ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
DEC. 2019
Kai Rassmus Landwehr, Head of Marketing myclimate foundation
What is your background in Social Impact/Sustainability if any?
I have worked for myclimate for seven years now and – a long, long time ago – I did a four-months internship at the German ministry for environment
What do you do at your organization in terms of Social Impact/Sustainability, how do you monitor the outcomes and what are the goals?
I am responsible for all communications and marketing initiatives at myclimate. So, it’s my task to build the brand myclimate and to raise awareness about our organization and the services we offer. Since we are an NGO and, hence, have only limited budget resources, I have to come up with smart communication measures focusing on three outcomes:
- make us “findable” for anyone anywhere who searches actively for services or products we offer, whether it is carbon offsetting or carbon footprint calculations on a corporate level
- support my colleagues and especially our sales team with all information, background knowledge, trend reports and concrete material they need to convince corporate clients to join the global climate protection movement
- reach at least a “top of mind” status for myclimate in our relevant core markets when it comes to brand visibility in the field of climate protection
We mainly measure the outcomes through the performance data we get from our web-based services and online platforms. We also conduct brand awareness studies and some soft skill assessments: although it’s difficult to measure, I strongly believe in first-hand feedback. So, I always talk to my colleagues to understand their experiences and take into account individual clients and market feedbacks.
Also, without talking directly to existing partners and leads, I wouldn’t be able to create the right products and solutions that work for the specific industries and companies. It makes a lot of sense to me to constantly be engaged in a dialogue with my internal and external stakeholders.
Do you believe in business as a force for good and do you have corporate partners? How do you work with them?
Absolutely, without the support of global and local business, we will never ever reach the goals set by the Paris Agreement or the UN’s SDGs.
With myclimate, we focus strongly on partnerships with businesses. They are the strongest levers for a more climate-friendly economy and therefore society. Doing this, we don’t offer the “silver bullet”, but always try to find a match between our services, knowledge and products and the concrete short-term, mid-term and long-term needs of the specific company.
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Do you see a change in behavior in your donors and the ones you’re serving?
Oh yes, the key message that we have to act now to prevent disastrous consequences resulting from climate change is resonating with our partners and companies in Switzerland, Germany (+France, UK…).
So, the main change is the openness to discussing a sustainable change for businesses. Pushed by customers and intrinsic motivation, corporate partners sometimes desperately seek advice on how to meet these external and internal demands. The demand more and more shifts from a concrete, quick-fix to a more long-term strategic approach.
How do new technologies and this digital age influence your work? Do you use new technologies to spread the word about what you do?
We use new technologies, but there is a lot of space for improvement. There are huge opportunities to use big data, sensors, AI, machine learning, etc. as a force for good. We try to contribute our expert knowledge and experience from projects that want to exploit these types of opportunities.
New, but already available, and quickly progressing technology will help us solve environmental problems like energy usage. Especially in terms of higher efficiency, smart energy grid systems backed by machine learning, and smart contracting solutions could massively reduce our energy demand and, hence, lever renewable energy supply.
This could lead to solutions such as real-time environmental data management, internal carbon pricing, shared, smart mobility solutions, etc.
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In your view, what’s the biggest challenge when it comes to marketing your cause to the world?
Money?... No, the biggest challenges are focus and trust. We offer a variety of services applicable to private clients as well as corporations worldwide. As an NGO, we have to reach out to the right people, right companies, and right institutions and establish long-term partnerships that help us spread the word.
Trust is our strongest currency, so we have to carefully monitor all the things we do, all the projects we support and all the partners we are collaborating with. And, of course, we are not perfect, nor are our partners. But with transparency and honesty, we can sustain trust with our customers and partners.
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