Hosted out of the UAE, the sustainability squad was created to bring together a group of members to help drive change around ESG and help curate high-quality content in the UAE’s Year of Sustainability. The squad seeks to put The Marketing Society at the heart of the Sustainability conversation in the build-up to COP28 and lead the conversation for the industry.

Episode 6

In episode 6 of the Marketing Society’s Sustainability Squad podcast series the hear from Abdul Rahim Osman (15 years of experience in business and marketing in the financial services industry) and Tricia Weener (Global CMO, Sustainability Leader and Coach) as they explore how marketers can drive positive change and plan for long-term sustainable growth.

The purpose of the podcast is to educate and inspire the marcomms community to drive change around sustainability and ESG, build case studies of great work marketeers have done in the region around ESG and demonstrate real life problem solving and creativity to influence stakeholder groups around better ESG principles.

The aim of the series is to empower the wider marcomms community to drive change in their organisations.

The series produced by Podcast Now, will cover topics such as: Sustainability and ESG Literacy, Creativity and Storytelling, Behavioural Science and case studies from leading marketeers in the region.

Have you ever considered the carbon footprint of your email activity?

Welcome to the first in our ‘greening your marketing activity’ mini-series! Did you know that your digital activity has a carbon footprint? Are you aware that there are better choices you can make which mean your marketing activity is greener and more sustainable, without compromising on performance and quality? Well, that’s what we’ll be exploring in the next few episodes.

Every organisation will have to commit to decarbonisation targets, regardless of sector or size. When writing our latest book, research identified that behind R&D, marketing has the largest proportion of organisational budget. Therefore, Marketers need to consider their marketing carbon footprint if they are to align with and support their organisations’ sustainability agendas.

We wanted to kick this mini-series off with the second most used online channel in the world (after instant messaging) - email. Why, because we send a LOT of emails, over 300 BILLION emails a day and, as well as needing to develop better and more efficient and responsible practices when it comes to our email marketing activity, there is also the practicalities of the carbon footprint to consider. So, we spoke to James Gill, Founder of EcoSend a platform that delivers, ‘Better email campaigns. Fewer emissions.’

Join us on this episode as we talk to James about:

• The concept of digital sustainability and how our online activities have a carbon footprint.
• The importance of understanding your email activity and how you can improve it from both a performance and sustainability perspective.
• What goes on behind the email platforms you use.
• Improving your email behaviours and practices – professionally and personally.
• How to drive efficiencies.
• How EcoSend can make the platform switch as painless as possible.

This episode is packed full of insights and practical information which will get your brains whirling, so dive in and get your notebooks ready.

For more information about Ecosend - visit https://ecosend.io/

And to connect with James via LinkedIn - he’s here https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesjgill/

Another great episode… enjoy.

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You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

This month, THINK EQUAL Project Director, Leanne Foy met Lucy d’Abo, workplace culture expert, entrepreneur and public speaker.

Together, Leanne and Lucy explore workplace culture, defining important questions, such as; what is workplace culture? Why is it important? And, how can business leaders cultivate a positive workplace culture?

In this episode, Lucy gives real examples from her past and current businesses sharing what it takes to build, manage and perform in the business world with culture at the core. Taking it one step further, this episode's key theme is unconscious bias and the impact it has on workplace culture. We deep dive into how unconscious bias manifests in organisations, how to spot it and why business leaders need to prioritise people, purpose and culture.

Highlights include:

• The connection between a positive workplace Culture business growth
• Tangible actions business leaders can do to cultivate a great workplace culture
• Why unconscious bias could be holding your team back from reaching their true potential

This episode is packed with insights and advice to take your organisational culture to the next level. We hope you enjoy it!

A note from THINK EQUAL

We are stronger together, than we are alone. And that’s why we want the marcomms industry to come together to make a difference. Every single person who makes up our brilliant industry can make an impact. Want to get involved? We’d love to hear from you. Whether that’s through donating your time on our working committee or putting your hand up to run an event or training session, you may have some suggestions of speakers to add to our speaker library, or have a venue you want to provide for free. Contact us at thinkequal@marketingsociety.com

Every other breath you take comes from the ocean …

How much thought do you give to the products you use to clean your home? We recently took a metaphorical deep dive with Amanda Horn into her love of the ocean as part of World Ocean Day and Ocean Week (in Canada), and how important the ocean and water is to our lives. Following our chat with Amanda, we then we explored toxic free circularity with Paul Arellano Foulkes.

In this episode, we continue the theme of caring for our oceans, speaking with Adam Parker over at OceanSaver, a brand on an incredible mission to “save Ocean life from the plastic pollution and harmful chemicals in 28 billion plastic cleaning products created every year.”

OceanSaver make plastic-free, plant based cleaning products, and as customers, we can vouch for how good they are!

Adam talks about the big picture, how the ocean itself is drowning from overfishing, plastic pollution and harmful chemicals. We discuss the need for solutions and products which do less / no harm and the need and role for us (Marketers), especially those working in the FMCG space, to think about the responsibilities we have and the stories we tell.

Adam shares his experience, the approach they take at OceanSaver and the journey they are on to keep making ecofriendly cleaning products accessible, affordable and a no brainer choice for consumers. They also donate 1% of profit for ocean conversation!

We love how innovative, creative and vibrant OceanSaver is, so be sure to tune in and, get them on your shopping list, you won’t be disappointed. Kind to wallet and the ocean - and very effective.

Tune in to hear us talk with Adam about:

• How we need to reconnect people with the ocean and keep educating folks on how incredibly important it is to us
• How to make better product choices more accessible
• Working with the grain of human psychology and behaviour
• Letting people on auto pilot make more sustainable choices
• Showing that sustainable choices are affordable and that people are looking for them
• The critical role of retailers
• What Marketers can be doing to support the business case for change

For more information about Oceansaver - visit https://www.ocean-saver.com

View their latest, fun and informative ad - meet Gareth… and enjoy the sea shanty

And to connect with Adam via LinkedIn - it’s here…

Another great episode… enjoy.

________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

Episode #129. Understanding grief is the topic of this episode, an area of personal understanding to support ourselves but also others in our care that may be experiencing grief.

*Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion around bereavement and loss of a child.

A complex and personal process, grief is the intense feeling of loss of someone or something which can manifest physically, mentally and emotionally.

Abby’s guest is Lucy Hudson, Managing Director of McCann Birmingham which is part of McCann Central, the UK’s largest marketing communications integrated agency. Lucy is a WACL Talent Award Winner, mentor and founding member of The Margot Collective, McCann World group’s first female-led consulting collective.

After losing her daughter Poppy to a brain tumour, Lucy is dedicated to talking and writing about the effects of grief, particularly in the workplace.

In this episode, Lucy shares her definition of grief and how it becomes a part of you, the impact bereavement has in the workplace, companies making admin and return to work easier, ‘pre-grief’ and understanding all the elements of loss (finance, identity, career, your own health). Plus practical advice for employers to support colleagues.

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Lucy Hudson | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

This month, THINK EQUAL Project Director,Leanne Foy met Laura Naylor, Dubai 92 radio host, MC and public speaker.

What is it about public speaking that so many of us find so intimidating? Why do women feel less confident than their male counterparts when it comes to public speaking? If conference speaking, panel moderating or stage presenting fills you with butterflies, this episode is for you.

Laura shares how a shift in mindset could be the key to feeling powerful and positive on stage. Her tried and tested techniques have helped friends and peers embrace speaking opportunities.

In this episode, we explore how perfectionism and fear may be the reason why many women decline speaker opportunities, and why it’s these women we so desperately want on stage. With many corporate event stages lacking diversity, this is a call to female leaders to take to the stage and a call for businesses to support their female talent in this area.

Highlights include:

• How to develop a confident mindset when presenting
• The traits of confident public speakers
• Why self belief, authenticity and preparation are your public speaking superpowers

Laura’s passion and energy are contagious.

It's a wonderful listen, we hope you enjoy it!

A note from THINK EQUAL

We are stronger together, than we are alone. And that’s why we want the marcomms industry to come together to make a difference. Every single person who makes up our brilliant industry can make an impact. Want to get involved? We’d love to hear from you. Whether that’s through donating your time on our working committee, or putting your hand up to run an event or training session, you may have some suggestions of speakers to add to our speaker library, or have a venue you want to provide for free. Contact us at thinkequal@marketingsociety.com

Degrowth equals greater profits – and big disruptions are coming…

In this episode we got to talk to the brilliant Paul Folkes Arellano about circularity, and not just circularity, but toxic free circularity. Paul shares his knowledge, insights and experience in a space which plays a significant role in sustainability, business and societal behaviours.

Paul share with us how he got into the toxic free circularity space, and shares so many examples of organisations who are doing great things with circularity, and also how collaboration and partnerships are critical to building the business case and turning circularity into meaningful business solutions that can scale.

We talked about the need for Marketers to get involved, to get to grips with and understand their product lifecycle assessments by spending time with their R&D teams, and as Paul says it, “sticking your hands in the compost”. A critical part that brings with it a wealth of stories.

Paul also talks about degrowth and the fact that degrowth equals greater profits. Circularity drives efficiencies, greater loyalty, less waste and, there is also huge amounts of capital to be gained from waste. This episode left us feeling uplifted and full of motivation and confirmed, once again, why we are such big advocates for circularity.

Join us on this episode as we talk to Paul about:

• The circular economy and toxic free circularity.
• The opportunities and the business case for circularity.
• Why Marketers should be spending time in R&D labs to truly understand their products
• The great work being done in circularity and why full product life cycle assessments are imperative for marketers to be part of.
• The need for more good stories to be shared.
• The future of sustainability and circularity and long-term planning.

For more information about Paul’s work visit Circuthon Consulting.

And follow his insights and great conversations via LinkedIn too.

A great episode… enjoy.

________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

Episode #128. The Burnout Miniseries ep5 – The last episode in our mini-series on burnout shares the story of an agency marketer who, following her experience of extreme burnout, uses the power of breathwork, meditation and wellbeing to help and prevent burnout in others.

Abby’s guest is Briony Gunson, mindset coach, wellbeing trainer, meditation teacher and breathworker. Passionate about supporting people in managing stress, anxiety and burnout,  some of Briony’s corporate clients include NHS, EY, Santander, Lloyds bank, We Work and Freemasons.

In this episode, Briony shares her definition and experience of burnout, listening to your mind and body system, processing trauma, safe spaces, slowing down feeling uncomfortable and power of breathing and techniques.

Plus her advice for marketers of tomorrow.

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Briony Gunson | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com