Salterbaxter, Publicis Groupe’s global sustainability strategy and engagement consultancy, launched in Australia in August of last year, offering a blend of sustainability advisory and creative expertise.
Operating globally from a UK base for 25 years -- and with a headcount of more than 50 around the world, including 10 in Australia -- Salterbaxter’s services encompass an end-to-end sustainability consultancy, including materiality assessments, goal setting and strategy development, implementation roadmaps, creative activations, communications and reporting.
Salterbaxter’s local CEO Skye Lambley said that Publicis was already in the communication space with HerdMSL, the group’s PR and integrated comms agency, and saw sustainability as being something it had always done in terms of communicating sustainability initiatives.
What the launch into Australia for Salterbaxer provided for Publicis, however, was a bigger opportunity in terms of helping brands from a consultancy perspective with their strategies, and thinking about how that has a bigger impact than purely on cost.
“We wanted to create something locally and then we came across Salterbaxter, which already existed as part of Publicis and essentially did exactly what we wanted to do,” said Lambley.
“We didn't think that in this market we needed another comms practice around sustainability - what we needed was a business that was keen to partner with brands to create real progress around sustainability, something a bit more meaningful that can help them drive that progress and move the needle in terms of what brands are doing around sustainability.”
Lambley said that the Big Four consultancies are looking at sustainability strategies from a data-driven perspective, and while that works in some degrees, Salterbaxter sees the real progress coming from a combination of credible action and creative engagement.
“It’s a combination of smart, creative strategy, but also being creative right through to the engagement of all stakeholders internally and externally to make sure that they can work with you to drive progress,” Lambley told AdNews. “Otherwise, you're going to have a great strategy that actually goes nowhere because people aren't engaged with it.”
Stuart Wragg, who was promoted yesterday to Australian MD of Salterbaxter, said that the consultancy is working with brands across a range of different sectors, something Salterbaxter has a long history of doing globally.
“Every organisation is at a different stage in terms of that sustainability journey and also has a need to focus on different aspects of sustainability to drive progress,” said Wragg.
“The most important thing to us is working with organisations that have the ambition and commitment to drive progress. That can mean lots of different things, but there has to be that ambition there.
“We're working with companies that are multinational and have a local presence in Australia and a global sustainability strategy, but don't necessarily have anything here that brings it together. That’s important because you need to rally employees and demonstrate to consumers what you're doing locally, not just at a global level, so that's one area of growth that we're seeing.”
Lambley (pictured right) said that there’s a lot of external pressure at the moment from the likes of the ACCC around greenwashing - overstating claims around a company’s environmental credentials – which is something the CEO of Salterbaxter thinks is a good thing as having robust strategies that are actually going to move the needle is “really critical”.
“We talk a lot with our clients about greenwashing, but there’s also greywashing, which is where you've got that great sustainability strategy, but it's not engaging and doesn’t have the creativity baked-in to activate the hearts and minds that are needed to drive transformation. Those two things together is really where we want to focus on for brands,” said Lambley.
Wragg said that the need to drive progress, not just promises, is coming on all fronts.
“You've got investors that want to see progress, you've got consumers that are increasingly wanting to know what's behind the claims or what's the actual substance that's driving change, but also employees are a really big one too,” said Wragg.
“People want to work for companies that are contributing value to society by way of the environment. Across all stakeholders, organisations are seeing that change and there's a real urgency to get on the front foot now, because change takes time. If you make steps now, you're setting yourself up for the future.
“It's not just about doing less harm - it's also about unearthing opportunities and connecting sustainability to the commercial strategy of businesses. This isn't just about managing risks; this is also about resilience and how leaning into sustainability going to help you achieve your commercial outcomes.”
ProgressPoint, Salterbaxter’s proprietary diagnostics service, pinpoints where a business needs to focus its time and investment to unlock growth and ROI from sustainability. Unique in the market, Wragg said that the tool identifies gaps and opportunities by measuring impact across three different components.
“It looks at the performance of sustainability through an organisation - what transformation is the organisation actually delivering to create a more sustainable future?” Wragg told AdNews.
“It looks at proactivity - how is the organisation engaging and communicating about change? Has a business made it a strategic priority? Is the business communicating with a sense of urgency and talking about true transformation?
“The third bit is reputation, looking at how stakeholders are perceiving and talking about and feeling the effect the transformation of businesses is undertaking. Those three components are assessed to really give a view on where are the gaps and opportunities to lean into, to drive not just communication and engagement of sustainability, but actually true transformation of the business.”
Wragg (pictured right) said that looking at the advertising industry specifically, there is a real interest that Salterbaxter is seeing from the marketing and advertising industry in not just how to communicate about this, but what needs to be done to drive the action that can engage consumers.
“I'm seeing a lot of interest from the marketing and advertising industry in upskilling on sustainability,” said Wragg.
“I think there's a huge opportunity for marketers and advertisers to better understand the space, because there is a huge opportunity for creativity to help support the transformation organisations make.
“Education is really important and there's a lot of interest in that. The power and potential of advertising and marketing is huge; it's just going to evolve in terms of where it focuses in helping promote more sustainable behaviours and communicating an organisation's sustainable transformation.
“There's no doubt that clients are asking our creative and our media agencies questions around sustainability and how they're being sustainable. They're looking at their Scope3 emissions, for example - what are the emissions associated with the production of advertising and what is the emission footprint of our media buy?”
Over the consultancy’s first nine months in the Australian market, Lambley said that the 10-person team has learned a lot – most notably that there’s a real appetite for such a company in this country.
“We had our global MD Kathleen Enright come down soon after we first launched and what was exciting for her was to talk to businesses in this country and really see a hunger to be able to move and move quite quickly,” said Lambley.
“That was surprising; we knew it was important, but we weren't quite sure on how quickly businesses were looking at it. The diversity of what they were looking at and how they're approaching it is very different.”
Salterbaxter’s leadership duo said that they foresee an increasing focus on accountability and disclosure moving forward, in line with more regulation and legislation in the future that is likely going to drive behaviour change much more quickly than what it is now.
“There’s going to be increased interest from all manner of stakeholders on what progress are you making as an organisation towards your sustainability commitments, but also about the progress you’re not making,” said Wragg.
“I think we’re going to see an increasing need for businesses to be more transparent in terms of where progress is a challenge, and what they're doing to address that challenge. Consumers and employees understand that this transformation takes time, but they want organisations to communicate and engage authentically on their change.”
Lambley said that Salterbaxter always suggests brands to have a higher plan than what they think they can achieve, because even if they don’t hit those goals, it's much better than having the bar set low and easily conquering the challenge.
“It comes down to progress - the progress of not achieving a high goal as opposed to overachieving on a really average one is not ideal,” said Lambley.
“That transparency of brands is going to win the hearts and minds of consumers because they would prefer to know that you're giving it your best shot and being transparent and honest with them as opposed to claiming things that are really just vapourware.”
Wragg said that there's a real need for being bold and ambitious - rethinking commercial models and the way businesses run that's not about just change in the year ahead, but changing in the next 5, 10 or 15 years.
“Setting big, audacious goals is important for bringing along employees and bringing along consumers,” said Wragg.
“The other opportunity, and certainly what we're seeing with brands, is really around making sustainability accessible for consumers. Everyone wants to do the right thing, so how can brands make it easy for people to feel better or to contribute in some way to creating a more sustainable future? That's a huge opportunity.”
Looking ahead to the future, Lambley said that Salterbaxter would love to be partnering with more brands to drive their sustainability progress, whatever that looks like.
“We're not focused on a particular sector,” said Lambley.
“A lot of our brands are multinational, so where there's an opportunity for us to work with what this means in an Australian context to be able to bring those global frameworks and strategies to life, but make it more meaningful to all of the local stakeholders, would be amazing.
“Put simply, we love to work with clients to help solve some of the biggest challenges of our time.”
Karen Dunnicliff, Engagement & Reputation Director
What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
In the world of sustainability, we’re dealing with wicked, complex, interconnected and often global problems and we’re on a ticking timeline. The challenge is balancing the need for ambition and creativity with the need for practical action. And amongst all of that, trying to stay positive when you know what’s at stake.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I get in, read the news and make sure I’m across any developing issues or interesting campaigns. Then half my time is spent working with existing clients on developing, shaping and communicating their sustainability strategy. The other half is spent responding to new briefs, meeting people in the industry and learning from all those conversations.
What attracted you to Salterbaxter?
I knew whatever we did in market couldn’t just be about comms. I love the progress over promises positioning of Salterbaxter, and how we bring credibility together with creativity to provide an end-to-end sustainability offering.
What do you love most about your role?
I love getting to see the great work that businesses and brands are doing to reduce their environmental impact and contribute more meaningfully to society; helping them to tell better stories and engage stakeholders in the process. I also love being in a position to challenge and help businesses correct course and become more ambitious in their approach.
What are you focused on for 2023?
We’re very much focused on getting to know the market and letting the market know who we are. My focus is building relationships, getting the right skills and partnerships in the mix, understanding the local nuances and challenges here, and delivering great work for our foundation clients.
Tess Ariotti, Lead Consultant – Advisory
What are you focused on for 2023?
Driving progress of course! The landscape in Australia is changing with imminent mandatory sustainability disclosures, new biodiversity targets, a crackdown on greenwashing, and expected tighter modern slavery legislation. Smart companies are embracing these changes because it establishes minimum standards for a more even playing field, but it will increase the need to embed sustainability into core business. I’m looking forward to working through all this with our new and existing clients.
What does a typical day look like for you?
All day, every day, I’m obsessed with problem solving. Some days I might be helping clients respond to their material issues with context-specific, evidence-based approaches. I might be speaking to a company about where to start, or where to next. I might be keeping up to date with research, public policy and news across a range of issues. Regardless, I’m always identifying, defining, and working through problems to find solutions, manage risks and capitalise on the opportunities they bring.
What do you love most about your role?
I love working in sustainability because you get to work with a vast range of business functions, experts, and stakeholders. So much of delivering quality sustainability advice and outcomes is about listening to everyone’s perspectives, finding common threads and, from there, creative solutions.
What attracted you to Salterbaxter?
They had me at ‘we’re here for progress’. Sustainability is necessarily complex and there isn’t one solution – it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. The progress imperative is a great way to bring things back to basics – what will drive the most progress?
One way we’re living our mission at Salterbaxter is by really understanding where each company is at – whether leading, accelerating or just beginning their sustainability journey. It doesn’t matter where they are up to, we can help them find the best ways to drive progress. When it comes to sustainable development, we’re all in it together, but businesses need to make contributions relevant to who they are and where they are at.
What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
Who said sustainability was challenging?! Just joking, it is so very hard. So hard, in fact, that most people have the very human reaction of just switching off or deferring it to another day. As sustainability professionals, we need to help change this response. For my role, this means when developing sustainability strategies or initiatives, I’m conscious of not only driving progress against the ESG issue, but finding engaging, relevant and accessible ways to do so.
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