SB Brand-Led Culture Change 2024 - Full Program Announced!

Suzanne Shelton

President & CEO
Shelton Group

Suzanne Shelton is CEO of Shelton Group, the nation’s leading marketing communications firm entirely focused in the sustainability and energy efficiency sectors.

The company polls Americans on an ongoing basis to understand their drivers and obstacles to adopting more sustainable or energy efficient products and behaviors and uses those insights to help some of the nation’s leading brands define and leverage their sustainability and energy efficiency stories to gain a market advantage. Shelton’s clients include Georgia Pacific, Grainger, Kohler, Johnson & Johnson, Steelcase, Ameren, BASF and Consumers Energy.

Suzanne Shelton is tagged in 20 stories.
Hey, Corporate America: Please Stop Saying, ‘We’ve Always Done Sustainability!’
Hey, Corporate America: Please Stop Saying, ‘We’ve Always Done Sustainability!’

Walking the Talk / Because it begs this response: “Really? If you’ve been doing sustainability for decades, why is the planet (and the human race) in the trouble it’s in?” And corporate America doesn’t really have a good answer to that. - 2 years ago

Why Does the SB Brand Transformation Roadmap Matter in an ESG-Driven World?
Why Does the SB Brand Transformation Roadmap Matter in an ESG-Driven World?

New Metrics / While ESG frameworks such as MSCI and Sustainalytics help investors spot and manage risks, the Brand Transformation Roadmap also helps companies account for social or environmental value and brand leadership — all are needed for a holistic sustainability strategy. - 2 years ago

Even COVID Can’t Stop Sustainable Packaging
Even COVID Can’t Stop Sustainable Packaging

Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / As hopes mount for a new, post-COVID “normal,” many systems are in flux and the state of sustainable packaging is once again in question. How will businesses adapt? Or re-adapt? Or un-adapt? Shelton Group CEO Suzanne Shelton and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s Adam Gendell share their insights. - 2 years ago

Plastic Straws Are on the Path to Extinction; You’ll Never Guess What’s Next
Plastic Straws Are on the Path to Extinction; You’ll Never Guess What’s Next

Behavior Change / The global feminine hygiene market accounted for $31.23 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $62.84 billion by 2026. To stay relevant in this booming sector, investment in developing products responsive to these changing consumer demands is not only smart, it’s imperative. - 4 years ago

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Of Plastics and People: Suzanne Shelton Shines Light into the Consumer Mind
Of Plastics and People: Suzanne Shelton Shines Light into the Consumer Mind

Product, Service & Design Innovation / Through intensive research, Suzanne Shelton and her firm have gained insight into the ‘what next’ brands are looking for: less conversation, more action. And consumers are actively asking for more sustainable options — not alongside, but in place of traditional products and packaging. - 4 years ago

Show Me the … Health Benefits?
Show Me the … Health Benefits?

Behavior Change / Utilities, retailers, appliance brands, even public officials beat the same drum to market to consumers: “Save energy! Save money!” It’s an easy refrain, but it’s not the smartest one. - 4 years ago

Corporates Are Making Activism Great Again
Corporates Are Making Activism Great Again

Marketing and Comms / Corporations are people, my friend — and not just for tax purposes anymore. In the age of ubiquitous social media pressure, businesses are rebranding as social justice warriors — and that’s a shrewd marketing move on their part, new research reveals. - 5 years ago

The Conscious Consumer vs. the Consumer Unconscious
The Conscious Consumer vs. the Consumer Unconscious

Marketing and Comms / Last week, over 2,000 representatives from our global community of sustainability practitioners, brand strategists, product and service innovators, thought leaders and other change-makers convened at SB’18 Vancouver. Attendees shared their latest insights on a multitude of themes pertinent to improving business around the world. Here, we dig into brand and organizational efforts to get consumers to deliver their part of the sustainability equation, by putting their money where their mouths are. - 5 years ago

People Aren’t Saving the Planet. Corporations Are.
People Aren’t Saving the Planet. Corporations Are.

Walking the Talk / It’s official. Sustainability is mainstream. You probably already knew that. What you may not know is that Americans aren’t really changing their personal behaviors. They’re changing their buying behaviors. And that gives brands a new way to win in the marketplace. Here’s what we’re seeing in our ongoing polling of Americans to understand their attitudes and behaviors related to the environment: One of our most recent surveys finds that 88 percent of Americans believe the average person should be taking concrete steps to reduce environmental impact, and nearly 80 percent feel a sense of personal responsibility to change daily purchase habits and practices to positively impact the environment. - 5 years ago

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America May Have Elected Trump, But Only 14% Support His Environmental Platform
America May Have Elected Trump, But Only 14% Support His Environmental Platform

Stakeholder Trends and Insights / Yes, Americans are divided — but apparently not on the environment. The results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election exposed some deep rifts in the American psyche and left many of us feeling more divided than ever as Donald Trump takes office. - 7 years ago

Playing the Planet Card: Will Talking About the Environment Finally Promote Energy Efficiency? 
Playing the Planet Card: Will Talking About the Environment Finally Promote Energy Efficiency? 

Behavior Change / Once upon a time – back when we first started marketing energy efficiency and sustainability – we told our clients that if you wanted to get consumers to save energy, the last thing you should do is talk about the environment. It’s too polarizing, we said. Why take the risk of alienating a big part of your audience? But our story is changing – along with the American mindset. That’s why we’re excited to bring you this year’s Energy Pulse™ free special report based on a brand-new poll of more than 2,000 Americans. - 7 years ago

Water Is an Increasingly Precious Resource — But Do Consumers Understand That?
Water Is an Increasingly Precious Resource — But Do Consumers Understand That?

Behavior Change / Has a water crisis touched you or your community this year? You probably know that 2016 was a big headline year for water, from California’s lingering drought to Flint’s public health disaster. Here in East Tennessee, where we rarely worry about the availability of fresh water, the idea of scarcity hit home this fall in an unprecedented way: We endured our most severe drought in nearly ten years, setting the stage for a massive wildfire that ripped through the tourist town of Gatlinburg and killed at least 14 people. - 7 years ago

An Open Letter to Manufacturers
An Open Letter to Manufacturers

Product, Service & Design Innovation / Do you ever have that Charlie Brown moment? You know, the moment when you’ve done something again for the umpteenth time, hoping for a different result, but you get what you’ve always gotten? That’s my current relationship with the Eco Mode on my one-year-old, fairly expensive dishwasher. I rinse the dishes (wondering if I’m just making environmental matters worse), pop them in the dishwasher, press the Eco Mode button and hope for the best. And then I sort through the dishes when the cycle is done, pull out the ones that actually appear to be clean and leave about a quarter of them in the machine, to be washed a second time when it’s full (in Regular Wash mode). - 7 years ago

Let’s Talk About Love: People Finally Putting Their Money Where Their Hearts Are
Let’s Talk About Love: People Finally Putting Their Money Where Their Hearts Are

Marketing and Comms / One of the a-has from our soon-to-be-released 2015 Eco Pulse study is that, indeed, a company’s sustainability or social responsibility commitment is a reason to love the brand. In fact, when we asked Americans, “Can you name a brand you love?” and then asked, “Why?” CSR reasons were almost as prevalent as core functionality or performance features.By the way, the brands listed as loved brands weren’t niche-y “green” brands - they were mainstream. - 8 years ago

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The Answer to Effective Sustainability Marketing? Simple ... But Not Easy
The Answer to Effective Sustainability Marketing? Simple ... But Not Easy

Behavior Change / While world leaders were converging in New York last week to debate climate change, I crisscrossed the country to attend three different conferences (thereby adding more carbon to the aforementioned UN debate, I realize). Specifically, I attended the EEBA conference, the Utility Efficiency Exchange and Sustainable Brands' New Metrics '14. At all of these events, I met folks and heard presentations from the private sector’s front lines of energy and environment — all working to create programs and products that will, ultimately, lower our collective environmental footprint. - 9 years ago

Give the People What They Want — Start Selling 'Better'
Give the People What They Want — Start Selling 'Better'

Behavior Change / Our annual Eco Pulse study will be out later this month, and we’ll start blogging about what we found over the next few weeks. One consistent theme that we see in this study and last year’s Energy Pulse is this:People want better.They don’t want to feel guilty about how they should do the right thing for the environment, they don’t want to feel scared about the state of the planet, and they don’t want to be told they’re wrong for wanting what they want. - 9 years ago

Education Doesn't Change Behavior? I Might Have Been Wrong.
Education Doesn't Change Behavior? I Might Have Been Wrong.

Behavior Change / If you’ve heard me speak at a conference, you know there’s a point in the presentation where I typically say, “Don’t try to educate your audience into changing their behaviors.” Then I ask the audience to raise their hands if they can think of at least one thing they know they should do on a daily basis to be healthier but that they don’t do. Nearly every hand goes up, and I say, “See, knowing a thing doesn’t mean you’re going to do a thing.”But I might be wrong. - 9 years ago

We're Only Human: Personal Concerns Weigh Heavily on Business Purchases
We're Only Human: Personal Concerns Weigh Heavily on Business Purchases

Behavior Change / At Shelton Group we’ve been polling Americans regularly for nearly a decade to understand their attitudes and behaviors related to energy and the environment so we can best help our clients define and leverage their sustainability stories. Until late last year our studies were consumer-focused, though much of our client work is actually on the business-to-business side. So late last year we fielded our first-ever B2B Pulse study to better understand the role sustainability plays as business decision-makers are making purchasing decisions. - 9 years ago

Brands: The Historical Leaders in Creating Consumer Behavior Change
Brands: The Historical Leaders in Creating Consumer Behavior Change

Behavior Change / Brands have the potential to disrupt the status quo and promote behavior change. They certainly have a history of doing so. One of my favorite examples is the way that shampoo brands have changed the way we care for our hair over the past 100 years. - 10 years ago

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Welcome to Our Issue in Focus on Driving Behavior Change
Welcome to Our Issue in Focus on Driving Behavior Change

Behavior Change / It’s my great pleasure to welcome readers and contributors to this month’s Issue in Focus on Behavior Change.At Shelton Group, our purpose is to help companies define and leverage their sustainability commitments to gain a market advantage. - 10 years ago