A study by the European Food Information Council (EUFIC), published earlier this month in the journal Food Policy, found that while European consumers have a reasonable understanding of sustainability as respecting the environment and fair treatment of present and future generations, their understanding does not extend the role of sustainability with respect to the food supply chain or of various ecolabels used on food and beverages. This finding explains another of the study’s conclusions — that consumer understanding of sustainability does not yet translate into driving food choice.
A couple of years ago, as I waited for my morning coffee to brew and my toast to, er, toast, I was reading the label of my peanut butter jar and had my entire organic, fair trade world thrown for a loop when I saw that my peanut butter contained palm oil.Products we buy every day contain palm oil, which is driving tropical deforestation. See our infographic (above) and get the whole story here.
Between brands who use misleading ecological or social claims in their campaigns and those who decide not to communicate at all, there is a balance to find. How can companies communicate their social responsibility commitments in a relevant and effective way? What are the trends for 2014 and the years to come? 30 French experts answered.
Half-a-dozen investors have filed shareholder resolutions with ten fossil fuel companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, seeking an explanation of their strategies for competing as the world moves toward a low-carbon global economy.The resolutions focus on potential carbon asset risk, or the possibility that these companies’ present and future fossil fuel-related assets will lose value as various market factors — such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, fuel economy, fuel switching, carbon pollution standards, efforts to curb air pollution and climate policy — increasingly threaten demand for fossil fuels and related infrastructure.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), with the help of dozens of prominent retailers, designers and NGOs from the UK clothing industry, on Tuesday launched a new campaign aimed at reducing encouraging Brits to find new appreciation for their unwanted clothes.
Memes, as defined by Culture2 (formerly DarwinSF) founders Joe Brewer and Lazlo Karafiath, are “the units of culture that reproduce themselves through people’s thoughts and behaviors.” The word meme has recently been appropriated by Internet culture to have a quick image with some funny text overlaid on it, but a meme can be any idea or concept that gets passed around and takes hold.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not adequately addressed the climate disclosure deficiencies of publicly traded corporations, despite four-year-old formal guidance requiring companies to disclose material climate change risks, according to a report published Thursday by Ceres.
In the context of the huge market for fast, disposable fashion, H&M’s brand promise to offer quality fashion at the best price might seem like an oxymoron. But the brand is determined to make good on its goal to “provide fashion for conscious consumers” by making quality clothing more widely accessible."We want to make sustainable fashion more democratic," Helena Helmersson, H&M's head of sustainability, told Reuters last week. "We don't aim for sustainability to be a luxury thing.”But are consumers buying it (so to speak)? Not according to several reports that rank brands according to customer perceptions of their ethical practices.
Cross-Posted from Product, Service & Design Innovation. At BBMG, we often use archetypes to help reveal a brand’s true character and provide a North Star for the products, services and experiences it can bring into the world.My favorite is the Alchemist, whose core desire is to search out the fundamental laws of how things work and apply these principles to make things happen. The Alchemist integrates physical, environmental and spiritual elements to spark transformation in people, organizations and our times.In 2014, we see an alchemy of economic, environmental and social values that will bring new opportunities for business and society, and we’ve identified five forces that will advance a more sustainable marketplace:
This post was originally written for and published on CSRwire's Commentary section, Talkback, on January 7, 2014.No, this is not another “looking at 2014” piece. I am more interested in looking a little further ahead. The world we live in has changed dramatically over the last 10 years and there are larger trends changing the world in ways we can hardly imagine.
Companies reporting a profit from their sustainability efforts rose 23 percent last year, to 37 percent of the total, according to a new global study called The Innovation Bottom Line, released yesterday by the MIT Sloan Management Review (MIT SMR) and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
With increasing awareness of both current and imminent crises, societies around the world are changing their attitudes, behavior and consumption patterns. Through a variety of survey data, ethnographic studies, expert reports, white papers and other analyses, this channel tracks all types of stakeholder engagement with brands' environmental and social sustainability programs.