Organizational Change
The latest creative strategies and tools helping organizations to engage their teams in building market-leading, purpose-driven brands.
Starbucks UK to Give 'Home Sweet Loans' to Employees Under 25, Living Wage to All
Starbucks UK has announced it is going beyond government recommendations for the National Living Wage and will be the first private company to implement housing and homelessness charity Shelter’s Tenancy Deposit Loan Scheme, to help its employees manage the cost of living.“There are now 11 million private renters in England, and as housing costs keep rising, more and more people are struggling to scrape together the deposit needed to rent a home," said Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb.
Countdown to COP21: How Can Companies Most Wisely Communicate About Climate Change?
Paris is getting ready to host the United Nations international conference on Climate Change (COP21). For businesses, COP21 seems a good opportunity to communicate to their stakeholders. But what to say and to whom? And what are the risks of communicating on climate change during this fraught period of time?
One Year After New York Declaration on Forests, Report Identifies Companies Taking Action
Several dozen companies that endorsed the New York Declaration on Forests at 2014’s United Nations Climate Summit are taking concrete steps to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation from their supply chains, according to a new report from Supply Change – a project convened by Washington D.C.-based non-profit Forest Trends.
Google, BMW, Disney, Microsoft Once Again Top List of Best CSR Reputations
Reputation Institute has released its annual Global CSR RepTrak® 100, which highlights the companies that have the best reputations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) among the general public in 15 countries. Google tops the ranking for the second year in a row, with a significant lead over all other companies in the ranking.
The Strategic Importance of Recognized Leadership
The need for reputable corporate leadership has never been more acute. We are grappling with large-scale global challenges - climate change, social dislocation, economic inequality, financial uncertainty - that require a new type of leadership from global entities.
Three-Quarters of CEOs Now Convinced of #BusinessCase for Climate Action
CEOs see more opportunities for growth today than they did three years ago — especially when it comes to new products and services in response to climate change.
What Is Your 'Why'? How I Learned to Live My Purpose
What is your why? It is a question that you have most likely been confronted with at some point in your life. But, do you truly know what it means? And more importantly, have you been able to clearly define your why? Simon Sinek’s TED talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” is a great place to start in getting to the answer of these questions. This little talk has been a great inspiration for me in finding my why.
WRAP Funding Cut as Research Shows Brits Waste the Most Food in All of Europe
A study published this month finds that the UK is the worst-performing European country in terms of food waste, while its leading waste-reduction charity, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), saw its government funding cut 38 percent last year.
How Job Purposing Can Convert Your Sustainability Practices Into Superb Management
“I hate my job.” It’s a sign of a warped world that most of us have heard friends, family or our own lips make this gloomy statement. Chances are that four out of every five people working for you right this minute would rather be not working. This is the percentage of global workers who are not “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to work” — in other words, not engaged — according to Gallup. Why does this matter? Disengaged workers produce less and turn over more. As a result, companies and teams with largely disengaged workers underperform financially by more than 50 percent compared to those with mostly engaged workers.
Employee Engagement for Purpose-Driven Business 101 (or 5 Reasons Clif Bar Employees Are So Damn Happy)
While more and more companies are becoming focused on a triple bottom line — in which they prioritize the health of people and planet in addition to profit — Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson took the sentiment further back in 2000, when he decided to not take a $120 million payout and instead focus on sustaining the health of five bottom lines: Business, Brand, Community, Planet and People. As CEO Kevin Cleary said during a recent “Feed Your Adventure” tour of Clif’s Emeryville headquarters: “In any given year, we incent ourselves and say we have to deliver on all of them — if you deliver on Business, but you don’t deliver on the rest, that isn’t delivering shareholder value.”
Co-operative Bank Upholds ‘Beyond Carbon Neutral’ Commitment, Customer-Led Ethical Policy
The UK-based Co-operative Bank has published its first Values and Ethics report, highlighting its significant environmental achievements, along with progress against its customer-led Ethical Policy, established in 1992. It is the only UK bank to have an ethical policy co-created by customers, and views this policy as essential to its comeback after its financial collapse in 2014.
New Sustainability Reports Highlight Companies' Progress in Events, Flooring Industries
MCI, a leading agency in the global meetings, events and association and congress industries, used its sixth sustainability report, Building Possibilities, to assess the performance of MCI’s client-focused activities in addition to its own internal sustainability strategy.
Future-Fit Businesses Include Sustainability in Leadership Competencies
Over the past few weeks, several people have shared with me how they’re using my sustainability competencies research and guide to define the leadership skills and knowledge needed for long-term business — and societal — success. The feedback has been swift and promising. I am delighted (and encouraged!) to hear about the distinct and specific ways that these individuals are putting the competencies research to work for their organizations.
How to Find Lasting Motivation and Engagement at Work
Are you excited about your work? Is it a fulfilling endeavor that you’re proud to take part in and which you enjoy doing? Or is it more of a grind?A recent Gallup survey found that only 30 percent of US workers were “actively engaged and inspired at work,” while 50 percent weren’t engaged and the rest were actively disengaged. Work is just tolerable for half of us and a fifth of us are miserable. This is woeful. Are the bulk of us destined to spend our lives working in unfulfilling roles?
How to Use Internal Competition to Drive Sustainability Engagement, Innovation Across a Company
As part of L’Oréal’s global sustainability program called Sharing Beauty With All, the company has pledged that by the year 2020, 100 percent of its products will have an environmental or social benefit. To help make that commitment a reality, L’Oréal is calling on its employees, at every level and across every function, to contribute their own innovative solutions. The L’Oréal Beauty Shaker Awards is the company’s annual internal innovation competition, and in 2014 — the program’s fifth year — sustainability was the name of the game.
Chipotle to Offer Employee Benefits Including Sick Pay, Tuition Reimbursement
Having already eliminated genetically engineered ingredients and removed carnitas from the menu in some locations rather than serve pork that doesn’t meet its animal-welfare standards, Chipotle Mexican Grill is once again walking its “Food with Integrity” talk — the burrito chain has announced it will expand benefits formerly reserved for salaried workers, including full tuition reimbursements, sick pay and paid vacations, to all employees on July 1, according to
How to Drive Business Model Transformation from Inside Your Company
I attended a half-dozen panels during the first three days at SB ‘15 San Diego, each addressing a specific business function. I listened closely as experts shared case studies on incorporating sustainability into marketing, supply chain, employee engagement, etc. But it wasn’t until this Thursday morning breakout session, on the final day of the conference, that we finally seemed to tie it all together.
How Timberland Partnered with Smallholder Farmers to Scale Sustainable Development in Haiti
On Wednesday, over an intimate, invite-only lunch at SB ’15 San Diego, Timberland and the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) screened the trailer for their documentary, KOMBIT: The Cooperative, scheduled for release in October 2015.KOMBIT means “pulling together” in Haitian Creole. Timberland says this is the perfect description of the partnership among local Haitians, as well as its work with them and SFA to rebuild the island nation’s environmental and economic landscape through small-scale farming.
How Gamification, Education, Cultural Immersion Could Be the Holy Grail of Employee Engagement
In the effort to reach new milestones in employee engagement, we must recognize that the process is a journey. Successful corporate responsibility efforts must be embedded throughout the organization, as exemplified by the fine examples from this panel at SB ‘15 San Diego.Susan Hunt Stevens, founder of WeSpire, welcomed everyone to this Wednesday afternoon breakout session on gamification, educational services and culture shifts in employee engagement. According to an oft-cited statistics this week, more than half of employees are disengaged at work.
How to Pool Collective Leadership & Go Beyond Nudging, Gaming and Competing to Engage Employees
It's an incredible, mostly missed opportunity: 70 percent of U.S. workers are not engaged at work, and yet organizations with high employee engagement have 147 percent higher earnings per share. Not surprisingly, employee engagement was one of the major topics this week at SB '15 San Diego.