Why You Need A “People And Planet” Page

Retailers increasingly want to see a People And Planet page on your website and in your wholesale catalogue. We want to know where your company stands on issues of environmental impact, diversity and inclusion.

That’s because we live inside overlapping climatic and societal crises.

The impacts of those crises are no means uniform – some of us are insulated by layers of privilege. Nevertheless, it’s becoming harder and harder to ignore the fact that our world is on fire.

Most of us don’t want to make things worse and neither do our customers. We understand the money we spend has the power to hurt or heal and therefore want to make an informed choice about the companies we buy from.

This isn’t yet true for every shopkeeper, of course.

Some will have zero interest. At the time of writing, not having one on your website is unlikely to do your business significant harm.

But times are changing.

A new framework for running businesses, one that doesn’t worship endless growth at the cost of our finite natural resources and the lives of our fellow human beings, is coming. It’s smart to adopt this way of thinking sooner rather than later.

So your Planet And People page is where you set out your policies. It’s where you tell us where you stand on these issues, and what concrete steps you’re taking to address them.

It’s very important you don’t give up if:

a) You don’t have formal environmental and diversity policies yet, or

b) You’re not doing much in the way of concrete steps beyond re-using your tea bags.

All of that can change and it’s normal and reasonable to start small. The point is that we do start, me included. If you need help formulating your policies, look to industry bodies, advisors in your niche and makers who create similar products.

Here are two templates for laying out your Planet And People page, along with breakdowns of their notable features.

This is a situation in which the hard work is in the thinking, not the writing. Once you know what you stand for, all you have to do is express it simply and clearly. Just tell us what you believe in as business and what you’re doing with those beliefs.

Your page, like our collective efforts, will always be a work in progress.

Template #1

Some features to note in this layout:

Template #2

Here’s another way to lay out your People And Planet page. This one’s a good option if you have more to talk about. And don’t worry if you can’t create a website or catalogue page design that looks exactly like my examples – it’s the underlying structure that matters.

Some features to note in this layout: