I Took the 100-Point Sustainability Challenge — Here's What Changed

Since we launched The Can Marketing Save the Planet 100 Points Challenge a few years ago now, we’ve had hundreds of people take the challenge - many of them come back to us to share the impact it had on them. In this blog we’re sharing the feedback from one of the many marketing students that take our challenge. Thanks to Bethany Cookson, a marketing student at Southampton University for sharing this with us, we thought it would be useful to showcase the impact, and indeed, it may inspire you to take the challenge, or to share the challenge with your team mates or fellow marketers. It’s simple, effective - and just a little bit addictive! Once you start learning, you don’t want to stop.

As part of my Sustainable Marketing module, I completed your 100-point Sustainability Challenge, and I would like to thank you for providing such an insightful resource. Engaging with the learning zone activities significantly developed my understanding of sustainability and challenged my prior assumptions.

As an aspiring marketer, I found the insights into how marketing can effectively communicate sustainability messages particularly valuable. Key takeaways for me included the importance of aligning messaging with consumer motivations and framing sustainable change positively to address the intention-behaviour gap. Furthermore, the focus on innovation and long-term value demonstrates how organisations can integrate sustainability into competitive strategy while fostering customer loyalty.

Additionally, it has made me want to prioritise working for organisations committed to sustainability and transparency.

What began as an academic exercise ended up reshaping how I think about marketing, consumption, and unexpectedly, my own daily choices. If you're on the fence about taking it, here's what the experience was actually like.

What Is the Challenge?

The 100-Point Challenge invites you to work through a curated set of resources; books, podcasts, articles, case studies each worth a set number of points. You choose your own path through the content, building toward 100 points at your own pace. The result is a Can Marketing Save the Planet Sustainable Marketer Certificate, but the real result is something far deeper than an accolade to put on a CV.

What I Learned (That Surprised Me Most)

Marketing has more power than I realised — and more responsibility

Reading Can Marketing Save the Planet? early in the challenge reframed my entire sense of what marketers actually do. The book argues, compellingly, that marketing sits at the intersection of culture, behaviour, and commerce. That means it has a unique ability to shift narratives around sustainability, not just sell green products. As someone building a career in marketing, that felt genuinely important.

The "say-do" gap is the central problem

Almost everything in the challenge circles back to one uncomfortable truth: people say they care about sustainability but don't always act on it. The Can Marketing Save the Planet podcast episode (Ep 106) with Tom Ellis from Brand Genetics on 12 Motivations to Drive Sustainable Change tackled this head-on, the insight that sustainable choices need to create tangible value for people, not just appeal to their conscience, was one of the most practically useful things I took away.

The Sell the Sizzle article reinforced this with its "heaven and hell" framing, leading with the positive vision of what sustainable living looks and feels like, not just the threat of what happens if we don't change.

Circularity is a business model, not just a buzzword

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation content pushed me to think about circular economy principles not as a marketing overlay, but as a structural design choice. The UpCircle Beauty podcast interview with Founder, Anna Brightman, made it tangible. UpCircle is a brand literally built from waste streams, competing on quality and effectiveness, not just ethics. Anna's honesty about why people actually buy beauty products (they want results, not just a clean conscience) was refreshing and strategically sharp.

Greenwashing is a real and present risk

The Inside the Green Claims Code episode with Cecilia Parker Aranha, Director of Consumer Protection at the CMA, landed at exactly the right moment. Cecilia's line — "the drive for sustainability should be the driver, not the ability to make a claim about it" , is one I've written down and kept. It's a useful test for any organisation's sustainability communications: is this genuine, or is it badge-collecting?

What Changed for Me Personally

I came in assuming that sustainable choices were either more expensive, more inconvenient, or both. That assumption didn't survive the challenge intact.

The Climate Visuals resource photographs of environmental damage from around the world made the abstract suddenly visceral. Statistics about carbon footprints are easy to scroll past. Images are not.

Since completing the challenge, I've started incorporating more plant-based meals into my week, reduced unnecessary energy use at home, and begun thinking differently about purchases — asking how long something will last, where it came from, and whether I actually need it. Small changes, but they're consistent ones.

I've also become clearer about the kind of organisations I want to work for. Transparency and genuine sustainability commitment are now non-negotiables in how I evaluate employers.

Why You Should Take It

The challenge works because it doesn't preach. It curates. You're not being told what to think, you're being given high-quality material and the space to form your own conclusions. The mix of formats (books, podcasts, articles, case studies) keeps it from feeling like a reading list, and the simple but effective point structure gives you a sense of momentum.

Whether you're a marketing student, a professional looking to sharpen your sustainability literacy, or just someone curious about how brands and behaviour intersect, the Can Marketing Save the Planet 100-Point Sustainability Challenge will give you frameworks you'll actually use.

It gave me a certificate. More usefully, it gave me a different way of thinking.

Take the challenge. You won't finish it the same person who started it.