SB Brand-Led Culture Change 2024 - Discount ends April 7th!

Marketing and Comms

How brands are evolving in the area of sustainability marketing and communications — and how their stakeholders are asserting their own needs and preferences.

Advertisement
Mars UK Advises Limited Consumption of Its Products High in Salt, Sugar, Fat

Mars Food plans to begin distinguishing between its products which are fit for “everyday” versus “occasional” consumption. Over the next few months, the company is expected to publish a list of products which should not be eaten more than once per week due to higher salt, sugar and/or fat content. The list will appear on the company’s website, and the list items’ packaging will bear a label in stores in the United Kingdom.

‘ASPIREist’ TV Series Showcases Real Solutions, Purpose-Driven Celebrity, Brand Projects

A new “reality feature news show,” ASPIREist, wants to inspire viewers to take action by showcasing people, projects and ideas that are making a difference. Co-hosted by six twenty and thirty-something TED Talk speakers from a variety of fields – environmentalists, activists, social entrepreneurs – the show calls itself “the new newsroom,” one for “today’s generation.”

3rd Fashion Revolution Will See Activists in 84 Countries Asking Brands #WhoMadeMyClothes

Cross-Posted from Supply Chain. This year, Fashion Revolution’s annual campaign has expanded into a week-long series of events featuring hundreds of activities, stunts and social experiments across 84 countries worldwide. Throughout Fashion Revolution Week, April 18th to 24th, consumers will demand transparency and raise awareness of exploitation in the fashion supply chain by posting on social media using the hashtag #WhoMadeMyClothes.

Trending: Waste-Reduction Campaigns, Sharing Best Practices Among Brand, NGO Earth Day Efforts

Every year, April evokes campaigns and initiatives from companies and nonprofits alike in celebration of Earth Day (April 22) or Earth Month. This year, personal care brand Tom’s of Maine has teamed up with upcycling leader TerraCycle on the#LessWasteChallenge, a stakeholder engagement campaign to reduce waste. Consumers are invited to take an online pledge to reduce their household waste by one pound per week.

Blaxtar Offers 'Frank' Distillation of Heineken's Sustainability Progress in New Video

Cross-Posted from Product, Service & Design Innovation. Move over Prince Ea, there's a new spoken word artist promoting sustainability. To help reach a wider audience for its newly-released 2015 sustainability report, Heineken recruited Dutch rapper and vocal artist Kevin "Blaxtar" de Randamie to transform the report into his own artistic expression.

Advertisement
Ad Campaign Encourages Creatives to Think Beyond Consumerism

Artist network Brandalism believes that the talent, energy and creativity of ad agency employees is “sinking into an ever-expanding black hole.” The network recently launched a campaign to appeal to those who feel the same, by placing several posters in front of ad agency offices in Manchester and London.

EWG Verifies 125 Products with 'Best Manufacturing Practices'

Over 125 cosmetics and personal care products from 14 brands have earned the Environmental Working Group (EWG)’s new verification. The EWG VERIFIED™ program aims to help customers quickly and easily identify products that meet strict ingredient standards and are “produced with the best manufacturing practices.” The program was announced in October and has quickly grown to include cosmetics such as foundations, blushes, eye shadows, eye liners, lipsticks and lip glosses; skin care products including cleansers and moisturizers; shampoos, soaps and deodorants; and more.

Standards and Businesses Coming Together in Washington to Discuss Sustainability Challenges

Over 200 of the most influential figures in sustainability standards and certification will join business leaders to share their thoughts on today’s most pressing sustainability challenges on May 10 to 11 in Washington, DC.

Storytelling for Sustainability: It's Time for Corporate Leaders to Gather 'Round the Campfire

The term ‘greenwashing’ might be officially outdated. In 2016, the number of companies making unmerited PR splashes over sustainability is far outweighed by those who are taking significant strides forward and not talking about it. When faced with the science of climate change and transparency into corporate accountability in 2016, sustainability is simply part of doing business. Yet many leading companies still shy away from fully embracing their sustainability stories. Excellent, groundbreaking work is happening across the private sector with no-one around to hear. To re-philosophize the old saying … if a tree grows in a deforestation zone, and no one is around to hear the re-surging wildlife, does it make an impact? Unfortunately, the answer is no.

General Mills, ‘Disappointed’ by Lack of National Solution, Will Label GMOs

On Friday, General Mills announced that it will “soon” start labeling its products that contain genetically modified organism (GMO) ingredients nationwide. With the rationale that it is impractical to label its products for just one state, the company plans to disclose GMO ingredients according to the law set to go into effect in Vermont on July 1.

Advertisement
New Cartoon Will Use Laughter, Adventure to Help Kids Save ‘Planet Blue’

A futuristic space station, rainforests and oceans will be explored by a cast of diverse kids and their animal friends in a new 3D-animated television show, Planet Blue. The show’s creators hope to inspire environmental awareness among children and capture their imaginations “with genuinely endearing characters, engaging scenarios, and writing that's funny enough to make them forget that they're learning.”

How the World's Best Companies Demonstrate Their Sense of Purpose

How do you communicate your company's sense of purpose — what you stand for in simple terms — in a way that is authentic, transparent and honest? Increasingly, the answer for many of the world's biggest companies is to highlight their sustainability work. Why sustainability? Well, sustainability, after all, is rooted in doing business in a transparent and authentic way. And, in today’s always-on, smarter-than-before society, pledging to be a better company just won’t cut it. You have to demonstrate how your company’s purpose is creating a tangibly better experience.

P&G Applauded for Fragrance Chemical Transparency

Cross-Posted from Chemistry, Materials & Packaging. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) praised Proctor & Gamble (P&G) this week after the family, personal care and household products company expanded its chemical disclosure. P&G has listed the ingredients it uses in its fragrances and scents on its website since 2012, but a list of over 140 fragrance chemicals that it excludes from its products was added on Monday.

PSA Illustrates Potentially Hairy Effects of China's Air Pollution

Air pollution in China is unavoidable, and a huge health problem. Last year, a Berkeley Earth study found that deaths related to the main air pollutant, PM2.5 particles, total 1.6 million a year or 17 percent of China’s mortality rate.

Patagonia's 'Tools for Grassroots Activists' Also Offers Lessons for Business, Marketing Leaders

Earlier this month, Patagonia released a new book aiming to offer environmental advocates best practices in grassroots activism. While it may seem counterintuitive for a big brand to be talking about grassroots activism, it’s widely known that Patagonia’s history is deeply rooted in environmental activism. The company started off as a small group of surfers and climbers who had reverence for their playground: the great outdoors.

Advertisement
China’s Biggest Movie Ever Is an ‘Eco-Fable’ Rom-Com About Evils of Human Development

A new romantic comedy with an environmental message has become the highest-earning film ever shown in China. The Mermaid, a Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, raked in an impressive 2.7 billion yuan ($417 million) in its first two weeks in theaters.

Touching Your Soul: Responsible Brands, the Survival of our Species and the New Nutty

Great brands don’t stop at connecting with mere outward expressions of who we think we are or what we want to be. The very best brands connect with long-held mystical beliefs underlying our rational selves, the parts of our sub-consciousness that manages and helps us to cope with all the irrational, arbitrary, inexplicable unknowns in life. These thoughts take shape in symbols forged from ancient stories reflecting patterns of thought and beliefs about how we understand ourselves. Carl Jung argues these narratives and their archetypal characters are universally present in our individual psyches, to which we are powerfully attracted as a means of giving life meaning and managing reality.

Wendy’s New Campaign Suggests Local Sourcing Is What Makes Its Burgers ‘Deliciously Different’

In 2014, nearly 90 percent of Americans said they consider where a food product is produced when making a purchasing decision, and about two thirds said they would pay more for food that is produced closer to home. As the local food movement continues to become more mainstream in North America, it seems inevitable that brands will jump on the bandwagon.

Artists Covered Sweden’s Tallest Peak with a Blanket to Help Slow Glacial Melting

Climate change is threatening Sweden’s highest peak. The glacier atop Mount Kebnekaise, the country’s tallest mountain, has been shrinking by an average of a meter a year for the past 15 years due to rising temperatures. As a symbolic gesture, artists Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström installed a reflective blanket to keep the mountain top's snow a little colder and prevent it from melting.

VW to 'Generously Compensate' 600,000 U.S. Diesel Vehicle Owners

On Friday, Volkswagen (VW) postponed the publication of its 2015 results and delayed its annual shareholders' meeting “due to remaining open questions and the resulting valuation calculations relating to the diesel emissions issue.” Despite the uncertainty about the financial fallout of the scandal, the head of its claims fund said that the company will offer “generous compensation packages” to the roughly 600,000 U.S.

Advertisement