Humor And Inspiration Help Consumers Adopt Sustainability More Easily

Marketers of environment-friendly products are discovering that in encouraging consumers to adopt sustainability, humor and inspiration are more effective tools than lecturing about the ill effects of human disregard for the environment. UK retailer M&S launched its “shwopping” initiative, a combination of shopping and swapping, that gives customers store vouchers for donating clothes to the charity group Oxfam. The project is part of the retailer’s participation in Business in the Community’s Start Campaign, which encourages UK’s leading brands to promote sustainable lifestyles by highlighting simple and doable steps. For its part, supermarket chain Asda put up a farm for primary school pupils near its headquarters in Burnley, allowing children to plant, grow, and harvest their own vegetables.