Walking the Walk at Annual Conference

LBS's Sustainability Investor Relations plants OneSeed trees as part of their Sustainability Investing Forum to increase response rate to event feeback survey from attendees.

LBS’s Sustainability Investor Relations is a strategy-based investor relations consulting company based in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China and Singapore. Through providing customized investor communications and outreach services, they foster the relationships between clients and their stakeholders and investors and transform their committed efforts in ESG into investment value.

How does LBS Sustainability IR show clients the ease and value of weaving sustainability into stakeholder communications?

The LBS Sustainability IR team in Hong Kong saw an opportunity to walk the walk of their own company motto “Think Big and Act Small” by partnering with OneSeed to plant a real tree for every attendee of their Sustainability Investing forum as part of their post-conference communications, and increase feedback survey results.

Planting trees to reward post-conference survey responses

The team looked to achieve several outcomes:

Solicit valuable attendee feedback

Improve upon the typical response rate of 2-16%.

Demonstrate the value of sustainability in action

Gifting a planted tree is immediate, tangible and feel-good, showing attendees how a small sustainable action can go a long way.

Multiple post-event touchpoints with attendees

The reward of a planted tree for survey participation was mentioned several times throughout the conference, including in the closing remarks. The post-conference email was sent out immediately following, with an invitation link to the survey and planted tree.

Initial Results

The reward of a planted tree for their participation was mentioned several times throughout the 1-day conference, including in the closing remarks. The post-conference email was sent out immediately following the conference, with an invitation link to the survey and planted tree reward. Results of the first communication:

Brand Stickiness

The sharable LBS Sustainability IR green bio page is continually updating with an increasing amount of carbon captured by the trees planted from this event.

Every time an attendee virtually visits their planted tree, they are reminded of LBS Sustainability IR as the sponsor of that tree.

Every time an attendee shares their tree, LBS Sustainability IR follows that share as the tree’s sponsor.

Joanne Chan

Founder and Managing Director at LBS Sustainability IR

Now, more than ever, businesses are thinking about their effects on the planet and how they can start helping rather than hurting the environment. We are on a mission to help businesses achieve their sustainability goals and operate greener. While we have stepped up to meet the sustainability challenge, a concerted, multi-sector effort is crucial to achieve radical change. We wish, by making it simple, to incentivize the private sector to play its green role. Teaming up with OneSeed allowed our event attendees to participate in the act of planting a tree hands-free, seeing how easy it is to incorporate sustainability. We truly believe, together we can create a lasting green legacy for the future.

Reference

Why Walking the Walk Matters

Once sustainability entered the mainstream consciousness through concepts such as Triple Bottom Line (TBL)¹, companies that hadn’t given social and environmental issues a thought were suddenly caught playing catch-up, looking for easy routes to appear sustainable without having to make sweeping changes. An increasing pressure, from the public and government, for businesses to reduce their impact gives rise to greenwashing², which easily misleads investors and consumers who are genuinely seeking environmentally friendly companies. When greenwashing is revealed, it can seriously damage a company’s brand and bottom line. LBS Sustainability IR recognizes value in spotlighting this subject to their clients, a significant issue for sustainable investment.

¹ The Triple Bottom Line: What it is & Why it’s Important

² Greenwashing: What it is and How to Avoid it

How to Increase Survey Response Rates

The typical response rate is 2-16% according to Forbes³ and 10-20% being considered a good result rate. 5 ways to increase response rates at digital events are:

Market your survey throughout the event
Send the survey soon after the event
Use incentives
Have a clear call to action

³ Some People Say That Customer Surveys Are Dead: They’re Wrong and Here’s Why