Eight Sustainability Platform, in partnership with Futerra Sustainability Communications, the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), the Instituto Akatu and Sustainable Brands, announced the launch of the Framework for Action: Consumer Behavior Change — the first publication to explore the cutting-edge issues of sustainable consumer behavior change exclusively for the Brazilian market — on Thursday at Sustainable Brands 2014 Rio in Brazil.
The project is sponsored by Banco Itaú and supported by Dow, Nestlé, Unilever, Invepar and PepsiCo. The framework is a guide for marketing, communication, R&D and sustainability professionals, particularly at B2C companies, looking to promote environmentally and socially positive behavior through behavior change. It explores value propositions, innovation, product and service design, access to markets and new consumer profiles, sustainable branding and consumer relations. It presents a methodology and framework for doing so for the Brazilian market based on learnings from existing literature and data, discussions with representatives of companies in Brazil and from a combined effort with the partners.
According to Pablo Barros, creator of the project and the founder of Eight Sustainability Platform: “There are many responses to the problems that our society faces, but influencing the behavior of consumers is one of the most effective ways for facing up to challenges of this scale. We have decided to begin our work by developing mechanisms for use by B2C companies, because of the strength of their brands, their scale and their penetration, and because of the positive returns that these companies and their brands can achieve by engaging with their consumers.”
Solitaire Townsend, co-founder of Futerra, said, “Creating sustainable lifestyles is the greatest business opportunity of the 21st century. Brazil must be at the heart of this new market. We can both share learning from global brands and also discover the sustainable behaviors unique to Brazil.”
The project launched Thursday during an afternoon session at the inaugural Sustainable Brands Rio conference.
"Since 2006, Sustainable Brands has been focused on helping the global brand community find value in leading the way to a sustainable future,” states SB founder KoAnn Skrzyniarz. “Brands play a critical role in aligning business and society. Understanding how to encourage and support more sustainable consumer demand is fundamental to our future, both for business and society. We are grateful to be part of this project and hope it will contribute important insight that can be shared with our global community of change makers who are committed to enabling the sustainable economy of the future."
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Published Apr 25, 2014 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST