Forrester: Sustainability presents new opportunities for marketers

The sustainability movement is likely to reshape the entire global economy, fundamentally changing how products are made, transported, stored and financed, according to Forrester. Along the way, companies face an “unprecedented business opportunity,” per the researcher.

Like the first and second industrial revolutions, the changes that come out of the sustainability movement will take time to manifest and businesses may have to reinvent themselves several times as priorities change and new technologies emerge. Now is the time to lay the marketing groundwork for this opportunity, according to Forrester. Though 76% of CMOs said green initiatives are among their top five priorities for 2022, according to the researcher’s Q2 B2C Marketing CMO Pulse Survey, many aren’t sure where to start.

“Companies will have opportunities to develop new products and services directly in each of the green market categories, facilitate or enable a new green market, or build off the innovation,” according to the report. “Products that target environmental sustainability use cases such as clean energy, smart appliances and alternative proteins get the most attention, but there will be opportunities for every company, and a new competitor or disruptor is just around the corner.”

Graduating to sustainability

If Benjamin Braddock, the protagonist in “The Graduate,” were entering the professional world today, he would not be pulled aside at a party to be told the future is “plastics,” as he is in the classic film. Instead, he would likely hear the opposite, that the great future of business today is green.

That’s because, due to a number of factors — including government spending, tighter regulations, and venture capital interest in building greener companies — a new set of priorities are emerging.