Author Archives: Ruth Ann Barrett

Invitation to Attend March 26th Synergos Meeting

I will be a panelist at the Thursday, March 26th meeting of Synergos in Palo Alto, 6PM to 8PM. The topic is “Economics of Sustainability.” RSVP now. This is a great way to meet new people and engage in stimulating conversation. The March meeting is an annual Earth Day Eve event.
The Hayden Group sponsors the Synergos Series. The Synergos Series offers interesting guests, interesting speakers, business networking and brainstorming- all in an intimate setting that begins with wine tasting.

WHERE: PALO ALTO:Please RSVP to Victoria Hayden at victoria@thehaydengroup.com so we can ensure adequate seating. WHEN: The last Thursday of every month. Drop by any time between 6 – 8PM.

Earth Day values stamp designed by Rose Cassano of EarthSayers.tv. Use with permission. Thank you.

Consumer Expectations and Your Reputation

A Practical Guide to developing a Successful Corporate Sustainability Program is an excellent guide published by the company, Waste Management. If you are struggling to convince your management on the importance and relevance of a sustainability initiative for your company, this guide lays out the business benefits e.g. improved worker productivity, reduction in operating costs, and energy savings along with practical suggestions for implementation.

The guide also calls out what consumers expect from business. This should catch the eye of your CMO as well as the section that calls out reputation-building benefits.

Consumer Expectations
– Reduce pollution throughout of?ce and manufacturing operations (71%)
– Design products/packaging with more environmentally-friendly contents and minimal packaging (69%)
– Distribute and transport goods more ef?ciently (69%)
– Communicate environmental efforts to employees and consumers, so they can support those efforts (69%)
– Donate money to environmental causes (59%)
– Lobby for more environmentally friendly policies (57%)

Reputation-building Benefits

-Brand enhancement and protection
-Marketing advantage—price premium
-Appreciation in shareholder value
-Employee recruiting, retention and satisfaction improvements
-Customer loyalty
-and “Most Favorable” regulatory reporting requirements

And no faking it!

However, you should beware of using your corporate sustainability report strictly as a public relations tool. There are many advocacy groups that monitor these reports and check the validity of claims made in them.

While you may download a copy of “Practical Guide” of this report here and I suggest you visit the Waste Management site as well.

The Social Intrapreneur

The Social Intrapreneur is an excellent publication from the consultants at sustainability.com and the Skoll Foundation. Social Intrapreneurs are corporate changemakers who work inside companies. They innovate and deliver market solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

You don’t have to move outside an organization to be a change agent and an advocate for sustainability.

More Talk Than Walk

From the Think Ecological report, “IT Sustainability Imperatives in Internet and eCommerce Business,” Jan 2009, some key findings:

“Yet they’re mostly talk and little walk: conducting senior level discussion (37 percent),
publishing CSR guidelines (32 percent), and doing nothing (31 percent) topped the
list of what executives are doing to push the ecological mantra.

Top environmental sustainability challenges included low of awareness of business
bene?ts (53 percent), fears of compromised productivity (52 percent) and perceived
costs to build in ef?ciencies (50 percent).

There is no consistent owner, if any, of a corporate sustainability agenda in the
organization. More than 43 percent don’t have one or don’t know if they do.

Nearly 60 percent want more material and events to help them improve
Eco-Logical thinking.”

There is opportunity here for building awareness, education, and consulting with executives on the benefits of sustainability as a business strategy. And the CMO should be the one leading the conversation and resulting action plans.

“The bottom line at Pitney Bowes reflects tangible benefits…Sustainability furnishes a starting point for connecting with existing and potential customers.”

-Michael Monahan, CFO, Pitney Bowes.

Download a copy of the report “IT Sustainability.”

Cradle to Cradle Certification

The publication, Greener by Design, reported today that “McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) is taking its Cradle to Cradle analysis further down the product supply chain with its new Cradle to Cradle Approved Ingredient certification.

The new certification looks at the chemical components of ingredients and materials that will be in finished products, assessing their effects on human and environmental health, as well as their ability to be recycled or composted.”

Just as all Cradle to Cradle certified products are listed publicly, MBDC plans to provide a public database of certified ingredients.

Sustainability is Not Optional

DM News, the authority for Direct Marketers (January 19th 2009) wondered, “what the new presidency will mean for green marketing.” Well, the good news is that Terry Wellman who produces the show, Business Green Media Conference, notes a shift in the general attitude towards sustainability. “The atmosphere has changed tremendously with the change in administration, and it is now very positive about sustainability.” Good to hear.

Yet I can’t help wondering how it is that sustainability remains in the optional category. As a friend suggested at lunch yesterday, rather than EarthSayers.tv being the “voices of sustainability” the positioning ought to be, “voices of survival.”

That’s the bad news. We still act like we have all the time in the world.

What’s Marketing Got To Do With It?

Recently, when presenting EarthSayers.tv to a prospective sponsor, the person I was talking with seemed surprised that a marketing person would be the builder of EarthSayers.tv. This person comes from the environmental movement and the idea that one would “market” sustainability is counterintuitive. Well, low awareness is low awareness. And the tools available to increase awareness are communication tools and practices. The Web is driving big changes in marketing and environmentalists need to spread the word. Our President is setting the tone with a strong collaboration and cooperation message.

The same day I was talking with the environmentalist, I ran across the Social Responsibility report of the WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services groups, employing 110,000 people working in over 2,000 offices in 106 countries. It contains a letter from the CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell, about the role of marketers in today’s world. Here are some highlights from his letter:

“So if the marketing industry has been unwittingly complicit in causing the problem, it’s now confronted with an historic opportunity: to shape and encourage consumer demand for sustainable products and lifestyles; to restore the true value of durability; to reject the superfluous in products and packaging; to make much of what has passed for fashion deeply unfashionable…The Internet makes the dissemination of information and the mobilization of protest swift and virtually cost-free…we’re all too conscious that we can be credible as an advisor only if we practice what we preach.”

We are practicing what we preach.

Tupperware and the Women of Soweto South Africa

There is a section in the New York Times every Sunday called “The Boss.” Today’s column was about Rich Goings, CEO of Tupperware. He was recruited by Warren Batts to be President of Tupperware in 1992. He set about changing the image of Tupperware that was a left over from the June Cleaver era. What he did in August of 2008 is this: “I took our Board to Soweto in South Africa to meet with 300 women who sell and use our products. The directors saw the confidence the women were getting, and it opened their eyes. We’ve been in Soweto for 20 years, and the directors saw that even in desperate places in the world, good things happen and the difference we make is visible.”

I visited their site and read the article on social responsibility:

“Tupperware Brands is a leader in driving positive change in women’s lives. Our business strategies and philanthropic programs align to enlighten, educate, and empower women
and girls. Offering educational opportunities and building confident and accomplished young women are social investments that guarantee powerful returns for generations
to come, and build a legacy of caring for tomorrow’s leaders -our children.”

Amen.

We’re Not Dabbling

“Advertising agencies have dabbled in side businesses for decades, but “inventing their own brand, not dependent on clients’ largess, is the big new thing,” said George Parker, an ad agency consultant and writer of AdScam, a blog about the industry.”

When we at RED Direct undertook the project to build EarthSayers.tv, the first Website dedicated to the sustainability movement and highlighting the voices of sustainability, we weren’t thinking about a side business.

We were thinking about being part of a real transformation and making innovation our main business. Advertising and direct marketing, what we used to do, don’t work for us anymore. We think there are clients out there who agree with us and are looking for help to put sustainability strategies at the heart or core of their business. And, coming from advertising and direct marketing, it seems clear to us that sustainability strategies will drive major innovations within marketing.

CFO Dave Burritt of Caterpillar, Inc. calls out the first “broad implication” of sustainability strategies as reputation – consumers demand responsibility.

It is at the intersection of sustainability strategies, thought leadership and relationship marketing, Web 2.0 technologies where innovation blossoms and we know so. EarthSayers.tv is at the center of this intersection as a platform for thought leadership, built on Web 2.0 technology, and, in the next phase, a robust network of sustainability advocates, the relationship marketing model adapted to the digital world.

Green Design Grant Announced Apply by Jan 23rd

Rob Coleman of the Rogue Element, a design and branding firm out of Chicago just announced their first annual Green Design Grant. The team will be giving away a year’s worth of design services to a sustainable or green organization in need of design services who couldn’t otherwise afford them.

This direct link takes you to a grant page with all the details. Pass this information on.

Rogue Element does not have any limitations about where your organization is located, or even if it is in more than one location. We work with clients world-wide. However, any travel costs incurred by Rogue Element while providing services under the Grant will need to be paid by the winning organization.

This is a great opportunity for a start-up or an organization needing a make-over. Rob’s team is talented, committed, and are voices of sustainability.

Sustainability Advocate

Ruth Ann Barrett of EarthSayers.tv, Voices of Sustainability