If you haven’t heard, PPAI is less than one year into a five-year strategic plan. That plan has both a strategic foundation and three strategic pillars, all of which guide the way the Association serves its members. Another intentional decision in this plan was to designate “Sustainability” as Priority Lane 1, so that it could weave into the foundation and touch each one of those pillars.
That’s all to say, it is a crucial part of PPAI’s mission and future. That’s why the Association and the PPAI Board of Directors commissioned an in-depth study analyzing sustainability in the branded merch industry with consultancy firm WAP.
Making “Sustainability” Priority Lane 1 also meant defining it in general terms for PPAI members, a definition that was written by Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS, PPAI’s director of sustainability and responsibility, and eventually validated by an industry expert peer review. This introspective process ultimately led to categorizing the issues of sustainability that affect or will affect branded merch companies most prevalently.
Those categories became the five pillars of sustainability in branded merch. They are as follows:
- Environmental Responsibility
- Social Equity
- Product Lifestyle Considerations
- Transparency and Accountability
- Governance
Together, those pillars make up the ethos of a responsible and sustainable company. It is PPAI’s belief that all five of these pillars are tremendously important, and disregarding any of them would be an error. However, the luxury of data is that we can always turn to it to learn more about the habits of people and companies, providing insights into motivations and allowing industry professionals to glean insight into their peers’ thought processes.
One data point in WAP’s study revealed how the industry prioritized the five pillars of sustainability.
Environmental responsibility was the top priority for both distributors and suppliers. In fact, there was no significant difference in the rankings between the two.
“Environmental responsibility is often where we start, when we consider what a company’s sustainability journey looks like in the branded merch industry,” says Wimbush. “After all, we make stuff. It’s the most obvious, and often the pillar where we can have the most impact when we make small changes to our operations or strategies.”
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A few other points of notes:
- Transparency & Accountability come second behind environmental responsibility. This is a pillar that firms see pushed internally and externally, as more clients are demanding some degree of supply chain transparency or proof of environmental claims.
- Product Lifestyle Considerations sit right in the middle, as firms are recognizing it as a specific pillar and not just something to fall within Environmental Responsibility. PPAI offers resources such as The Circular Thinking Playbook and a case study for circularity in action.
- While Social Equity did not crack the top three in overall priorities, one key distinction is that distributors valued it higher than suppliers.
It is worth addressing that governance clearly ranked as least important, according to the data. On one hand, one of the pillars did have to finish fifth. But there are a number of reasons why governance can be overlooked as an essential part of business. For one, it can take a number of smaller but crucial forms, as opposed to one big headline. Governance, for example, might be:
- A supplier code of conduct
- Strong hiring and ethics policies
- A diverse leadership team
As Wimbush puts it, governance creates a steady backbone to any responsibility work that a company hopes to do. And when you don’t properly address it, you wish you had.
“Governance doesn’t usually make for good marketing copy,” Wimbush says. “You can’t post a TikTok about your whistleblower policy. A diversity audit doesn’t look great on a tote bag – even with a huge imprint area and multicolor print. And ‘risk mitigation strategy’ is unlikely to trend on Instagram.
Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS
Director of Sustainability and Responsibility, PPAI
“But what governance lacks in glamour, it makes up for in longevity. A company without strong governance might dazzle in the short term, but eventually it hits a wall, whether that’s a compliance fine, a culture crisis or a very public ‘oops’ that leads to a dreaded PR emergency.”
More WAP breakdowns:
Read Part 1: WAP Sustainability Study: Who, What, Why
Read Part 2: Double Materiality Assessment: The New Lens To View Sustainability Through
Read Part 3: WAP Study Results: What Really Drives Sustainability In Branded Merch?
Read The Full Report Here:
And Here:
