5 years ago - If there’s one group that’s basking in the long shadow cast by Donald Trump’s ill-fated decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, it’s business.
5 years ago - Leaving Cannes last week, I felt even more schizophrenic than I did during my hard-working years in ad land. On the one hand, it’s been the best year ever in the Festival’s history for advertising that does more than sell snake oil - call it ‘Goodvertising,’ if you will. On the other, it seems like most agencies and marketers are treating the biggest issues of our time as a new trend, as if doing good is simply the ‘new black’ or perhaps pink (judging from the number of women’s equality campaigns on show).
5 years ago - This blog is part of the GlobeScan-SustainAbility Leaders Survey 20th anniversary project being conducted by GlobeScan and SustainAbility in partnership with Interface.
5 years ago - Long gone are the days when acting in a socially responsible manner was optional. Consumers now demand it and expectations are shifting to include how companies can create social value for stakeholders across the value chain. The annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, which quantifies reputation ratings for the 100 most visible companies in the U.S., as perceived by the general public, provides a glimpse at how companies are stacking up in the changing corporate reputation landscape. In its latest study, U.S.
5 years ago - While telegraphed for days and choreographed down to the military band playing soft jazz in the background before the announcement, President Trump’s June 01, 2017 declaration that the U.S. will pull out of the Paris Agreement still jarred and dismayed.
5 years ago - Circular initiatives may be on the rise, but an impending commodity crisis for cobalt indicates that we still haven’t learned our lesson as far as resource depletion is concerned. The ferromagnetic metal is primarily used in the preparation of magnetic, wear-resistant and high-performance alloys and is a critical component of batteries designed for electric vehicles, laptops, smartphones and a host of other electronics. And we’re running out.
5 years ago - This is the seventh in a series of articles examining the many facets of ‘sustainable leadership.’ Find links to the entire series below. Our search for sustainable leadership has shown us how to find the opportunities in a crisis and turn the best of them into an inspiring vision. To help ensure successful implementation of that vision, sustainable leaders add two final abilities to their skill set.
5 years ago - In spite of a chaotic political arena, a majority of Americans share the view that The Good Life is defined by connections to people and planet more than by material wealth and consumption. Furthermore, Americans are looking to brands to take the lead in showing them how they can make a more fulfilling life according to a US study of 1,000 adults 18+ conducted in April 2017. The Enabling the Good Life Report from Sustainable Brands and Harris Poll released today shows the dramatic shift in American attitudes and reflects a gap between people’s new aspirations and the ways business responds.
5 years ago - Top brands continue to make their voices heard in the days leading up to the G7 Summit in Italy, with the release of yet another letter urging President Trump and the administration to deliver on its climate commitments.
5 years ago - In 2016, clean energy giant SunEdison set its sights on acquiring Vivint Solar, a rooftop solar panel installation company. In what unfolded as a sordid affair, Vivint terminated the deal.
6 years ago - Renewables continue to gain traction both with businesses and governments, offering solutions to reduce impacts and address issues of energy security. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is the latest to embrace renewables, signing a new agreement with EDF Energy to buy all of its electricity for its manufacturing and production sites from renewable sources up to March 2020.
6 years ago - The language of business can be combative (launch, target, strategize), or very often it is about profits, sales, shared value - the language of money. We are either warriors or accountants when it comes to business. However, both warring and counting money are inherently non-productive. In themselves, as actions, they are incapable of producing growth.
6 years ago - An updated version of the Carbon Clean 200 (Clean200) released today by As You Sow and Corporate Knights reveals that China continues to play a leading role in the clean energy economic expansion. Although China’s stock market is less than half the size of the U.S., it has almost double the number of large clean energy companies (71 vs. 41).
6 years ago - More than 530 companies and 100 investors – from iconic Fortune 500 firms to small family-owned businesses – are calling on the Trump administration and the new Congress to continue to support policies to accelerate a low-carbon future that will help curb climate change.
6 years ago - Apple, HP, Samsung SDI and Sony have joined the Responsible Cobalt Initiative, with a pledge to follow the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines for mining supply chains, which call for traceability and immediate correction of any abuses.
6 years ago - NASA doesn’t just train astronauts and send them into space - it also does a good deal of Earth-related research, providing us with an overview of the planet’s continuing evolution, and making important contributions to our understanding of what’s happening to the Earth because of climate change. But with the coming inauguration of Donald Trump, that’s about to change.
6 years ago - Today, Sonoma County winemaker Jackson Family Wines (JFW) unveiled its first sustainability report, supported by a list of comprehensive 5-year goals. The family-owned wine company, known for its portfolio of over 30 premium wineries, including household names as Kendall-Jackson, La Crema and Cambria, is a progressive leader in environmentally and socially responsible business practices.
6 years ago - A report released today from As Yow Sow and Corporate Knights reveals that a list of 200 clean energy companies known as the Carbon Clean 200™ (Clean200™) show a simulated annualized return of 21.82 percent over the past decade – nearly triple that of the Carbon Underground 200™, a list of fossil fuel companies being targeted for divestment, which generated a 7.84 percent annualized return over the same period. The Clean200’s high figure was largely due to the explosive growth experienced by Chinese cleantech firms, but firms outside of China still had figures superior to the S&P 1200 global benchmark and Carbon Underground 200.
6 years ago - Billionaire industrialist Elon Musk is doubling-down on the ambitious vision he laid out in August 2006. In a blog post, Musk recently revealed his “Master Plan, Part Deux,” which extends beyond a corporate strategy for his electric car company Tesla, covering the breadth of the sustainable energy chain from generation and storage, to electrification of several types of vehicles, to the sharing economy.
6 years ago - “Facility managers are at a premium these days and are overtaxed,” said Julien Gervreau, director of Sustainability at Jackson Family Wines (JFW) during a Thursday breakout session at SB'16 San Diego. That’s why the winery is benefiting from Tesla Energy’s stationary energy storage systems, which currently stores 4.2 MW of electricity. Partnering with Tesla has been helpful because the energy innovator understands how the winery is trying to be disruptive, Gervreau said.