A sustainability page is fast becoming an essential part of any future-focused, modern business' website.
Here are our tips for building a sustainability landing page that demonstrates your commitment to sustainability along with our favourite examples from the likes of Atlassian, Canva, Linktree and Vitable.
A sustainability landing page is a page found on a business’ website that outlines its commitment to protecting the environment and taking climate action in the course of providing its service or selling its products.
Pages like these exist when business-owners and operators recognise their business has an impact on the environment and want to communicate to their customers, suppliers and broader industry exactly what they’re doing to minimise that impact.
In the past, sustainability pages were mainly found on the websites of brands that were leading the way on environmental issues and known for their ‘eco-credentials’.
Now, as expectations that every business take responsibility for their environment increase, it’s becoming more and more important for every business to mention the steps they’re taking to ‘tread lightly’ somewhere on their site.
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?".... Who knows!? But one thing is fairly certain - if you’re taking steps to make your business sustainable and you don’t talk about it anywhere on your website, no one will know about it.
Even worse, if you make sustainability claims on social media or in the press but don’t have a single source of truth that explains the detail behind those claims, you could be leaving yourself open to claims of greenwashing.
Having a webpage dedicated to sustainability on your site is about more than just protecting yourself from criticism or supporting marketing claims. It also sends a signal to the market that caring for the environment is important and raises the bar on environmental standards across your industry.
But what makes a good sustainability landing page? Read on to find out!
Trace can help your business take the first step on the sustainability journey. We make measuring, managing & reducing your emissions straightforward & engaging
When communicating about any sustainability initiatives your business is planning or undertaking, it’s important to link them back to why they matter to your business specifically. Don’t leave any questions unanswered in the reader’s mind as to how a certain initiative is relevant to your business - being too ambiguous or generic in your approach could mean your actions are interpreted as surface-level or tokenistic.
If there’s not a specific link to the impact of your product or service, be transparent about your motivations. This could be as simple as telling a personal story of why your team is passionate about a certain topic or initiative. The more specific the better!
Check out the Volta Consulting example below for some inspiration.
Becoming a more sustainable business is a never-ending process. Hence, it’s important to celebrate your achievements so far but also to not rest on your laurels.
In addition to listing out what you’ve done in the past, be sure to also include what you’re working on now, or plan to achieve in the future to demonstrate your commitment to continual improvement. This may also preempt any questions your reader has about what you’re doing to address areas they might feel you’re falling behind.
Check out the Sheet Society example below for how to do this in a simple yet effective way.
A sustainability page does not have to be all rainbows and butterflies - you can admit your faults too. It’s very common to see businesses’ making future promises in relation to sustainability (e.g. phasing out plastic packaging or reaching net-zero emissions), but we all know that sometimes even the best laid plans can fall apart. Whether you’ve made future commitments or not, recognising where your efforts haven’t lived up to expectations is a highly-commendable approach to communicating your sustainability journey.
Check out the Atlassian example below for a best-in-class example of this!
There are numerous certifications available to businesses that help verify your commitment to sustainability. These can include things like
Because these certification programs demonstrate that you’re holding your business accountable against third-party standards, they’re a fantastic thing to include on your sustainability landing page.
Making a statement of your commitment and plans is one thing, putting data to your commitments and claims takes them to a whole new level.
Provide data that shows how you’ve been performing to date across key measures of sustainability, like:
If you produce a certain product, you could even go as far as to provide transparency into the environmental impact of the production process. Brands like Everlane, Allbirds and Boost Lab offer some great examples of this!
To accompany your current performance data, communicate any measurable goals you’ve set yourself. For example:
The terminology that surrounds sustainability concepts can be very jargon-heavy and therefore inaccessible to the average consumer. While knowledge of such terms is increasing, we still have a fair way to go before they become widely understood and appreciated.
Hence, we recommend that wherever you use technical terms, like “carbon neutral”, “emissions scopes”, “net zero”, “organic” or “compostable”, that you define these terms or link to resources that provide the extra detail for anyone who doesn’t already know what they mean. If you’re keen to keep visitors on your site, then this is a great excuse to create some of your own supporting content that educates your audience around sustainability topics! If you’re looking for resources relating to carbon neutrality, net zero, carbon offsets or emissions reduction - we have some great articles right here on the Trace website under ‘Learn’!
If someone reading your sustainability page has questions about the claims you’re making and how they impact them as a customer or client, who should they contact? You might want to send them to a generic contact form, or provide the contact information for the in-house ‘expert’/ sustainability lead.
Proactively offering a way for people to ask questions and challenge you via a channel you decide to offer can provide a much more constructive way to manage potential criticism, rather than in public forums like social media.
Sheet Society does this beautifully - check out their page below!
The Australian tech-giant Atlassian, responsible for the likes of software platforms like Jira, Confluence and Trello, is well known for its strong stance on its responsibility to not just ‘do business’ but also ‘do good’.
Co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has featured prominently in the media in recent years encouraging Australia’s transition to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels.
So it only makes sense that they would have best-in-class communications on their website dedicated to sustainability.
In fact, they have more than one page! They have:
1. A ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ page outlining all key initiatives across both social and environmental sustainability, plus
2. Separate pages for each of their annual sustainability reports. Like this one for 2021.
All together, they provide a very detailed yet accessible picture of what the company is doing for the planet and people.
✅ It’s accessible. Their sustainability report isn’t just provided in a 50+ page PDF report, they’ve allowed the key information from the report to be easily understood by anyone, regardless of expertise, through the sleek design of the page, clever copywriting and even a summary video!
✅ There’s a section dedicated to Highlights, Lowlights & Trajectory. The company paints a full picture of where they’re at on their journey and doesn’t shy away from imperfection.
✅ Social & environmental sustainability initiatives are all collated in one place. The summary Sustainability/ CSR page provides links to all relevant announcements, blogs, related landing pages and reports. No digging required!
Canva is easily one of the most-loved Australian tech products, yet many of its fans probably don’t realise the incredible lengths the company goes to behind the scenes to improve the sustainability of the business.
Take a look at their Sustainability page, and you start to build a picture of how passionate they are about taking climate action.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Canva’s sustainability strategy from ‘behind-the-scenes’, we recently spoke to their outgoing Sustainability Lead, Jared Ingersoll in an insightful interview full of handy tips!
✅ The bold summary of key achievements by data point. You can’t miss them - scroll down the page and you’ll get a quick overview of what the company has achieved to date.
✅ Loud and proud leadership buy-in. The quote from co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins sends a strong signal that sustainability is not just an after-thought, but something that the business is integrating into their overall strategy.
✅ Clear links to the company’s product. Canva plants a tree for every new print order placed with them in recognition that this part of the business has a direct environmental impact. They also showcase their library of climate action templates which have been downloaded millions of times, helping people share messages of climate action while using their product!
Linktree is Australia’s leading ‘link in bio’ app, helping users easily create, share and sell online. Their tool makes it easy to create a personalised and customisable page that houses all the important links that you want to share with your audience. The company reports that their Linktrees get over 1.2million views per month which speaks to their enormous reach and potential impact. Luckily, their team is dedicated to using their reach for good, dedicating 1% of revenue to driving social impact.
Their “Social Good” page summarises their key internal and external initiatives to have a positive impact on people and the planet. If you look closely, you’ll notice that Linktree is a proud carbon neutral member of the Trace community!
✅ Clear link to the company’s ‘why’. It’s a common misconception that tech companies like Linktree have little to no environmental impact and their ability to drive positive change through sheer reach is often overlooked. Linktree is all over this and they make it crystal clear how what they do (and how they do it) has the power to be good for the world.
✅ They explain what it means to be carbon neutral. Rather than just saying they are carbon neutral, they explain briefly and in simple terms what that actually means, and the third party they’re working with to achieve it, adding credibility to their claim.
Sheet Society offers some of the most luxurious bed sheets going around, and its customers can also sleep easy knowing the company is conscious of its environmental impact.
The company details its sustainability commitments and achievements via a detailed blog on their website.
The page is a sustainability-nerd’s dream to read. It’s engaging thanks to their light-hearted and friendly brand tone of voice, and accessible with no complicated jargon in sight.
You also get a strong sense that the company recognises sustainability as a journey - they celebrate their achievements (right down to their cardboard baler named Christian - as in ‘Christian Bale’ 😂) but are also aware of the things left to work on.
✅ Every initiative is explained in context. They don’t just throw out claims without rhyme or reason, Sheet Society has a detailed explanation for the reasoning behind each sustainability action and why it’s important.
✅ The list of things they’re working on. It’s great to see the team has their eyes set on future initiatives to continually improve their sustainability credentials.
✅ It’s easy to provide feedback. By having a clear call to action and link to contact them, they’ve opened up an easy dialogue with their climate-conscious customers, allowing them to have their say!
Vitable’s entire mission is centred around helping their customers feel good about their health and the health of the environment, so sustainability is central to everything they do!
Sustainability messaging is dotted across their website, but they still have a dedicated Sustainability page focused on their core initiatives. This truly is a best-in-class example for any product-based company - particularly those operating in an industry notorious for the waste it ordinarily produces!
✅ It clearly links to the company’s ‘why’ and product. This page makes it super clear that every single detail around the sustainability of Vitable’s product has been carefully considered to minimise negative impact. They detail how they’ve designed the product to reduce waste and emissions, and encourage customer stewardship by explaining how customers can do their bit too.
✅ Third-party certifications are featured. They’ve included the logos relating to the sustainability credentials of their compostable packaging and referenced Trace as their partner in measuring, reducing and offsetting their carbon footprint!
✅ FAQs help educate the reader. A simple list of six questions and answers at the bottom of the page address common questions and help educate customers around the key technical terms they’ve used throughout the page.
Volta Consulting is a consulting company founded in 2021 by Narelle Wilson who’s vision is to bridge the gap between profit and purpose and improve the world one small business at a time. It provides a great example of how even a small, young business can have a strong sustainability page capturing its commitments.
✅ It talks about the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The UN SDGs were developed as a framework for individuals, governments and businesses to measure their impact against the key social and environmental challenges facing the world today. Volta does a great job of highlighting the Goals they’re most focused on contributing towards.
✅ Impact data is showcased in a simple infographic. There’s nowhere to hide when you’re using figures like % of female-owned or lead clients, and the number of hours committed to volunteering, so this content packs a punch in a bite-sized way that’s easy to read.
✅ The journey isn’t over. There’s a great list of initiatives at the bottom of the for what the company is focusing on next. So you know this isn’t a set-and-forget strategy for Volta!
We’re always looking for more great examples of how companies are communicating their environmental impact to the world. Have you seen a great example recently, or do you manage a website with an awesome sustainability landing page? Send it to us!
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