BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Unilever Australia’s latest iteration of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty focuses on the internet search terms used by young girls, which highlight the prevalence of negative body image and eating disorders.
PRESS RELEASE -
Two years ago we launched one of our largest and most exciting corporate responsibility programs to date, the Symantec Cyber Career Connection (SC3), which addresses the global cybersecurity workforce gap by training and certifying young adults and veterans in cybersecurity and assisting them in landing meaningful internships and jobs.
CLEANTECH -
The first five years of a child’s life are a critical window for learning and development, but we have yet to master how best to teach and engage children throughout that time. Hoping to advance preschool education, Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization that produces Sesame Street, has partnered with IBM to develop new educational platforms and products using Sesame’s early childhood expertise and IBM Watson’s cognitive computing technology.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
News Deeply, in partnership with Sustainable Brands, has produced a series of profiles looking at how brands are tackling some of the world's biggest challenges. The goal is to examine trends and gather insights from a new wave of corporate citizenship – in an era when the private sector is increasingly expected to play a positive role in improving our lives and societies. This is the 3rd article in the series.
PRESS RELEASE -
When we look at the statistics, it is still very clear that women are extremely underrepresented in Science, Technology and Math (STEM) careers. Half of the U.S. workforce is female, and half of the college population, however, only 28% are in STEM fields[1] and only 39% of chemists and material scientists, 28 percent of environmental scientists and geoscientists, 16 percent of chemical engineers and 12 percent of civil engineers are female[2]. Additionally, research shows that women who complete STEM degrees are less likely than males to actually pursue a STEM career.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
In 2015, Target wrapped up its five-year goals and built the foundation for the future of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice, which is to make wellness a way of life; pursue sustainability for products and business operations; champion a more inclusive society; and invest and engage in their communities. Summarizing their progress and capturing important projects and milestones, Target’s 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Report was released this week.
PRESS RELEASE -
Last week, outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland hosted 25 of Africa’s most talented, emerging leaders at its Stratham, NH headquarters to share the company’s values-driven approach to business. Each of the entrepreneurs is a recipient of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship program of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) that empowers young people through academic coursework, leadership training and networking. Through this program, some of the brightest entrepreneurs from various countries across sub-Saharan Africa were invited to explore innovative ideas from various business leaders at Timberland.
PRESS RELEASE -
Bank of America today announced a $40 million commitment to connect 100,000 teens and young adults to the skills and employment experiences needed for 21st-century jobs. Over the next three years, in partnership with nonprofit organizations across the country, the bank will fund summer internships, education and job training, and support diverse talent to help build a pipeline that will strengthen and enhance tomorrow’s workforce.
"Investing in young adults to help provide them the opportunities they need to build their career skills makes a meaningful impact in their lives and the lives of our communities," said Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO, Bank of America.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Those with the most toys don’t always win, as a new video game is aiming to convey: Block’hood is a video game centered around construction and city planning that is out to raise awareness and understanding around the topic of sustainability.
As your Block’hood grows, resource needs get more complex - and with 90+ blocks available for building, an infinitude of choices must be balanced with hood-ecology, taking into account living space, agriculture, commerce and manufacturing.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Evonomics co-founders Joe Brewer and Robert Kadar led an engaging presentation-turned-debate Wednesday morning that started with the question, “Is economics a science?”
The discussion generated from this kickoff question set the tone for the rest of the hour, where individuals from academia, finance, NGOs, and corporations engaged in rich discussion on the evolution of economics – its history, its relevance, and its future.
PRESS RELEASE -
At the 2016 Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced a new environmental initiative – Earth Badge – to help more families and communities become actively engaged in outdoor activities and environmental projects. Developed by the Boy Scouts of America in partnership with Mother Nature Network, Earth Badge is a historic journey into BSA’s iconic heritage and unparalleled library of environmental and outdoor knowledge combined with new, innovative and relevant content that will be accessible to a new and broader population of youth and families.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Technology is exponentially accelerating, creating a future that is difficult to imagine and one that impacts communities on a systems level. It is Robert Suarez’s job to think way, way outside of the box and design for that exponential future. Whether helping to put a 3D printer and recycler in space or creating a virtual holographic room with Lowe’s, Suarez dreams big and designs for exponential impact. As the Managing Director of Innovation and Design for Singularity University, he tackles large social and environmental issues.
PRESS RELEASE -
In celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, Toyota is pleased to announce that it awarded scholarships to 22 Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) students for post-secondary education in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The annual scholarship is offered through a collaborative partnership between Toyota and the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing college scholarships to APIAs. The 2016 student recipients were each awarded $5,000 in funding towards a degree in a STEM field for their first two years of college.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Get ‘em while they’re young.
It’s a strategy long embraced by the world of media, advertising and marketing, whether it be product placement in kids’ literature, TV shows or movies; cartoon characters created to make a brand more cuddly; or movies and games that come with a readymade collection of toys attached.
WASTE NOT -
On Wednesday, May 18th, a one-day food festival will offer free meals to 5,000 people at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The event is designed to educate the public on the problem of food waste, and to elevate the conversation around food and sustainability policy.
Recent research estimates that the U.S. alone spends $218 billion a year growing, processing and transporting food that is never eaten, with up to 63 million tons of perfectly edible food ending up in American landfills each year, while roughly 49 million Americans live in food-insecure households.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
A new collaboration between Disney and Recyclebank, a Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) company that promotes sustainable behavior change, “hopes to inspire teachable moments with kids and families” across the U.S. and encourage recycling through the magic of Disney storytelling and characters.
WASTE NOT -
The 2016 FIRST® LEGO® League Arabia Open, the largest regional robotics competition in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, took place this past weekend at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. More than 50 teams of children from eight Arab countries competed in this year’s 'TRASH TREK Challenge,' working to find solutions to the world’s waste problem.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Building on the inspiration and energy from day one, day two of the International Women’s Day Forum kicked off with a panel on The Power of Communication and Perception. Beth Colleton, SVP of CSR at NBC Universal, posed the question: “We reach 97 percent of all people in any given month. But how do we get people to care?”
MARKETING AND COMMS -
A futuristic space station, rainforests and oceans will be explored by a cast of diverse kids and their animal friends in a new 3D-animated television show, Planet Blue. The show’s creators hope to inspire environmental awareness among children and capture their imaginations “with genuinely endearing characters, engaging scenarios, and writing that's funny enough to make them forget that they're learning.”
COLLABORATION -
The Climate CoLab — an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launched in 2009 — has launched its annual set of contests seeking high-impact proposals on how people, organizations and governments can collaborate to tackle major climate change challenges. Entries can win prizes — including a $10,000 cash award and a chance to present at MIT — and also feed into larger climate action plans for countries and the whole world, which the community will build on the platform later this year.