The ‘green’ image that consumers might have of brands does not always correspond to the actual ‘green’ policy of companies. This is the result of a research performed by the green innovation consultancy ‘Change’ based in the US . This report  analysed the CSR policies of brands and also assessed the perception of mainstream consumers of how green and responsible a variety of brands are. This then allowed the consultancy to compare the ‘actual score’ of a brand to the ‘perceived score’.  The results were capricious: brands that enjoy a perceived sustainable image often display low actual scores, or the opposite way around

The sustainable image of brands is generally better than last year, according to the report of Change. A sustainable image can make the difference for brands when the price and quality of competitors are equal. Obviously, getting a better image is very important to a brand. According to Change, brands can improve their image by applying what they call ‘consumer-facing’ sustainability. This does not mean improving the CSR of the organisation itself (because the consumer will not notice this), but starting with CSR improvements on areas that are obvious to the consumer , such as less packaging. Such a strategy allows brands to get away with small changes that appeal to the consumer, without making any significant structural changes in the field of production processes, labour conditions and carbon emissions.

Even though we do not agree with all of the conclusions in the report of Change, the message is clear: CSR ranking initiatives like Rank a Brand are highly necessary to reduce the gap between image and reality and to hopefully eventually let it disappear completely.