How brands are successfully communicating their sustainability efforts — and how their stakeholders are asserting their own needs and preferences
This month, Business in the Community's Start campaign is running Be the Start — a month-long celebration and demonstration of how living sustainably is rewarding and meaningful.Over 31 days, 40+ businesses and organisations — including Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, IBM, Eurostar, Virgin Money and B&Q —will join in with the campaign to support and inspire people in their journey towards a sustainable lifestyle.
Maersk Line has traditionally not been known for its sustainability efforts. Why? Well, because the company used to have a habit of hardly communicating anything externally. Previously, there had been little perceived need for communicating — and this combined with a strong value around humbleness kept the company quiet.
No matter how often it happens, when a new idea or insight opens up entirely new pathways and possibilities in our minds, there’s always a sense of exhilaration.
If all the world’s a stage, according to Bill Shakespeare, then one needs to look no further than the c-suite for some of its highest drama. A new, fairly misunderstood protagonist has entered this mercurial world where survival typically goes to the fittest Machiavellian mind.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) last week announced that the next generation of its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines will be unveiled at its 2013 Global Conference on Sustainability Reporting in Amsterdam on May 22.
Hershey on Monday released its most recent CSR Scorecard, which reflects substantial progress on a range of sustainability programs and new initiatives over the past year.The company says it is on track to meet or exceed all of its 2015 sustainability targets set forth in its last full CSR Report. The latest scorecard is organized around programs and initiatives in four key areas of social responsibility: Marketplace, Environment, Workplace and Community.Some notable achievements Hershey has highlighted include:
When it comes to building brands and driving change, effective communication is a prerequisite. Unsurprisingly then, communications are often the first port of call when it comes to the unique challenges and opportunities that sustainability represents for today’s brands.However, emerging cultural, economic and technological trends related to sustainability are forcing brands to think differently about the role of communications in their wider brand ecosystem. As is so often the case, when the game is changing this quickly, a more effective solution requires a redefinition of the problem.
Agriculture, coal power, steel manufacturing and several other high-impact business sectors face an economic loss when accounting for damages to natural capital, according to a study released by the TEEB for Business Coalition during the recent Business for the Environment Summit in New Delhi.
The trick to communicating sustainability is to start with the right ingredients. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Of course, we all know that it’s not so straightforward in practice.There is a raft of urgent economic, social and environmental needs out there that must be addressed. It can be tough to decide what your organisation is going to focus on. Where to begin?
In an effort to mitigate consumer confusion and help maintain the integrity of recyclable materials streams, three laws proposed in North Carolina and Alabama would require containers made from biodegradable or compostable plastic to be labeled “non-recyclable,” according to Plastics News.
A new report by UK-based analyst firm Verdantix says most companies have inadequate budgets for sustainability communications and are running risks by failing to integrate sustainability themes into their brand identities. The report, “Rethinking Sustainability: Brand Risks and Opportunities,” identifies five archetypes of how companies communicate about sustainability.
CR magazine last week released its 2013 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, which ranks companies based on disclosure and performance measures covering environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance and philanthropy.
For the centuries that tertiary education has been part of society, further education was a privilege afforded those who could afford it. But with the advancement in recent years of communication technologies and speeds, the battle for the student dollar is now being waged online.
French consumers want to know more about where their products come from to make more sustainable choices. Besides, trust in business is higher when brands take action for sustainability, demonstrate their achievements and communicate well.
"How will it deliver value?" is a commonly heard response to a proposal for a new sustainability communications campaign.Behind this innocent little phrase is a dangerous assumption that sustainability communications is a separate strand of activity with a message aimed at a hypothetical audience segment of 'greens.'
As President Obama prepares to unveil his budget for the coming year, 33 multinational companies, including eBay, IKEA, L’Oréal, Nike and Limited Brands, have signed a “Climate Declaration” urging federal policymakers to take action on climate change.
Ethical Markets, the World Business Academy (WBA) and the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business recently announced they are accepting nominations for the 9th annual EthicMark Awards for ads and media campaigns that “uplift the human spirit and society.”
The National Basketball Association and Sprint last Thursday launched a weeklong green initiative featuring community sustainability projects, recycling programs, green giveaways, special on-court apparel and auctions to encourage fans to “go green.”
In early March, Cone Communications teamed up with ORC International to conduct a survey of over 1,000 adults to better understand how consumers interpret and grapple with the flood of environmental information coming their way. The survey included many questions on how consumers seek out information, usage and disposal instructions, and how well they actually understand what it is that they are being told. The results are now a part of the 2013 Green Gap Trend Tracker and boil down to a series of statistics. Usually, a list of percentages can be tedious and meaningless if taken out of context.
Starting this month, Sustainable Brands will bring you a treasure trove of insight, examples and opinions on communicating sustainability, all to help you persuade, motivate, nudge and inspire people and brands to do things differently. That’s a very important goal; once impetus is established people can achieve great things.