food security, and climate action. He shared Canada’s leadership position on climate action, including biodiversity ahead of COP15 Biodiversity Convention in December in Montreal and declared that our country will join Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership to decrease the loss of forests and increase reforestation. And where our leaders lead, our businesses innovate. It’s good to know that Canadian companies of all sizes and industries are blazing their own trails to positively impact planet earth; Club Coffee, Provision Anthesis, Too Good Too Go, Greenre, and so many more among them. I am honoured and humbled to be an Ambassador for Products of Change, and an Ambassador for North America and Canada, as well as all the POC Ambassador network, to do our part to support our community in our local markets. We work together and learn from each other, to create a better future. Together we will thrive.
A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY WHERE LESS REALLY IS MORE
Keith Loiselle, founder, Greenre
We were accepted in the United Nations Global Compact in April 2022 and approved to participate in the May cohort of the UN Ambition Accelerator programme. We became a member of Products of Change not long after that. The thing is product life cycle has been a linear model for a long time. Product is developed, made, consumed and then thrown out. Landfills are piling up with plastics that take 500-1,000 years to decompose. Scientists are finding microplastics in our bloodstreams.
The Circular Economy has become something companies serious about reducing garbage must incorporate from the onset.
Visiting municipal recycling plants and learning what small percentage of products and packaging are recycled is mind-blowing. Mixed materials are not easy to separate and need to be clean, otherwise they are rejected, while anything labelled ‘soft plastic’ is not recycled.
It became very apparent, very quickly, that “less is more”. Greenre’s focus became sharp. We began to prioritise singular material compounds, non-virgin, recycled materials, bio-fibres, natural materials, recyclables, new age plastics, plant-based inks, and econ-designed alternatives that minimise environmental pressures.
Partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation, we also decided to plant Long Leaf Pine Trees, as a standard of business, on our own products being sold, in a reforestation global programme.
All Greenre learned and applied was aligned with the 10 principles of the United Nations and their 17 SDGs. These methodologies are being refined and applied at every step on our path to B Corp. It’s a journey of discovery and growth. As a social enterprise, it’s these fine points that will aid in our search of real value to the consumer and planet.
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY “IS THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY FOR THE LICENSING INDUSTRY”
James George, Products of Change’s Ambassador for the Circular Economy offers up his take on the future of licensing, consumer products, and selling experience rather than stuff
The circular economy is one of the greatest opportunities for the licensing market, but we must start designing for one that goes beyond first life. We are making better products from recycled, repurposed, or remanufactured sources. Which is great. These are the right kernels of ideas. But we’ve not got to the stage where we recapture that material and put it back in the system.
And that is the licensing market’s biggest opportunity. But it takes a big shift in mentality, from selling stuff, to selling a service, or joy, or fun, or even engagement.
Let’s take toys for example. You are one of the biggest toy manufacturers in the world. There are 100bn of your building blocks in the world, and you expect to see another 100bn out there in several years’ time. The first question is, how many building blocks are enough? The second question is, if you know those blocks are not being thrown away, how do you adopt a circular model?
The most economical thing you can do is not make any more building blocks. But you’ve got a workforce that has supported you since conception. You have a natural tension to solve.
Conversations toy companies like this ought to start having is rather than selling more building blocks, how do we sell play? How do we sell the ability for imagination? You can assume every house in the country has your building blocks, so why not sell designs, or use data to know how many blocks you have in each house, and sell designs based on the sets these households have bought before?
From here, you start to create networks of communities around exchange and swapping, and suddenly, you’ve opened a network of opportunity designed around ‘play’ rather than more blocks.
For me, the biggest opportunity for the licensing industry is getting into that headspace that ‘just because we’ve done this for years, why should we keep doing the same?’
We’re running out of time to change our perspectives. Can the licensing industry get out ahead and be leaders?
