COLLABORATION -
What happens when an ethical coffee company merges with a major soda group? Chief Sustainability Officer Monique Oxender told us more about Keurig Dr Pepper and its new “Drink Well, Do Good” platform.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The floor beneath our feet can mean so little, or so much. We caught up with Susan Farris, VP of Sustainability Corporate Communications, to learn more about how Shaw’s focus on sustainability is evolving alongside the market.
LEADERSHIP -
Last month, 181 CEOs in the Business Roundtable (BRT) agreed to new principles for how corporations should act. But how can we develop policies, strategies and programs that really do “support the communities in which we work,” as the principles state?
PRESS RELEASE -
On Women's Equality Day, Abbott is publishing a blueprint for creating a high school STEM internship aimed at exposing young people, particularly girls, to STEM early; and empowering other companies to download and use it.
More than half of girls in a YouGov-Abbott survey say they aren't encouraged to study STEM, but 89% of girls who are urged to study STEM say they plan to pursue it in their educations
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
After a year as an employee-owned company, a “new sense of pride and unity” across the business has resulted in a 10% sales uplift for Riverford, and the best sales year recorded in its 30-year history.
WALKING THE TALK -
It is progress when communications and CSR teams unite under the purpose banner. But to deliver sustainable success for all, it is critical that executive teams and their Boards hot-wire purpose into the core of their business strategy.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Throughout the week at SB’19 Detroit, as we were regaled with tales of inspiring programs such as Dave’s Killer Bread’s Second Chance Employment initiative, we were pleasantly struck by the theme that emerged of brands and other organizations cultivating leaders and changemakers from unlikely places and in unique ways.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
At SB’19 Detroit, Burt's Bees, Caesars Entertainment, Dave’s Killer Bread, Gap, Kellogg, Patagonia, P&G and more shared insights and strategies aimed at addressing governance inside and outside their organizations.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
SB’19 Detroit was off to an engaging start this week, with powerhouses including Allbirds, Cisco, Eileen Fisher and Timberland comparing notes with rising craft brands and even Little Miss Flint on the most effective ways to continue to drive change toward a healthy, sustainable future.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
An engaged workforce is critical to an organization’s success, no matter what products or services you’re selling.
COLLABORATION -
On Thursday, Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda — a globally recognized disability rights expert, President of World Enabled and Director of the Inclusive Cities Lab at the University of California Berkeley — shared his vision for socially inclusive, smart cities of the future in a keynote address at the Smart City Expo LATAM Congress 2018 in Puebla, Mexico.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Last week, over 2,000 representatives from our global community of sustainability practitioners, brand strategists, product and service innovators, thought leaders and other change-makers converged at SB’18 Vancouver to share their latest insights on a multitude of themes pertinent to all of those committed to improving business around the world. Here, we dig into brand and organizational efforts to recruit, retain and support an engaged workforce — and go the extra mile for employees in need.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
This is the second in a series of articles examining how business leaders and companies can transform their corporate culture in order to succeed in the midst of the impending Purpose Revolution. Find links to the full series below.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
It should come as no surprise that purpose — defined as your company’s aspirational reason for being beyond profit — plays a key role in the direction of your business on multiple levels. Purpose is an overarching “north star” that serves as a guidepost for decision making.
LEADERSHIP -
The People’s Climate March is coming to Washington, DC on April 29th. Businesses and their employees can take part and show their support for climate action.
WASTE NOT -
MillerCoors, the second largest brewer in the US, announced on Wednesday that all of its major breweries have achieved landfill-free operations.The Fort Worth Brewery in Texas was the final of its eight sites to reach the milestone, after the facility engaged a 'Sustainability Employee Council' that focused on changing employee behaviors and making recycling easier and more accessible.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
One the final sessions at SB ’15 London saw Mandar Apte, chemical engineer and program manager of Shell's GameChanger program on social innovation, facilitate an interactive workshop about how to drive social innovation from inside large organisations and how this could empower the employees and create shared value - for business and society.Apte started by demonstrating the power of the relationship economy. He drove home the idea that in this world of open innovation, it is important to build relationships.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
“I hate my job.”
It’s a sign of a warped world that most of us have heard friends, family or our own lips make this gloomy statement. Chances are that four out of every five people working for you right this minute would rather be not working. This is the percentage of global workers who are not “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to work” — in other words, not engaged — according to Gallup.
Why does this matter? Disengaged workers produce less and turn over more. As a result, companies and teams with largely disengaged workers underperform financially by more than 50 percent compared to those with mostly engaged workers.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
While more and more companies are becoming focused on a triple bottom line — in which they prioritize the health of people and planet in addition to profit — Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson took the sentiment further back in 2000, when he decided to not take a $120 million payout and instead focus on sustaining the health of five bottom lines: Business, Brand, Community, Planet and People.
As CEO Kevin Cleary said during a recent “Feed Your Adventure” tour of Clif’s Emeryville headquarters: “In any given year, we incent ourselves and say we have to deliver on all of them — if you deliver on Business, but you don’t deliver on the rest, that isn’t delivering shareholder value.”
NEW METRICS -
German software company SAP’s operating profit improves EUR35 million ($38 million) to EUR45 million ($49 million) when its employee engagement index rises one percentage point, according to the company’s 2014 integrated report.The financial impact of a higher employee engagement index results, among other things, from the fact that dedicated employees are more innovative and absent from work fewer days. Likewise, because they are more loyal to the company, there is less missed revenue and less recruiting and training costs traditionally associated with higher turnover rates.