How brands are successfully communicating their sustainability efforts — and how their stakeholders are asserting their own needs and preferences
This is a call for lots less chatter, twitter and yammer about the earth’s limits and in place of those, a world of new, real and lively conversations around ‘persuasive’ limits.Let me give an example of why: According to the latest data, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere have reached 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history. The problem, however, is that that very sentence is capable of making otherwise contented people run screaming for the nearest copy of Hello magazine.
On Friday, a Whole Foods Market in University Heights, Rhode Island found an effective way to illustrate the pivotal role that bees play in our food system by removing all produce items that are dependent on bees and other pollinators, according to the company's website.The store's produce team pulled 237 of 453 products — 52 percent of the department's normal product mix, including:
Cross-Posted from Consumer Behavior Change. In my speeches on "making green sexy," which I've given in a number of locations in the US and Europe, I talk about different types of message points for three different audiences: deep green, light green/lazy green, and non-green. I discuss the idea that these three groups are motivated differently, and to make real society-wide behavioral change, we need to hit all three. Some of Shelton Group's research has actually influenced my thinking about this.
Cross-Posted from Consumer Behavior Change. Since its launch in 2010, the Eco Rating scheme that Forum for the Future created with Telefónica UK/O2 has been helping consumers make more sustainable handset choices, whether they like it or not.
For the second year running, Toyota has topped Interbrand’s list of “Best Global Green Brands,” followed by Ford and Honda. Rounding out the rest of the top ten are Panasonic, Nissan, Johnson & Johnson, Volkswagen, Danone, Nokia and Dell. Overall, the technology sector clearly dominated.
During last week’s SB’13 conference in San Diego, Havas Media unveiled new research that could provide further insight into the minds of consumers. Results released this week from Havas’ latest Meaningful Brands study statistically demonstrate that “meaningful brands” outperform the stock market by 120%. The Meaningful Brands Index (MBI) — Havas’ new metric of brand strength — is considered the first of its kind to connect human well-being with brands at a business level. It demonstrates the relationship correlation between people and brands, and how this can affect the volume of measuring, communicating and delivering increased well-being — on a personal and community level.
There was hardly an empty seat in the house for Jonah Sachs’ “crash course in masterful storytelling.” Attendees learned the history of oral tradition and why humans have used stories to take in and share information for thousands of years. Sachs shared a five-part strategy to telling stories that get shared and let everyone in the room practice telling their own stories using characters and morals that illustrated underlying core values. The session concluded with examples of successful story-based marketing campaigns, brand gifts and an overview on brand archetypes.
Thursday, the morning of the fourth and final day of SB ‘13, continued the week’s momentum and lived up to its “Communications” theme with a variety of rousing speakers and conversations, peppered with examples of clever and successful sustainability messaging from some of our top brands that focus on “selling behavior, not selling stuff.”
Cone Communications has launched a social media and CSR product called the CSR SocialScore, which serves as a real-time snapshot of how a brand uses social media to inform and engage stakeholders.The Boston-based public relations and marketing agency says the product helps companies equally measure their ability to “inform” and “engage” stakeholders:Inform: This portion of the score looks at a company’s online CSR reporting and baseline CSR social media presence. Quantitative data is garnered through a variety of social media monitoring, research and analytics tools.
Toyota is tapping into one of the nation’s fastest growing markets: Latinos — a segment that’s rising in number, purchasing power and influence — and even so, a segment that most sustainable brands seem to be entirely sidestepping.
"Basing your decision to have a greenhouse gas emissions target on the fact that climate science has identified a problem, and then to turn around and set a target that doesn't reflect what that science says, for us is incongruous." That’s what Kevin Rabinovitch, global sustainability director at Mars, the privately held food and beverage company,
This is the fourth in a series of posts that comprise Future 500 founder Bill Shireman's insightful essay, The Two Deficits: Why Conservatives and Progressives Are Both Right, from the book
This is the third in a three-part series by Fruitful Strategy's Jennifer Rice, in which she explores sustainable, world-changing brands. She will delve further into the topic in the workshop "Sustainable Brands 101: Integrating Sustainability at the Brand Level" at SB '13 on June 3.
ExxonMobil, the nation’s largest natural gas producer, may finally start listening to their shareholders about hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking.” Many of the concerns people have surrounding the natural gas extraction process include the fact that toxic chemical leaks, spills and explosions could harm the health and safety of communities and the environment, and that it could lead to the contamination of drinking water for communities near and far.
Investors representing more than $450 billion of the world’s assets released a statement today expressing their support for the "Conflict Minerals" final rule, Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, according to the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN). The statement comes exactly a year before companies will have to send the U.S.
Greenpeace today released its 2013 Carting Away the Oceans (CATO) report, which evaluates and ranks supermarkets on their sustainable seafood policies.
Toyota has announced a program aimed at promoting environmental awareness in the Hispanic communities in Miami and Los Angeles while also providing the tools to continue on the path of going green.
U.S.-based sustainability consulting firm Pure Strategies this week announced a partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to help companies that disclose emissions to CDP to minimize climate risks and impacts in their organizations, products and global supply chains.
Last week, the Sustainable Travel Leadership Network (STLN), a group of leading companies from major travel industry sectors united to share knowledge on responsible tourism, unveiled a new tool to help the travel industry make informed decisions on investments in destination development.
This is the third in a series of posts that comprise Future 500 founder Bill Shireman's insightful essay, The Two Deficits, from the book Towards a New Agenda for America: