NEW METRICS -
While quantifying and valuing the true costs and benefits of environmental impacts has matured, doing the same for social impacts remains elusive.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
“...almost all fortunes are made out of the capital and labour of other men than those who realise them.” - Lysander SpoonerDo you have to pay to play?If you are a sustainability practitioner and attend events on the topic – do you know the approach those events take to recruiting speakers, and do speakers have to pay to play? Do you know which experts are onstage because of their marketing budgets and which are there on merit?
BLOG -
For the second year in a row, Sustainable Brands Buenos Aires, which took place on September 1-2 at La Rural, convened corporations, communication agencies, NGOs, investors, governments, and other stakeholders, creating an explosion of conversations in social networks, with over 25 million impressions, and providing participants a unique and unforgettable experience.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
One year after drugstore chain CVS Health stopped selling cigarettes, the company released new data that shows the decision has influenced tobacco sales across many types of retailers and announced a new school-based tobacco-prevention program.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Almost exactly 2 years ago I wrote about The True Cost of ‘Cheap.’ Last week a request came for more information: could you talk more about this issue and possible solutions?
Two years ago I focused on Total Cost of Quality issues and advocated we begin to include social cost in our Cost of Quality measures. The basic premise is actually a Six Sigma principle — if you can't shift the mean, shift the goal.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
“I hate my job.”
It’s a sign of a warped world that most of us have heard friends, family or our own lips make this gloomy statement. Chances are that four out of every five people working for you right this minute would rather be not working. This is the percentage of global workers who are not “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to work” — in other words, not engaged — according to Gallup.
Why does this matter? Disengaged workers produce less and turn over more. As a result, companies and teams with largely disengaged workers underperform financially by more than 50 percent compared to those with mostly engaged workers.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
NYC/London-based production company Casual Films believes we have entered “a new era in branded communications.” As Managing Director Barnaby Cook asserts in a video on the company’s website: “In the future, all successful businesses will have to be sustainable.” Not only does the award-winning company help organizations tell their sustainability stories, Casual’s got one of its own, and Cook recently told us more about how his company aims to use the power of video to help responsible companies influence society and change the world.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
While more and more companies are becoming focused on a triple bottom line — in which they prioritize the health of people and planet in addition to profit — Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson took the sentiment further back in 2000, when he decided to not take a $120 million payout and instead focus on sustaining the health of five bottom lines: Business, Brand, Community, Planet and People.
As CEO Kevin Cleary said during a recent “Feed Your Adventure” tour of Clif’s Emeryville headquarters: “In any given year, we incent ourselves and say we have to deliver on all of them — if you deliver on Business, but you don’t deliver on the rest, that isn’t delivering shareholder value.”
COLLABORATION -
The world’s first “summit of conscience” for the climate was held Tuesday in Paris, gathering UN officials, religious leaders and prominent global figures to urge action on climate change ahead of the COP21 meeting in December.Arnold Schwarzenegger was among those in attendance. The former California governor and actor spoke of the real threats posed by climate change.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Last month I did a feature interview with Davis Smith, CEO of outdoor gear and apparel company Cotopaxi, and was impressed with the way the brand had managed to build sustainability and social responsibility into its business model.
WASTE NOT -
Noted sustainability leader Unilever is spearheading a movement for industrial waste reduction.Last week the CPG giant hosted an event in partnership with 2Degrees, bringing together over 100 representatives from academia, NGOs and companies, including Mars, GSK, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Sainsbury’s. Entitled “The zero waste mindset — new ways of thinking to deliver transformational change,” the event created an open discussion on moving companies to zero waste.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
SB ’15 San Diego’s final day plenaries centered on what many would describe as the Holy Grail of sustainability engagement: reaching people’s hearts and minds to drive sustainable change. MC’d by Annie Longsworth, founder and CEO of The Siren Agency, the day’s speakers explored topics as varied and interconnected as employee and consumer engagement, stakeholder partnerships and activist visual art.
WASTE NOT -
Raphael Bemporad, Founding Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at BBMG, kicked off Wednesday’s SB ‘15 San Diego plenaries by anchoring the day’s conversation in the human story. As the day’s moderator, he asked attendees to wonder what it would mean to design brands for humans — not merely consumers — through a lens of “abundance without waste” and set the stage for plenary discussions focused on design, innovation and leadership.
WASTE NOT -
On Tuesday, the week of learning at SB ’15 San Diego continued as Nina Goodrich, director of GreenBlue, moderated a discussion on innovative partnerships around recycling and reuse initiatives.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Tuesday, day two of SB ‘15 San Diego, marked a transition from workshops to breakout sessions and this morning’s session on practical tips and case studies for employee engagement featured a star-studded lineup of experts from Kiva, Google, HP and HIP Investor.We kicked things off with a welcome from WeSpire, host sponsor of the “Workplace of the Future” track, who asked the question: How do we give employees the opportunity to bring their best selves to work?
MARKETING AND COMMS -
For those of us in the sustainability field, stakeholder engagement that leads to action is the Holy Grail for creating the change needed for a healthy world and future.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
At the World Travel & Tourism Council 2015 Global Summit in Madrid today, Sustainable Travel International (STI) unveiled an industry-wide campaign, entitled “10 Million Better,” to monitor and scale up social and environmental benefits from travel and tourism.The 10-year initiative convenes leading tourism corporations, organizations and destinations around the globe with the goal of tracking and demonstrating improvements in the lives of at least 10 million people and their families by 2025. Improvements to be monitored include growth of income and opportunity, and better protection of destinations’ natural, cultural and heritage sites.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Clif Bar has released the second installment in its Farmers Speak series. Where the first centered on organic oats; the second installment “gives voice” to organic almonds — a key ingredient in 17 products across the company’s CLIF®, CLIF® Organic Trail Mix, LUNA® and CLIF® Kit’s Organic Fruit + Nut Bar brand bars.The video tells the story of Burroughs Family Farm — which grows nearly 1,000 acres of organic almonds in Merced County, in California’s Central Valley — and the family’s decision to make the bold transition from conventional to organic farming practices.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
In his recent book, Making Sustainability Stick, Kevin Wilhelm offers a wealth of insight, experience and tools to help individuals and organizations deliver more business value by adding environmental and social parameters to their business strategy. By taking a look from the inside at the work of pioneering companies such as Starbucks and REI, the book shares some of the key things that have contributed to
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In the lead-up to this year’s Sustainable Brands Innovation Open — our competition for startups poised to make scalable, sustainable impacts — we’re catching up with some of our favorite game-changing solutions from past years. This week, we have an update from SBIO 2013 finalist Blue Box.