Buy Better: Empowering Customers to Know the Impact of a Brand (feat. Sandra Capponi - Founder, Good on You)

Feb 20, 2020

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Main Takeaways:

Brian and Phillip are joined in today's episode by Sandra Capponi, the co-founder of Good On You.
Good On You is a brand rating system that evaluates brands in the fashion industry based on their impact against material, social, and environmental issues.
How does Good On You quantify a brand's impact against various sustainability and social criteria?
Every choice we make as consumers can have a positive effect on the future, so arm yourself with the knowledge of what brands are fostering positive change.

What is Good On You?: The Purpose Behind the Movement:

Good On You is all about empowering people to know the impact of brands and to buy better.
Good On You has been around since 2015 when they launched an app in Australia that helped people make educated and ethical shopping decisions.
Users can use Good On You to research how their favorite fashion brands are impacting on the issues they care about.
Information, guides, and tips are also available for users to drive change toward a more sustainable future.

Good Under the Hood: What Happens Behind the Scenes at Good on You:

At its core, Good On You is a brand rating system with technology that aggregates publicly available brand data that assesses a brand's impact against material, social, and environmental issues in fashion.
An increasing number of shoppers are becoming aware of the issues in the world and want to use their influence positive change.
It's hard to know which third-party certifications are real, and Good On You provides a credible source of information that solves just that.
Making informed decisions usually takes a ton of work from consumers, but Good On You takes the effort out of making meaningful and impactful choices.

The Criteria for Change: Quantifying Social Good:

How are the criteria for Good on You defined, and what are some things that make a brand score well in the Good On You rankings?
There are hundreds of certifications in fashion alone, and Good On You navigates all of this to pull out the most relevant rankings.
Public data holds brands accountable, and consumers have the right to know how brands are impacting the issues that people care about.
There are over 60 sustainability indicators that are fueled by hundreds of data points that measure impact.
The three significant factors are a brand's impact on the environment, a brand's impact on people, and finally, a brand's impact on animals.

A Force of Constant Change: Ever-Evolving Criteria:

As new information on a brand's human impact comes to light, does the criteria evolve?
Good On You balances new information with internal expertise that continually scours what is happening in the industry and has a deep understanding of best practices.
There is also a formal consultation process where Good On You actively engages with leading experts on specific issues.
The Good On You ranking is an accurate representation of what experts in the industry say are best practices.

Sandra's Story: Some More Personal Background:

Hailing from Melbourne, Sandra has been concerned about the future for a long time, and she has always remained hopeful that there is a role that we can all play in bettering the future.
She worked for many years in supply chain management, where she became particularly interested in sustainability issues and eventually corporate responsibility.
Sandra noticed that there was a significant opportunity to use business as a force for good and, in particular, leverage and shift the flow of capital toward creating positive change.
She met her co-founder Gordon Renouf who had done interesting research on consumer change.
They saw a merger between their goals and Good On You was founded on their like-minded approach to change.

Some Brands For Reference: Who's Doing Well?:

There is no silver bullet to supply chain transparency and sustainability, so no brand has done things perfectly yet.
Some brands have built themselves from the ground up with these issues front and center like People Tree, Veja, Reformation, and Armed Angels to name a few.
There's also an exciting trend around recycling that is present among high fashion brands.
Improving the relationship people have to their clothes and to their favorite brands also comes along with backing positive change.

Establishing Consumer Trust: Celebrity Support Boons:

Last year, Emma Watson publicly spoke out in favor of Good On You and praised its efforts to promote positive change.
There has always been a group of people that are highly engaged in ethics that have tried to push social change.
Campaigns like Fashion Revolution have sparked a yearly movement for consumers to question brands on where their clothes come from.
Celebrities, along with organizations like Good On You are empowering people to use their influence to push for social and environmental change.

Striving For Betterment: Helping Brands Seeking Positive Change:

How can a brand set out to meet customers' expectations of social and environmental change?
Good On You gets approached by brands all the time that want to get on the platform to connect with a sustainability-focused audience.
At the other end of the spectrum, Good On You is approached by mainstream brands that are realizing the power of the Good On You Community and want to change to address new consumer values.
How does Good On You educate brands and foster a strong community that is steering significant changes in the fashion industry?

Growing Good On You: Plans for Spreading the Word:

Content marketing has always been and will continue to be a focus for Good On You.
They have been able to leverage that content and naturally grow by attracting people that are searching for ratings and information that Good On You's content provides.
Social media (especially Instagram) is where the community is conversing and is a great place to nurture those relationships.
Partnerships with brands that share a similar mission will always be crucial in expanding.

How Can You Get Involved?: Taking Things Further:

There are people around the world that are concerned about the future and services like Good On You are perfect tools for us to arm ourselves with knowledge on how to make positive change.
Start by checking out the Good On You App, where you can find thousands of brand ratings and make more informed choices.
There are also tips and guides plus tons more information on the Good On You website.
Join the conversation and stop and recognize that our individual choices matter, and every step we take has an impact over time and creates change.

Brands Mentioned in this Episode:

As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! What are some changes you could make today that will better align your brand with a more sustainable model?

Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin.

Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners!

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