Leadership
Exemplary cases of sustainability leadership and intrapreneurship, and the qualities, ethical principles and/or dilemmas inherent within them.
Over 100,000 Sign 16-Year-Old’s Petition Urging Clinton, Trump to End U.S. Fossil Fuel Use by 2026
16-year-old climate activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is petitioning the 2016 U.S. presidential candidates to take a strong stance on ending climate change. In a Care2 petition and a corresponding video letter, Martinez is urging the candidates to pledge to end fossil fuel use in the U.S. by 2026. The petition attracted over 100,000 signatures in its first week online.
If Humanity Were a Corporation ...
... what would it take to make Sustainability its Brand and the Sufficiency Economy its Value? While at this moment, every social unit recognises that we all need to take action NOW, the most challenging question is always: HOW? What should be — would be — the best solution to enable us to achieve sustainability? So let’s think big and try a little thought experiment: What if humanity were a corporation — what would it take to make sustainability its brand? How can we create value that will set the framework to build a sustainable brand?
Businesses Urge Paris Agreement Ratification, UK Affirms Commitments at Business & Climate Summit
Business and political leaders convened in London on June 28 and 29 for the second annual Business & Climate Summit, where they called for the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement without further delay, as well as more collaboration between businesses and governments in order to achieve global policy frameworks conducive to long-term, climate-resilient, low carbon investments.
5 Key Takeaways on North America's Most Sustainable Printers
Remember Coles Notes? Those magical little study aids that helped bring focus and clarity to even the most mind-numbing of university courses (Hmmm, come to think of it, I wonder what they were printed on?). As a busy professional, I now rely on exactly that kind of trusted analysis in almost all realms of my life - be it which phone to replace my ailing device with, which restaurants serve the best vegetarian fare, where to stay whilst on the road.
UNGC Recognizes Novozymes' Claus Stig Pedersen as One of Ten 2016 Local SDG Pioneers
Today at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2016 in New York, Claus Stig Pedersen, Head of Corporate Sustainability at biotech giant Novozymes, was announced as one of ten 2016 Local Pioneers of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
One Percent Is Not Enough: Let's Work Together to Increase Organics
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.
Purpose as a Filter for Decision-Making
The food industry is in the midst of a revolution that’s reshaping the way we grow food, develop recipes, choose ingredients and even decide what materials go into the packaging of our products. For today’s consumer, transparency is the coin of the realm. That’s the subject of the panel discussion I led at Sustainable Brands ‘16 San Diego last week.
Sustainability Leaders Agree: Integrating Purpose, Brand a Top Driver of Corporate Leadership
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, released today at SB’16 San Diego.
Get Gritty: Building Personal Resilience for More Successful Leadership
In her Monday morning workshop at Sustainable Brands’16 San Diego, psychologist Laura Delizonna, PhD, provided an introduction to positive psychology, how it fosters success, and how it can be leveraged in the workplace. “Positive emotions help us broaden our vision, build resources, and grow as individuals,” Delizonna explained. Practicing mindfulness and building emotional intelligence, she added, have been proven to boost memory, ability to collaborate, and altruism.
Attention, Change Agents: How to Help Shape Your CEO's Sustainability Decisions
It’s no secret that your CEO’s level of commitment to sustainability can have a huge impact on your organization’s sustainability journey. That’s why we decided to speak with over 100 CEOs, board members, and sustainability executives from a range of global companies, to try to understand the factors that influence CEO leadership and decision making around sustainability — and how corporate sustainability change agents can help support that process. Here are a few of the interesting things we learned:
London, NYC Ranked Most Global Cities; San Francisco, Boston Among Most Innovative
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.
Food and Beverage Giants Appeal to Congress for Urgent Action on Climate Change
In the wake of the signing of the historic global climate agreement on Earth Day, more than a half-dozen leading food and beverage companies converged on Capitol Hill last week to press U.S. House lawmakers for federal action on climate change.
Silk Launches Harvard Research Initiative to Examine Future Food Industry Challenges
Earlier this month, plant-based food and beverages brand Silk announced a year-long sponsored research initiative with the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to investigate the perceptions of food industry challenges, including efforts to create a healthy and sustainable food supply for the estimated 9.6 billion people that will inhabit the planet by 2050.
Regenerative Business, Part 3: It's Not About Better Problem Solving
This is the third blog in a series on the seven First Principles of regeneration, drawing from living systems sciences. Read parts one and two.
5 Global Companies Join Forces to Fight Migrant Worker Exploitation, Challenge Others to Do the Same
The Coca-Cola Company, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IKEA and Unilever today in London launched the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, a collaboration focused on promoting ethical recruitment and combating the exploitation of migrant workers in global supply chains across industries. The five founding companies have committed to the “Employer Pays Principle,” which states that no worker should pay for a job - the costs of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but by the employer.
UK Airports Among World's Most Sustainable; Heathrow First to Attain Supplier Standard
Two airports in London, Heathrow and Gatwick, earned multiple certifications to the Carbon Trust Standard for their exceptional environmental performance. Heathrow has become the first airport in the world (and only the fifth organization in the world) to simultaneously hold four certifications, while Gatwick is now one of only a handful of organizations to hold triple certification.
Dannon, Chobani Bucking Business as Usual to Empower Farmers, Employees
Two of America’s most well-known yogurt brands are taking unconventional approaches create stronger ties with some of their stakeholders. Dannon is implementing a new supply system that allows the company to engage directly with its milk suppliers as part of an ambitious plan to influence farm practices, and Chobani will be giving its 2,000 full-time employees an ownership stake worth up to 10 percent of the company when it goes public or is sold.
Saving the Playing Field: A Tale of Two Professional Sports and Sustainability
Sports and corporate sustainability are two fields not always thought of as playing on the same court. But the two have more in common than one might initially expect — both are about winning through fair competition and the display of excellence. In recent years, the line between the sports business and sustainable business have begun to blur as the the industry embraces triple bottom line principles.
The Personal Triple Bottom Line: Insight, Impact, Income
Two decades ago, John Elkington introduced the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), a disruptive corporate tool to measure a company’s success based on three Ps: People, Planet and Profit. TBL and its derivatives are widely used by companies around the world. While some companies have embedded the TBL into the core of their business, many others loosely practice it to varying degrees.
Embracing the Purpose Paradox: The Key to Transcendental Leadership
In the summer of 2012, I came upon a discovery so mind-blowing that it has taken me nearly four years to get my feet back on solid ground. After two decades of research to find the connection between human nature and Mother Nature, a simple E=mc2-type equation emerged. I call this the Voice Code. Believe it or not, this discovery has revealed the natural laws that govern all human thinking. In doing so, it has allowed us to now clearly map the timeless principles and practices that all visionary minds master to become a force of nature in the pursuit of their life’s purpose.