Organizational Change
The latest creative strategies and tools helping organizations to engage their teams in building market-leading, purpose-driven brands.
GM's Renaissance Center Not Resting on Its Landfill-Free Laurels
General Motors’ Global Headquarters, a multi-office tower complex that the automaker announced in December had achieved zero-waste status, now composts food scraps from its various Renaissance Center restaurant kitchens for use in urban farming initiatives throughout the city.Local composting startup Detroit Dirt collects coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable pieces and mixes them with herbivore manure, some of which ends up in a rooftop garden at the complex.
Kaiser Permanente Exec Says Hospitals Should Help Heal the Planet
Hospitals deliver life-saving care to individuals, but their substantial environmental footprint can be detrimental to environmental and community health, according to a newly released book by Kathy Gerwig, Kaiser Permanente's environmental stewardship officer.The book, Greening Health Care: How Hospitals Can Heal the Planet, says hospitals contribute 8 percent of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced in the United States. Gerwig argues the healthcare sector has an obligation to reduce its environmental impact and usher in a new industry standard for healthcare delivery — one that embraces environmental stewardship.
Timberland Launches Serv-a-palooza Challenge to Recruit and Reward Volunteers
Timberland is calling for entries for its inaugural Timberland Serv-a-palooza Challenge – a sponsored volunteerism competition hosted in partnership with charitable fundraising platform, CrowdRise, founded by actor Edward Norton. The six-week challenge aims to encourage consumers to volunteer for a cause of their choice in return for chances to win prizes for themselves, along with donations for the nonprofits they choose to support.
WeSpire's Founder and CEO on Employee Engagement: Meet People Where They Are
Only 30% of employees are engaged, costing $450 to $550 billion every year in lost productivity. Yet research shows that companies with strong sustainability and social responsibility programs have much higher engagement rates.
Clothing Companies Going Beyond Compliance with Better Mill Initiative
This post is part of a series written by MBA and MPA candidates in Presidio Graduate School’s Managerial Marketing course, examining the role of communication in advancing sustainability across all sectors.China’s thick haze and severe water pollution have led to increased public awareness of environmental issues in recent years, and Greenpeace’s Detox campaign has exposed links between Chinese textile manufacturing facilities and pollution of local waterways.
From Commodity to Asset: How Conversations About Workers Are Changing in China
Last month we held our fifth annual Sedex conference in Shanghai. With tickets sold-out weeks before the event it was our biggest China conference yet, filling the room with over 200 delegates from businesses across China and further afield. But what struck me about the conference wasn’t the size of it, but the way conversations about workers are changing.
Are You a Radical Intrapreneur?
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what we need from business leaders. And by business leaders, I mean everyone who is actively making (or influencing) business decisions. We know there are myriad problems that we need to deal with and that we have a limited amount of time with which to right the ship. As such, we have to rethink the way we do business, but I think there’s a growing cabal of folks who can help get us where we need to go. I call them Radical Intrapreneurs.I know the word “radical” tends to make folks fret, so let’s try to uncoil that reaction with a few definitions.
New Symantec Initiative Hopes to Close Cybersecurity Workforce Gap
Symantec, one of the world's largest security software companies, has announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind program, the Symantec Cyber Career Connection (SC3), to address the global workforce gap in cybersecurity and provide new career opportunities for young adults who may not be college-bound. The program was announced as a Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Symantec’s executive director of the program, Aled Miles.
Employee Engagement = Happy Talent = Higher Revenue
What if 100 percent of your employees were engaged in your business? According to Gallup, that would translate to an increase of anywhere from $450-550B in increased revenue for US companies alone. Those are daunting numbers in the macro. But what matters is how it translates to your business. Even if it were only 1 percent of your revenue, wouldn’t you want to know?
Printing Giant RR Donnelley Leading Way with Sustainable Paper Purchasing Policy
Environmental not-for-profit Canopy is today heralding North American printing giant RR Donnelley for unveiling its paper purchasing sustainability practices on its corporate website.Canopy, which has been working with the printing sector for 10 years, says the public unveiling of RR Donnelley’s sustainable purchasing principles provides further transparency into the company’s ongoing efforts to support its customers’ initiatives to eliminate unwanted or contentious fibers from its supply chain.
McDonald's Canada Now Serving Sustainable Fish in Filet-O-Fish Sandwich
McDonald’s Canada has announced that 100 percent of the fish it serves in its Filet-O-Fish sandwich is now certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). The Canadian arm of the fast food chain is following in the footsteps of its US counterpart, which committed to serving only MSC-certified fish in January 2013.McDonald’s Canada has purchased fish from MSC-certified fisheries for nearly a decade and recently completed MSC’s third-party Chain of Custody process to further solidify the company’s commitment to maintaining the health of the world’s oceans by supporting sustainable fishing practices.
New Survey Shows Urgent Demand for Employer Focus on Sustainability
WeSpire, the cloud-based engagement platform for engaging employees in environmental, social and other positive corporate initiatives, has released survey results regarding employee engagement trends in sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Campbell's Upgrading Production Processes to Cut Water Use by 50%
Campbell Soup Company has announced that it is re-evaluating its production processes in order to reduce by 50 percent of its operational water use per ton of food produced by 2020.The company says it has achieved a 20.7 percent reduction in operational water use in 2013, against a 2008 baseline. Last year Campbell’s reduced water use by 2.6 percent per ton of food produced, and since 2008, total cumulative water savings have been around 4.8 billion gallons.Campbell’s says it wants to continue making progress by standardizing its most water-intensive operations, primarily those facilities that produce soup, sauce and juice products, making them more energy-efficient in the process.
HP's Living Progress Embodies a Holistic Approach to 21st-Century Business
There has been much talk lately about the need to find a replacement for the term “sustainability.” Critics claim it’s too vague and takes attention away from what should be a more forward-thinking message focused on good business. Others argue that eliminating the term would cause some to miss the point because it has yet to become engrained enough in the dominant business culture. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard argues that “responsible” is a more accurate term since there is no such thing as a truly “sustainable” company. Other companies have embraced the term “corporate social responsibility” (CSR).
McDonald's Reveals CSR/Sustainability Framework and Host of 2020 Goals
This week, McDonald’s unveiled its first Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability Framework. The fast-food giant says the goal of the plan is to position the company for the future, while generating measurable, positive impacts for society.McDonald’s released the framework in conjunction with its 2012-2013 CSR & Sustainability Report, “Our Journey Together. For Good.”Among the company’s 2020 goals:
Innovation with Purpose: Sprint's Darren Beck on Channeling Personal Passion Into Work
Darren Beck is Director of Environmental Initiatives at Sprint. Sprint is widely recognized as a sustainability leader in the mobile phone industry, spearheading energy-efficiency programs, removing legacy towers, and ensuring record amounts of electronic waste (particularly mobile phones) are reused, recycled or disposed of properly. We spoke with Darren about how his role at Sprint has evolved, his experience as an intrapreneur, and his thirst for work that is professionally and personally fulfilling.SB: Darren, we are big fans of your job title. Could you share the reasoning behind it? What range of responsibilities does it cover? How did it evolve?
Paper Presents New Ways for Business to Benefit From Sustainability Innovation
Current environmental and social crises represent both threats and opportunities for business, which has the capacity, innovation and duty to carve a new path toward sustainability, according to a new white paper by the Network for Business Innovation and Sustainability (NBIS) released Wednesday at the 2014 GoGreen Seattle Conference.
Walmart Hosts Sustainable Product Expo to Accelerate Supply Chain Innovation
Today, Walmart joined forces with CEOs from more than a dozen global companies — including Kellogg, P&G, Monsanto, Campbell Soup, PepsiCo, General Mills and the Dairy Farmers of America — to sign new commitments that accelerate innovation in sustainable agriculture and recycling. The pledges kicked off Walmart’s inaugural Sustainable Product Expo, a three-day collaboration to expand the availability of products that sustain people and the environment. Together, the participating suppliers represent more than $100 billion in sales at Walmart.
12 Months Since Rana Plaza: Why Business Needs a Plan B
A year ago today, over 1,100 Bangladeshi garment workers lost their lives when, despite prior warnings, the building in which they were working collapsed. Over 2,500 more were injured in the disaster, some crippled for life.The victims of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, most of them young women, were part of a global supply chain that brings affordable garments to markets around the world. This was not the first event of its kind in Bangladesh, and Bangladesh is not the only country where industrial disasters have occurred.
HP's 'Matter to a Million' Partnership with Kiva Loans Over $2.5M in First Two Months
HP announced this week that thousands of entrepreneurs around the world have already received microloans from its employees since the launch of Matter to a Million, the Hewlett-Packard Company Foundation’s partnership with Kiva, in February. In announcing the partnership, HP said it is called “Matter to a Million” because the goal is to help one million entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.
