The 'a-ha' moments continued this week at Brand-Led Culture Change — where we heard how more brands, NGOs, retailers and more are nudging more sustainable purchasing decisions, measuring the
efficacy of social-impact programs and pursuing partnerships that create shared
value for both brands and communities.
How Walmart collaborates for sustainable innovation
Image credit: Walmart
Another Monday morning workshop kicked off with moderator Solitaire
Townsend, co-founder of
Futerra, asking attendees to reflect on which
sustainable behavior they can begin implementing into their daily lives.
Addressed as ‘eco sins’ stakeholders can confront to live more sustainably, the
room went around and shared key examples from SB’s 9 Sustainable
Behaviors that
resonate across many stakeholders — including preventing food waste, switching
to more renewable energy, and purchasing sustainably made consumer goods.
Attendees quickly realized that while we all wish to live up to our values and
stay committed to them, outside factors can often get in the way of this
commitment — hence, the pesky intention-action
gap
when it comes to adoption of more sustainable behaviors.
The session then proceeded with insights from professionals across Walmart’s
Marketing and Sustainability departments — Christopher
Kreutzner (Senior Counsel of
Sustainability & ESG), Marco
Reyes (Senior Director of
Sustainability), and Courtney
Killingsworth
(Marketing Planning & Strategy, Brand & Reputation). The three panelists shared
how they work together across departments to ensure that business goals can be
met while prioritizing people and planet.
For example, Reyes uses his subject matter expertise to identify where Walmart
can make an impact and scale that impact across the value chain. Killingsworth
uses her influence to advocate for the voice of the customer; and Kreutzner
ensures that Walmart mitigates risk while being able to achieve its
sustainability targets. More and more consumers report wanting to make
sustainable choices in their purchasing habits, and Walmart can show them where
to start. Recently, Walmart launched its Built for
Better initiative — a
collaboration across functional teams that allows customers to add three
criteria to their purchase decisions: For you, For communities, For the planet.
The panelists highlighted the cost of inaction and how crucial it is to
understand different perspectives to create buy-in amidst competing priorities.
Reyes admitted that nobody has all the answers, for the solution is not binary;
he pointed out that friction between goals is good as it sharpens each other
with the right set of values. He went on to say we are all making each other
sharper towards a common goal.
Workshop attendees then engaged in a speed round of making a pitch on
sustainable behavior — encompassing the behavior itself, three barriers that may
be in the way, and three benefits that will overcome these barriers. Pitches
included examples from solar
energy
and sustainable
packaging
to prompting more thoughtful consumption by embedding nature images inside snack
wrappers.
The session concluded with all three panelists highlighting the importance of
everyone in an organization being able to be part of solutions. The Walmart team
said the retailer aims to include everyone in the conversation, from all lived
experiences; and through their collaboration on sustainability goals, hopes to
become an example of how to effectively do so.
Elevating the ‘S’ in ESG: Building culture, measuring impact and how to get things done
Image credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh
Today’s brands are expected to be authentic and transparent, and must find ways
to manifest these as KPIs to achieve business goals. A Monday afternoon panel
discussed the challenges in successfully executing against social social-impact
goals and highlighted what brands can do now to build internal buy-in, shape
more impactful social initiatives, and measure the value for the company and
external stakeholders.
Michelle Waring, Steward for Sustainability and Everyday Good at Tom’s of Maine, said the company approaches ‘S’ by grounding it
in transparency and commitment. The company has recently looked at its role as a
heritage environmental brand that was founded as a business for good. 50 years
later, the space has changed: Now, putting people at the center is key to an
effective sustainability strategy, and is necessary to transition
environmentalism away from a predominantly white-centric pursuit to one that
engages the most vulnerable and efficacious stakeholders — such as BIPOC
communities, frontline and fenceline communities, etc.
Kevin Wilhelm of Point
B pointed out that the sentiment behind movements such
as Black Lives Matter, Me Too, etc have always existed; but recent highly
publicized events have spurred brands to make grandiose statements. Three years
later, though, most brands haven’t followed
through
— and consumers have noticed. They are demanding follow-through, and
transformative brands are serving it up by evolving traditional “S” approaches
(philanthropic
initiatives,
etc) to tying social-impact outcomes to the success of the brand.
Spoiler alert: This is good for business, because consumers reward companies
that walk their talk on these issues.
“As you start expanding and adding in other social components and bringing in
environmental components and climate justice, all of a sudden you’ll have new
opportunities and new solutions,” Wilhelm said. “So, we can flip it from ‘I
don’t know how I’m going to do that’ to ‘look at this amazing opportunity.’”
Empower Co as taken a whole new approach to climate action by rewarding women for
their contributions. In trying to solve the climate crisis, “what I find is that
one of the most important cogs in the wheel is the ‘S’ part, the social impact
part — particularly, that of women,” said Rachel
Vestergaard, CEO and founder of
Empower Co — whose W+
Standard
is the first globally recognized framework and metric for measuring and
monetizing women’s empowerment.
Empower Co looks at empowerment as an ecosystem: Women are empowered when they
have the tools, resources, access and agency to make their own choices. This
ecosystem invites corporations, governments and investors to support womens’
work and recognize its value. And that value, said Vestergaard, will pay its own
way.
“What you’ll notice here is that there’s no philanthropy. We don’t need
donations; we need you to value the contributions of women” and understand the
myriad positive ripple effects that result from working to level the playing
field for women around the world.
The panelists agreed that finding tangible ways to value the contributions of
all that fall under “S” will pay for itself in both the short and near term.
Shaping responsible consumption in a shifting landscape
Image credit: Kew Royal Botanic
Gardens
Today’s savvier consumers expect transparency from brands. At the same time,
brands are balancing complex global supply chains, where clarity on the origins
and footprint of raw materials can become clouded. On Tuesday morning, Herbal
Essences shared how is is evolving decades
of hair care leadership amidst shifting consumer and business landscapes.
Joining the session was Herbal Essences’ partner, Kew Royal Botanic
Gardens — a global plant-science institution
committed to protecting biodiversity.
As consumer expectations have evolved, their tolerance for tradeoffs has
decreased — ex: they increasingly have high expectations for clean, responsible
ingredients.
“As we evolve, the importance of ingredients will continue to be front and
center,” said John
Scarchilli, Director of
Brand and Scientific Communications at Procter & Gamble,
parent company of Herbal Essences.
Kew has been working for 20 years to develop quality plant essences and verify
their origin and that the material will support its intended use. They also
ensure they’re responsibly derived — that transparency and chain of custody are
maintained from plant to bottle.
As more and more key plant ingredients become threatened, ensuring these
essential inputs continue to thrive becomes a central business model.
“In the effort to do that, we’re increasing the use of biodiversity,” explained
Monique Simmonds
OBE, BSc,
PhD, Deputy Director of Science at Kew. “If we can have a greater diversity of
plants being used in products like Herbal Essences, that can support the local
communities that are looking after those [plants and habitat].”
This in turn prevents biodiverse lands from being deforested to make way for
ranching or farming while still providing a source of income for people
stewarding the land. Simmonds foresees an increase in diversification of plants
used in consumer
products
— and with it, deeper partnerships with governments, growers and other partners
to help protect biodiversity.
“Ingredients are going to continue to be front and center,” Scarchilli said.
“Where they’re from, what they’re for, and how they’re sourced responsibly is
moving to protect biodiversity all over the world.”
And no one brand or company can achieve this alone — which is where
partnerships such as
Herbal Essences-Kew’s come in.
“These programs work because they create value for all partners,” Scarchilli
said. “Investing back into those communities helps to sustain the supply.”
Co-creating the journey to net-positive printing
Image credit: Perfect Daily Grind
In another Tuesday morning session, Jose
Gorbea — Global
Head of Brands and Sustainability Innovation at HP Graphic Arts — detailed
HP’s partnerships with German label-maker LABEL!STEN
and climate-action platform One Tribe to advance
digital printing practices that not only reduce the environmental impacts
associated with conventional printing but also create shared value.
For HP’s part, Gorbea described how the company is now using water-based inks
that contain no hazardous air pollutants and meet stringent requirements for
human health and the environment, and how the company’s corrugated packaging has
now achieved Ecologo
Certification.
LABEL!STEN CEO Frank
Plechschmidt
explained how personalization of product packaging — such as printing the faces
of a brand’s supply-chain partners (for example, the farmers who grow your
coffee)
directly onto packaging — helps customers make an emotional connection to the
people producing their product, while seeing how their purchasing choices can
have a direct positive impact on the lives of farmers in the supply chain.
Plechschmidt detailed a collaboration with HP in which they digitally printed
coffee farmers’ faces on packaging for an Australian brand with local suppliers
— the products with people's pictures far outsold other versions of the
packaging.
One Tribe CEO Ric
Porteus then
explained how his company of “nature fanatics” is building a set of tools and
restoration projects that allow
companies including HP, and their
employees, to take direct action to help regenerate ecosystems. Their projects
are created through partnerships with local indigenous tribes throughout the
world and are typically focused on helping companies offset their Scope 3
emissions while restoring critical biodiversity.
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Jeremy Osborn is a NYC-based entrepreneur and and senior consultant with a background in marketing and communications, tech, strategy, governance, and sustainability. He holds an MA in Resources, Environment, and Sustainability from the University of British Columbia and has worked for leading brands in a wide range of industries and sectors — including food and ag, consumer goods, built environment, industrial manufacturing, energy, finance, transportation, and more.
Christian is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and outdoor junkie obsessed with the intersectionality between people and planet. He partners with brands and organizations with social and environmental impact at their core, assisting them in telling stories that change the world.
Demitri Fierro recently earned an MBA in Sustainable Solutions from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. For the last two years, he has served as Program Manager for the Consultancy Shadowing Program, as well as sustainability consultant for a variety of clients. Determined to apply his background to bring sustainable solutions to storytelling and media, he is a contributor for the Environmental Media Association in Los Angeles. When he is not working to solve the climate crisis, he can be found journaling, enjoying a nice hike, watching a basketball game or learning about anthropology at a local museum.
Published May 26, 2023 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST