How Can Brands Help Save the World? Find out in this latest book by Bob Sheard

Brands can help save the world. That is the premise of a provocative yet practical new book by brand design expert, Bob Sheard, showing how brands have the potential to drive commercial success via sustainable practices.

As world leaders and governance structures struggle to address global threats like climate change, Sheard believes that our key democratic expression lies in how we spend our money.

Increasingly people will choose brands that represent the future they want to see, the ones that achieve growth that replenishes not depletes the planet.

But building a critical mass of brands that can be active agents of positive change demands redesigning commerce and rethinking corporate growth. These are topics that Sheard tackles head on.

Sheard introduces a framework of 21 regenerative brand design protocols designed to guide businesses in redefining growth. These protocols advocate for a transition from traditional manufacturing models to those centred on knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Collaborating with UAL, Central Saint Martins, Sheard has also developed educational programmes aimed at implementing these principles in real-world scenarios for undergraduate, graduate and executive audiences as well as an incubator to grow regenerative brands.

The book challenges business leaders to consider:

• How companies can drive profitable growth without making/selling more “stuff”
• How to grow while reducing environmental impact
• How to redesign the enterprise and design brands accordingly – reimagining them around knowledge, skills, intelligence, culture, behaviour and infrastructure and less around manufacturing
• Establishing new metrics for growth beyond financial gain

Over his 30-year career, Sheard has used his brand design skillset to elevate market positions and financial outcomes for global brands.

In a planet that cannot sustain conventional economics, he argues that this powerful discipline can help build brands around regenerative principles, moving away from over-production and planned obsolescence.

He provides examples of how he and his team have already reconfigured brands and helped them find alternative, profitable growth paths.  Decathlon-owned Simond, the outdoor clothing and equipment brand born in the Alps, has entrusted Sheard to reconfigure the brand in a way that does not harm the natural environment that inspired it. This involves:

• A move away from a purely manufacturing model to an experience model all while driving the bottom line
• Designing new growth avenues built around instruction, skills development, fitness, qualifications, educational platforms, guided expeditions, and expedition preparation
• An increased focus on product longevity, including repair services, second-hand sales and rental programmes, leading to less landfill

Bob Sheard says: “I’ve spent my career making some of the world’s most famous brands cool and driving sales. I’ve come to realise that traditional growth models are socially obsessive (e.g. my car is bigger and faster than yours), economically compulsive and ecologically regressive. When the world is on fire I can’t in all good consciousness continue doing things the same way.”

Offering a perspective on the book’s hopeful message, Jonathan Chenevix-Trench, former chairman, Morgan Stanley says: “Many books explore how companies can be more sustainable, but none that I know of do so through the lens of brand design. That’s what sets this one apart—along with the fact that Bob and his team are actively working with businesses to re-engineer them for a regenerative future.

“I should know—I’m one of them. At Madresfield, our family estate in Malvern, we aim to leave the land better than we found it. We’ve brought that philosophy to life with Bob and his team through a new gardening brand, Mad About Land, which also serves as a revenue stream and a real-world testbed for the 21 regenerative protocols Bob has created.”

The Brand New Future – How Brands Can Save the World – by Bob Sheard is published by LID publishing and available from all leading bookstores.