LEADERSHIP -
Nearly nine in ten (86%) current CEOs and future business leaders believe businesses should have a social purpose, but just a fifth of the younger generation agrees they are doing so, according to a new study by Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) in partnership with Cranfield’s Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility and The Financial Times’ FT Remark (FT).
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Anheuser-Busch InBev today released the results of its first international survey on consumer attitudes toward the responsible serving and selling of alcoholic beverages — adults of legal drinking age in eight countries were asked about the impact that bartenders, waiters and store clerks have on encouraging responsible drinking. The survey provides new data to highlight the importance of ongoing training and the opportunity to expand these efforts.
NEW METRICS -
Recent significant advances in both sustainability assessment and societal awareness have resulted in businesses placing growing importance on full product value chain transparency. This relates to the need to investigate social impacts throughout products’ values chains and make them visible. Understanding and addressing social impacts has become an increasingly important value driver for frontrunner companies in the sustainability arena.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Datacoup, “The World’s First Personal Data Marketplace,” launched Thursday, providing a platform for individuals to aggregate, analyze and sell their own personal data. After a successful beta period with over 1,200 active users testing new site features and receiving money for their data, the service is primed to welcome 10,000+ individuals on its waiting list, as well as the general public, to its platform.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Of the 50 certified wineries, surprisingly, only three have opted to display the Napa Green logo on their labels — despite the time and cost involved in obtaining those certifications — so, I dug a little deeper.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
McDonald’s Canada’s experience is evidence that social media is pushing transparency mainstream, and that for them the risks have been worth the rewards of increased customer trust.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
When an irreverent spoof video can increase web traffic to the Affordable Care Act website by 40% in less than a day, understanding why can help your brand better communicate with young consumers.
PRESS RELEASE -
ARLINGTON, Va. (April 9, 2014) – The Nature Conservancy released the results of the first global survey to capture not only how much time kids spend outside, but also parents’ perspectives on the importance and benefits of time spent in nature.
The survey, funded by Disney, included parents of children between the ages of three and 18 in the U.S., Brazil, China, France and Hong Kong and revealed the following:
Sixty-five percent (65%) of U.S. parents see it as a “very serious” problem that kids are not spending more time outdoors. According to the survey, this is equal to their concerns about bullying, the quality of education and obesity. Of the other places surveyed, only parents in Brazil and Hong Kong share this concern.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Memes, as defined by Culture2 (formerly DarwinSF) founders Joe Brewer and Lazlo Karafiath, are “the units of culture that reproduce themselves through people’s thoughts and behaviors.” The word meme has recently been appropriated by Internet culture to have a quick image with some funny text overlaid on it, but a meme can be any idea or concept that gets passed around and takes hold.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Once considered strange bedfellows, sustainability and human resource management are being increasingly recognized as an ideal match. Andrew Savitz’s book Talent, Transformation, and the Triple Bottom Line: How Companies Can Leverage Human Resources to Achieve Sustainable Growth compellingly demonstrates why HR leaders are uniquely well-positioned to aid in sustainability efforts and why they need to be included in any brand’s successful transition to embedded sustainability. Here are a few of Savitz’s reasons why:
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Experts in public health have struggled with enabling behaviour change for years. The sustainability sector should learn what it can from their experiences. Consumer behaviour change is the challenge of our time. As governments and brands are beginning to realise, upstream improvements are relatively easy to make compared with the herculean task of shifting consumer behaviours downstream. While the sustainability community is just beginning to get to grips with the gravity of this challenge, our colleagues in public health have been wrestling with it for decades. Great progress has been made, but hard lessons have been learned — costly, time-consuming lessons that we can all learn from.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
In the context of the huge market for fast, disposable fashion, H&M’s brand promise to offer quality fashion at the best price might seem like an oxymoron. But the brand is determined to make good on its goal to “provide fashion for conscious consumers” by making quality clothing more widely accessible."We want to make sustainable fashion more democratic," Helena Helmersson, H&M's head of sustainability, told Reuters last week. "We don't aim for sustainability to be a luxury thing.”But are consumers buying it (so to speak)? Not according to several reports that rank brands according to customer perceptions of their ethical practices.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
It has the potential to benefit 173 million workers in global supply chains and provide livelihood benefits or savings of US $30 billion annually, according to Vodafone and Accenture.What is the ‘it’? It’s a series of six disruptive opportunities for mobile to enhance the lives of workers in global supply chains. Details are laid out in their report, Connected Worker: How mobile technology can improve working life in emerging economies, with corresponding reach, benefits and business case for each of the six:
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Last year, I posted a blog on 2degrees about the Think Big program, and how we have helped people from across our business (Telefonica UK, O2 and partners) to get involved with Think Big, directly delivering sustainability benefits.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The Beer Store, a privately owned chain of retail outlets selling beer and other malt beverages across Ontario, Canada has announced that it has saved the province $40 million in the last year, thanks to its bottle recycling system and the cooperation of many Ontarians.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Numerous marketing campaigns have sprung out of the Black Friday movement that encourage a more conscious approach to consumption — whether through consuming less; producing less waste; supporting local, grassroots or small businesses; or contributing to those in need.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
One in four small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK consider sustainability one of their highest concerns for the coming year, according to a new survey by Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking (LBCB).While sustainability is becoming an integral part of the business landscape, it has traditionally been much more difficult for smaller firms, who may lack the resources to make changes to company administration practices, LBCB says.Encouragingly, the survey found that three out of ten SMEs plan to invest more in sustainable business practices over the next five years, although another 42 percent said that spending on sustainability is likely to remain flat.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Earlier this year, the United Nations released a report on incorporating insects into the diet as a means of increasing nutrition in developing nations and reducing the carbon footprint of the food production industry. While many might have taken this report as a bit of a novelty, it has captured the imagination of several mindful entrepreneurs set to change the way we eat.
Eight-two percent of those actively engaged in social change make an effort to support companies that behave responsibly toward the people and environment in the communities where it operates, according to a new study by Walden University.The 2013 Social Change Impact Report identifies six distinct types of social change agents around the world: Socially Conscious Consumers, Ultracommitted Change-Makers, Faith-Inspired Givers, Purposeful Participants, Casual Contributors and Social Change Spectators. Each type of social change agent is unique in terms of engagement levels, motivating factors and issues of importance.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
Safeway, Oakley, Frontier Airlines and Family Dollar are among those that have adopted a new tool that helps to measure the social impact of giving programs.The Impact Reporting tool, developed by Versaic, a San Mateo, Calif.-based online CSR and sustainability program management provider, enables users to track the impact of their donations by automatically requesting follow up information from approved non-profits after the contribution is made or the event is held.Many companies consider reporting on impact a must-have component of a comprehensive giving program, Versaic says. However, often this is easier said than done.Impact Reporting streamlines this process by collecting data and reporting it automatically, which requires no additional work from users.