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Daniel Vennard

Global Program Director
WRI

Daniel Vennard is Global Program Director, leading the Better Buying Lab within the World Resources Institute.

Daniel is Global Program Director, leading the Better Buying Lab within the World Resources Institute. He works with food companies and and experts in behaviour change and marketing to develop, test and scale new ideas that can help shift diets to more sustainable options.

Previously, Daniel worked at Mars Incorporated and Procter & Gamble in corporate strategy, sustainability and marketing. He has written and presented on how consumers can be shifted towards buying more sustainable products.

Daniel holds a first class degree from Sheffield University in Plant Sciences.

Daniel is a frequent speaker on sustainability and sustainable consumption and co-author of academic papers on the topic. He is on the advisory board of Sustainable Brands and a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, Science and Manufacturing.

Daniel Vennard is tagged in 6 stories.
Q&A: How a ‘Cuban’ Name Change Boosted Panera’s Soup Sales
Q&A: How a ‘Cuban’ Name Change Boosted Panera’s Soup Sales

Behavior Change / WRI’s Better Buying Lab works with food companies to research and test science-based approaches that encourage consumers to choose more sustainable, plant-based foods. - 5 years ago

Don’t Put Vegetables in the Corner: A Q&A with Behavioral Science Researcher Linda Bacon
Don’t Put Vegetables in the Corner: A Q&A with Behavioral Science Researcher Linda Bacon

Marketing and Comms / New research out of the London School of Economics should wake up many in the food industry. In a first-of-its-kind experiment, Linda Bacon – a graduate student in behavioral science and former Global Strategy Director at Mars, Incorporated – tested whether placing plant-based dishes in a separate vegetarian section on restaurant menus influenced ordering. The study’s findings have important implications for how the food industry might move more people to eat healthier and more sustainably, and may just change how we talk about plant-based foods. - 6 years ago

We’re Lousy at Describing Sustainable Food, But It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way
We’re Lousy at Describing Sustainable Food, But It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way

Marketing and Comms / As Georgetown University linguistics professor Deborah Tannen says, “We tend to look through language and not realize how much power language has.” We rarely realize it, but language is the lens through which we form perceptions about people, places and products. From my involvement in corporate marketing, I know that companies and advertisers are keenly aware of language’s power for consumers. Marketing specialists pore over focus group data and behavior studies to understand what makes consumers tick, carefully selecting words to evoke emotions, motivate us and shape our tastes. The right phrasing can make a world of difference. - 7 years ago

What the Personal Beauty Industry Can Teach Us About Men’s Diets
What the Personal Beauty Industry Can Teach Us About Men’s Diets

Behavior Change / As a teenager growing up in England in the 1990s, so-called lads’ mags were all the rage. Back then, these kinds of magazines ruled the newsstands, promulgating a kind of macho boyhood that was rough and rowdy. They set a cultural expectation for young English men that rolled well into the 2000s. And then, one by one, those magazines went out of business as readers moved online and their media preferences changed. Other things in British men’s lives have changed, too. - 7 years ago

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How the Better Buying Lab Aims to Accelerate Demand for Sustainable Food
How the Better Buying Lab Aims to Accelerate Demand for Sustainable Food

Leadership / The latest food trend isn’t a particular cuisine or exotic ingredient; it’s sustainability. Nearly 75 percent of Americans think sustainability is important when deciding what food to buy. The food industry has noticed. In Britain, close to half of those surveyed across the food industry say their customers want more sustainable food options. - 7 years ago

How a Shrub in Africa Made Me Want to Change the Food Industry
How a Shrub in Africa Made Me Want to Change the Food Industry

Behavior Change / In 2004 I was on my knees scrabbling through the Cameroon rainforest. A keen botanist, I’d signed up as a volunteer with an NGO to help map the forest and search for new species. One day whilst hiking along a surging river, I came across a little shrub, no taller than my knee, peppered with bright blue flowers. Not recognizing the bush, I called over one of the local scientists in our group. He immediately alerted the botany professor who, in turn, got very excited. They had never seen a shrub like it before, and it turned out to be a new species. - 7 years ago