Welcome to the October edition of TekNiche - this month our guest editor is David Smith, Publitek’s VP of Creative. With sustainability now an important consideration for buyers across tech B2B markets, many brands feel the responsibility to help create and demonstrate how they contribute to a liveable future. But with so much terminology at play, how do brands ensure they communicate their efforts correctly? 

“This month’s niche
asks are you clean, green or climate tech?”

Buyers are increasingly making decisions based on climate impact, creating a real demand for organisations to communicate with clarity the steps they are taking to operate more sustainably.

However, the ever-changing terminology can often obscure and confuse rather than clarify where an organisation has focused on sustainability. In particular, let’s take a look at three related terms: climate tech, clean tech and green tech.

Climate tech refers to technology that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2 as a driver of climate change, and entirely new tech markets such as green hydrogen which can replace natural gas use. With renewable energy technology such as solar and wind maturing, climate tech is the newest of the three terms, developed to represent new approaches to get at the harder-to-decarbonise sectors. For brands, communicating how they intend to reduce and eventually eliminate emissions will be key to convincing B2B buyers - one such example is our work with Kohler Power called Sustainable Future. 

Clean tech is a much broader term that includes climate tech and describes technologies that seek to improve our overall environment by reducing waste and pollution. Clean tech refers to non-carbon energy and can also be applied to efforts to curb the use of plastics, chemicals, e-waste and other byproducts dangerous to plants, animals and humans. With such extensive environmental challenges to reduce waste, there’s an opportunity for brands to explain clearly how they contribute to clean tech solutions. After we helped them launch a new brand, Ascend Elements has risen to become a leader in recycling EV batteries with their clear and easy-to-understand value proposition: keeping them out of landfills and reducing demand for raw materials. 

Finally, with its roots in 1990s environment movements, green tech is the precursor to both terms and is still used interchangeably with clean tech. Green tech is broader and extends across all human impacts on the environment, so for B2B tech brands looking to explain their sustainability products and services, clean tech and climate tech are more specific terms to adopt.

While clean tech and climate tech industries are growing rapidly, and vitally important to our future, we see that almost all tech B2B marketing must consider sustainability as a driver of interest and preference. Driven by government mandate, corporate policy and consumer activism, sustainability is a growing differentiator for tech-based products and services. Is it part of your corporate strategy? Then let’s work together on getting the word out.

In case you missed it...

We know the engineering landscape is now more diverse than ever before and marketers need to employ a range of tactics to tailor content across a variety of formats and channels to reach career starters, experienced, and veteran engineers operating across all areas of the design cycle. Account Executive, Shawnay Shaw shared 3 key trends shaping how we market to the engineering industry.

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, brands need to connect with engineers across different generations in distinct ways including embracing technology. Zach Hynoski, our VP of Community Marketing shares how understanding their preferences and tailoring content to suit their needs is crucial for successful engagement.

Taking into account those meaningful customer insights and key industry trends, Account Director Kathryn Lummis discusses how creating exceptional content is fundamental for B2B deep tech brands in meeting the constant demand for high quality information.

Finally, we know it can be tricky to access reliable insights to inform your campaigns which is why we developed Seer, a suite of performance monitoring and insights tools that provide real-time, actionable information that fuels smarter and more targeted marketing and communications programs.