Metrics That Count
Which is more important:
Sustainability or CX?
Presented by
Manifest
Co-authored by
George Wojciechowski, Peter Hillowe
Contributing data from
Definite Articles, PiperWai, SUAVS, Thousand Fell, TopFoxx, Wipeco, and EcoCart
Table of Contents
- Introduction and hypothesis:: Brands are looking for improved sustainability tools and next-gen logistics tools separately from one another. Sustainability is customer experience (CX).
- Qualification for sustainable commerce development
- Sustainability metrics important to the transnational nature of commerce
- Consumer product-specific sustainability metric deep-dive.
- Data Deep Dive (Sustainability):: What we found out about 5 leading sustainable brands that are focused on sustainability in their product packaging and shipping
- Data Deep Dive (CX):: What we found out about those same 5 brands and their traditional logistics KPIs
- Do you really have to prioritize one over the other; or are brands just looking in the wrong places?
- How to use this white paper:: Short-term own-brand governance with few partners relaying into longer-term adherence to established D2C ecommerce sustainability governance
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Introduction & hypothesis
Brands are looking for sustainability tools and customer experience tools separately from one another.
[Sustainability] is [customer experience]
2023 is here, and people now have their own personal sustainability goals.
It’s no longer just mega-corporations creating roadmaps to ensure their political piggy banks or private equity wallets stay full. It’s no longer just independent permaculture farms living off their land.
Personal sustainability goals have become a major artery in the lifeblood of personal journeys.
Failing to plan is a plan to fail. Some brands define sustainability planning at the personal level for their team members, to inspire personal sustainability goal planning and direction.
Many people take it into their own hands by fully or partially adopting plant-based diets, shopping local, shopping used or recycled-only, and composting food-waste.
The commerce leaders responsible for closing the gap in circular commerce (Founders, Operating Leadership, and Ecommerce Shop Owners) don’t have a clear toolkit for evaluating vendor sustainability while also keeping up with continually increasing customer expectations.
So which is more important?
Sustainability or CX?
Qualification for sustainable commerce development
Most people have some degree of trust issues.
The dimensions of sustainability are not black and white like sexual loyalty in a monogamous adult relationship. Sustainability is an adult topic.
This doesn’t mean minors won’t try to get their hands on it, like a copy of South Park. Personal sustainability goals are increasing and so is gen-Z online shopping.
Have you seen a phone-case wall in an Apple store lately? 25% are made from recycled materials.
That being said, the budgets, technology, and human leadership creating infrastructure for consumer requirements are usually people over the age of 18.
+ More
These adult conversations are led by questions that are existential to ecommerce as we know it. Read on to get a summarized version of Gartner Inc’s sustainable vendor evaluation map, filtered for what impacts commerce most.
Sustainability metrics important to the transnational nature of commerce
According to Gartner, there are 19 sustainability metrics aligned with the three sustainability dimensions of the ESG model.
Enviromental
✅ Greenhouse Gas Emissions
✅ Renewable Energy
✅ Energy Efficiency
✅ Water Usage
✅ Circularity
✅ Operations
Social
✅ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
✅ Human Rights
✅ Employee Relations
✅ Workplace Health and Safety
✅ Talent Management
✅ Community Engagement
Governance
✅ Sustainability Governance
✅ Sustainability Goals, Targets and Ambitions
✅ Reporting
✅ Public Policy and Regulations
✅ Ethics
✅ Sourcing and Procurement
✅ Products and Services
Each with a set of questions that brand Founders, Operating Leaders, and Ecommerce Shop Owners need to have answers to before committing to sustainability or feeling confident that they are making a decision that will demonstrate progress for their brand in the short and long term. While all 19 sustainability metrics are important, this essay focuses on four:
- Circularity (Environmental)
- Sourcing and Procurement (Governance)
- Products and Services (Governance)
1. Circularity (Environmental)
Gartner Inc’s Definition: The optimal use of materials in product and service offerings to design out waste. Circularity is regenerative in nature by continuously developing a flow of material reuse.
Here’s your checklist for assessing Circularity:
Questions | Yes/No | Notes |
Does the organization implement circularity in its operations? | ||
Does the organization design products with recycled materials? | ||
Does the organization have a refurbishment program for its products? | ||
Does the organization practice recycling consistently throughout its operations? | ||
Does the organization offer and promote recycling to consumers who have purchased its products? | ||
Does the organization actively engage external materials-reuse programs? | ||
Does the organization measure and report progress on waste reduction or elimination goals? |
2. Sourcing and Procurement (Governance)
Gartner Inc’s Definition (annotated): The act of incorporating ESG factors in the way a [brand] purchases materials for [commercially sold goods].
Here’s your checklist for assessing Sourcing and Procurement:
| Questions | Yes/No | Notes |
| Does the organization define sustainability requirements within its supply chain? | ||
| Does the organization clearly define sustainability expectations from its suppliers that include ESG standards? | ||
| Does the organization verify supplier adherence to its sustainability expectations? | ||
| Does the organization practice recycling consistently throughout its operations? | ||
| Does the organization define and enforce sustainability requirements for its Tier 2 Suppliers? | ||
| Does the organization report the sustainability performance of its sourcing and procurement practices? |
3. Products (Governance)
Gartner Inc’s Definition: Products and services designed to uphold sustainability principles.
Here’s your checklist for assessing Products:
| Questions | Yes/No | Notes |
| Does the organization include sustainability principles in the design, development and delivery of its products and services? | ||
| Does the organization track and report sustainability metrics related to the development and delivery of its products and services? | ||
| Does the organization implement circular economy principles as part of the life cycle of its products? | ||
| Does the organization use sustainable packaging for its products? | ||
| Does the organization implement sustainability principles in the distribution of its products and services? | ||
| Does the organization deliver products/services that help its customers attain their sustainability ambitions? |
Consumer product-specific sustainability assessment deep-dive (Including exclusive pro tips)
That last one (Product assessment) was easier than the other two, right?
Actually, this particular set of assessment questions is a bit more challenging to answer. This is where the straight line becomes a blurred horizon. For this particular set of assessments, we’ve included exclusive tips for how to arm yourself with the information you need to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to these assessment questions.
1. Does the organization include sustainability principles in the design, development and delivery of its products and services?
Pro Tip: Many sustainably positioned brands will position this information right on their product display pages (PDP) however sometimes a dropdown menu that requires a click is host to this information. Click through their tech-specs and all adjacent pages to make sure you get hold of this information.
2. Does the organization track and report sustainability metrics related to the development and delivery of its products and services?
Pro Tip: If the organization is publicly traded and the organization has an executive team member focused on sustainability, you should be able to get this information with 5-10 minutes of research. First, check their LinkedIn Page and scroll through the People who work there to see if anyone has ‘Sustainability’ in their title at the VP level or above. If so, jump back on Google and type in the ‘Company Name’ and ‘Form 10-K’ (fancy way of saying annual reports that public companies are obligated to publish). In the 10-K, use your browser's search tool for ‘Sustainability’ and you should be able to find some rigorously constructed metrics that report on their development and delivery of sustainable practices.
Pro Tip: If the organization is privately owned, try a Google Boolean (fancy way of saying ‘search phrase with some code’) for their website AND ‘sustainable’ — this should take you to a link including how the organization discusses sustainability.
3. Does the organization implement circular economy principles as part of the life cycle of its products?
Pro Tip: Include and of the five typical circular economy models in a Google search string including the website AND ‘Reuse’ OR ‘Repurpose’ OR ‘Refurbish’ OR’ Remanufacture’ OR ‘Recycle’ — this should take you to a link including how the organization discusses circularity.
4. Does the organization use sustainable packaging for its products?
Pro Tip: When done right, packaging is discussed on either the product display page or in checkout. Brands that aim to surprise and delight their consumers with sustainable packaging are missing out on sales from consumers who require sustainable packaging in order to make a purchasing decision. So more often than not, this is advertised. If it’s not apparent in either of those locations you might be able to find this information on the /shipping page of the website or /faq. A Google Boolean may work as well.
5. Does the organization implement sustainability principles in the distribution of its products and services?
Pro Tip: Distribution is a complicated topic but it doesn’t have to be. Shipping is not eco-friendly. When you put your foot on the gas pedal or go wheels-up, you start to burn oil. There are fleets of electric vehicles owned by Amazon Logistics, UPS, FedEx, DHL and the USPS however it’s less common with the more recent emergence of regional shipping carriers like On-Trac and Lasership among others. As these companies create opportunity for alternative carriers like American Eagle Outfitters-owned AirTerra and GAP’s in-house final mile supply chain distribution network, they will create calculations for shipping-specific sustainability metrics that we project will be passed onto consumers to help them create more sustainable online shopping habits.
6. Does the organization deliver products/services that help its customers attain their sustainability ambitions?
Pro Tip: Create a goal that’s easy to understand. Is it easier for you to take personal action for eliminating a certain metric for ‘greenhouse gas reduction’? Or is it easier for you to take personal action for eliminating a certain metric equivalent to ‘water bottles removed from the ocean’? When brands use platforms like EcoCart, a Manifest partner, you are able to see exactly what environmental cause the brand has elected to help you solve for when buying a product online. Top brands like Andie, PAKA, June Shine, Cuts, and Skullcandy use EcoCart.
Data Deep Dive
Data Deep Dive
Sustainability
What we found out about 5 leading sustainable brands that are focused on sustainability in their product packaging and shipping?
An exclusive study in collaboration with EcoCart was done using one month of sample order data to calculate the carbon offset of the following brands, quantified in plastic water bottles eliminated
Together, in just 30 days, they eliminated
Data Deep Dive
CX
What we found out about those same 5 brands and their traditional logistics KPIs?
On a random sample of 1500 order lines (excluding 5 bulk shipments that were over $50/shipment), the same brands paid on average:
Just
$9.95 per order
picked,
packed in
biodegradable
packaging, and
delivered.
Do you really have to prioritize one over the other; or are brands just looking in the wrong places?
Here’s our one shameless plug within this exclusive market study. No, you don’t have to prioritize customer experience over sustainability or vice versa.
Sustainability is Customer Experience
How to use this white paper
Short-term own-brand governance with few partners relaying into longer-term adherence to established D2C ecommerce sustainability governance
In conclusion, as Gartner Inc put it bluntly, sustainability is a multidimensional objective. Definitions vary, if they exist, and in 2022 and 2023 it’s imperative to elect the core tenets of sustainability that your brand can meaningfully contribute towards. Perhaps in the 3 years following (2024-2027), more prominent and trustworthy sustainable commerce infrastructure suppliers will create interactive programming for brands to self-diagnose, prescribe, and medicate sustainable development practices from. Manifest as a leading voice in the sustainable commerce community is bullish on that front. For now, here is how to use this white paper:
- Conduct user-research. Your existing customers are the ones most likely to speak to you. Collect responses to various sustainability assessment questions spanning ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and score yourself to find your weaknesses and your strengths.
- Partner. If you need a progressive solution to governing the distribution of your products, find a shipping company with sustainable motivations. If your consumer was disappointed by plastic packaging, find a warehousing solution that uses biodegradable packaging in their fulfillment process. If your consumer wants to see more clear information about how their purchase relates to their personal sustainability goals, attach yourself to a solution that makes sustainable metrics more easy to digest at the personal shopping level.
- Stay current. Subscribe to trustworthy sources in the sustainable commerce space. Although we highlighted 19 respected sustainability metrics today, there are hundred more. Where definitions do exist, they might vary. While we can rely on the UN, Sustainability.gov, LEED, ISO and B Corp today and in 2023, the landscape will shift over time.
