CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
On Monday, The Dow Chemical Company released its 2015 Sustainability Report, culminating Dow’s decade-long 2015 Sustainability Goals, which centered on producing solutions to global challenges including the areas of food, water and energy and continuing its commitment to operational excellence.
PRESS RELEASE -
Roman Smith, Director of Sustainability Operations at AT&T, reflects on his experience at Sustainable Brands 2016:
I recently had the privilege and opportunity to represent AT&T at the
Sustainable Brands 2016
conference in gorgeous San Diego. The conference brings together top brands that fill 4 days with extraordinary conversation and insight to inspire and activate business success toward a sustainable future.
COLLABORATION -
When Stan Avery founded Avery Dennison in 1935, he set out to create a values-based business admired as much for its ethics and integrity as for its innovation. Eight decades later, the company still strives to adhere to its value-based mandate and is working to ensure that its employees and business partners know, understand and live up to its high ethical standards, according to Helen Sahi, senior director of Sustainability at Avery Dennison.
“Key to our progress has been treating sustainability not as something we do, but how we do everything,” Sahi told Sustainable Brands. “We’ve integrated sustainability into our underlying business strategy, from our people to our products to the communities we serve.”
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In 2014, Patagonia dissolved its sustainability department – a move that the company’s VP of public engagement, Rick Ridgeway, remains proud of to this day. Overnight, the outdoor clothing brand deepened its commitment to environmental and social justice by decentralizing its sustainability team and moving them individually out into core areas of the business where they would have most influence.
NEW METRICS -
We have entered a new era: the Anthropocene, an era characterized by humans as the dominant influence on climate and the environment. We are causing changes at such an unprecedented rate that it has been called ‘the Great Acceleration.’ We are well on our way to exceeding planetary boundaries, and while science has established some understanding of this, it is still rather abstract for us in our daily lives and in our business planning.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Today, Dell unveiled the significant progress it has made against the 21 goals under its 2020 Legacy of Good Plan. Based on a baseline of its Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13) performance, the company aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its facilities and logistics by 50 percent, ensure 100 percent of product packaging is sourced from sustainable materials and is either recyclable or compostable, identify and quantify the environmental benefits of IT-based solutions, and much more.
LEADERSHIP -
Kashi is on a mission to increase organic acreage in the U.S. – but we can’t do it alone. Today, I’d like to invite you – food lovers, buyers, and growers - to join us on our journey.
The Challenge
Forty percent of the United States is farmland – but, despite soaring demand for organic products, less than one percent of that farmland is Certified USDA Organic.1 At Kashi, we believe in nourishing, plant-based foods that promote powerful, uplifting health – and we cannot talk about improving the health of people without improving the health of our planet.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
“I think in an organization, when you’re trying to do something different, it’s important to take up that shared risk,” said Alex Thompson, VP of Communications & Public Affairs at REI, during the Thursday morning plenaries at SB'16 San Diego.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
What do Organic Valley, Target, REI and Toyota have in common? They are what Freya WIlliams describes as “Green Giants,” companies that have turned sustainability into billion-dollar businesses, and they are not alone.
PRESS RELEASE -
Integrating purpose through a common brand promise and aligning sustainability strategy with internal culture and values are key drivers of corporate leadership according to the findings of the just-released 2016 Sustainability Leaders Survey by GlobeScan and SustainAbility in partnership with Sustainable Brands.
The Sustainability Leaders Survey tracks expert opinions on the evolution of the sustainability agenda for two decades, along with views on the leaders and institutions most responsible for driving it forward. This is the first edition of the survey since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change in late 2015.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
“We’re going to change the world - all of us together. I know we will.” – Max Schorr
GOOD is a social impact company that creates stories, experiences, and tools to push the world forward. During a dynamic workshop Monday afternoon, the GOOD team - including Max Schorr, co-founder and Chief Community Officer; Casey Caplowe, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer; and Gabriel Reilich, Head of Video - provided case studies, tools, and interactive exercises to help workshop attendees answer the question: How do you build something that people want to be a part of?
The goals of the workshop were:
PRESS RELEASE -
Sustainable Brands® largest community gathering kicked off with Sustainable Brands ’16 San Diego at Paradise Point Resort & Spa. Nearly 2,000 community members from 30 countries around the globe are participating in the conference, Activation Hub and live stream. This year’s theme, Activating Purpose, focuses on how companies are developing real tools, techniques, methods and models for embedding purpose into the core of a brand and finding business success.
NEW METRICS -
This morning at SB’16 San Diego, BSR and Forum for the Future launched the Net Positive Project, a cross-sector coalition that aims to expand the number of companies that go beyond reducing their negative sustainability impacts to contribute in a “net positive” way to society, the environment, and the global economy.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Language is a virus: Get it wrong and it can kill your venture. Get it right, and it inspires others and spreads like fire. In sustainability, where we are still working to attract new audiences, this can be the difference between engagement and alienation. So how do we get it right?
According to Betsy Henning, CEO & Founder of AHA, an award-winning creative marketing communications firm based in Portland, Oregon, there are seven deadly sins of sustainability communications to avoid:
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
SB’16 San Diego kicked off strong with a morning workshop led by Kevin Wilhelm - CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting - and Kevin Hagen, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Iron Mountain. Together, they have created the Hagen-Wilhelm Matrix – a tool to help organizations not only identify what phase of sustainability they are in but how to advance their organization forward. This matrix moves away from linear sustainability phases offered by other models that map organizations’ sustainability journeys.
PRESS RELEASE -
The research firm Gartner Inc. has released the findings from its annual Supply Chain Top 25, identifying supply chain leaders and highlighting their best practices. Analysts announced the results May 18 at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
For the first time, Unilever topped the ranking, followed by McDonald's, Amazon, Intel, and a newcomer to the top five, the Swedish fashion retailer H&M. Five new companies made the Supply Chain Top 25 this year, with Schneider Electric, BASF, and BMW joining the list for the first time, and HP and GlaxoSmithKline rejoining after several years. (See below for the full list.)
PRESS RELEASE -
PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is proud to announce it ranked No. 1 on Newsweek’s 2016 Green Rankings, released today. The ranking assesses the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States on overall environmental performance.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and Sustainable Brands on the power of purpose in driving business success. The Huffington Post is a media partner for SB’16 San Diego, Sustainable Brands’ flagship conference — June 6th-9th.
PRESS RELEASE -
“Our suppliers are key partners in our quest to deliver superior value to our customers,” said Roland Simon, global vice president, procurement. “These awards are an ideal opportunity to recognize ongoing innovation and outstanding support, and to forge stronger relationships so that we can continue collaborating to drive excellence throughout the value chain.”
US-based industrial control systems supplier Quad Plus was recognized as “Supplier of the Year” for their exceptional efforts across all categories of performance.
LEADERSHIP -
For the first time since A.T. Kearney’s first Global Cities Index in 2008, London overtook New York City to claim the top spot. London has steadily improved its performance in the 27 metrics across the five evaluated dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.1 While New York continued to lead in business activity and human capital, London was able to close the gap due to its leading position in cultural experience and increased political engagement. Paris ranked third and was the leader in the information exchange dimension.