Tag Archives: sustainability

Sustainability is a movement defined by a taxonomy we created called a content map which organizes all categories and keywords under three elements – overview, planet, people, and prosperity.

Marketing Sustainability Events

EarthSayers.tv recently published to our Ecotourism special collection a selection from the presentations given at ESTC 2010, the EcoTourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference held here in Portland, September 8-10. Also published were interviews conducted at the conference by myself and filmmakers, Barry Heidt of SustainableTV and Erich Lyttle. Post production work was provided by Tom Hopkins of Sustainable Today TV. The sponsor of this event, The International EcoTourism Society (TIES), like others we have covered in the past, including the Seattle Green Festival held in June, was financed out of our own pockets. Why? Because most organizations sponsoring green events invest in “pre” conference marketing with the backend or post conference a dead zone with no budget. We think this is seriously inhibiting awareness and adoption of sustainability principles and practices which is the mission of EarthSayers.tv.

Viewing events, especially annual events, in a linear fashion in the age of Web marketing is inhibiting the growth of the sustainability audience and, ultimately, has a negative impact on attendance objectives for organizations sponsoring sustainability conferences and events.

Dead Zones

The Web is a timeless environment and needs to be seeded with content frequently. Relevant and quality content remains king. However, accelerating the growth of an audience does requires the marketing process be viewed and acted upon as a continuum. Peppering the Web with content from one event to build interest in the next one should be understood as a requirement.

No Pre or Post

We bring to the sponsors of sustainable and green events not only the ability to produce content at an event in a more personal way – interviews as opposed to the pre-web practice of video taping presentations from the back of the room. We now are able to demonstrate the efficacy of our work as we not only produce content but provide the network, EarthSayers.tv, for distribution which along with our channel on YouTube. This positions the conference organizers and presenters as part of the sustainability movement and seeds the Web increasing page rankings for all involved and making the people and information easier to find. As we all know, searching is one thing, finding is another.

The Sustainability Language Barrier

FIRST and foremost, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about the democratic use of language. This is extremely important when it comes to educating our citizens about sustainability.

YOU
What matters is not how the advertiser (you or academic or activist or advocate or consultant) likes to talk about its products (services, ideas, concepts, processes, mission, cause, objective), but how customers (citizens, students, clients, users) actually talk about them.”

THEM

One example of search on the term, sustainable development and the associated keywords and phrases:
The yellow indicates terms that present an opportunity to develop what is called, search directed content, and create webpages with appropriate titles and links.

US
Feedback on what is being used in search has become all the more important because search engines are also contributing to the poverty of attention that advertisers, educators, well, nearly everybody is complaining about.

Adapted from a blog post Why SEO Doesn’t Translate by Guy Gilpin , Monday, August 9, 2010

Sustainability and Web Search: Low Interest

This post is not about low interest on the part of our citizens searching on the Web for information about global warming, climate change, and sustainability, but low interest on the part of content producers towards Web search and how it is related to citizens searching, but not finding vital information on these and other sustainability-related issues.

Today’s New York Times article on Yahoo’s efforts to use search data to create search-generated content calls out a little known growth industry around the Web and highlights what every educator needs to know.

“Search-generated content has been growing on the Internet, as evidenced by the success of companies like Associated Content, which Yahoo recently bought, and Demand Media, which has used freelance writers to create an online library of more than a million instructional articles.”

Compare this to the old school educators and social activists who blanch at the phrase, content generation, and hold steady to the practices of print, and you will begin to understand why our citizens don’t get answers to their basic questions about global warming, climate change, sustainability or even about our oceans and water pollution.

It starts and ends with interest.

Yahoo and advertisers have a big interest in being in the top organic search results on key search terms because supplying relevant information when a person is in the buying cycle is a basic tenet of marketing success. Indeed, a recent article in DM News suggests Search Engine Optimization (part of what we are talking about) was once overlooked, but have realized it “doesn’t strain their budgets” and improved analytics make it “easy to understand the relationship between natural search rankings and revenue.”

Those in the business of education or those who would benefit the most from an informed public have shown very little interest.

The power of the Web has been highly commercialized largely because it is a buying machine. But it is also a learning and training machine, yet it just may be that to meet searchers needs is just too crass of a reason to create content that explains important concepts and issues and may interfere with the editorial and research freedom to publish what is important and what is not and to use language such as “eco-economics” and avoid prosperity in favor of ROI. Yahoo points out (you really need to read the NYTimes article) to its journalistic detractors: “The information is valuable because editors can integrate it into their decision making. It’s an asset. It’s a totally amazing and useful tool that we have at Yahoo. But it does not lead Yahoo editorial content.” A tool.

In other words, how can it not be crucial to understand that although there are 28M webpages out there on the subject of “global warming” less than 170,000 of them are titled to appear in top rankings (and thus be seen) to a search on the term, global warming, and even less on the question what is global warming? Yet there is significant search on this term, more on this term than on sustainability or climate change.

This chart (1) from Google Insights gives you a general idea of the popularity, if you will, of the three terms in relationship to each other. You can use the chart below to get some feel for search traffic on these terms which come from a snapshot (1%) of the search traffic over a years period of time using software called, WordTracker. For nearly every sustainability-related topic that I looked at, the search on “what is” or “definition of” was relatively high and the number of Web pages with a title that grabs was low. This is a great opportunity for organizations with a cause to gain traction with searchers out there who are entering or are in the learning cycle. In the hundreds of video programs we have reviewed for inclusion in our sustainability collection on EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability, the titles reflect a general disconnect from what the video actually covers, choosing in some cases to emphasize the name of the person answering the question, what is sustainability, or the event at which the person attended and was recorded. These are just two examples of hundreds.

But first to change things, the educators and proponents of sustainability have to know and understand the capability of SEO and search engine marketing. Indeed, from my own experience, a greater interest in the Web would be a starting point for many of our leaders addressing environmental, social, cultural or economic sustainability, followed by increasing their (1) personal, (2) professional, (3) organizational, and (4) cause presence (brand) on the Web in all four categories, and take a crash course on SEO so they can better align their language and messaging with their objectives and audience. SEO by the way is complicated and is a learning experience for even the most seasoned of marketing professionals.

This is my agenda.

If you invite me to participate in a meeting around sustainability, this is what I am going to talk about; if you want me to increase your revenue for a sustainable product or service, this is what I am going to talk about and help you achieve; and if you ask me how to increase your membership, this is what I am going to talk about and make suggestions around. If you ask me about sustainability, I’ll probably refer you to one of the hundreds voices of sustainability found at EarthSayers.tv.

P.S. I included Walmart in the following chart to give an idea of corporate-related efforts to be in the top rankings, mostly using paid search, but increasingly using organic search more effectively.

Note: (1)

The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They don’t represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100

Process Matters

McKinsey released a report this month, The Case for Behavioral Strategy, which pulls out the fly in the ointment by doing the analysis on the question: “how much of the variance in decision outcomes was explained by the quality of the process and how much by the quantity and detail of the analysis.”

The answer: process mattered more than analysis—by a factor of six. The fly being poor processes of which any one who has spent any time in large companies knows out trumps the numbers, but, well numbers are king. Or were. They are important, of course, but “superb analysis is useless unless the decision process gives it a fair hearing.” And, as you will find out reading the report, superior processes improve ROI.

Sustainability initiatives present an excellent opportunity to address unsustainable processes.

While in this post I called out the process message from the study, the story begins with the profound “cultural change” it’s going to take to “debais” strategic decisions. Well worth a read and for the C-level executives a chance to look at how they might be converting process or work problems to people problems. This is how social sustainability can begin to play a bigger role in “greening” our institutions and cities.

My mentor, Dr. Herbert Heaton, then Comptroller of the Rockefeller Foundation and a numbers guy, warned me of the inclination for decision makers to convert work problems to people problems, resulting in firings and lay-offs, and an inordinate amount of time spent accepting and rejecting people. My boss and mentor, Dr. Randy Hamilton, then of the Institute for Local Self Government, weighed in with the observation that “people hire in their image and likeness.” As I said, this study addresses the role bias plays in our decision-making. Here’s the hard part: “..in strategic decision making leaders need to recognize their own biases.” Now let me link all this talk about process and bias to employment.

The workforce of a company is its most strategic asset and addressing the bias inherent in the process of acquiring and managing this asset is what I move to the top of the list. The report doesn’t really talk about people-related decisions favoring instead to reference decisions around mergers, strategic plans that often ignore competitive responses, and investment projects. Social sustainability and prosperity go together, you can’t have one without the other and prosperity is our economic foundation.

Qualities of Sustainability Leaders: The Short List

A short list of five qualities I have found in sustainability leaders and now “findable” in abundance at EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability.

Now that I live and work in a community where there is much more support for sustainability I don’t have to spend as much time doing missionary work on the relevancy of it, but I do talk more about leaders and why sustainability leaders need to ban together and become much more visible, not just on EarthSayers.tv, but, locally in their communities.

At the same time I have been listening to leadership experts who generally don’t reference sustainability (more missionary work needed here), but who have been talking about the qualities of leadership that are lacking and, as Bill George of Harvard and a member of the Board of Exxon Mobile and Goldman Sachs observes; it is a”failure of leadership” that has put our country at risk. Of course it’s not just our country is it? Back to Professor George in a minute.

Based on what two leadership experts are talking about and my own experience reviewing hundreds of speeches and interviews, here is a short list of the qualities I have found in sustainability leaders:

(1) Givers not takers.

Sustainability leaders don’t fit the old model of leadership as detailed in a speech to the Google folks by leadership expert Bill George of Harvard University. On what basis have we been choosing our leaders? “More for charisma, than character, more for style than substance, more for their image than their integrity. Not very authentic people, smart, but not committed, takers rather than givers.” Just give a listen to B Corporation members, there are over 200 of them, as the “B” is “for benefit.” Here are three on EarthSayers, including the cofounder of B Corps, Jay Gilbert.

Jay Coen Gilbert, B Corporation; Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation; Miranda Magagnini, IceStone.

(2) Motivators

Again from Bill George: “Economists told us for many years that people only interested in money. Not motivating people. Today we want to find meaning and significance in our work.

Over 90% of the voices on EarthSayers.tv have motivated me to continue with my work and many in different ways emphasize the significance of taking the first step. I don’ think anyone says this better and more simply than Kip Ward, owner of a completely recycled motel in the beach community of Lincoln City, Oregon. Give a listen to what Kip has to say and my thanks to both Kip and filmmaker, producer Barry Heidt of Lincoln City, Oregon who understand the significance of Earthsayers.tv and produced this for EarthSayers.

(3) Different and Humble

According to Blair Sheppard, dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, company recruiters are saying they need a “different kind of person. (They) need a person who is more of a leader, but humble.” I think the collection of leaders on EarthSayers demonstrates how different the sustainability leadership is, you can hear and see it for yourself. Experts and leaders such as the head of Common Cause, Bob Edgar, all say the same thing: “We are all called to be leaders.”

(4) Multi-cultured

Here’s Dean Sheppard. “If you think about the structure of the problems businesses are grappling with today, more and more of it requires that people work effectively with other people, often times from different civilizations from their own. “ It’s not just businesses is it?

Organizations such as the Ecotrust recognize the most innovative indigenous leaders for their efforts to improve conditions in their communities through award programs and public events. There is Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund For Women and then there is the The Goldman Environmental Prize, world’s largest award for grassroots environmentalists.

That’s my short list for now. It will grow as we add more and more sustainability leaders to EarthSayers.tv. Oh wait, I forgot the last one.

(5) Visible.

With the help of Chelsea Peil, community developer, and Barry Heitd we are establishing local offshoots of EarthSayers starting with the Portland Sustainability Leadership Channel and the SeaStar Sustainability Leadership Channel, an ecotourism-focused channel for Lincoln City, Oregon. This is a simple, easy- to- put- into- action model for bringing a focus on the leaders in local communities using YouTube channels and, internationally, through connection to the EarthSayers network. Robert Seireeni in his book, The Gort Cloud, references “The Invisible Force powering today’s most visible Green Brands.” Well, it’s time to get visible.

Emissions Reduction Currency System – Austrailian Style

Portland, Oregon, December 30, 2009

A small group of us had the opportunity this past week to meet with Sam Nelson visiting Portland from Australia thanks to the folks at Transition PDX. Sam is the co-founder of the Maia Maia Project, an innovative community based Emissions Reduction Currency System. He is also an owner of Greenbase, a business in Australia that provides emissions accounting services for over half the mining industry there, and is the past Director of a sustainable biofuels company based in London and India.

The Maia Maia project, the focus of his discussion, is a community based greenhouse gas emissions reduction currency system being trialed in Western Australia. Their local currency based on these reductions is called a ‘Booya’ after rock trading tokens used by the Native Nyungar people of this country.

The idea of using a local currency system to engage citizens in changing their behavior to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, household by household, person by person, comes from Sam’s view that as bad as the news is there is OPPORTUNITY in this crisis. This is a theme pursued in presentations about innovation and the world crisis by sustainability leaders such as Australian Dan Atkins and is a point of view driving results through action and innovation from both the top down and the bottom up, in this case in a community-based program.

For Sam opportunity has four qualities:

(1) Actions to do something are democratically available by changing things we do everyday;

(2) These changes are measurable- we can measure our effectiveness at reducing greenhouse gas emissions;

(3) There are economic benefits and real value in reducing greenhouse gases;

(4) Making changes is a “nice thing to do” meaning it is both personally rewarding as well as altruistic – our actions as individuals impact the community and our neighbors in a positive way.

The Maia Maia project logo with the three hands represents the involvement of community organizations (schools for example), the family, and businesses, all necessary participants in making the project work to significantly reduce the greenhouse footprint of the community.

On Climate Sustainability

From a member of the Responsible Initiative of Pakistan as part of a discussion on the need for “models who have lived or are living their lives in a sustainable manner” at a dialogue organised by the Climate Sustainability Platform at the University of Copenhagen, Centre for Africa Studies.

‘If:

Governments become pro-people

Mega-companies become ethical

Politicians become honest to their vocation

Scientist become conscious of their integrity

Funders become open to traditional wisdom

NGOs become free from ‘tyranny of the project’

Youth become aware of their future challenges

You and I become fair to ourselves…

Then perhaps climate sustainability is possible’

– Dr. Faiz Shah of Responsible Business Initiative, Pakistan.

The source for this information is Malaysiakini as part of their coverage of the Copenhagen conference.

Bad for consumerism, good for sustainability?

From an article in the Center For Media Research, Wednesday, November 18, 2009 entitled, Recession’s Lasting Effects on Consumers.

The recession has caused a profound, deep-rooted change in consumers’ spending habits in favor a more restrained approach. This is the “new normal.”

Referencing the study, entitled “Marketing to the Post-Recession Consumers,” by Decitica, the new normal is particularly relevant in developing “positioning” as Dr. Val Srinivas, Principal at Decitica, notes, “This research… decisively shows that marketers need a fresh lens through which to view consumers in the post-recession world…”

The new normal, however, may be just what is needed for sustainability to be more “marketable” and I use the term advisably. Both men and women 40 years or older, irrespective of income, are significantly more confident about restraining spending with 40+ women with greater disposable income are the most confident about resisting the temptation to spend now and worry later, indicating they are more long-term focused.

The article notes: This finding is not good news for marketers whose traditional audience are mainly boomer women.

The boomer women are heavy influencers, not only buyers and this bodes well for companies emphasizing the long term effects of chemical use on our citizens and the environment and for the sustainability movement in general.

College Sustainability Leaders

College Sustainability Report Card 2010 released!

GreenReportCard.org is the first website to provide in-depth sustainability profiles for hundreds of colleges in all 50 states and Canada

Overall College Sustainability Leaders

Amherst College
Arizona State University
Brown University
University of California–San Diego
Carleton College
College of the Atlantic
University of Colorado
Dickinson College
Harvard University
Luther College
Macalester College
Middlebury College
University of Minnesota
University of New Hampshire
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Oberlin College
Pacific Lutheran University
University of Pennsylvania
Pomona College
Smith College
Stanford University
University of Vermont
University of Washington
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Yale University

A Business Agenda to Write Home About

What would be on your agenda if you were to meet with the President? Here is what was on Jeffrey Hollender’s agenda when he met with the President’s transition team last January. Jeffrey is President of Seventh Generation and a strong sustainability advocate.

Mandatory, GRI-based Corporate Responsibility reporting
Eliminate tax incentives that support environmentally damaging industry (i.e. Exxon)
Reform the metrics we use to evaluate the health of our society & our economy. Replace the GNP with the Gross National Happiness Index.
Develop a road map to transition to full-cost accounting (which will prevent companies from externalizing costs) and level the playing field for responsible businesses

I’m with him on this. He also thinks this is “the chance of a lifetime to revolutionize the role that business plays in society” and like him, I am cautiously optimistic.

Here are the other topics he will cover in his follow-up memo to the administration:

National health care that’s not linked to employment
Publicly financed elections
Incentivize employee ownership through additional tax benefits and ESOP financing
Complete the Attorney General’s new environmental marketing guidelines and then ensure compliance
Prevent shareholders who haven’t held stock in a company for at least one year from voting their proxy.
Dramatically increasing short-term capital gains rates.
Limit senior management salaries to 50 times that of the average employee in the company
Encourage multi-stakeholder coalitions that bring together business, labor, NGOs, community groups, and religious organizations, and insist they resolve critical issues (i.e., sustainable palm oil, cocoa)
Teach systems thinking in public schools
Invest in education and place economic value in the caring professions: teaching, nursing, homemaking, elder care.

Good topics for conversation at work, in your home, at school and at play.

Sustainability Advocate

Ruth Ann Barrett of EarthSayers.tv, Voices of Sustainability