Organizational Change
The latest creative strategies and tools helping organizations to engage their teams in building market-leading, purpose-driven brands.
Nearly 100% of Companies Now Have Corporate Citizenship Budgets
Cross-Posted from Leadership. Almost 100 percent of companies have a corporate citizenship budget today, up from just 81 percent in 2010, according to a new report from the Carroll School of Management Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College.The Profile of the Practice 2013 explores how the environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions of business — corporate citizenship — are managed in today’s business world, and how these practices have evolved since the last report in 2010. It is based on a survey of 231 companies that provided data on their corporate citizenship strategies, operational structures and business practices.
Recyclebank Announces Grant Recipients of 8th Annual Green Schools Program
Recyclebank® — the company that rewards its members with discounts and deals for making more conscious daily actions — today announced the schools selected for its 2014 Green Schools Program. Each year, the program grants money to schools to bring to life unique projects that will lead to greater sustainability in their classroom and community.
25% of Small UK Businesses Prioritizing Sustainability in 2014
One in four small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK consider sustainability one of their highest concerns for the coming year, according to a new survey by Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking (LBCB).While sustainability is becoming an integral part of the business landscape, it has traditionally been much more difficult for smaller firms, who may lack the resources to make changes to company administration practices, LBCB says.Encouragingly, the survey found that three out of ten SMEs plan to invest more in sustainable business practices over the next five years, although another 42 percent said that spending on sustainability is likely to remain flat.
U.S. Green Building Council Certifies 20,000th LEED Commercial Project
The Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) plant in Knoxville, Tenn., last week became the 20,000th LEED certification for a commercial project issued by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).As the world’s most widely used and recognized green building rating system, LEED guides the design, construction and operation of 10.5 billion square feet of commercial and institutional space worldwide. By using less energy, LEED-certified spaces save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce carbon emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.
Apple, Ford Receive Perfect Scores in HRC’s Corporate Equality Index
Apple, Ford, HP and 10 other fortune-ranked companies recently received 100 percent ratings in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) 2014 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) report, a national benchmark for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) workplace inclusion.Other fortune-ranked companies to receive perfect scores include Chevron, General Motors, GE, AT&T, Bank of America, McKesson, Verizon, JPMorgan Chase, IBM and Citigroup.
How to Engage Communities with Your Brand
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. If the perception of your brand’s green efforts is falling short of reality, then it’s time to stop and re-examine all aspects of the social impact of your outreach. Gone are the days when consumers would buy “green” for green’s sake; they want to see for themselves how a brand is actually making a difference. And it’s in your best interest to inform and educate them.
greenApes Helping Companies Reward Employees, Consumers Alike for Sustainable Lifestyle Choices
Buying organic tomatoes may not be a big deal. They taste better and they’re better for both your health and the planet; enough reasons to justify paying a price premium. No wonder organic food is leading the growth of sustainable consumption.But it isn’t always that easy to make the more sustainable lifestyle choice. You may have found yourself feeling bad for using your car instead of public transportation. While staring at an organic cotton T-shirt, you may have wondered if you should buy it or go for the cheaper standard cotton version a couple racks away. It's often an uncomfortable struggle between collective and private benefits: the planet versus your wallet.
Nestlé Hoping to Alleviate Europe's Economic Crisis Through Youth Employment Initiative
Nestlé has announced a commitment to create 20,000 positions for young people across Europe over the next three years.The Nestlé needs YOUth Initiative will offer jobs to 10,000 people under the age of 30 and create 10,000 apprentice positions and traineeships by 2016."Today, one in four young people in Europe does not have a job," said Laurent Freixe, Nestlé Executive Vice-President and Zone Director for Europe, speaking at the Nestlé needs YOUth launch event in Athens, Greece, where more than half of those under the age of 25 are unemployed.
Report: Businesses Struggle to Fully Integrate Sustainability
Only one in five companies has fully integrated sustainability into business, according to the BSR/GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business Survey 2013, which received responses from more than 700 corporate sustainability executives — the largest pool to date.In this year’s survey, respondents were asked for the first time to indicate the extent to which sustainability is integrated into the core of their business. Only 21 percent of respondents reported that their company is close to full integration. A majority say that their company is either about halfway to integration (51 percent), or is just getting started (22 percent).
Employee Engagement: Why Motivating the Elephant Is Better Than Rewarding the Rider
Cross-Posted from Behavior Change. Many organisations are grappling with the same question: How do we create an employee reward and recognition programme designed to deliver widely adopted and sustained pro-environmental behaviours?
5 Ways to Create a Culture of Sustainability in Any Company
There is no simple way to identify a leading company in sustainability. Given the proliferation of ratings, rankings, blogs and indices, there is no shortage of opinions, and often these are in direct conflict with one another. The methodologies used to calculate performance are often very opaque, or nonexistent. Even highly reputable organizations, based on a good core of data, often produce wildly divergent results from one another. And once the pundits get a hold of any ranking, they usually tear it to pieces, bringing their own criteria, opinions and biases to bear and further muddying the waters. While the debates are often fierce, no one can really agree on what sustainability itself really means.
Want to Engage Your Employees in Your CSR Activities? Give Them the Power to Choose
Smart business leaders believe that an active corporate social responsibility program is an asset when it comes to attracting top talent. The data agrees. A recent study from Net Impact showed that 35% of American employees would take a 15% pay cut to work for a company committed to CSR, and that 45% would do so for a job that makes a social or environmental impact.
Americans Would Rather Remain Unemployed Than Work for Companies with Bad Reputations
A majority of Americans (69 percent) would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed, according to an annual corporate reputation survey released by Corporate Responsibility (CR) magazine and Allegis Group Services. This is a six percent decrease from 2012.CR says it polled more than 1,000 employed and unemployed Americans to gain insights into how both corporate reputation and transparency can impact job decisions.More than half (62 percent) of those currently employed said they would take a job with a company that had a bad reputation if they were offered more money. This number has increased by four percent year-over-year, the magazine says.
To Advance Sustainability, Go Beyond Traditional Employee Engagement Efforts
Imagine walking into your office one morning to find a business card on your chair — with a different title. It might just give you pause.
Study: Cultivating Employee Passion Can Give Firms Competitive Advantage
Organizations that hope to address perpetually mounting competitive pressures need workers who bring passion to their jobs to navigate challenges and accelerate performance improvement, according to new research from Deloitte’s Center for the Edge.Unlocking Passion of the Explorer found that only 11 percent of U.S. workers are passionate and possess the attributes needed for sustained extreme performance improvement.
Do One Thing: Lessons in Driving Employee Engagement
At Saatchi & Saatchi S we believe that employees are not only the heart and soul of a company, they are a company’s greatest asset in propelling and achieving its sustainability vision. At its most inspirational, employee engagement is also about magnifying the power of individual actions to effect large-scale change.
Three Hidden Killers of Sustainability Programs
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. In the past decade, corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs have come a long way, with companies putting real money and staff into the efforts. Increasingly, companies have appointed top executives to be held accountable in these areas, and just about every big firm issues some kind of sustainability or CSR report.But despite the continued focus, progress remains slower than hoped. Why? After all, studies continue to show that CEOs rank sustainability as one of the most critical business drivers that will affect their company’s success — and financial performance — in the years to come.
If It Involves People (And What Doesn't?), Start with a Powerful Engagement Strategy
What single success driver do branding, design, innovation, sustainability, public policy, product development, sales, social sector program management and organizational change have in common? The answer is simple: engagement. Whenever we do something for people or involving people, engagement must be at the center. If we leave out engagement we’ll quickly become cut off from the very people whose benefit we are working for, and separated from the people we need to help forward our objectives. Then we’ll be left wondering what went wrong.
The Ultimate Interview Question: Social Responsibility in the Hiring Process
The hiring process can be a grueling one — weeding through all those prospects can be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. It can be frustrating, and it also presents a lot of opportunity for self-doubt.
Sustainable People, Part III: Making It Real
Welcome back! Are you ready to leave excellence behind, with all its unsustainable feeders and costs? Ready to make the move to the entirely different and sustainable condition of mastery?You’ve been patient for long enough, so let’s get started. First up: what not to do, followed by the surprise ending where we find the proven path to sustainable mastery.How Not to Attain Sustainable MasteryThe Failed Alternatives
