A good brand still trumps good companies with consumers. I just scanned the GlobeScan paper RE: Thinking Consumption and came across this chart. It is a chart that struck me because it is supposed to show "How do consumers rate the environmental and social leadership of companies within their respective sectors." Yet, Interface (one of the recognized leaders) still comes after Shell and…
With many sustainability focused conversations speaking to the role of consumer habits, resources, and waste, in this session of Beyond Business As Usual, we will look at several cases of where firms have begun a process of recalibrating their business models through the (re)design of product, process, and people. A process for each firm that will have begun with a single catalyst, but will hav…
As firms look to recalibrate the mission of a firm, many believe that it will be external stakeholder that is the primary barrier. That suppliers won't be willing to adhere to new expectations, or that consumers won't pay the premium that may be required. It is a belief that in many cases turns out to be secondary to the fact that internal stakeholders may actually provide the greatest barrier.…
One of the major issues that I have been speaking about is the fact in outsourced supply chains accountability and responsibility have been largely independent. That when things went wrong on the factory floor, the brand could hold itself above the issue by saying that it was their suppliers who were the ones who were legally responsible for the failures. A position that many consumers, particu…
Garment factory collapse could leave reputations in tatters. Here are seven principles that foreign companies operating in low-cost, outsourced production markets should follow to better protect their reputations: 1. If the workplace health, safety and environmental regulatory framework of your sourcing market is less stringent than in your home country, find suppliers that are prepared to acce…
Are you the type of person who is looking to donate money to a good cause it is unsure where you should begin? You have heard that there are a lot of organizations that "spend too much money" on overhead, and you want to make sure that ALL "your money" goes to the "cause." If so, I'd like to ask you to not be "that donor." A donor whose only concern is the efficiency of "your money," and not the i…
The 5.12.08 Sichuan earthquake that left 90,000+ Chinese dead was seen by many as a turning point in philanthropy. It was an event that brought the country together in a way that I have not seen at any other time in my 12+ years here, and it was a time when the best of China showed through as the seeds for a culture of philanthropy were planted. Part of this experience (for me), was defined by…
Sustainability isn't for everyone, and even in the firms that we have come to recognize as leaders, there are internal struggles over who is going to own what program and plan of action. This is particularity true in firms who are adding on top of, versus integrating, sustainability to the existing responsibilities of the individual (or department), and it is usually that I find myself often takin…
One of the key stakeholders and primary drivers of a firm are its consumers, and regardless of the issue that is being discussed, the role of the consumer has been almost always seen as the change agent. Once "consumers" wisen up, change will happen. Over the last few months, this conversation has taken on a particular interest with representatives from consumer brands that I have been s…
Over the last few months, I have begun to sense a change in the way that firms view sustainability at the strategic level. It is a sense that comes from the firms that I have been speaking with, but also in the depth of conversations that we have begun to have about how to move their firms forward in the face of the challenges they face. To give you an example, I received the following email fr…
Thoughts from Paul Hawken, prolific author on business practice and sustainability. “When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t o…
Thoughts from Yvon Chouinard, Founder and CEO of Patagonia I've been a businessman for almost 50 years. It's as difficult for me to say those words as it is for someone to admit being an alcoholic or a lawyer. I've never respected the profession. It's business that has to take the majority of the blame for being the enemy of nature, for destroying native cultures, for taking from the poor an…
Thoughts from Jeffrey Hollender, entrepreneur, author, activist, Co-Founder of Seventh Generation, and Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for Greenpeace USA. The vision behind our idea is a world where people don’t carry hazardous chemicals in their bodies, the environment is free of toxic pollutants, and the economy diligently conserves its natural resources for consumers and future generation…
Thoughts from Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman of Interface, Inc., an industry leader in sustainability. As long as the market is steered by invisible subsidies and perverse incentives, as long as it remaining blind to the real costs (economic, social, and environmental), it cannot steer a safer course through the storm any better than a blind helmsman can keep a ship off a reef. -- Ray An…
Thoughts from Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever: The question that should be asked is "why is operating an unsustainable business model that damages the mere system that business needs to participate in to survive an accepted business model?" -- Paul Polman Paul Polman has been CEO of Unilever since January 2009. Under his leadership Unilever has an ambitious vision to fully decouple its growt…
