The latest creative strategies and tools helping organizations to engage their teams in building market-leading, purpose-driven brands.
There’s no stopping the low carbon economy. Two major announcements from DONG Energy and Tetra Pak could set new industry standards and pave the way for others to follow suit. DONG Energy has decided to phase out the use of coal at its power stations entirely by 2023. The decision is in line with the company’s goal of reducing its CO2 emissions in power and heat generation by 96 percent compared to 2006.
Many CEOs want to make a difference. Convinced that companies should play a positive role in environmental stewardship and social development, they declare sustainability a top priority, launch a transformation program, hire a chief sustainability officer, and commit millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of management time to the effort. Then momentum fades. It’s a frustrating setback—and a common one. A new report released Bain & Company, finds that only 2 percent of corporate sustainability programs achieve or exceed their aims, compared to 12 percent of other corporate transformation programs.
The first of a three-part proposal for using sustainability to recharge America's problem-solving.
This week at the action-packed World Economic Forum in Davos, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) launched its 2017 Trends Report, which highlights the ‘uncompromising’ nature of today’s customer, who increasingly expects brands to deliver experienc
It takes a tremendous amount of energy to manufacture and power our devices, data centers and infrastructural needs. And with an energy footprint accounting for approximately 7 percent of global electricity, the IT industry has an important role to play in the transition towards clean energy.
Two years after it pledged to eliminate artificial additives from its menu by the end of 2016, Panera Bread has released a new campaign in celebration of meeting its goal.
Energy giants Statoil and BP are part of a growing number of utilities future-fitting their operations to better compete in the emerging low-carbon economy. The two companies have recently invested in new wind and solar power projects across Europe, demonstrating their commitment to transition away from fossil fuels.
Leading Japanese consulting companies including Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting (DTC) and Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting (MURC) are actively enhancing their pro bono businesses. Rather than it being simply voluntary work, their aim is to use their employees’ specialized skills to help social businesses and the NPO/NGO sector, thereby increasing their employees’ positive motivations and, as a side effect, enhancing their companies’ social reputations.
The Chief Sustainability Officer is a crucial position within any business, working at the very core of a company’s sustainability strategy. When Nissan decided to appoint its first CSO, CEO Carlos Ghosn personally chose SVP Hitoshi Kawaguchi for the job. We spoke to Kawaguchi about Nissan’s approach to CSR and CSV (Creating Shared Value) and the role each plays in working towards a society of sustainable mobility.
Giving back to the communities that supply your business with labor and raw materials isn’t just a matter of ethics or public relations; it’s also a wise business practice to adopt for its own sake. Taking care of the people who live and work in your company’s shadow ensures the long-term sustainability of your supply chain and improves the quality of the talent pool that may someday produce your best and brightest employees.
The health and wellbeing of a company’s workforce is integral to building a sustainable brand and retaining top talent. Because of this, the millennial workforce has pushed companies to alter office spaces to better fit their needs. One-third of office workers said the design of an office would affect their decision to work for a company; given this, brands are choosing to renovate or move to new spaces in an effort to improve the way their employees work and attract new talent.
Last week saw the premiere of “Incorporated,” a dystopian Syfy series produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Yesterday, the European Commission (EC) announced it will begin phasing out coal subsidies and reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 under a new clean energy package.
Modern global nutritional problems derive from food excess as well as food shortage. Traditionally a first-world problem, obesity is now spreading to developing countries. Individual countries and companies are responding to the Sustainable Development Goal to improve nutrition. One unique employee cafeteria has sparked a huge movement to improve nutrition in Japan.
Domestic migrant workers make up a substantial percentage of the workforce in China's manufacturing industry. Latest figures estimate that there are 247 million migrant workers in the country. These workers often originate from towns and villages hundreds or thousands of miles away from the factories where they work. The majority of these workers are parents, and due to childcare needs and the Hukou system – a household register that has tied people's access to social services to their hometowns, making it difficult for millions of domestic migrant workers to take their children with them.
“Business Humanizer?” the client read out loud from my business card. “And what does a Business Humanizer do?” she asked, light-heartedly. It always triggers a question. What does business humanizing have to do with brands, organizations and more meaningful growth? Teams and organizations more often apply business sense to humans, rather than applying human sense to business. And yet, human sense and empathy are essential drivers for both business results and positive societal impact by brands and companies. Humanizing business means putting people and our role in society at the heart of our brands and cherishing this behaviour as an engine for growth. Can you create the difference in your organization?
Three-quarters (76 percent) of Millennials consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work and nearly two-thirds (64 percent) won’t take a job if a potential employer doesn’t have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, according to the 2016 Cone Communications Millennial Employee Engagement Study. The study reveals that meaningful engagement around CSR is a business – and bottom line – imperative, impacting a company’s ability to appeal to, retain and inspire Millennial talent (that’s a business case if we ever heard one).
Marking the 25th anniversary of its industry-changing supplier code of conduct, called Terms of Engagement, Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) announced a new commitment to expand the company’s pioneering Worker Wellbeing initiative – both within and outside the company. By 2025, the company aims to:
Business leaders who embrace ‘purpose beyond profit’ can transform the fortunes of their organisations, but they can’t do it alone. A company’s purpose only truly comes to life if all employees are both inspired and equipped to put purpose into action. This means that purposeful leaders need to have a firm grasp on how purpose flows and moves within an organisation: how it inspires and enrols people, how it must be mapped and translated across different parts of the business, how it encounters resistance and how it unlocks new approaches to problem-solving. Above all, business leaders must understand that truly effective purpose serves as an invitation to co-create. What does this mean in practice? Here are five key steps to help you learn how to go with the flow:
“What comes to mind when you think of millennials in the workplace?” Bethan Harris, strategist and collaborator at Collectively and the League of Intrapreneurs (LI), asked during her Tuesday afternoon session at SB’16 Copenhagen.