Selling sustainability: Roundtable discusses marketing challenges of eco-friendly products

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio—What does sustainability mean for the hose and belt industry?

When it comes to making sustainable decisions and incorporating them into a product, companies must consider what their main drivers are for these initiatives, how to measure and report them, how to engage customers and whether their sustainable products have value in the market.

There are many drivers in the pursuit of sustainability that consumers and the market claim to be important, said Christopher Bradlee, market segment manager at chemicals company BASF Corp., like reducing a company's carbon footprint, sourcing bio-based materials, recycling and renewable energy.

"Can we do it all, and what should we do?" he asked while leading a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Rubber News as part of the virtual Hose and Belt Manufacturers Conference.

As companies set sustainability goals and pinpoint what drives them toward these goals, they need to determine best practices for measuring and fairly reporting them, Bradlee said, also noting the importance of engaging customers in this initiative to understand what they want.

"And then value," he said. "Of course, we have to find value in our sustainable materials."

With the time and money spent toward research and development, companies need to consider whether their sustainable products will be supported in the market, Bradlee said.

While nearly 65 percent of consumers say they're willing to spend more for sustainable products, according to a March survey from environmental tech company GreenPrint, roundtable participants said the market might not reflect this. Especially as the product gets further away from the consumer.

Jim Briggs, global market leader of RFL-treated yarns and industrial fabrics at Mehler Engineered Products—a supplier to Michelin—said product sustainability is a challenge in the hose and belt industry.

He said he disagreed with the idea that more than half of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products.

"That's the big thing with saying versus doing," Bradlee said.

"As we're further up the value chain," he added, noting BASF is at the beginning as a raw material supplier, "it's much harder for our customers" to commit to spending more on products with sustainable materials. This is the case for under-the-hood products, especially, which, to an average driver, is out of sight and out of mind.

Roundtable participants questioned whether the average consumer is educated enough in sustainability in the rubber industry to properly weigh the pros and cons of spending more on eco-friendly products.

"I don't think there's that strong consumer demand," Bradlee said. "Consumers know they want environmental or sustainable (products), but they really don't know what that means."

According to GreenPrint, while not specific to the hose and belt industry, three out of four Americans (74 percent) reported that they don't know how to identify environmentally friendly products.

Ankur Kant, global business manager at Evonik Corp., added that, as consumers are still learning more about the sustainability of their purchases, there's also uncertainty as to whether post-consumer goods will hold up as well as their virgin material counterparts.

"There is a hesitancy on the part of the consumer to actually use some of these products that have recycled content in it," he said.

"Will the performance be the same?" Bradlee added.

Unlike standard consumer goods, Briggs said, sellers can't "hang-tag" to promote the recycled content and performance comparisons of hose and belting products. Understanding the difference may require more research on the consumer's part.

"It's just not as easy," he said.

"The closer you get to the end user, the more value sustainability brings," Bradlee said, noting products such as recycled shoes are easier for consumers to understand. But do consumers really care whether the belting in their vehicle is made of recycled materials? "The further away you get, the harder it is (to sell)."

As for business-to-business marketing, most manufacturers know what they're getting into when pursuing sustainability initiatives. But for some companies, there may still be similar hesitancies.

"Especially when it comes to engineering items like hoses or belts," Kant said. Companies may not want to see recycled content in their hoses or belt, "because then they're worried about engineering failures and operation."

This is what makes measuring and reporting so important, Bradlee said, for "preventing false claims."

"You have to find the people in the organization whose job it is to report on sustainability," Bradlee said. "If you don't have regular contact with them, you're missing a key stakeholder.

"If you really want to get the most out of your sustainability value proposition, you better be engaged with the people at that company whose job it is to report on sustainability, because then they can put pressure on the product engineer who can then put pressure on the purchaser," he added. "So, make sure when you're dealing with your customers around sustainability, that you have the right stakeholder at the table that you're working with."