Could global brands be the key to a sustainable, low-carbon world? Quite possibly.

Whilst it’s often all to easy to engage in a bit of big business bashing and dismiss corporate efforts on sustainability, the fact is that right now, major companies and their brands are in a better position to lead the charge towards a low-carbon world than any government.

This is particularly true in the UK, where levels of consumer trust in politicians is at an all-time low following a string of revelations that elected members of parliament have used taxpayer’s money to clean moats, mend tennis courts and buy nappies (amongst other random goods).

I’m not the only one who thinks global brands are becoming agents for transformational change. At a recent seminar the Forum held jointly with the marketing agency Dragon Rouge, which set out to examine the synergies between marketing and sustainability, Santiago Gowland, VP- Unilever Brand and Corporate Responsibility, said that by acting as a bridge between corporate strategy and consumer behaviour, global brands can deliver long lasting, positive change.

I completely agree with Santiago and would go even further, and argue that big brands and marketing could hold the key to a low-carbon, more sustainable world.  This is because marketing drives product development, marketing drives consumer behaviour and marketing can make almost anything desirable.  

Marketing creates consumer pull – we didn’t particularly ask for cameras in our mobile phones – but now we all have them. The mainstream consumer isn’t demanding (yet) a low carbon world. Can marketing create the consumer pull that saves the day?

As long ago as 2003, Forum for the Future was trying to engage the marketing community in the challenge and opportunity that is sustainable development. We had two notable successes in the shape of Unilever and Centrica, but on the whole we failed to engage marketing directors with our idea. (We called it Limited Edition, which in hindsight, may have been completely the wrong name).

Limited Edition remained very limited for three big reasons: back in 2003 the term ‘sustainable consumption’ had absolutely no traction and was seen as the anathema of economic growth; sustainability was seen as the opposite of desirable (and reserved solely for sandal-wearing deep greens – we were a long way from eco-chic); and finally, green purchasing was still the hunting ground of a few global green watchdogs.

But 2009 is a different story. We have carbon labels on everyday goods, we have seen the rise of the ‘make it easy for me to be green’ consumer, and we also know that there are hard limits to traditional business models that rely on unlimited access to resources, be these of the natural or credit variety.

This all means that right now we have an amazing opportunity to unleash marketing in the pursuit of sustainable consumption. The sustainable choice needs to be the easy choice, with sustainability credentials mainstreamed into everyday products and services.

In order to try and seize this opportunity, on June 16th we're launching the Sustainable Brand Leadership Group, a new initiative hosted by the Forum and developed by a group of marketing professionals. The idea is to convene a group of leading consumer-facing brands, who commission a team of planners to unearth the best practice on behaviour change, and develop propositions for sustainable lifestyles. Ultimately, our aim is to use the project as a platform for collaboration between the participating brands for innovation of new products and services for sustainable lifestyles.

I really believe that marketing could help redefine our notion of value and desirability.  Value has to be more than price – among other things it should also be about product origin and efficiency of use. By making the old and slightly battered as desirable as the shiny and new, marketing could help move us away from our current throwaway culture.

Ultimately, marketing, through everyday brands that touch most of us, has a critical role in helping us consume more sustainably. In the short term, clever marketing could help embed the current recessionary, more sustainable behaviours. Marketing could help us love our leftovers and our allotments forever. 

In the long term, by connecting the consumer with the sustainability and climate change agenda, marketing could drive the development of lower carbon goods and services, helping everyone consume differently, and hopefully, more sustainably.

So, all you marketing geniuses out there – are you ready?