For individuals, the process of defining and living a purpose might start with asking what sort of life you want to be able to look back on. Do you want to leave a legacy, the feeling of having made a difference for people? Then you can reflect on what you like to do, and where the world needs help. Can you inspire or teach someone? Can you change yourself? That’s when the real work starts. Having thought about your purpose, you then need to act.
The definition of brand transparency is the open sharing of information from a business to its consumers. It creates brand trust, good communication and perceived good citizenship. Internally, it is needed for collaboration, cooperation and collective decision making.
In the next 15 to 20 years, millennials will be the majority of the workforce. Extensive research has shown that this generation seeks to work for companies with a stated mission and wants to bring their whole self to work. Already today, these conversations are shaping workplaces around the globe Companies looking to engage the power of purpose should offer a framework. But they should try to keep it open and voluntary. Business transparency is the process of being open, honest, and straightforward about various company operations.
Why building transparency for your Ocean Brand
Just listing the ingredients won’t do. To grow trust, Ocean-inspired brands that claim to be conscious or ocean-friendly should give consumers easy access to information about the production, ingredient sources, post-purchase impact, work ethic procedures and more.
The same concept applies to all other businesses. Do you want people to buy your product over your competitor’s? Why should consumers invest in you instead? Transparency about your practices, mission, ethics and culture is the key, but what does transparency even mean in a business context?
At Outerpreneur we specialize in branding and e-commerce development for businesses that act as a force of good for the environment, especially the Ocean. Ocean missions are usually clean-up operations, recycled products, blue economy, or wildlife protection. It is important for many reasons to build an honest brand of trust and transparency when you are selling commitments and your purpose to your clients. Let’s have a brief look at why you need to build transparency if you wish to build an Ocean purpose Ecommerce.
- Lead a movement: Set the gold standard for good business and inspire a race to the top, creating performance standards and legal structures being used by thousands of other businesses around the world.
- Transparency builds reputation
- Transparency attracts quality candidates and retains employees.
- Transparency helps to attract investors.
- Transparency can keep you compliant.
How to build trust for your Ocean Ecommerce
Make sure your company is built on a solid framework foundation for the long term. Our recommendations encourage your brand- and mission-aligned nonprofit solutions that are critical for the planet and that help the business thrive.
Partner up with non-profit for a cause
Building a partnership with a nonprofit organization or a certified organization that can back you up as a business that does good for the planet will increase customer’s trust and loyalty. Some nonprofits offer packages that include a series of trustworthy advantages for your business in terms. These packages are usually tiered in different levels to adapt to all budgets and businesses sizes.
Source: Corporate sponsorship 2020, Charles Darwin research organization
Source: Corporate sponsorship Opportunities, Coral Restauration Foundation
In most cases, you will have to fill up an application form. Big nonprofits usually have a large number of requests. The length of the process might differ between a few weeks to 6 months or more.
Source: Great Barrier Reef Foundation website
Partner up with B corporation
Certified B Corporations are for-profit companies that use the power of business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. These businesses or brands meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Their certification process uses credible, comprehensive, transparent, and independent standards of social and environmental performance. Their brandmark is well-known by millenials who in 10 years will be the majority of the workforce. Investing in a B Corporation will be an investment for the present and future.
When you certify your brand as a B Corporation it measures your company’s entire social and environmental performance. The B Impact Assessment will evaluate how your company’s operations and business model impact your workers, community, environment, and customers. From your supply chain and input materials to your charitable giving and employee benefits. Many ocean brands are currently using the B corporation certification. Currently there are around 4000 B corps around the world. Examples of ocean brands that have included B corp guidelines to their structure are: 4ocean, Organic Ocean, Ocean Refresh, Ocean52, Finisterre. Their directory includes the B Impact Assessment scores which are organized into five Impact Areas: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers.
Benefits of being B corp certified are joining a community, Benchmarks reports and improve performance, attract talent and culture, build credibility and protect your mission with a solid legal framework.
Fulfilling an application requires a non-refundable fee of $150 USD. Be aware that usually only 1/3 of applications become successfully certified partners. The licensing fees are manually paid and range from $1000. The pricing goes proportional to your brand’s annual revenue.
Partner up with 1% for the planet
1% for the Planet is a global network of businesses, individuals and nonprofit organizations tackling the planet’s most pressing environmental issues. It was originally founded to prevent greenwashing, certify reputable giving and provide accountability. The 1% for the Planet certification is given to businesses and individuals that meet their standard commitment which is donating 1% or more of annual sales or salary to environmental causes. Through their certification process, members provide annual documentation of their total sales and proof of monetary, volunteer and in-kind support to approved nonprofit partners. Third-party certification allows members to leverage the 1% for the Planet logo as a verified seal of their commitment to people and the planet, without the potential risks of greenwashing.
Certified members benefit from strategic advice, recognition, world-class third-party certification, networking, visibility, leadership, employee engagement.
Today there are almost 6000 businesses onboarded as members and around +4500 nonprofits. Some ocean brands include When signing up as a member, you can choose the causes that suit your brand’s mission /vision. Their model is quite accessible and their brandmark is highly recognized and well respected by conscious shoppers today.
Partner up with Positive luxury
Positive luxury is another potential candidate to partner up if you are building a luxurious fashion brand. Their brandmark identifies brands that meet the highest standards of verified innovation and environmental performance, offering transparency at the point of sale and equipping consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions. The logo recognizes a brand’s positive impact on people and the planet across 5 key areas of holistic sustainability: governance, social and environmental frameworks, community investment and innovation. Brands are evaluated through a comprehensive assessment process that is reviewed by the Positive Luxury’s Sustainability Council, industry experts and institutional partners.
The certification enables you to demonstrate your commitment and level of sustainability performance to customers, shareholders, investors and partners while providing a solid understanding of your current performance. Brands who earn the Butterfly Mark can display it on each product page on their website and partner retailer sites, allowing people to click for a clear overview of the brand’s Positive Actions. Offline, the Butterfly Mark can be seen on packaging, in-store, on care labels and within marketing materials.
Their assessment certification has 2 tiers. One over 50% and another one for over 80%. To get started on the assessment you need to submit an application form on the website.
Download an app
Other possible solutions, especially when starting and budget is limited are apps. Cleanhub offers to protect the oceans from plastic waste, with every product you sell. Tell your customers, that they can act to protect the oceans by buying your products. Cleanhub deploys the most impactful methods to tackle ocean plastic. Every month, Cleanhub calculates the total plastic collection volume by your shipped orders, and that number becomes your monthly ocean protection cost. Decide flexibly how many kilograms you would like to collect with each order.
From your Cleanhub Impact Report, you can see the total amount of plastic waste you’ve arranged to collect. You can share the live-tracking link of collection progress with your customers.
Recovering plastic from the environment involves three distinct operations. Firstly the collection of plastic from the environment, secondly the sorting of plastic into its unique types and thirdly the safe and final treatment. They connect all parties and have them use our APP to keep account of the person, quantity, quality and location for all plastic that we recover. They will provide full transparency into the data that they retrieve, as evidence for the actual completion of all activities.
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