How brands are evolving in the area of sustainability marketing and communications — and how their stakeholders are asserting their own needs and preferences.
Cross-Posted from New Metrics. Drawing on the work of Reporting 3.0 - in particular, its Reporting Blueprint and forthcoming Accounting Blueprint - this panel on the final afternoon of New Metrics ‘16 facilitated an animated discussion on true materiality, exploring the broad range of definitions of materiality, and whether they may coalesce into a more common definition or continue to be disparate for different audiences.
Certification has, over the years, played a significant role in the development and execution of ethical supply chain programs across industries, providing frameworks within which brands can analyze and make improvements to their practices and business models. It has also provided a means to communicate brand values and commitment to these values to the public. Though certification has evolved to become an essential component of the corporate landscape, it still faces a number of challenges.
Throughout Sustainable Brands’ New Metrics ’16 event this week, I expect to hear a continual drumbeat of the need to measure impact. That is how it should be. As a panellist for the session on “Demonstrating the Impact of Sustainability Labels and Certification,” I will be one of those discussing why businesses need to measure the social and environmental impact of their sustainable sourcing programs and how they can find out about the impact of sustainability standards.
Moving the needle on consumer behavior remains a monumental task - but a necessary one if we are to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With household consumption accounting for nearly 70 percent of economic activity in the United States, consumers’ choices can make a real difference. At the same time, consumers are faced with so many decisions in their day-to-day lives that “decision fatigue” is commonplace. We cannot expect consumers to weigh the environmental and social implications of each of their actions and purchases.
With over 8.7 million views on YouTube already, Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary film Before the Flood is already making waves.
Earlier this year, yogurt giant Dannon announced new sustainable agriculture and non-GMO commitments. Now, farm organizations have decided that food companies 'jumping on the anti-GMO bandwagon' cannot go unchallenged.
The relationship between brands and people is being transformed before our very eyes; the old-fashioned, binary model of companies selling and people consuming is dead. Traditional, rigid hierarchies of control are being replaced with more fluid and open peer-to-peer networks. We are rapidly adopting the principles of a sharing economy as the mainstream norm and there is a new world order forming. You can choose to see this as either a challenge or an opportunity but the brands that will win are the movement brands that are brave enough to let their consumers take an equal stake in setting the agendas and creating content.
A growing number of investors are looking for high-quality information on a company’s sustainability performance. Earlier this year Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, called on S&P 500 CEOs to demonstrate how environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors contribute to long-term commercial success.
Beginning Sunday, October 30, climate change will take over primetime on National Geographic. The channel has announced it will host its first-ever Earth Week, which will air six straight days of primetime programming dedicated exclusively to climate change in 171 countries and 45 languages.
Aluminum roller and recycler Novelis has teamed up with digital content provider Discovery Education on an all-new aluminum recycling education program, "Life of a Can - A Never Ending Story." The program is intended to empower students to make a positive environmental impact through standards-aligned lesson plans and interactive classroom activities focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
Jaclyn Murphy, Director of Brand Purpose at Edelman, opened an inspiring session on Wednesday afternoon where brand purpose was made tangible in four brands - Arla Foods, Unilever, BT and Neste - that shared their experience and insights about how they are working to engage consumers in their purpose and get them involved in creating a change.
On Tuesday, Chipotle celebrated National Taco Day by launching new chorizo tacos, but some have speculated that the promotional release might just be one more way the Tex-Mex chain is trying to regain customers following multiple food-safety scares last year.
Consumers are expecting a new dynamic in the relationship they build with brands. The team from Edelman gathered a full room at Wednesday’s lunch time session to unveil the breakthrough ‘2016 Earned Brand’ research study for the first time. The purpose-centric data surveyed 13,000 consumers in 13 countries about their interaction with their favorite brands.
“Purpose is like Pokémon - everybody is chasing it and nobody knows why,” “Mr. Goodvertising,” Thomas Kolster, mused at the start of the Tuesday morning plenary session at SB’16 Copenhagen. Articulating purpose is central to modern branding. And in a world where the majority of market value is drawn from intangible assets, “brand is king,” Kolster said.
Cross-Posted from Chemistry, Materials & Packaging. Renewable diesel and materials producer Neste and spoken word artist Prince Ea have unveiled the latest collaboration in their Pre-order the Future project, this time with a film that focuses on the future of learning. In “The People vs.
On Tuesday morning, over breakfast at SB’16 Copenhagen, Filip Engel, head of DONG Energy Group Sustainability, and Ryan Bell from VRScout showed us virtual reality’s (VR) transformational power in sustainability communication. Modern energy companies have their share of challenges, as Engel told us.
Cross-Posted from Behavior Change. In a rich and fascinating afternoon workshop on Monday, behavioural design experts Sille Krukow and Teis Andres of Krukow Behavioural Consulting explored their theory and tools on how conscientious companies can design the right environments in which consumers can achieve their sustainability aspirations.
“The sustainability movement has been slowly gaining momentum, but I think we would all agree that it isn’t moving fast enough and the world we live in can’t afford for us to continue moving at the current pace.”
Certification, standards and labels have long provided an effective mechanism for raising awareness around a range of sustainability issues – from deforestation and overfishing, to carbon reduction and energy efficiency.
How can a brand or a company cut through the noise of our modern media landscape and truly connect with a short-attention span public about the social and environmental issues it really cares about? Documentary film might not seem the obvious solution, given that the medium demands an audience’s full attention for a good chunk of time. Increasingly though, marketers are turning to documentary storytelling to cut through all that social media noise and tap into a growing consumer demand for content that isn’t simply a throwaway video snack.