MARKETING AND COMMS -
In a sector where social and environmental commitments have traditionally focused on philanthropic efforts, luxury is perhaps the most poised for instigating positive change within the fashion industry, argues Nicola Giuggioli, CEO of Eco-Age. According to Giuggioli, the luxury industry’s intimate knowledge and appreciation of high-quality materials, manufacturing and notions of provenance, alongside its smaller scale in comparison to mass fashion, position it to become a leader in the sustainability space.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
In this series, Christophe Fauconnier & Benoit Beaufils, respectively CEO & founding partner of brand consultancy Innate Motion, present the tools that the company uses to develop purposeful, mission-driven brands with their clients. Benoit & Christophe view their tools as a free “thoughtware” suite, and propose that readers borrow and reapply.
BLOG -
Let’s recap, shall we?Recent sustainability news has not been uplifting.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The field of environmental sustainability is fraught with emotional issues: climate change, water shortages, population growth, food purity, animal extinction … the list goes on and on.These complex issues are intricately entwined with national economics, social mores, political and religious beliefs and fear.Clients are always asking us to develop “education” campaigns to change attitudes or behaviors, thinking (logically) that if people only understood the facts, they’d change their behavior.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Currently, sustainability is a lot like beauty — its definition lies in the eyes of the beholder. This author’s preference is for actionable definitions that can be integrated into daily operational processes. The following is an attempt to define sustainability through this lens.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Nearly 40 percent of all shareholder proposals filed in 2013 came from the environmental and social (E&S) category, representing the largest category overall, according to a recent report by Ernst & Young.Taking flight: Environmental sustainability proposals gain more attention identifies the specific requests investors are making in environmental sustainability proposals, company practices referenced by shareholder proponents in their supporting statements and examples of company actions that have led to withdrawals.The top five E&S proposal topic areas were:
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
What single success driver do branding, design, innovation, sustainability, public policy, product development, sales, social sector program management and organizational change have in common? The answer is simple: engagement. Whenever we do something for people or involving people, engagement must be at the center. If we leave out engagement we’ll quickly become cut off from the very people whose benefit we are working for, and separated from the people we need to help forward our objectives. Then we’ll be left wondering what went wrong.
NEW METRICS -
All businesses stay alive by being price competitive. After all, if there are no customers to pay for your product, you can’t make sales and without sales there are no revenues. In an ideal world, a business sets its pricing based on the costs it incurs to produce but other businesses compete by offering different pricing (some do choose strategies based on servicing or other value-added activities).
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
“If we can’t get the consumer involved, we will always be behind the curve,” Marks & Spencer CEO Marc Bolland said when he launched the retailer’s ‘Plan A’ sustainability stakeholder consultation.The logic is compelling. Changing customer behavior is a natural part of the sustainable business strategies businesses must create to achieve long-term success. And instead of being seen as an extension of CSR strategies they will be seen more as Long-Term Marketing strategies that are creating the company’s preferred future operating environment.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
Looking for ways to reduce your company’s environmental impact? While cloud computing may not seem all that eco-friendly at first glance, a closer look reveals a number of benefits. surprisingly, the answer to that question may very well be yes. Recent studies have shown that a large enterprise that moves its HR application to the public cloud can, in five years, cut its CO2 emissions by as much as 30,000 metric tons. This amount is about the same as you would get if you took 5900 cars off the road.Here are some of the ways that the cloud can help your organization cut its carbon footprint down to size:Energy Savings
MARKETING AND COMMS -
U.S.-based sustainability consulting firm Pure Strategies this week announced a partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to help companies that disclose emissions to CDP to minimize climate risks and impacts in their organizations, products and global supply chains.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
I live as the sole injection of estrogen in a house full of testosterone with my husband and two young boys, aged nine and six. But suddenly I am swimming in estrogen.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) has released its 2013 Retail Sustainability Report, which highlights progress towards the industry’s evolving sustainability objectives and identifies a class of top-performing characteristics.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A team from Seymourpowell, one of the UK’s most established design and innovation consultancies, were thrilled to spend an evening in the company of a select group of motivated Design & Technology teachers, at the recent Tunbridge Wells Teardown Lab led by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. It proved a fascinating evening of new insight and practical hands-on learning.
PRODUCTS AND DESIGN -
Designing more sustainable products requires both changes in how designers approach their work and quick access to information that can justify alternative designs and materials.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The Big Four accounting firms — Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC — have the strongest brand preference in both the sustainability consulting and sustainability assurance markets, according to a global survey of 250 heads of sustainability. Independent analyst firm Verdantix found that in sustainability consulting, Ernst & Young leads with a brand preference score of 39%, relative to 37% for KPMG, 33% for Deloitte and 30% for PwC. Among the management consulting firms, Accenture achieved a score of 22% beating McKinsey on 21% and Bain on 15%.
Sustainability consulting firm Esty Environmental Partners, which counts Coca-Cola, FedEx and Xerox among its clients, re-launched this week as Viridis Strategy Group.
LEADERSHIP -
This month two of us - Andrew Winston and Chris Laszlo - begin 2012 with an inquiry into how personal and brand leadership is evolving to serve both thriving businesses and a flourishing world. The question of what leadership really looks like is vital;