If you enjoy picking your way around factories and other industrial facilities, your time has come – thanks to a fast-growing focus on corporate transparency.
It might be that you’re a brand fan; or you live locally; or you just like machinery. Brands such as Ben & Jerrys, Guinness and Heineken have been doing it for decades, but it’s more ‘natural’ if you’re making ice cream or beer and there’s a sampling opportunity at the end.
Sustainable soap maker Method hosts group tours of their Chicago-based factory every Wednesday. They call it the ‘southside soap box’, and it has a lot of impressive environmental features, as you’d expect from designers William McDonough & Partners.
Fashion brand Reformation hosts tours of their Los Angeles factory once per month – very unusual in the apparel industry – so that locals and fans can see it IRL and meet the people who make their clothes.
Danish energy company Orsted (formerly Dong) recently invited local Copenhagen communities to see the combined heat & power plant that warms their homes.
Time to open up your facilities so your customers can get to know you better?
