How to Leverage Sustainability to Drive Revenue Growth

How to Leverage Sustainability to Drive Revenue Growth

Adrian Alfieri
Adrian Alfieri
CEO, Verbatim

Neutrl is a platform that makes it easy for consumers to shop sustainably. They're partnering with hundreds of brands like Enso Rings, Aura Bora, and Magic Mind to reduce the carbon footprint of consumer goods. 

We sat down with Ian Lazarus, Founder and CEO of Neutrl, to understand how his team enables DTC brands to operate more sustainably. Specifically, we cover:

  • Helping brands speak transparently about sustainability with their shoppers
  • What it means to build a community of like-minded shoppers
  • How to shift the narrative of being a modern brand that's aware of its carbon footprint


A Brand's Journey Towards Sustainability

Neutrl was born out of Ian's desire to help brands and consumers become more aware of the hidden cost of commerce and its impact on climate change.

He initially noticed that consumers were increasingly clamoring for brands to produce their products sustainably. In response, brands were trying to figure out how to address their relationship with climate change.

That's where Neutrl enters the picture. They built a tool that helps merchants calculate carbon emissions associated with customer orders.


You Have to Start Somewhere

When Ian pitches Neutrl to potential customers, they're often eager to plug the tool into their website immediately. However, Ian wants to ensure brands understand their climate footprint in addition to simply installing a shiny tool.

Brands can often spend months thinking about retooling their entire supply chain, but Ian reminds them that they can begin by offsetting the emissions from the thousands of packages they send out a day.

By waiting to reveal a brand's sustainability plans until they’re perfect, brands can miss out on a valuable opportunity to take action and share their sustainability journey with consumers immediately. 

"Consumers are more serious than ever about shopping sustainably. They want to combat climate change, but they just don't know where to start."


Building a Community Flywheel and Driving Value

Neutrl is focused on building a community of brands and shoppers aligned in their mission to be more carbon-conscious.

Making this their focus has allowed Neutrl to achieve incredible results for its partners, proving how serious both buyers and brands are about taking care of the environment. 

One of Neutrl's brand partners saw a 28% increase in revenue over a six-month window when consumers opted to offset their emissions with Neutrl at checkout, proving that sustainability is more than a fad.

While Neutrl's inclusion at checkout allows consumers to transact more sustainably, it also increases the chance they'll transact more often, driving greater LTV through customer retention.

"Increased revenue and conversions prove that buyers care about doing good."


More Than a Checkbox 

Neutrl is more than a checkbox. They are:

  • Addressing consumer desires to shop for products consciously
  • Empowering brands to speak about sustainability to their customers
  • Building long-term relationships with customers, leading to more revenue for the brands

"UPS won't help brands marketing their sustainable shipping efforts; that's our job."


Carbon Neutral; Shifting the Conversation

As carbon neutrality becomes more popular, Neutrl plays an active role in shifting the conversation for the general public.

The airline industry has normalized the option for customers to offset their emissions. 

Still, there isn't the same adoption when it comes to retail, even though apparel is one of the highest CO2-emitting industries in the world. By partnering with Neutrl, brands and consumers can actively take steps in the right direction.

"eCom continues to explode, meaning C02 emissions will only get worse. We have to change that." 


Being on the Right Side of History 

54% of Gen Z consumers think about their carbon footprint when shopping, and 88% of shoppers want brands to help them live more sustainably, but the reality is that many brands aren’t prepared to do so.

Neutrl solves this, seamlessly empowering brands to tell their sustainability story to consumers, building meaningful relationships as both combat climate change.

"We can't ignore climate change any longer. By partnering with us, you get to be on the right side of history."

Adrian Alfieri
Adrian Alfieri
CEO, Verbatim
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Kennan Davison

Kennan Davison

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Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Solo-founded Skio ($15M+ ARR & profitable, $8M seed), Pinterest, Hulu, Top 200 NA LoL, YC S20, Dropout (at 19).
Hi, I'm Kennan!
Thank you for reading this. My life has been a journey full of ups & downs & I’m grateful to be here.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon & found school extremely boring. I slept through every class because of this. If I'm being real, no one expected me to go anywhere (I ranked top 200 in NA out of 10M+ in League of Legends though).
This all changed when I was 18. I had a big wakeup call & had to start supporting myself.
I started skipping class to code 100 hours a week & combined with my hate for school, I dropped out after 1 year to join Pinterest as an engineer. Pinterest paid very well, but was very boring.
After too long of this, I started my 1st company, Skio, & got into Y Combinator (S20). I did badly during the batch & had to pivot. Thankfully, post-pivot Skio killed it.
Today, Skio is the #1 subscription management software for brands on Shopify with 1000+ brands (Liquid I.V., Milk Bar, Polaroid, Barstool, Unilever, KraveBeauty, Boba Tea Protein), $15M+ ARR & profitable ($8.4M seed), & an amazing team of 60.
All these up-and-down adventures led to Icon. Icon is the culmination of every lesson I've learned (I made many stupid mistakes) in these 10 years of grinding.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to our customers, my team, our investors, & anyone reading this. I have no life and work 7 days a week: feel free to reach out any time at kennan@icon.com.

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Kennan Davison

Kennan Davison

CEO, Founder
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Kennan Davison
Solo-founded Skio ($15M+ ARR & profitable, $8M seed), Pinterest, Hulu, Top 200 NA LoL, YC S20, Dropout (at 19).
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Head of AI at Ramp, CEO at Cohere (acq. by Ramp), Nuro, Facebook, YC S20, Duke (dropout).
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