July 30, 2009 | Posted by David Steuer
Since the unveiling of Walmart’s Sustainability Index on July 16th, the industry has been abuzz trying to assess the potential implications. While much of the press headlines have focused on the Index as a green product rating scheme, which may be 5 years away, a key point seems to be getting lost in the shuffle. Walmart has been working for over a year on applying the basic framework of the Index to its own private label brands, such as Great Value. Read more...
July 30, 2009 | Posted by Adam
New Kodak Solar Charger
I was happy to see Kodak’s new launch of a range of solar chargers
. Kodak, which has pioneered photography since its founding in 1892, has been showing new signs of life after seemingly being left behind by the digital age.
Read more...
July 28, 2009 | Posted by admin
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2 Comments
15 Ave Table
You may have read
or heard this week that Starbucks is launching three new stores in Seattle. Except these stores will not be called Starbucks. They will be named after the locations they serve. The first is called 15th Ave. Nowhere on the
15th Ave website will you find a Starbucks logo or reference, and the site is decidedly homegrown in aesthetics. Starbucks states its objective is to “offer customers new opportunities for discovery, a high level of interaction and a deep connection to the local community,” including activities like tea tastings, local poetry readings and musical acts. It also offers its welcome to customers to influence its sustainability efforts by recommending and becoming involved in local causes. So, can it work?
Read more...
July 23, 2009 | Posted by admin
http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/setting-north-star-goals/
Setting North Star goals
Saatchi & Saatchi S CEO Adam Werbach tells LOHAS attendees how to aim high
By Mary Butler
There are BHAGs, aka Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals, and then there are North Star goals. Saatchi & Saatchi S CEO Adam Werbach made a compelling case for setting the latter – the more idealistic, the better – at the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability conference in Boulder on Friday. Read more...
July 23, 2009 | Posted by Adam
After over a year of global research in the US, UK, Germany and Japan, Saatchi & Saatchi has helped the Marine Stewardship Council, the leading sustainable fish certification body, launch a new eco-label.
Eco-labels like MSC have consistently proven themselves to be the single most important tool that consumers use to find sustainable products. MSC is among a handful of labels, including USDA Organic, EnergyStar, and Fairtrade that are unquestioned leaders in their respective fields.
Read more here: Read more...
July 22, 2009 | Posted by Adam
Stone-Buhr
is a small regional flour company, with a history that goes back more than one hundred years. They’ve recently launched a new website called
Find the Farmer , which helps people find the exact farm where the wheat for the flour was grown. Here’s how it works. You buy your Stone-Buhr flour at a local retailer, you enter the Lot # on the website and it takes you to the farm where the wheat was sourced.
Read more...
July 21, 2009 | Posted by admin
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2 Comments
Strategy for Sustainability vs Sustainability Strategy
I’m careful to use the phrase “Strategy for Sustainability” instead of “Sustainability Strategy” when I talk about a corporation’s efforts to ensure that it will be around for the long-haul. A company has a strategy for sustainability when it: Read more...
- examines the coming opportunities and threats caused by changes in society, technology and natural and human resources
- sets an optimistic and aspirational North Star goal that connects to the core of the business, solves a great human challenge, and is actionable by everyone in the company
July 13, 2009 | Posted by admin
“There is no conflict between sustainability and long-term profits. In the short term, however, responsible business leaders will make choices that might produce smaller short-term profits, but that’s a small price to pay for assuring the long term viability of a business. Capital investments in eco-efficiency provide long term operational cost savings as well as a hedge against resource cost fluctuations, like the unpredictable price of oil. Investing in engaging your staff will result in higher productivity, innovation and retention rates. Investing in R&D towards emerging consumer trends will assure long-term innovation.” Read more at CNN Money.
July 13, 2009 | Posted by admin
Here’s an interview with Jay Yarrow of CNN Money/Fortune’s “Business Insider”:
Business Insider: How do you define sustainability?
Adam Werbach: In a business context, sustainability simply means long-term profitability. Before 1987, that’s the definition that was widely understood. But in 1987, the United Nations released the Brundtland report, defining sustainable development as meeting the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generations. This definition was quickly conflated with protecting our natural environment. In the book I argue that we need to return to the old definition of sustainability because the types of changes in society, technology and natural resources that are happening today are threats to the viability of businesses. Businesses that are prepared for the long term will get ahead of these trends in order to assure their longevity. Read more...
July 13, 2009 | Posted by admin
A recession is like a forest fire — a rush of destruction that affects everything in its path. And for about the last hundred years, nations and companies have sought to protect themselves from these catastrophic meltdowns through fiscal and monetary policy at the national level, with similar effort at the corporate level. The results have been unimpressive at best, and catastrophic at worst. The U.S. and the world today face the worst recession since the Great Depression, the equivalent of a super-fire that threatens the entire forest and the people in and around it. At the corporate level, the U.S. is experiencing an alarming three hundred and fifty commercial bankruptcies a day, including familiar names like GM and Crabtree & Evelyn.
The world will only experience more turbulence in coming years, with an escalating human population, declining natural resources, and challenges to U.S. hegemony. So what can a forest teach us about survival in this fire-proneI p world?Harv
Article in Harvard Business “Conversation Starter” by Adam Werbach: Read more...
