3p Contributor: Jen Boynton
Recent Articles
Public Produce: Filling the Sidewalks with Fruit Trees
This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco Libris.
Triple Pundit was thrilled to take part in the green books campaign because we love reading and we especially love reading books that have been produced in an environmentally responsible way.
We reviewed Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture
At first glance, this doesn’t seem to have much to do with sustainable business, because the book argues for a shift in municipal policy. But Triple Pundit is a place where we love to talk about food and we’ve covered many businesses that deal with food innovation. The policy laid out in Public Produce has all the tenets of an innovative model: cost reduction, life improvement and a healthy a dose of “why haven’t I thought of that.” Author Darrin Norahl lays out all the problems with our current food production and distribution system: the dearth of affordable healthy food in the inner city and its connection to obesity; hunger; the 1500 miles the average piece of produce travels; outbreaks of food borne illness that sicken and kill people country wide and the environmental degradation associated with big ag. Then he provides an elegant solution:
Hopenhagen: the Ultimate Cause Marketing Campaign
If you follow environmental issues, chances are you’ve come across the beautiful, inspiring Hopenhagen campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to draw attention to the upcoming United Nations climate change conference COP15, which you can read more about here. Many folks who care deeply about climate change are watching closely with their fingers crossed, hoping that strong commitments will come out of the conference.
For those of us on the ground who care about the outcome of the talks but aren’t involved in politics, there isn’t much to do but watch and worry. And that’s where Hopenhagen comes in. The brain-child of Ogilvy Earth, an international sustainability marketing company, Hopenhagen is the branding of a movement. The purpose of the campaign is to give activists something to do besides watch and worry: we can hope. The power of “hope,” as we learned with the viral “Yes We Can” video during the Obama campaign, is that hope has a way to inspire and motivate people to action in a way that fear never can.
Hopenhagen is not only a play on the city where the talks will take place, but a subtle jibe at the choices we have in the climate crisis. We can cope with climate change by changing our behavior, moving inland and finding alternate habitats for the polar bears, or we can hope that the crisis will move us toward a more sustainable way of living sustainably, with the resources we have available on this planet. There’s a lot of opportunity for innovation there.
3P Founder Opens Closet for Ecouterre
Nick takes his sustainability seriously- from his head down to his toes. He let Ecouterre take a tour of his closet and he let it all hang out. Click the link to see his labels and his adorable message tees.
Levi Strauss Partners with Goodwill; Knows How to Pick a Good Restaurant
Ok, ok, I admit it. I’m a cheap date. Levi Strauss invited me and some other writers to an intimate dinner at Fish and Farm last night to talk about their new partnership with Goodwill. We had a wonderful and real conversation about the lifecycle of a pair of jeans and now I love Levi Strauss. It doesn’t take much to please me. PR people, please note: If you ply me with sustainable meat and biodynamic wine, I will probably say nice things about you!
All joking aside, the event was an opportunity to talk candidly about the challenges of greening a carbon intensive industry like clothing manufacture. The people at Levi Strauss were pretty upfront about what they were doing well and what they want to do better and that in itself is commendable. It is rare that a company will let you behind the reception desk to see the execs in action- trying to make the best decisions for the company that they can, wrangling with difficult trade-offs in cost, meeting consumer demand, and limitations in a global supply chain. We got to see a little bit of that last night.
Lovemarks: Real Human Connection or Latest Play in the Arms Race of Trickery?
Yesterday afternoon at the World Business Forum, Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi brought the story of Lovemarks to the crowd.
“Lovemarks are brands that inspire loyalty beyond reason. People love them because of what they are, not because of what they do. Their appeal is emotional. Companies may own brands. But Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them.” And Saatchi is in the business of showing companies how to change their products from simple brands into these glorious, sought after, Lovemarks.
As the graph at left (which Roberts admitted to coming up with at two in the morning when he was well into his second bottle of Bordeaux) shows, Lovemarks score high on both love and respect, while brands simply score well on the “respect” factor: you trust them, but you don’t form an emotional attachment to them.
Roberts showed some compelling examples of this lovemark concept in action:
Headlining at the World Business Forum: 7 Lessons for Leading in a Crisis
The world’s business leaders would be remiss if they didn’t acknowledge the financial meltdown of the past 18 months. The opening statements at the World Business Forum were no surprise, with Patricia Meier CEO of HSM, kicking things off by calling the crowd to remember the challenges of the past year. She reminded people to think back to last year’s conference when the Dow Jones went below 10000 for the first time in years. This year, we’re 15 points lower than we were last year, but this time, we’re on the way up– we see opportunity despite the crisis.
With this theme for the conference firmly in hand, Bill George, author of 7 Lessons for Leading in a Crisis, was the perfect keynote. George is the Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, and the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic. George’s talk was all about the best ways to get an organization through a crisis, and the talk was peppered with his own personal experiences coming through tough times. (I don’t want to spoil the juicy bits- go ahead and order the book to read them!)
Triple Pundit Team Heads to NYC for the World Business Forum
Image Credit
Triple Pundit staff members Nick, Ryan, and Jen are enroute to New York City right now, headed for the World Business Forum where…
“The world’s top executives, business figures and leaders from around the globe gather at Radio City Music Hall…for two days to debate and discuss global issues, advance their businesses and experience an incredible lineup of global leaders, brilliant minds, business icons and legendary CEOs.”
Bill Clinton will be there, Paul Krugman will be there, George Lucas will be there, and of course, we’ll be there to let you know who was hob-nobing with whom and what business bon mots come down from the stage.
WBF has invited a whole slew of bloggers to attend, and we have a special blogger’s pit, so this should be quite interesting!
We’ll be tweeting from @triplepundit with the hash sign #wbf09 as well as blogging about key themes. Keep checking in on Tuesday and Wednesday to get the latest.
Choose the Best Sustainability Consultant for Your Company
We all know what we need to do to make our companies more environmentally friendly: use less energy, water, and paper, travel less and make less garbage. But yeah, it’s easier said than done especially if you’re in a carbon intensive business like manufacturing or energy production. What’s the company without a lot of time or expertise to do? Well, hire someone, of course! Who do you hire, and how do you know what to look for? Here’s the lowdown on the biggest and smallest players in the newest consulting game and how to separate the wheat from the formerly-unemployed-newly-rebranded “Sustainability Consultant.”
First, you need to know what you are looking for. Different consultants have different kinds of expertise:
EPA Kicks Off Bloggers’ Roundable with Safe “Back to School” Feature
Maria consoles the Von Trapp children
When the notice landed in my inbox that the EPA would be holding regular green bloggers roundtables, I was stoked. A chance to engage with one of the world’s biggest government agencies dedicated to environmental protection? How cool!
The e-mail included a list of suggested topics they planned to cover: sustainable design, solar energy, indoor air quality,
testing your home for radon, sun protection, and alt fuels. It also called for requests for other topic ideas. I suggested: reducing water toxicity and air pollution in the manufacturing process, cradle to cradle production and implications of new carbon legislation for businesses.
So I was a bit bummed when the invitation to the kick-off event arrived. How to Lessen the Impact of Back to School Shopping. While this isn’t directly in the 3P sphere, I figured I would attend just to support their new efforts. I know it’s a bit scary for a big government organization to interact with bloggers and I know they have to start somewhere.
Sadly, the roundtable was just about as groundbreaking as it’s title suggests. It covered such topics as the importance of reusing last year’s school supplies and buying in bulk. Nevertheless I don’t want to be too critical here, because I sure am excited about the possibility that regular briefings such as these could become a frequent occurrence. I just hope they become a bit more relevant!
[UPDATE] Suzanne Ackerman from the EPA contacted me to let me know she was reading. She wanted me to let the readers know that the listing of future roundtables can be found here if any bloggers are interested in attending future events. She also welcomes your ideas and requests for inclusion via twitter @suzack777. Yay Suzanne!
So I turn to you, readers, if you could talk to an EPA expert, what would you want to talk about?
Join 3P at the GRI Reporting Seminar in San Diego!
Even Al Gore gets a little overwhelmed by carbon accounting
Documenting the environmental impact of your organization in a rigorous way can be pretty daunting. If you’re like me, you sat down to do it for the first time with a full cup of coffee and the best of intentions and and you quickly got discouraged. What should the scope of my emissions boundary be? Wait, what is a scope? Which emissions factor will I use? What’s an emissions factor again? Will we include employee commuting or just business travel? You’re telling me I have to weigh my paper now? I think it’s time for lunch…
Now you don’t have to go it alone! There are people to teach the guidelines to you!
Jon Stewart Explains Cap-and-Trade
In case you’ve been bluffing during all those happy hour Waxman-Markey debates, Jon Stewart is here to help you out in figuring out what this cap and trade stuff really means:
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And then he ends up with a great interview with Energy Secretary Stephen Chu (”of the Charleston Chu’s”) See below the fold…
Ecover Cleaning Products: So Over Waste in the Manufacturing Process
“It’s amusing to me that you are studying Sustainability now in the US because here in Belgium we’ve been working on it for 30 years”
So we were introduced to the Ecover way by Concept Manager Peter Malaise at the beginning of a tour of the Ecover factory in Malle, Belgium. Peter easily rivals the eco-rockstars we look to in the US for best in class sustainable manufacturing. Think of him as Ray Anderson with a handlebar mustache and a brain full of Chemistry, Philosophy, and Flemish. He knows his stuff and he was eager to show the 3P team how he’d integrated sustainably business practices into every decision he’d made for the company in his 15 years on the team. We spent over 4 hours with him learning about the Ecover process and the history of the company:
Supply Chain: Ecover products are produced onsite and we breathed easily as we toured the facility since all the product inputs pass extensive toxic screening. If it doesn’t kill algae, it won’t kill you. It smelled great in there! The company has utilized supply chain management over the years to encourage it’s suppliers to utilize more environmentally friendly practices in their own manufacturing. Any Ecover supplier must agree to comply with a 17 page stakeholder engagement contract before getting business with Ecover. Further, the manufactuing process is externally audited under ISO 14001.
The Heineken Experience: Marketing that Leaves a Bad Taste in my Mouth
Let’s face it – we all go on brewery tours for the free beers. Heineken understands this, and has pretty much done away with all of the real brewing aspects of the show, while giving customers a strong dose of the Heineken experience: an extended opportunity to view Heineken ads, drink shots of beer offered from a Heineken star shaped bar, listen to hip-hop in a darkly lit room (chandelier of bottles of course) with ads blaring on all 4 walls and even make a music video with men in lederhosen as background singers. The most exciting part of all, though, was the “Brew U” experience, wherein we did not have a tour guide, nor did we see the actual brewing or bottling of beer. Instead we stood on a platform and got heated up and tossed around like malt.
But, perhaps, I’m just a crotchety idealist. This might be the most brilliant marketing strategy of all time. Customers who already have at least a passing interest in your product willingly pay 15 euros to be subjected to a 2-hour, full-sensory experience of it, with beer! When we ended the tour, I asked around to some of the other people who had participated, and they had a great time. People were loving it! They didn’t feel ripped off at all. And they weren’t all just 18 year olds stoked to be free of the drinking age restrictions in their home countries. They didn’t even realize that they had paid for pure advertising, but then, isn’t that the most effective kind?
Felt Flowers Make a Happy Supply Chain All the Way to the Sheep
Liz Cook is too modest. Ask her to tell you what her company does, and she’ll pull an (admittedly beautiful) flower with a bendy stem out of her enormous purse, straighten the leaves, and present it to you for inspection: “I make felt flowers.” Felt flowers? That’s cool, but what does it mean for me? In fact, these flowers are not just the fanciful creation of an indulgent artist, they are the products of one of the most innovative, meaningful, and heartfelt business models you will ever hear about.
Henry and Jayne is a UK based company that makes objects d’art, flowers and stones, of felt. The company is entirely vertically integrated, beginning with a community of sheep farmers in India, from shearing through felting the wool, dyeing, cutting and sewing the flowers. All of it happens with a community that might not otherwise have a product for sale, at least one that can fetch a pretty penny in a UK department store.
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