NEW METRICS -
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”— John DonneIs the world a better place because we exist?Socially useful business is neither a new idea nor one that is particularly at odds with the fundamental point of business — to sell things that people want or need.However, demonstrating social utility has becoming rather a burning issue in recent years, spurred not just by the slow growing questioning of the current mode of international capitalism but also by the rather more pointed challenges to the purpose of whole sections of the economy raised by the recent financial crash.
NEW METRICS -
Despite the progress being made in organizations around the world in the pursuit of sustainability, many still suffer from internal breakdowns in communication on the subject, even when all teams are, ultimately, working toward the same goal. We asked a variety of practitioners their thoughts on solving two of the perhaps most common “language barriers” within companies today — that between Marketing and Sustainability teams, and between LCA practitioners and, well, the rest of the company. And the common theme around solutions seems to involve little more than changing your perspective.
NEW METRICS -
When Peter Bakker from the WBCSD declared that corporate social responsibility is dead, he urged us to create new definitions of success. The change to a more holistic approach is already happening. However, shouldn’t we place the shared value that we create at the heart of what we do?
LEADERSHIP -
Fritjof Capra is the author of many best-selling books, including The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, The Hidden Connections and The Web of Life. His most recent book is The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision, co-written with his friend Pier Luigi Luisi. I recently had the opportunity to meet Capra in São Paulo, where we discussed this new systemic concept of life, and particularly what it means for leadership in organisations.
PRESS RELEASE -
By: Mark DeGrootMaking time to help others is an invaluable experience. Volunteering benefits those we serve and adds meaning to our daily lives. I am proud of the many hours my AT&T colleagues devote to helping others – not only during National Volunteer Week – but during every other week throughout the year. During this year’s National Volunteer Week, I spent my time supporting the United Cerebral Palsy Land of Lincoln (UCPLL). UCPLL provides comprehensive services to over 600 children and adults with disabilities throughout Central Illinois. Over four days, a group of us completed various activities including helping UCPLL participants with art projects and making the center more beautiful by planting flowers.
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We’re up to our ‘proverbials’ in Brand Advocates, Influencers & Champions. The social shock troops have to no little degree saved a lot of the big consumer multinationals from themselves. They have proved themselves both central in driving relevance and a vastly improved and far more respectful model of customer service. They are to that end critical in securing the survival of relevance in many multinational brands who until quite recently had acted with old school impunity and arrogance when called to account.But the blunt grassroots tool for creating better is just one of two required to secure an improved human existence in the face of our stratospheric levels of consumption and the brands who feed it.
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In 13 earlier parts of this series, Claire Sommer and I developed 25 pitfalls in the sustainable business metrics field, based on the experiences of many mostly non-business fields. (Find them here.)It is tempting to believe objectivity is possible, humans are rational creatures, and decisions should (and could) be based on these. To be a member of such a higher species is reassuring (however much one might question this status on some “Page 1” newspaper days).
PRESS RELEASE -
By: Jenny Robertson“Have you ever been to prison before?”Tall, quiet but confident, Lisa asked me this as we sat talking before her graduation ceremony started. Dressed in navy blue prison scrubs, she smoothed the notebook in her lap and chuckled when I confirmed this was my first time in a prison. “Everyone stared at you as you walked in, right? It’s so bad — we all stare, but we can’t help it. Everyone wants to know who you are and why you’re here.”
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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.
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As we approach the world’s 21st year of international climate change negotiations (let that sink in), it has never been more critical for citizens to begin demanding and building climate action. That is exactly why Prince Ea has teamed up with Code REDD's Stand For Trees campaign to create an unprecedented reflection on the consequences of our climate inaction, and an inspired vision of collective change.
LEADERSHIP -
As some of you will have seen, some time ago I coined the term ‘knotworks,’ which I defined as ‘networks with ego.’ My first articles about knotworks related to co-creation and the way in which many networks, projects and organisations eventually collapse due to underlying dynamics relating to ego, which people, especially leaders, fail to either recognise or address.
NEW METRICS -
In 12 earlier parts of this series, Claire Sommer and I developed 22 pitfalls in the sustainable business metrics field, based on the experiences of many mostly non-business fields. (Find them here.)
PRESS RELEASE -
UPS helps the NCAA solve the challenge of delivering the Final Four to the fans -- everything from the floor to the seats to the game balls. As teams battle it out in the NCAA Final Four tournament, coaches and fans fight cancer with a different court. The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), together with UPS, created a replica of the NCAA men's and women's Final Four basketball courts. Each coach participating in the NCAA tournament has signed one of the 132 panels that make up the courts. Fans can bid on the panels in an online charity auction benefitting the Kay Yow Cancer Fund and Coaches vs. Cancer. NCAA coaches, fans, and UPS, are committed to more than basketball.
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OK, I hear you. The change chart is pretty busy, but there’s a lot packed into this infographic. In the first post in the series, I highlight the key curves: The blue value & profitability curve shows that companies will be more successful as they adopt sustainable business thinking.
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.
PRESS RELEASE -
Part of United Way’s Alternative Spring Break Program Allowing Students Opportunities to Give Back
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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
NEW METRICS -
If ever there was an auspicious moment in performance measurement and reporting, this is surely it. Multicapitalism has arrived! Listen to how author Jane Gleeson-White puts it in her terrific new book, Six Capitals, or Can Accountants Save the Planet? (2015):
WASTE NOT -
Two years ago at Davos, the sharing economy was a foreign concept. Whenever I asked anyone I met if they had heard of the phrase, I would receive blank stares. Perhaps 5% of people had heard of Airbnb (though they rarely used it). Quite a few more had heard of Zipcar – maybe around 20% of the people I spoke to – but most of them admitted that their familiarity was due to the company’s acquisition by Avis earlier that month.
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You may not immediately see the similarities between the recent measles outbreak in the U.S., and the ever-contentious hydra-headed problem of global warming. But on closer scrutiny, both come from what may seem like an insane refusal to accept facts and act in the best interests of everyone concerned. Of course, to those who militate against vaccinating their children and attack the idea of global warming as a human-induced phenomenon, their actions don’t seem insane at all. It should be clear from these two examples that we are controlled by irrational forces that have successfully created the illusion that we are not controlled by irrational forces.