How Can Your B2B Loyalty Program Help Drive Sustainable Business Practices?

A little less conversation and a little more action, please.  

By Ko de Ruyter, Debbie Keeling and David Cox

It will not surprise you that we have no record of Elvis Presley's views on sustainable business practices. But his 1968 song could have been written as the soundtrack for the global business community’s current progress on transforming our world. 

Since 2015, yes that is six years ago, when the leaders of 193 nations adopted an ambitious set of 17 global sustainability goals to combat poverty, inequality and climate change at the United Nations General Assembly, there has been a lot of talk, with action lagging behind. Who would have thought The King of Rock and Roll’s lyrics would have been so closely aligned with the concept of responsible business? 

Earth Day 2021 – a reminder that it’s time for strategic action on climate change

As another World Earth Day has come around again (on 22nd April 2021) and we are still very much in the middle of a global health and economic crisis, it has become clear that environmental stewardship is no longer a ‘should do' but a ‘got to do' imperative. That we urgently need a little more action. 

At the C-suite level, the concrete risks associated with climate change need to be addressed through strategic action. Whole industries are downgrading long-term profit projects, citing climate change and human rights in supply chains as major factors. 

So, there is a lot to win, and your B2B loyalty program could (or should) be driving the action. 

Loyalty programs are all about motivating people to change their behaviour 

So how can your B2B channel partner program drive action to help address climate change and sustainable business practices? The aim of any loyalty program is fundamentally to motivate people to change their behaviour – usually to encourage them to buy or sell more of your products. So why not use your loyalty program to motivate your channel partners to become more sustainable as well?

Across the B2B programs that Motivforce designs and manages, we are seeing many positive examples emerge that incentivise environmental stewardship. Our clients are educating program members on end-of-life cycle initiatives, the importance of product-emission rates, transparency of production, the use of environmentally-friendly packaging and low carbon transportation. 

Give your channel partners a sustainability nudge

At the same time, new reward structures are being designed to incentivise the attainment of KPI’s related to sustainable development goals. B2B loyalty program members are educated on formulating green value propositions and handling concerns and objections from their customers in steps to the sale. Before they sign on the dotted line, customers often need a convincing nudge that selling sustainable products and services can be perfectly aligned with the profitability mantra. Do your program members know how to make the case for your portfolio? Are you motivating them to take greener, eco-friendly offerings into account in their sales strategy? And, why are some program members considerably more successful than others?

Longer term shared motivation to go green

More is needed than just simple nudges. We know that nudges are short-lived and that their impact is often unpredictable. Also, you need to go beyond the lip service that has been and still is frequently as well as eloquently expressed in annual reports and mission statements. 

Ultimately, what is needed is a more stable and enduring company climate (pun by all means intended), which reflects ‘how things are done in a sustainable way around here’. It is fundamentally about motivation. A corporate sustainability climate signifies a baseline, a shared motivation between all company members to take environmental stewardship seriously in every decision that is made, in every action that is taken. Such a climate will enhance the effectiveness of motivating and rewarding behaviour. 

Meaningful metrics to measure sustainability

At Motivforce R&D we have developed a cost-effective method of measuring the sustain-ability of your B2B loyalty program members. Based on a number of real-life scenarios, it asks channel partners to make a trade-off between environmental benefits and operational and sales costs (varying from standby time data servers to emission rates). By analysing these choices and taking into account preference strength, visibility and consistency we are able to show how these drive a company’s sustainability climate and, ultimately sales and margins. 

Based on channel partners’ choice behaviour, we are able to identify meaningful segments in terms of sustainability and this will help you to move forward with a little more action and have a little bit more to talk about during next year’s World Earth Day.