ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Many employees are re-evaluating what they want and expect from their employers. This is a pivotal moment for companies to recalibrate program offerings and better support employees in applying their unique talents to purposeful projects in the communities where they live, work and raise their families.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
We can’t keep communicating about climate change in ways that feed our evolutionary prejudices and continue kicking the can down the road. We must outsmart our biases using strategic communication tactics so we can take action when it matters — which is now. Here are 3 ways to hack our brains for climate action.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
This year, we saw companies double-down on purpose amidst a rise in consumer skepticism and politically motivated attacks on ESG. Below are six notable trends and what they might mean for 2023.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
How does identifying with a certain political party, generation or minority group influence whether consumers think more highly or more disapprovingly of a brand taking on a cause? Here is what we learned.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
When it comes to ESG initiatives and their relationship to consumer behavior, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach; but leveraging ongoing research into consumer attitudes can help align corporate ESG initiatives that can help steer your brand through uncharted waters and changing sentiments.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
New survey finds 83% of US consumers value brand product transparency, but only 47% feel they have the information to make sustainability-based purchasing decisions. Impact labeling will begin with Garnier products and roll out progressively across L'Oréal's brand portfolio.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Offsetting initiatives are becoming increasingly popular
among businesses looking to be seen as leaders in sustainability. However — while the approach can be an interim solution for operations that can’t be fully decarbonized — companies must focus first on working with their supply chain to identify where immediate changes can be made.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Campbell's — and many other companies’ — current 401(k) options have employees investing millions in fossil fuels and deforestation through Vanguard, which has just announced it has left the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative.
NEW METRICS -
NatureMetrics says new platform represents breakthrough in understanding and managing our impact on nature — providing simple, standardized metrics to track and report on site-based nature impacts.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
If a corporation really wants diversity and its benefits, the only way to get it is to regularly hire and promote people who don’t look like the current leadership. The task is to create not just the appearance of change, but a genuine commitment to creating equitable organizations and systems.
COLLABORATION -
The first COP took place in 1995 — 27 years later, and it’s easy to understand the scepticism. We’re still quite a long way from universal adoption by all nations and private sector actors of net-zero strategies that align with the urgent timescales science tells us are needed. But no other issue brings 198
nation states together in this way.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Self-reported data from over 7,700 companies that responded to questions on biodiversity through CDP’s climate change questionnaire shows they are ready to disclose on biodiversity, sending a powerful signal to negotiators ahead of
COP15.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
For most readers, bribery or corruption aren’t part of your everyday experience — though they should be part of due diligence processes on your business partners and supply chain. However, the danger that one department says one
thing and another does something different and inconsistent is clear in every company.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The financial and reputational freefall that Eli Lilly experienced in the first few weeks of Musk’s tenure as Twitter chief illustrated an underappreciated factor in an organization’s level of vulnerability: validity. Companies need a risk model that includes the key elements of vulnerability — and that helps them take precautions, set up checkpoints and plan for contingencies.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
BCG and the CMO Sustainability Accelerator — a coalition that includes Sustainable Brands, ANA and Adweek — have developed a practical guide to help brands “bring green to the mainstream” by developing and marketing sustainable choices for all consumers, not just those moved by sustainability claims.
WALKING THE TALK -
This is the first of three daily updates from the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights 2022. Day one started a week that focuses not on holding individual
companies to account, but where the systems that will enable this are being framed.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
When done thoughtfully, brands can use social media to champion sustainable living and generate positive outcomes that are favorable to people, the planet and their overall business results.
WALKING THE TALK -
Why have the collective efforts of national governments, NGOs, forward-looking companies and citizens had so little impact on curbing carbon emissions? Here are three reasons why high-level pledges are not translating into concrete actions — and what’s needed to break through.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A new study examines the waste challenges companies are facing due to the global supply chain crisis and how they are being tackled, and how consumer priorities impact waste — they now report prioritizing product durability and transparency over
sustainability.