Volvo Brand Walks the Talk on Sustainability.

sustainable branding melbourne

In branding, doing is more important than saying.

How do you build a unique and valued dimension to your brand proposition, one that connects your values with those of your core audience? You walk the talk, demonstrating your beliefs through remarkable brand gestures. It’s not enough for brands to talk values, or even just to live them internally. Businesses must establish ways to outwardly demonstrate the values they are living internally – to translate their belief system into bold and memorable brand gestures.

Automotive brand Volvo have been working with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and Reef Design Lab to create something they call the Living Seawall. “Designed to mimic the root structure of native mangrove trees, the Living Seawall adds complexity to the existing seawall structure and provides a habitat for marine life” they state on their web site.  “This aids biodiversity and attracts filter-feding organisms that actually absorb and filter out pollutants – such as particulate matter and heavy metals – keeping the water ‘clean’. The more organisms we have, the cleaner the water.”

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This bold brand gesture is a powerful way to demonstrate Volvo’s stated commitment to sustainability

Volvo describe their thinking behind this project as: “Our oceans are in distress One garbage truck of plastic enters the world’s oceans every minute, and more than half of Sydney’s shoreline is artificial. Rich, vibrant habitats have been replaced with seawalls and degraded by plastic pollution. The Volvo Ocean Race has been hosting beach clean-ups all over the world to help combat plastic pollution. But while they’re important, beach clean-ups alone aren’t enough to save our oceans. There’s so much plastic in the ocean that scientists say it’s simply not feasible to remove it all. Tearing down seawalls isn’t viable either. Solving environmental issues requires modern, divergent thinking. There’s a Swedish word, omtanke, that means ‘caring’ and ‘consideration’.  That’s what the Living Seawall is all about.”

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And whilst not every organisation can afford to create a Living Seawall brand gesture for themselves, few brands can afford not to take this same approach to asking themselves; ‘What are we doing to demonstrate the values we wish to live by?’

You can find out more about Volvo’s Living Seawall here.

Dave Ansett
David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in the creation of high engagement brands that attract the attention of their audience and stand out from their competitors. David has extensive experience working with corporate, retail, food & beverage and entrepreneurial clients. Find out more here
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Photos from Volvo.

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