Jennifer Elks
Managing Editor
Sustainable Brands
Janine Benyus: What Businesses Can Learn from the 'Optimization Engine of Evolution'
Organizational Change / In 1997, biologist Janine Benyus popularized the term “biomimicry,” with her groundbreaking book of the same name, and spearheaded the growth of the discipline dedicated to applying Nature’s designs and processes to create a healthier, more sustainable world. I recently spoke with Janine about some of her favorite biomimetic innovations, about asking more from our design interventions, and some of the yet untapped areas in which Nature’s genius could help solve our most intractable problems. - 6 years ago
Timberland Extends Rigorous Environmental Standard Across Entire Product Portfolio
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland prides itself on its commitment to innovate and operate in an accountable and responsible manner — in terms of its products, the communities in which it operates, and the outdoors. As part of this commitment, the company today announced the implementation of its rigorous environmental standard — the Timberland Environmental Product Standard (TEPS) — across all of its product categories, beginning with its Spring 2016 collection. - 6 years ago
Play Your Part: Activating on Purpose Key for Successful Engagement for Sports, Brands
Marketing and Comms / The popularity of team sports in the U.S. — and the idolatry surrounding star players — makes them a perfect platform for reaching fans and encouraging behavior change on a massive scale. With 190 million fans expected to tune in on Sunday, the Super Bowl represents a unique opportunity to engage a large and somewhat unruly portion of the population to live and act more consciously. - 7 years ago
Why a Circular Economy Is Key to Sustainable Development (and Why Business Must Lead the Way)
The Next Economy / This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post, "What's Working: Sustainable Development Goals," in conjunction with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed set of goals will be the subject of discussion at the UN General Assembly meeting on Sept. 25-27, 2015 in New York; they cover 17 key areas of development — including poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality, among many others. - 7 years ago
Video Production with a Heart: How Casual Films Helps Responsible Companies Tell Their Stories
Product, Service & Design Innovation / NYC/London-based production company Casual Films believes we have entered “a new era in branded communications.” As Managing Director Barnaby Cook asserts in a video on the company’s website: “In the future, all successful businesses will have to be sustainable.” Not only does the award-winning company help organizations tell their sustainability stories, Casual’s got one of its own, and Cook recently told us more about how his company aims to use the power of video to help responsible companies influence society and change the world. - 7 years ago
Employee Engagement for Purpose-Driven Business 101 (or 5 Reasons Clif Bar Employees Are So Damn Happy)
Organizational Change / While more and more companies are becoming focused on a triple bottom line — in which they prioritize the health of people and planet in addition to profit — Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson took the sentiment further back in 2000, when he decided to not take a $120 million payout and instead focus on sustaining the health of five bottom lines: Business, Brand, Community, Planet and People. As CEO Kevin Cleary said during a recent “Feed Your Adventure” tour of Clif’s Emeryville headquarters: “In any given year, we incent ourselves and say we have to deliver on all of them — if you deliver on Business, but you don’t deliver on the rest, that isn’t delivering shareholder value.” - 7 years ago
BASF, thinkstep Scaling Collaborative Approach to Sustainable Product Portfolios: Part 2
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / At SB ’15 San Diego last month, chemical giant BASF and sustainability software and consulting company thinkstep announced their collaboration in making BASF’s Sustainable Solution SteeringTM method — for management of, and transition to, a sustainable product portfolio — available for wider use. - 7 years ago
Trending: After Finding Redemption Abroad, Ugly Produce Now Being Vindicated in the US
Waste Not / As awareness has grown of the reprehensible amount of food we throw away in the western world (an estimated 40 percent), efforts to combat food waste have emerged from a variety of places along the food value chain, particularly at the retail level, and primarily in Europe: Last year, French supermarket chain Intermarché led the pack with its ingenious “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables” campaign, which aimed to prove to picky shoppers that less than perfect produce is still just as delicious and nutritious (and slightly less expensive). - 7 years ago
41 Factory Owners, Safety Officials Charged with Murder in Rana Plaza Tragedy
Supply Chain / On Monday, Bangladeshi police charged 41 people, including the owner of the Rana Plaza complex, with murder over the 2013 factory collapse that killed more than 1,100 people. - 7 years ago
'No One Company Has All the Answers': How Exchange of Ideas Has Helped HP Make Living Progress
Product, Service & Design Innovation / In its 2014 Living Progress Report last week, HP outlined the human, economic and environmental impacts it has made in its pursuit of Living Progress — the company’s framework for integrating sustainability into its business strategy. I spoke with Chris Librie, Senior Director of HP’s Living Progress, about how the company’s holistic approach has informed the impacts made to date. - 7 years ago
Ellen MacArthur on Leading a Complex System of Global Change
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Since Ellen MacArthur made the transition in 2009 from world-record-breaking sailor to champion of the circular economy, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has become a driving force behind shifting our approach to business away from that of take-make-waste to one centered on resilience, reuse and optimality. - 7 years ago
Simple, Actionable and Cool: A How-to Guide for Appealing to Our Most Socially Savvy Consumers Yet
Marketing and Comms / Engaging and winning loyalty from consumers has always been the Holy Grail for brands. And with a growing contingent of socially conscious — and socially connected — shoppers expressing a growing preference for responsibly made products from authentically values-driven companies, winning and maintaining that loyalty has become a whole new ballgame. - 7 years ago
Levi's Educates the Next Generation, Continues to Innovate Around Water Conservation
Product, Service & Design Innovation / More and more companies are beginning to acknowledge the importance of water stewardship to the longevity of their operations, regardless of industry. Consumer-facing brands can have added impact — and have added responsibility — to engage their customers on this critical issue, as well. - 7 years ago
Successful Stakeholder Engagement 101 (or How Prince Ea Is Rallying Millions to #StandForTrees)
Marketing and Comms / What’s one way to engage a worldwide audience in a global ecological imperative in a matter of hours? Recruit someone like Prince Ea to deliver the message. - 7 years ago
Hawkins: Dow Is 'All In' to Help Business Community Solve Global Sustainability Challenges
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / On Wednesday, Dow Chemical Company announced an ambitious set of 2025 Sustainability Goals, which it said were designed to redefine the role of business in society. Among the new commitments: developing breakthrough product innovations, positively impacting the lives of 1 billion people, and delivering $1 billion in cost savings or new cash flow for the Company by valuing nature in business decisions and advancing a circular economy. - 7 years ago
Trafficking Survivor Launches 'Freedom Seal' to Help Businesses Fight Modern-Day Slavery
Supply Chain / Today the Tronie Foundation — a Washington-based non-profit organization founded by trafficking survivor Rani Hong, dedicated to driving awareness of human trafficking and slavery — announced the availability of a new “Freedom Seal” that companies can earn for taking steps to eradicate slavery from their supply chains. Marking the launch of the Seal is a corresponding social media campaign, through which concerned consumers can encourage companies to #AdoptTheSeal. - 8 years ago
thinkstep (fka PE International) Launching Comprehensive Platform for Enabling Business Sustainability
Cleantech / Sustainability software and consulting company PE International, creators of the industry-leading GaBi life cycle assessment software and providers of a vast array of tools for sustainability performance management, unveiled its new name – thinkstep - today at its annual customer and partner symposium. The company says the new name reflects its long history of connecting data and knowledge to make sustainability advances, or ‘thinksteps,’ for the world’s leading brands and organizations. - 8 years ago
Dell on Mission to Measure Net Positive Impact of IT on Education, Healthcare, Logistics and Beyond
Cleantech / In Fall of 2013, Dell launched what it called its Legacy of Good plan — a set of 21 ambitious sustainability goals covering everything from its packaging and production materials to reducing the energy intensity of its entire product portfolio by 80 percent. - 8 years ago
PepsiCo Reacts to New Ads Slamming Doritos Over Lax Palm Oil Policy
Behavior Change / On Tuesday, SumOfUs, an international consumer advocacy organization, released a new parody video — in conjunction with Doritos’ annual “Crash the Super Bowl” commercial competition — that calls out Doritos and its parent company, PepsiCo, for use of unsustainable palm oil in Doritos products and the subsequent destruction caused to Southeast Asian rainforests, species and communities. The video, called “A Cheesy Love Story — The Ad Doritos Don't Want You to See,” has reached almost a million views across Facebook and YouTube since it went live on Tuesday. - 8 years ago
No Carnitas for a Third of Chipotle Diners After Pork Supplier Violates Animal-Welfare Standards
Supply Chain / Chipotle is walking its “Food with Integrity” talk with the decision this week to eliminate carnitas from the menu at about a third of its 1,800 U.S. locations, after discovering that one of its pork suppliers violated the company’s animal-welfare policies.“Without this pork, we cannot get enough pork that meets our Responsibly Raised standard for all our restaurants, and we will not be able to serve carnitas in some locations,” Chipotle said in a statement, though the company declined to name the supplier in question. - 8 years ago