Responsible Living, Responsible Entrepreneurship for Sustainability and Progress
What do you think Tony Stark would describe himself as if stopped in the middle of the street? Genius, playboy, philanthropist most likely.
But say, they ask him to describe Stark Industries? Would he call it a beacon of innovation? The latest word in cleantech? That's the place where most CEOs are stumped.
Content creators talk endlessly about niches, but ask them for an elevator pitch and at least a few will stumble. And yet, any good marketing professional will tell you that your brand's story and values help you stand out. Take us for example. Are we the only brand selling formal shirts for men in India?
Of course, not. There are bigger names out there with a loyal customer base.
Yes, we have a USP. Sustainability. But what does it mean in practice? Does ethical living stop at fair wages and an equitable supply chain? And what can this USP give our consumers? The belief that their shopping practices have a lower impact than their neighbours? Sure.
Then why do we continue beyond a high-quality eco-friendly shirt? Why do we send a thank you note for plantable seed paper alongside the purchase? Or innovate new ideas to help the common man?
Because a USP is nothing without values and efforts to make it up. Sustainability doesn't stop at the environment alone. Or at our workers. It's the responsibility of every business to ensure that meeting today's needs, doesn't compromise those of tomorrow.
And that's why we champion responsible living.
Where we appreciate our consumers with a thank you note and remind ourselves they're more than numbers on a sales sheet.
Where we ensure people get a shirt that conveys their values, personality, and style.
Where we try and hope that every purchase leads to a new garden.
Welcome to The Formal Club, a business where sustainability extends beyond our workers and linen shirts to encompass our brand values. Today, we want to share with you ways your business can extend their ethical goals with small acts of kindness and mindfulness. After all, we businesses are responsible for the economy of our nation but also for meeting the needs of our populace in a manner that ensures the well-being of every actor involved.
How to be a Responsible Business
1. Charity begins at home: Appreciate those who work for or with you
From small acts of kindness such as offering water to the delivery people who come to take your shipments in this heat or appreciating your employees by giving them healthy working conditions, adequate time off, reasonable hours, and fair wages, all responsible or sustainable ventures value human efforts and labour.
They won't be looking to cut costs at the cost of their people. Some may say this gains you nothing but a happy team is an innovative team, it's an encouraged team ready to take your business to the next level. Make them feel like family and who knows they may treat your venture like their own.
In this age of ESG, fair treatment of workers is on the minds of many consumers and governments, meaning that these steps have the potential to gain your business from likeminded consumers.
They might be a small base, only about 50-80% of all consumers, but if they're loyal to your company and find value in your ethically made products, you have a consumer base for life...but how much do sustainable consumers buy? After all, isn't reduce the first of the three Rs for eco-friendly living? In such a case, how is a business supposed to survive in a capitalist society?
Well, responsible ventures don't look at margins with the idea of unprecedented profits each quarter, by selling more and more. Instead, they focus on supporting artisans, cottage industries, and building a system of steady revenue via a...
2. Circular Economy and Respect for Resources for Responsible Businesses
A circular economy is essentially a closed loop where resources and raw materials don’t go to waste. For example, we are a shirt making company. To be circular we can make other products out of waste fabric or upcycle it into new shirts. Currently we don't have the capacity to do that, but we do do other things.
\All our products are eco-friendly and supply chains are fair. Don't trust us, look at our FSC certificates. We also use data to ensure our designs are timeless and thus reusable. Additionally, we believe in limited production of shirts made of mostly local fibers, and those that are durable to reduce waste and resource consumption.
While many eco-friendly and ethical businesses might wonder how a circular economy and championing reduced production, helps them keep a stable revenue, the idea is to ensure waste materials can be repurposed to the best of their ability, thereby reducing cost of new raw materials and giving companies another product to sell.
Thus, by keeping existing resources in circulation, not only are you reducing the potential for more methane creating and toxic waste in landfills, you are also reducing the pressure on the planet to yield more, which in turn can reduce the need of pesticides that harm our water bodies and reduce the usage of fossil fuel and the prevalence of microplastics. Isn’t this a great way to tackle some of the most polluting industries in one go?
Upcycling, redesigning, and being creative with existing resources allows us to take the help of local designers and fashion experts, thus giving back to our communities.
3. Beyond sales data to communities
To be a responsible business, you should look beyond the numbers, especially sales. Your consumer cannot be a graph or a stat. They need to be seen as a person whose problems you aim to solve. You are grateful for their patronage and wish to repay that with a valuable durable and ethical product that does exactly what it says on the tin.
Instead of chasing mindless trends and coming up with seasonal but ultimately made to break products, you should focus on ingredients and raw materials that last and innovate further on how to make them easier for the consumer to access and use.
While it isn’t possible to do all of this, there are smaller building blocks, such as forming an emotional connection with your consumer through advertising, social media, and gratitude. We at The Formal Club do that via sending plantable seed paper thank you notes, which allows us to share our thanks in an evergreen form.
Our tags are the highest form of charitable giving we celebrate, other than all the NGOs we have partnered with. I'm this heat, our founder feels that a plant is the best gift, and our tags are all plantable which will cool your home and Earth itself. Saving a habitable planet, one tree at a time.
Sure, not all houseplants are sustainable but trees do reduce temperature and the key is in choosing the right plant to bring home, giving the ecology you inhabit. While we can't do that for all our consumers, we do try to bring plants to your home without shifting the onus of green living fully on you. Partners? Do you have other ideas? Let us know in the comments!
4. Responsible advertising
Another important aspect of responsible living and ethical business practices is advertising. Choosing an ethical platform, and coming up with an honest and green marketing strategy where most of what you create adds value to the viewer.
At the end of the day, the goal of your business should be beyond making profits if you wish to live a responsible life. You must create value for your consumer, without taxing the planet, and encourage a responsible community. At The Formal Club, that is our goal with our imperfectly ethical and eco-friendly shirts.
Also Read: Stepping Into Adulthood, Stepping Into Dad's Shirt
