Liberty Mutual Responsibility Project Conjures Laughs AND Consciousness
Posted by Gennefer Snowfield November 5th, 2009 
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I haven’t been blogging too much ’round these parts lately, mostly because I’ve been busy creating the types of videos and films I’m about to feature, but Liberty Mutual’s latest short, “Good Vibrations” made me stop in my tracks so I decided to make the time to share it with all of you. (No need to thank me.)
It’s part of their Responsibility Project to get consumers to act more responsibly. Obviously, it serves an insurance company well to have responsible policy holders, but if you look deeper, you’ll realize that these messages, ensconced in entertainment, actually serve the greater good, too.
The video below had me positively riveted for the full four minutes, a mix of that awkward laughter that unexpectedly bursts out when someone trips and the cringe of the inevitable guilt that follows. It’s funny and sweet, and leaves you newly inspired to keep the karmic flow of the universe going.
EcoUnit Partners with Organic Valley to Supercharge Sustainable Consumer Behavior
Posted by Paul S October 30th, 2009 2 Comments
How do you effectively shift consumer behavior with minimal cost to you as a business and minimum effort required of consumers? EcoUnit is one company attempting to answer that question.
When we last wrote about them in June, they were testing out ways to reward customers for bringing in their own bags. This earns them EcoUnits, redeemable for anything from store discounts to donations to local eco non profits of choice. As mentioned, the pilot store program was a huge success, a 77 percent increase in reusable bag use in the first two months after launch.
Where are they now?
It’s My Birthday and I’ll Give If I Want To
Posted by Gennefer Snowfield October 26th, 2009 1 Comment
Over the summer, I featured a remarkable woman, Sloane Berrent as part of my Philanthropy in Five series, who has literally dedicated her life to doing good, spreading good and seeing the good in others. It’s rare to find someone who walks the walk and talks the talk, but Sloane definitely puts her money where her mouth is — or, in this case, where her birthday cake is!
This year, to commemorate the big 3-0, Sloane, along with her friend, Doug Campbell, who was also turning 30 within days of her birthday (October 3rd and 5th, respectively), decided they wanted to do something memorable that not only celebrated life and the beginning of their 30s, but also included a strong charitable component. Both are avid social change agents, Doug most known for a worldwide tour raising money for nonprofits called ‘The Tuxedo Travels’ and Sloane whose latest cause adventure took her to the rural Phillipines for a 3-month fellowship with the microlending nonprofit, KIVA, so a cause campaign was a no brainer for this dynamic duo of do-goodery.
Causecast: Getting the Word Out, Bringing Donations In
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor October 23rd, 2009 0 Comments
When he founded Causecast, Ryan Scott focused on one major problem that charitable organizations were facing: they were paying too much in donation transaction fees. So he set out to find ways of lowering those costs, since they bleed so much money away from a non-profit’s core fund-raising goals. “I realized [nonprofits] needed better IT infrastructure because they were getting overcharged on transaction costs. I wanted to bring those costs as close to $0 as possible,” he says.
Now, about two years later, Causecast helps lower transaction fees using a number of methods, from linking the non-profits up with companies who cover the fees through dollars earmarked for cause-marketing, to making the payment processing infrastructure more efficient for non-profits using emerging technology. For example, Causecast is launching a system by which consumers can make donations via their cell phones, using a text-to-pay payment system that generates low or no transaction fees.
Business Not As Usual: e-Readers Threaten Paper, Printer Markets, And More
Posted by John Laumer October 9th, 2009 0 Comments
e-Book readers, a threat to paper and printer markets?
- With e-Book designs improving and choices expanding, commodity pricing may arrive within a few years, threatening existing markets for books, magazines, printers, ink cartridges, and fine paper. Even printers and publishers need to pay attention. Get a status snapshot on this technology with Barnes & Noble Says Yes, Microsoft Says No to New e-Readers Business significance: U1/C5 (See rating explanation below)
New Website Tracks Chamber of Commerce Climate Follies As Schism Grows
Posted by BC Upham October 8th, 2009 0 Comments
A new website created by the National Resources Defense Council urges companies to take a stand on the growing debate within the US Chamber of Commerce over the chamber’s stance on legislation addressing climate change.
The website is an extension of the work being done by Peter Altman, the environmental watchdog’s Climate Campaign director, whose has been following the story doggedly on his blog.
PACT Packs a Clean Pair of Undies
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor October 2nd, 2009 0 Comments
Google the words “sustainable+underwear” and you’ll find a surprisingly large number of hits–566,000 as of today. That’s probably a good omen for Jason Kibbey and Jeff Denby, who recently launched PACT, an underwear company that is designing and manufacturing drawers with a conscious.
PACT is a story of three’s: three styles (thong, bikini, boy short for girls; trunk, boxer brief and boxer for boys), three prints and three causes. The startup is working with three different non-profit organizations, after which it has named three fabric prints.
Purchase a pair of unmentionables in the 826 National print and PACT gives 10 percent of the sale to 826 National, the nationwide literacy advocacy group spun out of 826 Valencia’s Dave Egger’s education joint in San Francisco. Same goes for the Oceana print. It benefits Oceana, which is working to clean the world’s oceans and protect their inhabitants. The Forest Ethics print…well, you guessed it. Forest Ethics is a land conservation group focused on the boreal forests and rainforests from Canada to California.
A Rainforest SOS To The World
Posted by Brian Thurston October 1st, 2009 1 Comment
Yesterday The Prince’s Rainforest Project launched a global campaign to raise awareness for deforestation. The public campaign was originally launched back in May, garnering over 4 million views of their campaign frog videos and a long line of celebrity and corporate endorsements.
The Prince’s Rainforest Project dates back to 2007 as a reaction to reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on tropical deforestation. The group embarked on long research effort, engaging in top officials in government, business and NGO’s to both understand the economic drivers of deforestation and come up with workable solutions to help prevent it.
How Can Companies Communicate Social Change?
Posted by Smith School of Business September 26th, 2009 2 Comments
By John Comberiate
In today’s changing technological landscape, Shannon Herbert asks us, how do companies communicate their Social Change? In her work at National Geographic as VP Integrated Marketing, she has found the answer in being a storyteller for their corporate mission “To inspire people to care about the planet”. This is accomplished through four core steps: Have a Story, Partnerships, Inspiring and Engaging your Customers, and Evaluating your Results.
Have a Story
What Makes a Business “Social”?
Posted by Smith School of Business September 25th, 2009 0 Comments
By: Scott Shuffield
“Service to society, guided by well-articulated values, is not just ‘nice to do’ but an integral part of the business models for companies.” – from SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Years ago, Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, told the board of directors that he wanted to invite all 400,000 IBM employees to a WebChat allowing them to discuss IBM’s values and take account of the employees’ opinions. A prominent member of the board stood up and asked, “Isn’t this socialism?” Some people might expect that reaction and even argue that such a venture isn’t acceptable, not Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
As Kanter argued during a forum held by Center for Social Value Creation (a part of the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland), a sense of purpose beyond monetary compensation motivates people and will even increase a company’s profit. When IBM’s Palmisano asked employees to contribute to the direction of the company, it allowed them to put a stake in the business and allowed their emotions to get involved. Kanter suggested that the culture Palmisano created at IBM helped it fare better than most during the recent global financial meltdown.
But just asking employees for their input won’t suffice to inspire innovation. After asking for their input, IBM made sure to actually do the good things their employees recommended. For example, when a new plan for using idle computer power to create a supercomputer came from IBM’s research and development, the first thing IBM did was make it public (a.k.a. free!). Creating WorldCommunityGrid.org, IBM invested in a program that allows people like researchers to access a supercomputer to do advanced calculations that would take years on a single computer. It’s a really cool concept and I encourage you to check out the site.
Free Range Studios Offers Grants to One Lucky Business and Non-Profit
Posted by Ashwin Seshagiri September 21st, 2009 0 Comments
Jonah Sachs, and his long-time friend Louis Fox, started Free Range Studios 10 years ago as a creative agency with a conscience. Sachs, named one of the “The Thirty People Cleaning up the Earth” by Shift magazine in 2001, first realized the tranformative power of media as the editor of his college newspaper. He recalled, in a recent interview, releasing issues and seeing the entire student body reading the paper. He realized then that producing media at scale has the potential to amplify conversations about issues that press the world today.
Recently the agency, with offices both in Berkeley, CA and Washington, D.C., announced its Youtopia grant, a pledge of $15,000 worth of free design and strategy services to a non-profit and socially responsible business. The grant program, despite name changes, is in its 7th year of existence, and past winners include Green for All and the Global Resource Center for the Environment (GRACE), most recognizable for its viral flash video, The Meatrix (see video at Free Range’s site).
Live Earth Shows If You Love the Climate, It’ll Love You Back
Posted by Gennefer Snowfield September 18th, 2009 0 Comments
There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there when it comes to the climate change issue, ranging from mild concern to full scale panic, but Live Earth decided to take a different approach with their “Love, the Climate” initiative. From September 15th through September 25th, you can give the environment a voice by sharing creative messages that will be used to help communicate the importance of passing the Climate Bill to senators, and motivate them to take action in a compelling, optimistic way.
As someone who’s developed a series of exercises that anthropomorphize brand traits to help devise resonant marketing strategies, a program like this is right up my alley. Personification is a powerful tool for driving key messages home in a memorable way. And what could be more fun than cooking up fun stories and vignettes for what the environment might say, like Shira Lazar’s sunflower love scene below?
Creative Incentives for Bars to Go Zero Waste: Patrons Plan To “Get (Zero)Wasted”
Posted by Scott Cooney September 14th, 2009 0 Comments
Alcohol service may seem like the least likely industry to be taking up the challenge to go green, but increasingly, bars are seeing good return on investment for a variety of sustainability initiatives. Getting bars to understand the win-win involved in waterless urinals, energy efficient lighting and sound systems, organic beer and wine, and going zero waste have all been the goal of Green and Tonic, a San Francisco-based group founded by return Peace Corps Volunteers.
This coming Saturday September 19th, Green and Tonic is inviting green-minded socialites to join them for an event designed to raise awareness and provide market-based incentives for bars to join the cause and go green. The event, informally known as “Get (Zero) Wasted”, is a pub crawl of three of San Francisco’s greenest bars, and will raise funds through a live auction to help more bars go green. A previous fundraiser in April 2008 for one of the bars now participating in the pub crawl has allowed that bar to divert 10,000 gallons of compostable waste and 6,000 gallons of recyclables from the landfill and give those items another life.
Social Change Talk with Jon Kaplan, President of Walden University
Posted by Gennefer Snowfield September 11th, 2009 11 Comments
A few weeks ago, I featured Walden University’s new advertising campaign, centering around their social change-focused brand positioning: “A higher degree. A higher purpose.” I was instantly struck by their TV spot because they put their money where their tagline is in demonstrating the end result of a Walden University degree, and spotlighting the change that is possible when you choose an institution aimed at serving the greater good.
The goal is to attract like-minded individuals whose core values align with Walden’s, and they are, in turn, committed to equipping those agents of change with the practical tools they’ll need toward becoming the leaders of tomorrow. The campaign is inspirational without coming off cheesy, so I decided to learn more about the vision behind it in an informative interview with President, Jon Kaplan. And with the level of dedication they put forth in facilitating avenues for positive change, the next time you meet someone who’s making a difference, they may just have a Walden University diploma hanging on their wall.
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