Sam Monnie
“When frogs are making noise, the cows will still drink water.”
Sam Monnie, Sustainable
Brands®’ (SB) VP of Marketing and Thought Leadership, opened Tuesday's plenary by urging delegates to stay on course and avoid being distracted by
“all the noise that might prevent us from doing the work.”
P&G pledges to keep improving lives, renews focus on water stewardship
Virginie Helias
Monnie was ably supported by a cast of inspiring business players. First up, the
inimitable Virginie Helias —
Chief Sustainability Officer at Procter & Gamble —
reminisced about her last 10 years of visits to SB’s flagship event. Back in
2014, she was still figuring out how to reimagine the culture and business
practices of the consumer goods giant.
“We’ve had a few successes along the way; but progress has not been as fast as I
had hoped,” she told the crowd. One of those successes has been in sufficiently
engaging the C-Suite at P&G to get them to take part in SB events. Previously,
Helias has shared the stage with the firm’s Chief Brand Officer, Chief R&D and
Innovation Officer, and Chief Finance Officer.
This year, it was President and CEO Jon
Moeller’s turn to speak with the
sustainability community. In a pre-recorded video interview with Helias, Moeller
shared how the business has successfully managed the tension between continued
growth and advancing sustainability.
“If we think about the improvements that products bring to people’s lives, they
are significant,” he says. “To step back from those responsibilities would be
irresponsible. We must continue to improve life for people but do it in a
sustainable way.
“The red line we cannot cross is on the performance of our products. If the
performance isn’t good, nobody will buy our products and we will not have a
business — and our desire to advance sustainability for the good of the planet
will go nowhere.”
Unlike in the past — when P&G’s product innovation was conducted with a
“closed-arms mentality” — today, the company is more open to working with others
to scale solutions more effectively. Moeller points to the example of
polypropylene, a notoriously hard-to-recycle plastic: “Our team invented a
different method for recycling polypropylene — one that removed odor and
pigments — so that at the end of the recycling process, it is able to be more
widely used and is worth more,” Moeller said. “But we don’t have enough of a
need for the technology to scale it and make it economically attractive; so,
we’ve licensed the tech to a company that can make more use of it across
multiple industries.”
To wrap, Helias excitedly shared P&G’s updated approach to managing water —
including building a coalition of partners focused on helping people conserve
the natural resource in water-stressed parts of the
world.
“Without water, people are forced make trade-offs; washing your hair or your
clothes is not top of your priority list. So, we’re trying to build a
water-positive future in 18 water-stressed areas, by helping to restore habitats
in critical areas.”
P&G is also focused on managing water at its own operations: The company’s
Charmin and Bounty plant in Utah has already reduced water use by 30
percent.
Visa is using its ‘superpower’ to make sustainable lifestyles sexy
Doug Sabo
Next, Visa Chief Sustainability Officer Doug
Sabo made a similarly energized
presentation on the main stage. Promising to avoid a “brag session,” he guided
delegates through how the world’s most recognized payment company is leveraging
its “superpower” to help consumers do the right thing.
“We don’t make or sell anything. But we do see, and enable, consumption all over
the world,” he said.
Every second, Visa oversees 6,000 transactions. And it wants to remove the
barriers to sustainable consumption via those transactions — whether that’s in
helping people pay for bus tickets or for charging their electric vehicles: “We
want to remove the friction and make sustainable behavior attractive — sexy,
even.”
It is doing this via a partnership with
ecolytiq,
offering customers a suite of solutions that helps people understand the carbon
implications of the purchases they make.
It is also working with a range of travel agent partners to eliminate the
confusion and inconsistency when it comes to marketing and selling eco-tourism
online.
“We can lead horses to the water, but we need to get them to drink," Sabo asserted. "We need to
make sustainability more engaging — meet consumers where they’re at, remove
frictions, and use our superpower.”
Tackling the environmental and social challenges of ocean plastic pollution starts with education
Svanika Balasubramanian
In one of the most compelling case studies shared so far this week, a passionate
Svanika Balasubramanian, co-founder and
CEO of rePurpose Global, painted a bleak picture of
the state of the world’s oceans. “While I’m talking, for the next five minutes,
over six million pounds of plastic will be created. Less than 9 percent of it
will be recycled, and the rest ends up in nature,” she tells delegates.
To get businesses interested in turning the tide on ocean plastic waste demands
education and awareness of the problem — not just the environmental toll, but
the impact felt by people caught up in the often-horrendous industry of waste
picking and sorting in the Global
South.
“In the absence of waste infrastructure has risen an unregulated, informal and
corrupt sector which engages millions of people from impoverished communities,”
she continued. “They provide a crucial, singular line of defense against the
waste crisis at a terrible personal cost.”
A humbled Taylor
Stanley, Corporate Impact
Strategy Manager for Riverside Natural
Foods, shared lessons learned so far from his
company’s partnership with rePurpose. Recognizing the need to address its
packaging footprint, Riverside — the company behind wholesome snack brand Made
Good — has been working with the organization
to “get the education we needed and hear the voices of those you can’t see.”
Having spent time with waste workers in India, rePurpose has the awareness
and understanding to direct action and investment where it is needed most,
locally. And those insights have helped propel Riverside’s ongoing efforts to
optimize its packaging and the ecosystems it affects.
“We have tried and failed by developing a paper wrapper, for example. We are
still moving forward — and partnerships like this challenge us to do more,”
Stanley shared. “So far, we have removed 200 million pounds of plastic from
nature. I’m confident we will improve our product packaging by leveraging
lessons learned over the years. We will continue to be fueled by demanding
consumers. We don’t have all the answers, but we want to do more.”
Vans is revolutionizing the rubber supply chain through regenerative agriculture
After the networking break, delegates heard about the benefits of regenerative
agriculture — a popular topic this week. For its part, VF
Corporation — parent company of footwear brand
Vans — is helping rubber farmers to practice
it
in a bid to address the 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the
raw materials extraction component of its overall footprint. By 2030, it
promises that its top 4 CO2 impact materials — cotton, poly, rubber
and leather — will be either regenerative, renewable or recycled. It is
focusing on regenerative ag because it “has the most potential for change and
impact, benefitting the environment, society and economies,” Alyse
Russel, Vans’ Senior
Manager for Global Sustainability, told the crowd.
With the help of Tim Tensen, Chief
Operations Officer at partner Terra
Genesis, Russel
explained how regenerative practices can boost yield, improve soil, enhance
farmer profits and reduce the need for chemicals. The extra tree cover in
plantations even makes women farmers feel safer; they no longer need to tap the
rubber trees at night, as it’s cool enough in the day to do so. In an inspired
piece of storytelling, Russel plays a clip of audio, comparing the noise
recorded at a traditional plantation and one using regenerative techniques. The
significantly louder birdsong speaks volumes.
Vans’ partnership with Terra Genesis is providing farmer training and helping to
create a centralized network of enthused farmers, happy to share the benefits of
regenerative. “So far, 500 farmers have shifted to regenerative agriculture at
plantations in Thailand. They now have additional income streams and higher
premiums for their rubber,” Russel added.
Helping purpose thrive in a push-back world
Conroy Boxhill and Sandy Skees
Porter Novelli’s Sandy
Skees and Conroy
Boxhill have been tasked with
helping companies understand how to navigate the concept of purpose in a world
seemingly dominated by
anti-woke
and anti-ESG
sentiment.
Boxhill, Porter Novelli’s US President and Corporate Counsel Lead, asked: Should business abandon the term “purpose” and revert back to simply being responsible companies?
“Purpose is a good word; it’s better than ‘corporate responsibility’ — which
feels externalized, attached to a faceless corporation,” said Skees, the
company’s Global Lead for Purpose & Impact. “Purpose feels personal, and it
allows execs and managers to connect their own purpose to it.”
To enthuse those in the room and encourage them to stay true to their reason for
being, the pair gave a sneak peek at the results of Porter Novelli’s
soon-to-be-published Purpose Priorities Report 2023. The survey of 7,000
individuals reveals that 86 percent of people believe companies should improve
lives. 65 percent say companies should demonstrate they are following through
on their
promises
to the planet and society. And 82 percent believe firms should encourage
consumers to support social or environmental causes: “There is a clear
expectation that companies should be political and make comment on so-called
‘woke’ issues — especially from younger people,” Skees said.
Boxhill says that while communicating intent on such issues is all well and
good: “Demonstrate what you’re doing; don’t just say something.”
But at a time when businesses face increased scrutiny over
greenwash
and are dealing with an anti-woke backlash, should companies really take a stand
on political and social issues at all?
“No brand can be vocal on every issue,” Skees said. “The first step is to assess
what issues are most salient to your brand. And then show up as an ally,
advocate
or
activist.”
Being an ally is about using your brand’s superpower and standing up for groups
who are suffering or need support, she added. “It’s about courage. Your
stakeholders are expecting you to say something. Saying nothing also says
something.”
Bayer is using tech to help farmers boost yields and improve resilience
Leo Bastos
Before Micah Kane, CEO of
Hawaii Community Foundation,
wrapped up the morning session with an emotional appeal for continued corporate
support to help Maui recover from this summer’s
wildfires,
Bayer Crop Science shared another impactful
case study.
Leo Bastos, Bayer’s SVP of Global
Commercial Ecosystems, explained how the business is working with partners to
drive regenerative-ag practices down the value chain to cut emissions and reduce
the impact on the environment. Global food systems are under pressure; and
adopting regenerative practices is the only answer, he tells the audience. On
the screen, the story of Engel Family
Farms
in central Virginia is told through the eyes of a farmer who hails the
importance of using practices including cover
crops
and no
tilling
to keep carbon in the soil and find new revenue streams.
Bastos walked delegates through a series of
innovations being used by
farmers to do more with less: “Precision tools increase accuracy, improve yield,
and maximize every acre, while conserving resources.”
Perry Aulie — SVP of Value-Added
Products at Perdue Farms —
explained how his $10 billion, 100-year-old company is benefiting. By
collecting data to showcase the improvements regenerative agriculture is
yielding and playing that back to the network of farmers, it is showing that it
is cost effective to bring lower-carbon products to market: “Farmers get
incremental revenue opportunities and improve the quality of their soil.
Companies get to show Scope 3 emissions
reductions,
and consumers have better visibility over what they are buying.”
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Content creator extraordinaire.
Tom is founder of storytelling strategy firm Narrative Matters — which helps organizations develop content that truly engages audiences around issues of global social, environmental and economic importance. He also provides strategic editorial insight and support to help organisations – from large corporates, to NGOs – build content strategies that focus on editorial that is accessible, shareable, intelligent and conversation-driving.
Published Oct 18, 2023 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST