Green Marketing, Sustainable Branding, Environmentally Safe

Last week, I wrote about a recent, somewhat controversial collaboration between the Nature Conservancy and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. I would like to follow that story up with one describing another new Conservancy program focused on urban conservation. When combined, I think these two stories will put these recent efforts into the broader context of environmental organizations’ challenge of expanding their demographics, and in particular, focusing on younger, and increasingly urban audiences, in hopes of attracting tomorrow’s supporters.

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Chipotle’s anti factory commercial steals people’s hearts during the Grammy Awards, showing that the sustainable meat trend may be going mainstream and providing an opportunity for other fast food restaurants to get into the game.

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With the launch of a first-of-its-kind High Performance Sustainability Index for publicly listed US utilities, Target Rock Advisors has identified and ranked the top 5 and 15 US utilities across the three pillars of sustainable, Triple Bottom Line business practices and operations: environment, economy and society. Sure to spur interest among investors, Target Rock found that their shares, as a group, have outperformed the DJIA and S&P 500 over the past ten years.

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My three-year old daughter is one of the newest participants in Bicycle Benefits, a national program that rewards people for biking to participating businesses. Bikers pay $5 for a sticker that adheres to their helmet, which they present at participating businesses for a discount that is determined by each business. My daughter can now save 5 [...]

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The Nature Conservancy may have just raised a few eyebrows, some in dismay, others from a more voyeuristic perspective at their recent decision to partner with the Sports Illustrated magazine and luxury retailer Gilt, in a new fundraising campaign. A special sales event coinciding with the launch of this year’s SI swimsuit issue, will feature swimsuits, photographs, surfboards and tickets (starting at $1000) to launch parties where the highly exposed models will be in attendance. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Nature Conservancy who will use them to protect the very beaches on which the pictures were taken.

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Hong Kong’s Upsolar in mid-January became the first Chinese silicon PV supplier to complete an initial Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of its two best-selling solar PV modules. Now, it’s using Facebook to crowdsource a public contest to create its 2012 advertising campaign.

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Walmart announced this week that it will start putting a new label on food products to help consumers make healthier food choices at its stores. A logo with the phrase “Great For You” will be used to indicate to consumers that a certain product has gotten Walmart’s nutritional seal of approval.

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Jeffrey Hollender’s talk on Tuesday at NYU wasn’t probably listed on Time Out NY, but nevertheless it was one of the best shows the city provided that night. Hollender, an almost impossible combination of a CEO and a rebel, is never boring no matter how many times you get to hear him. Combining gloomy economic and social observations with funny anecdotes, he managed to charm the dozens of students that packed the room, sending them home afterwards with his innovative ideas (some would say ‘European’) on how to get the U.S. economy back on the track towards a sustainable future.

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Monsanto likes to think of itself as a sustainable agriculture company. They proudly trumpet their commitment to improving crop yields in the face of an ever-increasing human population, which they put forth as the very essence of sustainability. In truth, they are pursuing a sustainable objective in an unsustainable fashion. UCS senior scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman claims that Monsanto, “is producing more engineered seeds and herbicide and improving its bottom line, but at the expense of conservation and long-term sustainability.”

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Consumer boycotts and pocketbook pressure has been effective in the past in changing corporate behavior. How do we keep the pressure on to keep companies incentivized to do the right thing?

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Across the digital universe, brands are asking consumers to click for the good of the planet. Many social media-driven initiatives are naturally intended to build greater awareness of the brand’s own social responsibility positioning. But in asking consumers to create, vote, like, pledge and share online, can these tactics actually foster a change in attitude or even behaviour? Can social media help build a more sustainable society, one campaign at a time?

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By Amadou M. Cissé, EMBA 12, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland A few days ago, on my way home I was listening to NPR and I heard about yet another chemical spill in a river in China.  It turns out that seven people had been detained in connection with the toxic [...]

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Are people who care about CSR all only focused on environmental issues? It is important to investigate further what are the values that people care most about in corporate performance.

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Flyerzone is an online printing company that offers design agency quality services without charging design agency prices. Drawing on the talent of our international network of artists, we add new designs and templates to the site every day, offering our customers a huge range of choices all in one place, at a price they can afford.

We do this by integrating our environmental philosophy with our commercial model: by reducing waste, recycling and using vegetable-based inks, Flyerzone uses as few resources as possible without compromising on the quality of its work. By sourcing 99 per cent of our paper from Forest Stewardship Council-certified forests, we ensure our business is sustainable in both the commercial and the environmental sense.

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The first month of 2012 is almost over, but it’s still difficult to envision how this year will look like, especially when it comes to the interaction between consumption and sustainability. One of the people who came for our help is Raphael Bemporad, the founding partner and Chief Strategy Officer of BBMG. He offered on Sustainable Brands a list of five trends that he believes will shape sustainable brands in 2012. This is a great list and we’d like to share it with you, adding our point of view as well as two more trends to watch for.

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Here are some tips for restructuring challenge campaigns to make them more successful.

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In 2007, Timberland pioneered eco-labels on their apparel, modeling them after USDA nutrition labels. The imitation was deliberate, said VP of Corporate Social Responsibility, Mark Newton. With the wealth of green information that is currently tracked, measured, analyzed and debated, the intent was to capture the essence of several large categories on a very small [...]

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Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones during the last quarter of 2011. That is equal to everyone living in California buying an iPhone during the holiday season. The Pew Research Center reports that during this same time period tablet (iPad) and e-reader ownership doubled, resulting in one out of three of us now owning this type [...]

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“Our business revenues are directly tied to winning competitive bids,” explains Elizabeth Barry, Chief Sustainability Officer of Marsh & McLennan Companies. “Over the last couple of years an increasing number of our customers are inserting into their bid packages questions that seek documentation of our company’s sustainability commitment.” Barry’s comments reflect the growth of the [...]

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Forget the triple bottom line: the folks at Clif Bar manage for five separate objectives. Find out how they manage it.

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With a “renaissance” in how companies, NGOs, and governments are collaborating to tackle some of our toughest challenges, this blog post looks in-depth at the specific new models and practices that are emerging in cross-sector collaboration.

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The greening of the supply chain is one of the economic engines of the global, $1 trillion revenue growth opportunity for companies selling sustainable products and services. KPMG reports that 95 percent of the world’s largest 250 companies now publish metrics on their environmental and social performance. This metrics-based focus upon environmental performance by the [...]

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Within the cavernous halls at CES 2012 were plenty of energy efficient, “green” and eco-friendly products along with OLED and smart TVs. Panasonic and Samsung led the pack.

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By Jacquie Ottman & Mark Eisen Our economy is slowly but surely heeding the signal that carbon is the new watchword. During the past few years, a steady stream of so-called “biobased” products have been making their way to retail shelves — compostable dinnerware made from corn, plant-based laundry detergents, and bamboo flooring among them. [...]

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The recession started a renaissance in how companies, NGOs, & governments collaborate. With governments and non-profits facing yawning budget deficits and business facing one of its biggest trust-deficits in history, organizations are coming together in unprecedented ways to tackle some of society’s greatest challenges. In fact, a distinct set of collaborative practices used by the “best corporate citizens” and their partners have emerged that others could adopt.

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By Jeff Klein Promoting ideas has been a principal focus of my work for the past six years, beginning with my work as Executive Director of FLOW and continuing today with Being Human, Conscious Capitalism, and Working for Good among others. Ideas are powerful. Napoleon Hill noted that “Ideas are the beginning points of all [...]

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The last piece of technology most carmakers have their fingerprint on is their internal combustion engines. Now, the rise of electric cars is threatening even that. But should car manufacturers be worried, or excited?

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Business exposure is a misnomer in art school, and that’s a shame. Without entirely compromising the integrity of the artistic process, I think there are opportunities for visual artists to maximize profits and reach a new audience of collectors. The process of creating editions is one approach towards sustainable production and profitable consumption.

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While QR codes have been in Asian markets for years, they have only recently begun to break into the mainstream U.K. and US markets.

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Throughout history there has been a great philosophical and fundamental divide in humanity. This divide affects our ability to communicate and find common ground with others of the opposite outlook

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