It’s going to be 20-20 what now?
Yes, 2024 is fast approaching and for any climate-conscious business like ourselves here at EcoSend, it’s time to familiarise yourself with some of the latest sustainability trends.
After all, we all need to do our bit to help the planet. There’s no better place to start than understanding what’s new in all things eco-friendliness.
So here are 7 of the most innovative ideas brought to you by various champions of sustainability and environmental practices to get inspired for the year ahead.
Sustainable Email Marketing
We’re kicking off this list with our own sustainable email marketing tool, since EcoSend launched in 2023 and is set to reach even more businesses in 2024.
Many people don’t realise that their internet habits have a carbon footprint, when in reality every action we take online generates CO2.
Email marketing is no exception, with every email emitting up to 26g of CO2 and over 300 billion emails sent every day.
EcoSend runs on renewable energy sources, and plants trees on behalf of its users. It is hoped that if more businesses switch from the likes of Mailchimp or HubSpot, then the carbon emissions by email marketing can be greatly reduced.
All businesses have to do is sign up for a free trial of EcoSend to get started.
Green Web Hosting
Now you’ve lowered the CO2 emissions from your email marketing, how about your website?
All websites emit CO2 due to the way they are created, stored, shared and crawled. However, green hosting can seriously reduce these emissions. This is because the website will be powered by the likes of wind or solar power, rather than oil or gas.
Website owners can go even further by striving for a zero carbon website. This involves reducing unnecessary code, while also slimming down video and image content on pages to ensure less energy is needed to load them.
A bonus here is that quick-to-load pages result in an improved user experience. This makes it hugely advantageous to remove slow pages from any site, even before you consider lower CO2 emissions.
Did you know?: We mentioned several green hosting providers in our post ‘23 Eco-Friendly Affiliate Marketing Programs
Use Of Natural Building Materials
All buildings need maintenance at some point, and the materials chosen can have a huge impact on the environmental credentials of the project.
Some natural building materials to watch for 2024 and beyond include:
AshCrete
Bamboo
Cob
Cork
Hempcrete
Ferrock
Mycelium
Plant-based rigid foam
Reclaimed materials
Sheep’s wool
Straw bales
Recycled plastic
Timbercrete
These materials are being used either to physically build structures or as insulation.
It’s also worth noting that in recent years there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the poor standard of various newbuild developments. The environmental impact of house building will likely see greater attention in 2024, meaning the construction industry must do more to improve its sustainability credentials.
Even for existing homeowners wanting to make some improvements to their property, thought must be given to the quality, lifecycle and overall environmental ethos of materials used. The above list is a great place to start!
Discover: The Best Sustainable Furniture Companies In The UK For 2023
More Rooftop Gardens + Green Roofs
It’s a fact that our cities are becoming greener, with rooftop gardens springing up everywhere.
Most notably, Google’s new building in King’s Cross will be home to 250 trees and 40,000 tonnes of soil once complete. With an opening date of sometime in 2024, the building has been dubbed the ‘Landscaper’.
However, already welcoming visitors is Foster + Partners' new unveiling - a 29,000 sq ft rooftop garden in London featuring 23,000 plants and 55 trees.
Google searches for ‘rooftop garden’ spiked in June 2023 even more so than in previous years, suggesting these outdoor venues are on everyone's mind.
Beyond improving air quality, access to green spaces such as rooftop gardens also provides benefits for mental health. So expect to see more cropping up in new commercial developments, as well as existing homeowners looking to add green roofs to their outdoor spaces.
Even Less Tolerance For Fast Fashion
In her TED Talk, Founder & CEO of SOJO Josephine Philips pointed out how “valuing the clothes we own is not the cultural norm.”
Growing up in the fast fashion generation, Josephine became tired of the consumption culture, where clothes are so often worn once and discarded. Her company SOJO tailors and repairs clothes, so that people can continue to wear the same garments (even if they change body shape) without having to throw them away.
In 2023, we also saw plenty of documentaries about the wastefulness of the fast fashion industry, including Channel 4’s ‘UNTOLD: Inside The Shein Machine’.
With so much realisation about just how damaging fast fashion is for the environment, we predict even more sustainable fashion movements will come to the forefront in 2024.
Plastic Lawns Phased Out
Gardeners have long detested plastic lawns (aka artificial grass) due to their lack of biodiversity. However, Wales has gone a step further by discussing a possible ban on plastic lawns in 2024.
With so much negativity surrounding artificial grass, we will likely see a return to real lawns and other natural landscaping materials in an effort to improve the environment.
Unlike plastic lawns, real grass lawns have the ability to store carbon in their roots. It is for this reason that grass lawns are well suited to our gardens, particularly those nearby busy roads.
As artificial lawns are easier to maintain, they became popular for ‘low maintenance gardens’. Though, now the environmental impact of plastic lawns is becoming more apparent, this trend finally looks to be heading back in the right direction.
End Of Plastic Bags For Life
The so-called ‘bag for life’ was designed to give us a reusable carrier bag. Though given bags for life are usually made from plastic, they don’t quite go far enough to reduce waste, with Morrisons ditching them altogether after finding customers used their bags an average of one time before discarding them.
Now Marks & Spencer has become the latest UK retailer to replace plastic bags for life with paper bags.
Furthermore, in 2023, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) also banned the sale of single-use plastic including water bottles in a move towards becoming zero waste. Therefore, it’s highly likely that other major airports and venues will also follow suit in 2024.
EcoSend - Switch To Our Sustainable Email Marketing Platform Today
Every business uses email to promote its products and services. But did you know that emails have a carbon footprint?
With one easy switch, you can reduce the carbon footprint of your campaigns, without having to lose out on all the features you need to make sales happen.
Sign up for EcoSend today and we’ll plant a tree on your behalf. Not only will your business be on trend (as we were the first sustainable email platform to exist!) but we’ll instantly help you to become greener in 2024 and beyond.
Have any questions about EcoSend? Drop us a message and our team will be right with you.
