Organizational Change
The latest creative strategies and tools helping organizations to engage their teams in building market-leading, purpose-driven brands.
Q&A: How TD Is Living Its Purpose, Driving SDGs with The Ready Commitment
TD Bank Group recently launched its corporate citizenship strategy to center on a new multi-year program, The Ready Commitment. Guided by the bank’s purpose, focus on creating shared value and desire to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), TD is targeting CDN $1 billion (US $775 million) toward community giving by 2030 in The Ready Commitment’s four focus areas:
Can Transparency Alone Transform the Fashion Industry?
Transparency has become a bit of a buzzword in the fashion industry and judging by the number of times it was mentioned at this year’s Copenhagen Fashion Summit, it is a trend that we are not going to shake anytime soon. Quite the contrary, transparency is reshaping how brands and retailers interact with their suppliers and consumers. But can it really transform the entire fashion industry? C&A Foundation’s Leslie Johnston hosted a panel of experts to find out.
Q&A: A Cattle Rancher Shares Her Beef with Food Labeling
In the sustainability world, the conversation around beef mostly involves reducing the environmental impacts of its production (deforestation, methane emissions, etc). But Cassidy Johnston can offer a perspective we don’t often get to hear in the Sustainable Brands conversation — a New Mexico-based cattle rancher and newly appointed Sustainability Officer for the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), Johnston is eager to share ranchers’ side of the story with the public and help dispel what she says are common misconceptions behind beef and its role in a sustainable food future.
South Africa Setting the Standard, Campaigning for #WaterWiseTourism
In response to a severe drought, citizens and businesses in Cape Town and the Western Cape have cut their water consumption by almost 60 percent over the past three years — a performance not yet matched by any other major city globally. Now the country’s tourism industry is sharing that for them, every drop counts, in a new campaign for #WaterWiseTourism.
Following the Paper Trail: APP’s Ongoing Quest to Restore Indonesia’s Rainforests
Since 1990, Indonesia has lost half of its rainforests. What’s worse, the rate of deforestation, currently at roughly two million hectares per year, is still accelerating. Heart of the issue being that ecological values remain difficult to measure in monetary terms. Such is the tragedy of the commons for a country with the world’s fourth-largest population: Its eagerness for economic development driven by the global market has made one of the planet’s most diverse natural habitats subject to exploitation for fast cash, rather than being protected as a crucial part of the global ecosystem.
SEKISUI: Building an Organization with Integrated Thinking to Balance Management, Environment
This post has been translated from Japanese — read the original interview here.
Your Organization’s Purpose Must Evolve
This is the eighth in a series of articles examining how business leaders and companies can transform their corporate culture in order to succeed in the midst of the impending Purpose Revolution. Find links to the full series below.
Safety First: NSF and the Quest for Global Food Sustainability
While weekly headlines tout the efforts of major food companies and NGOs working to increase the sustainability of the food industry through reducing waste, improving packaging and responding to consumer demand for healthier choices, organizations such as NSF: The Public Health and Safety Organization are working behind the scenes on an
Danone North America: The World’s Largest B Corp on the Future of Business
A global food company present in more than 130 markets, Danone has always had a purpose agenda, even when it was an unusual idea. Danone committed to combine economic success and social progress in 1972, when the company’s founder, Antoine Riboud, began Danone’s “dual project.” As Danone has grown, that commitment has been apparent in initiatives such as the Danone Way sustainable-development guidelines that have helped Danone subsidiaries improve their impact since 2001; and the establishment of Danone Communities, which began with a partnership with Mohammed Yunus in Bangladesh in 2006.
P&G Smashes 2020 Goals, Raises the Bar with 'Ambition 2030'
The Procter & Gamble Company today announced it has achieved many of its 2020 environmental sustainability goals, has plans in place to meet the rest and has established new, broad-reaching goals for 2030.
What Matters Most to Millennials? Millennials Want to Matter
This is the seventh in a series of articles examining how business leaders and companies can transform their corporate culture in order to succeed in the midst of the impending Purpose Revolution. Find links to the full series below. The business world has been obsessed with the millennials for quite some time now. Millennials are the largest working generation and have considerable influence as purchasers and drivers of consumer preferences. Yet we believe that leading corporations don’t understand the millennial mindset.
The Key to Authentic Engagement: Purpose Metrics that Matter
This is the sixth in a series of articles examining how business leaders and companies can transform their corporate culture in order to succeed in the midst of the impending Purpose Revolution. Find links to the full series below.
Trending: Footwear Takes Steps Toward Sustainability
As a division of the fashion industry, the footwear sector has a hefty environmental footprint. However, a slew of emerging brands are gearing up to change footwear’s future, raising the bar for the rest of the industry by embracing sustainable sourcing, ethical labor practices and transparency.
How to Coach Employees on Purpose
This is the fifth in a series of articles examining how business leaders and companies can transform their corporate culture in order to succeed in the midst of the impending Purpose Revolution. Find links to the full series below.
Going Beyond Less Bad: Redefining Products, Brands for Positive Impact
“We want all of our three billion products we sell every year to be well on the path to being truly sustainable by 2025.”
Kashi Certified Transitional Program Increases 400% in Just 2 Years
Kashi continues to expand its Certified Transitional portfolio, announcing that with the support of consumers, it will now source Certified Transitional ingredients from more than 4,200 acres of farmland across the US — a 400 percent increase since the start of the program in 2016. Participating farmers have received more than $1 million to support their transition from conventional to organic.
The Role of Business in Driving Sustainable Consumption, Production
Business is increasingly aligning its activities with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A recent report shows that 43 percent of the world’s largest 250 companies are now linking their sustainability reporting to the SDGs.
Gold Standard, WWF Publish Best-Practice Guide to Accelerate Corporate Action on SDGs
Climate and development standard and certification body Gold Standard and WWF Switzerland have published a new report that seeks to help the private sector define and deliver ambitious strategies to achieve the goals outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Thinking More Sustainably Across the Apparel Supply Chain
Sustainable production standards for clothing continue to rise, with attention to sustainable materials and practices becoming a more integral part of the global apparel industry. In an effort to mitigate its impact on the environment, the sector has been taking important steps toward more sustainable product solutions. But are we doing enough?
Trending: Shifting Attitudes Towards Sustainability Shaping More Than Just Supply Chains
Growing consumer demand for apparel and consumer products made in socially and environmentally responsible ways continues to drive companies away from a business-as-usual model. But corporate behavior isn’t the only thing being influenced by shifting consumer attitudes — the concept of the ideal partner is also being shaped by sustainability.