In late 2019, a friend reached out to see if I might be interested in a role at Avocado, an organic-certified mattress company I’d never heard of. Not many people had. I joined the company in the fall of 2019. Not long after I started, Covid-19 changed the world. Suddenly, people were spending a lot more time in — and money on — their homes. 

Avocado took off, quickly growing from a small brand trying to establish itself in a competitive industry to a large, nationally-recognized company with three subsidiaries. The organization was founded on the ideals of business as a force for good, with an institutional commitment to sustainability. We suddenly had a much larger platform to communicate and advocate for the sustainability issues Avocado prioritized. Communicating this work to employees, customers, and media was critical to the brand — especially as the company experienced exponential growth. Here’s how we did it. 

Read more: Greenblushing: the case for honest sustainability communications

1. Engaging employees in sustainability: building internal awareness and buy-in

While I was at Avocado, our headcount grew from less than 100 full-time employees to more than 1,000. As the company grew rapidly, we realized we didn’t have a great way to engage new team members around our sustainability work, which felt imperative, since those initiatives set us apart as a brand. Given the diversity of backgrounds of our workforce, we knew a one-size-fits-all solution wouldn’t work, so we developed three primary internal engagement strategies.

First, I worked closely with our HR team to embed our sustainability work into our onboarding and orientation materials. From day one of employment, we emphasized that sustainability was a company-wide priority. I also worked closely with our production team to develop a bilingual video series that explained sustainability programs like Project Zero Waste and our 1% For the Planet partnership. We posted these to all our company channels and played them in the break rooms at our manufacturing facilities. 

Lastly, I developed a company-wide internal newsletter called “The Seed.” I demonstrated that sustainability wasn’t limited to a single department by interviewing folks throughout the company in brief Q and As about why they cared about the topic and what they did in their role to help the company be more sustainable and successful. Knowing the broad range of familiarity with sustainability topics and issues, we assumed nothing. I treated the newsletter as an educational tool for our own internal programs but also for broader issues as a whole, breaking down topics like climate change science, environmental racism, and sustainability certifications. 

These initiatives resulted in greater company-wide understanding and buy-in for our sustainability goals. 

Read more: How to embed sustainability into your company’s core

‍2. Driving customer engagement through educational and impactful sustainability content

We used a similar strategy — a focus on educational, approachable sustainability communications — to engage our customers. Most company’s dedicate their blogs primarily to SEO, highlighting products or directly related topics. At Avocado, the mission of our blog was thought leadership — to be an authority on socially and environmentally responsible action while providing an inclusive, inspiring space where all were welcome. This approach was extremely successful, as our blog traffic grew from fewer than 100,000 annual visitors to nearly 1 million. We also reinforced our sustainability messages through displays and videos in our retail stores throughout the country, on product tags and packaging, billboards, podcasts, magazines, newsletters, social media, and basically every other medium on the planet. ‍

3. Expanding brand reach through strategic paid partnerships

Of course, as we grew into a mainstream company, we wanted to communicate our work — and our brand values — to a much broader audience. We developed partnerships with major media outlets like Disney, the New York Times, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Condé Nast, Hulu, and iHeartRadio to blast our thought leadership on sustainability into the blowhorn. With Disney, we developed a co-branded commercial to support the launch of a new line of more affordable mattresses along with a film of theirs with sustainability themes. The script I wrote for the spot reinforced our mission by explicitly talking about making the planet a better place. We reached millions of viewers with this broadcast commercial. 

‍4. Leveraging business for impact through legislative advocacy

We knew that we could reach every employee and millions of people through marketing. We knew that we could effectively create no waste, manage our supply chain sustainably, have more certifications than any one person could ever understand, donate millions of dollars to nonprofits, and, well, it would hardly move the needle on climate change. How could we best leverage our business for good? We knew we had to get political. 

I encouraged our leadership to join the American Sustainable Business Network and Ceres. Soon, we were collaborating with the likes of Microsoft, Ikea, Unilever, Etsy, Netflix, Salesforce, Patagonia, and state and federal legislators, using our collective voice to advocate the business case for climate policies that would support stable economies and supply chains. We lobbied congress to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, and, in California, we met with local leaders to support the passage of SB 253 and SB 261 — the first and most expansive climate risk disclosure requirements in the U.S. Naturally, we created thought-leadership content around our advocacy work to clearly communicate what we were doing and why it mattered.  

Read more: Sustainability has evolved. So have we. 

Our journey at Avocado from a small company to a major player in the sustainable business space highlights the power of thoughtful communication and purposeful action. By focusing on internal employee engagement, educational customer outreach, strategic media partnerships, and legislative advocacy, we were able to foster meaningful impact and increased sales. 

Our efforts to champion sustainability not only grew the brand but also contributed to the broader conversation about responsible business practices and climate action. This holistic approach serves as a model for how companies can leverage their influence to drive both business success and positive change in the world.

‍Need help developing a thought leadership campaign? We’re here to help. Reach out to book a meeting with one of our sustainability experts anytime