The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB), members of which include Walmart, McDonalds, WWF and the Rainforest Alliance, recently announced that its Draft principles and criteria for global sustainable beef (production, processing and retail) are open for public comment and review through May 16, 2014.

The document defines sustainable beef as a socially responsible, environmentally sound and economically viable product that prioritizes the planet, people, animals and progress. It lays out the following principles for global stakeholders:

• Produce beef in a manner that identifies and manages natural resources responsibly and maintains or enhances the health of ecosystems.
• Protect and respect human rights, and recognize the critical roles that all participants within the beef value chain play in their community regarding culture, heritage, employment, land rights and health.
• Respect and manage animals to ensure their health and welfare.
• Ensure the safety and quality of beef products and utilize information-sharing systems that promote beef sustainability.
• Encourage innovation, optimise production, reduce waste and add to economic viability.

The document aims to address only the principles and criteria while deliberately avoiding more context-specific levels of indicators, metrics and practices to allow for multiple regional approaches.

"GRSB does not intend to set standards or create a certification program but to provide a common baseline understanding of sustainable beef that national roundtables and other initiatives can use to meet their needs," reads the report.

The comments submitted on the GRSB draft document will be taken into account, redrafted and available for another review at the end of June.

In a complementary effort, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative, of which McDonald’s is also a member, announced the development of its Principles for Sustainable Beef Farming in November. At the time of the announcement, Keith Kenny, Senior Director of Supply Chain at McDonald’s Europe, said the next step is to develop a set of Sustainable Beef Farming Practices to help farmers meet the Principles in a practical way, widely promote and support their adoption, and align their work with that of the GRSB.

McDonald’s announced in January that, by 2016, it will source only “verified sustainable beef.” The pledge is an effort to reduce the environmental impact of the fast-food chain’s meat production, as well as to be kinder to the animals on which its livelihood rests. Though there is, of course, plenty of debate over just what “sustainable beef” is, or whether it is achievable.

GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) announced this week that McDonald’s USA is the newest participant in its How2Recycle Label Program. A member of the SPC since 2005, McDonald’s is the first national restaurant chain to join How2Recycle, a program dedicated to clearly and consistently communicating recyclability to the public.

“The participation of McDonald’s in the SPC’s projects has been invaluable in identifying best practices, understanding design, and generating efforts for post-consumer foodservice packaging recovery,” said Anne Bedarf, GreenBlue Senior Manager. “We’re thrilled to have McDonald’s lead the way for quick service restaurants in promoting packaging sustainability; their size, influence, and commitment is substantial, and we couldn’t be happier to have them on board.”

McDonald’s has taken steps to use more responsible packaging materials - in September, the company phased out polystyrene cups in favor of paper. Now, the fast-food chain joins over 20 companies in a variety of industries — including Kellogg, Target, Seventh Generation, Clorox, Esteé Lauder and Honest Tea — already using the label.

“McDonald’s is committed to reducing waste. Labeling our packaging with SPC’s How2Recycle label provides an opportunity to extend the behind-the-counter recycling efforts at the restaurant by helping consumers to determine how to recycle some McDonald's packaging at home," said Susan Forsell, VP of Sustainability for McDonald’s USA.

Initially, McDonald’s will label its standard paper carryout bags with the “Widely Recycled” version of the How2Recycle Label, which indicates that at least 60 percent of the US population has access to recycle the packaging materials in question. The carryout bags will include the additional message, “Recycle if Clean & Dry,” since bags dirtied by a significant amount of grease or food residue are often not accepted in recycling programs.

The How2Recycle Label requires that all components of a package be labeled — for consistency and transparency — and that extra messaging be used for unique packages that could contaminate the recycling stream due to consumer actions or additional packaging components.

McDonald’s is also exploring the use of the How2Recycle Label on other packaging, including its Happy Meal boxes, which could help educate younger consumers about proper recycling techniques.

At Shelton Group we’ve been polling Americans regularly for nearly a decade to understand their attitudes and behaviors related to energy and the environment so we can best help our clients define and leverage their sustainability stories. Until late last year our studies were consumer-focused, though much of our client work is actually on the business-to-business side. So late last year we fielded our first-ever B2B Pulse study to better understand the role sustainability plays as business decision-makers are making purchasing decisions.

We spoke to a wide variety of decision-makers (facility and purchasing managers, CEOs, buyers, CFOs, etc) in a variety of sectors (business services, education, health care, manufacturing, etc) and found that sustainability does affect business purchase decisions. And what we found about how sustainability affects those decisions is either obvious or shocking, depending on your viewpoint:

Business decision-makers are people, too.

Suzanne Shelton, keynote speaker at Sustainable Brands 2014 San Diego

We found that purchasing decisions are influenced as much, if not more, by the personal concerns and biases of the decision-makers as they are by their companies’ stated/tracked sustainability initiatives. Only 11 percent of the business decision-makers we surveyed said their companies have, or are developing, sustainability scorecards to guide purchasing. So most decision-making is happening without formal guidelines and, frankly, based on the personal preferences/biases/gut instincts of the person making the decision.

That means that whatever decision-makers are concerned about in their personal lives bleeds over into their business decisions. Reactions to questions about product content offer a great case-in-point. Specifically, product content (“product contains no chemicals of concern”) was rated the most important sustainable feature in product selection out of a list of 20 different claims, including third-party certification, recycled content, zero waste manufacturing, etc.

This, despite the fact that product content/materials toxicity avoidance landed midway down a list of 24 different sustainability initiatives for which companies have stated goals or are currently measuring or reporting — lagging far behind more popular initiatives such as recycling (70 percent) and energy efficiency (62 percent).

So, while few companies (only 17 percent) have a stated initiative around “avoiding chemicals of concern,” business decision-makers (63 percent) rank it as important to very important.

This could create a new move in the B2B sales playbook. Most of our B2B clients are working on how to integrate sustainability into their RFPs and sales calls, with some specifically training their reps to review prospects’ corporate sustainability reports to gain insight into their sustainability priorities before making sales calls. While that’s certainly a smart practice, it’s not enough. Sales reps should remember that business decision-makers “are people too” and, when appropriate, should integrate common consumer concerns, such as product content, into their sales conversations.

And product content concerns should also be top of mind in product development initiatives. In our experience, most B2B-oriented companies (outside of the food industry) focus primarily on product efficacy/performance and price point. Initiatives to incorporate safer content are often de-prioritized because most customers aren’t asking for it and non-toxic content alternatives often cost more. But just like consumers, few business decision makers are knowledgeable enough to ask. If you create a product differentiated by safe, non-toxic content, it could raise awareness in your industry and resonate with personal concerns — giving you a competitive edge.

In this three-part mini-series, Core77's Stefanie Koehler shares her experiences in bringing a sustainability focus into her work. Read parts one and two

During the 2012–13 Biomimicry Student Design Challenge (BSDC) competition, I discovered that solving humanity's biggest design challenges requires new skills applied within a comprehensive framework that integrates sustainability. I gained a deeper understanding of the Buckminster Fuller Institute's tenet of what Fuller described as "comprehensive anticipatory design scientists" (Fuller, 1999).

Learning from Nature

Biomimicry, the practice of emulating models and strategies found in nature, provides designers with tools for seeing and learning from nature in new ways (Biomimicry 3.8 Institute), serving to both embed an ethos of sustainability and potentially inspire radical thinking.

For the competition, I explored the use of biomimicry as a process for creating a sustainable product as well as a scalable social enterprise idea. Under the inspirational guidance of Denise Deluca, co-founder and director of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation (BCI), this work ultimately grew from my Master's thesis project.

My design concept was a water treatment system called SolDrop. My team went on to become the only US finalists in the global 2013 BSDC and I had the honor of presenting at the Biomimicry Education Summit and Global Conference in Boston that year.

From Pine Needles to Social Enterprise

Upon first looking to Mother Nature as a mentor, I started with getting curious while walking through a coastal forest in Oregon. I wanted to know how the clouds were forming in the forest and if I could glean insight into water management strategies. After a quick search on AskNature.org, I discovered that pine needles use the strategy of high surface area to perform the function of collecting moisture.

Dozens of searches and many design iterations later, I learned that nature performs multiple functions using various strategies on all surface, structure and systems levels. Similar to the pine needles, an elephant's wrinkly skin and several desert plants, use the strategy of high surface area, to perform varied functions. Amongst these multi-functional strategies I found several patterns that occurred across many biological organisms.

The biomimetic design idea, SolDrop, is based on the concept of using several modular solar distillation "pods," in a decentralized fashion, to provide a water treatment option that may be affordable for people in impoverished areas. Ideally, SolDrop solar still "pods" are made from recycled plastic bottles or other locally available materials that can be found and maintained locally, and used to purify water in someone's home.

By integrating several bio-inspired strategies and practicing the methods of biomimicry (as applied to design), I went from having an inspiration-level understanding to gaining a deep understanding of biomimicry thinking as a problem-solving framework. This led to continued 'a-ha's' in how I might create a sustainable product innovation and a social enterprise that enriches the ecosystem with good business.

Lessons I Learned

The design challenge and thesis experience allowed me to see that biomimicry offers designers many things:

• A toolkit for innovative and a methodology to address design challenges in a new way
• A deeper understanding of sustainability and whole systems thinking through exploring biological strategies
• A means to embed an ethos of sustainability into design
• A unique perspective when designing social solutions and the business ecosystem
• A greater connection to nature, other people, the dynamic living world — in short, the interconnectedness of everything

In retrospect, I took far more away from studying, practicing and making biomimicry thinking a part of my daily habits than I had ever anticipated. Initially I thought I'd just be tackling the product as a designer, but soon shifted to creating a water treatment option that also engages local communities and enhances local economies for long-term positive impact.

_{References:
Fuller, R.Buckminster. Your Private Sky: The Art of Design Science. Ed. Joachim Krausse; Claude Lichtenstein. Baden: Lars Muller, 1999.}

On Wednesday, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) and CSR Europe, facilitators of the European Automotive Working Group on Supply Chain Sustainability, announced an unprecedented agreement among 14 global automakers on a set of standards outlining expectations for suppliers on key responsibility issues including human rights, environment, working conditions and business ethics.

Participating members aligned with “The Automotive Industry Guiding Principles to Enhance Sustainability Performance in the Supply Chain” are BMW Group, Chrysler Group LLC, Daimler, Fiat S.p.A., Ford, GM, Honda, Jaguar/Land Rover, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Scania, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Volvo Group.

“With a singularity of purpose and a common voice, the key players in our industry are collaboratively reinforcing the individual commitments each has made to doing business in a socially and environmental responsible way,” said J. Scot Sharland, executive director at AIAG. “Automakers and suppliers of all sizes face heightened compliance & extended responsibility expectations, from materials sourcing, handling, reporting and disposal requirements to improving factory working conditions, so it’s imperative that we work together to develop, socialize and deploy industry best practices on a range of issues for our global supply chains.”

As the companies collectively state in the Guiding Principles, “People and the environment are the automotive industry’s most important resources. For this reason, we are working together to attain the highest standard in business integrity and in the social and environmental performance of our supply chain. … The following guidelines clearly describe our expectations towards business ethics, working conditions, human rights, and environmental performance, for our suppliers as well as their subcontractors and suppliers. We expect that suppliers will uphold these standards and cascade them down their supply chain.”  

The guidelines, which are based on fundamental principles of social and environmental responsibility that are compliant with local law and consistent with international expectations, were first developed by AIAG in 2009, in collaboration with Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota. In 2009, the companies created in 2009 a specific European working group to enhance collaboration in the area of sustainability in the supply chains. Since 2012 the group has been facilitated by CSR Europe. Together with AIAG, the initial guidelines were further elaborated.

To establish these Guiding Principles, AIAG and CSR Europe worked with the 14 automakers to find the common points of agreement among the companies. Individual automotive companies may have their own standards, codes and policies that supersede the common Guiding Principles. 

“We built on the guidelines that AIAG and its member companies had established, expanding the principles and messages so they would apply to the broadest possible range of suppliers. This allows us to drive the sustainability agenda in the automotive sector even further,” said Stefan Crets, executive director at CSR Europe.

The Guiding Principles announced by AIAG are the latest in a series of ongoing work by the group and its members to drive supply chain sustainability. AIAG’s Conflict Minerals Working Group, which features more than two dozen manufacturers, suppliers and service providers throughout the auto industry, have collectively examined the impact of the conflict minerals issue on their global supply chains since the Dodd-Frank Act became law in 2010.

Speaking of high supplier standards, in January CDP launched its Supplier Climate Performance Leadership Index (SCPLI), a new evaluation and benchmarking tool for CDP supply chain members and suppliers. European Automotive Working Group members BMW, Daimler, Fiat and Volkswagen were among the eight corporates to score an ‘A’ for demonstrating strong and transparent climate strategies and emissions reduction programs.

For more examples of groundbreaking cross-sector partnerships driving social and environmental change, check out our editorial channel highlighting #Collaboration.

To learn more about how companies worldwide are cleaning up their #SupplyChains, check out the editorial channel.

Industrial packaging products and services firm Greif has received the 2014 Manufacturing Leadership Award (ML Award) in Sustainability for its DoubleGreen™ COEX 10-liter plastic jerry can. This is one of the first sustainable multilayer 10-liter plastic jerry cans made from a renewable resource, sugarcane, with a stackable design that eliminates the need for a carton during transport.

The DoubleGreen COEX 10-liter plastic jerry is comprised of over 50 percent polyethylene that is derived from sugarcane ethanol. The can, produced in Brazil, creates a closed-loop system approach from agribusiness to agribusiness. Based upon the main Brazil agrochemical market volume, the use of sugarcane ethanol is estimated to eliminate roughly 1,390 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Greif’s manufacturing process requires less material in the production of the jerry can, reducing its weight for shipping even as it maintains the same compression strength as heavier containers. Its stackable design for shipping directly on transport pallets improves inventory management cost, removes the necessity for printing a duplicate label and optimizes the recycling process.

DoubleGreen also is UN-certified, which means that Greif’s customers will not need to worry about managing or paying for the UN Certification process themselves. The elimination of carton packaging is estimated to save 3,643 trees and avoid 23 tons of CO₂ emissions.

“At Greif, sustainability is an innovation driver. Our goal is to help customers reduce their own environmental footprints with quality industrial packaging,” said Eduardo Simoniello, VP and general manager of Greif Latin America. 

Winners of the ML Awards will be honored on June 5 at a black-tie gala during the 10th Annual Manufacturing Leadership Summit hosted by Frost & Sullivan, a leading research firm.

Earlier this month, HP announced it teamed up with global packaging company YFY Jupiter for a new initiative that will use straw waste to create packaging material for its products. YFY Jupiter uses straw waste from Chinese farms to manufacture corrugated cardboard and molded pulp packaging; the process to create the packaging uses up to 40 percent less energy, 90 percent less water, emits 25 percent less CO2 than traditional methods and, since the packaging is lighter than wood-based molded pulp, it will cost less to ship.

To learn more about how design, such as in manufacturing, is changing around the world to address several environmental, economic and social issues, check out the several case studies presented in Design Transitions. The book offers examples where design companies are changing their own processes, approaches, philosophies, and values, as well as examples of how organizations are beginning to introduce and embed design thinking into their operations.

The future that’s coming…

The human population is set to grow to more than 9 billion by 2050. What sort of world do we want for new arrivals? One of scarce resources and extreme competition for the basic elements of survival, or one in which they are able to build stable and meaningful lives for themselves and their children?

The future we can build…

The time has come to build a world where we can welcome 9 billion people rather than fear their arrival. A future of healthy and thriving ecosystems and 9 billion capable citizens is an ambitious vision and a powerful driver for the development of economies, businesses and societies. The companies that will build such a future will be rejuvenative enterprises.

Rejuvenative enterprise

A rejuvenative enterprise is one that provides a manifest contribution to the abundance, vitality and productive capacity of natural capital and societies upon which it depends for skills, resources, markets and customers. The goal of rejuvenative enterprise is to play a clear and positive role in building a world of 9 billion capable citizens.

Principles for rejuvenative enterprise

Rejuvenative companies will be able to demonstrate that they:

• Are thermodynamically optimised— their use of energy and materials will be in alignment with the physical characteristics and limits of the planet with a focus upon ‘entropic efficiency.’
• Value abundance rather than scarcity — prioritising technologies and behaviours which deliver either natural (e.g. biologically based) or managed (e.g. through closed-loop stewardship) abundance.
• Enhance natural vitality— valuing technologies and processes that make use of the planet’s natural rejuvenative and productive abilities, learning from and utilising natural production techniques as the basis for their technological and industrial models.
• Balance their interdependence— recognising and balancing the web of social interdependencies they exist within, seeking mutual equity within all relationships.

The path to rejuvenation

Building a sustainable, equitable future requires a clear and consistent pathway of corporate evolution from the leading business practice of today to the rejuvenative enterprises to come.

With a focus upon key areas of business practice, there are three fundamental steps on this evolutionary journey: Transitionary, Sustainable and Rejuvenative enterprises.

Transitionary enterprises

Transitionary enterprises incorporate sustainability best practice in many of their activities based upon business-as-usual approaches, with an ambition for best but not leading sectoral practice.

These companies have a good grasp of incorporating good citizenship in business operations while maximising profit, but work fundamentally within traditional cradle-to-grave models.

They offer a wide range of products that have integrated sustainability characteristics in either sourcing or production. While some products and services have lower than average sustainability impacts, the majority are conventional relative to their competitors.

The company uses mainly conventional energy sources together with some renewables. Carbon-free goals are reached through the use of additional offsetting.

Sustainability and CSR strategy is integrated into core business structure and stakeholders are involved in some processes.

Ecological and social capital relationships are acknowledged but external costs are not accounted for or addressed. Targets for fundamental performance improvement are set, focussing upon direct and indirect impacts.

Sustainable enterprises

Sustainable enterprises look to achieve best-in-class sustainability performance. Sustainability is part of business strategy, with a class leading ambition for net positive impacts.

These companies examine their products and services in-depth and strive to operate their businesses following best sustainability practice. A number of products and services follow cradle-to-cradle production models and several products have class-leading performance in energy and material efficiency. The overall product portfolio is zero-impact-based.

Carbon-free production is achieved through means including integrated onsite renewable energy-generating production facilities.

The corporate ambition is to achieve net-zero impact and efforts are made to achieve ‘best-in-class’ position. Business strategy is largely defined by the sustainability ambition while material sustainability issues are analysed in terms of their impact upon financial, environmental and social risk.

The CEO plays a clear leadership role in sustainability strategy and sustainability is viewed as a source of business opportunities and driver for innovation.

Sustainability communication is highly prioritised within Annual Reports, and standalone Sustainability reports include in-depth, best-practice, third-party assurance.

Rejuvenative enterprises

Rejuvenative organisations align and optimise their activities to long-term sustainability factors such that their ability to grow is not constrained by traditional resource limits. Taking a stewardship approach to all their resources, they make a positive contribution to social and ecological capacity.

A circular, Cradle-to-Cradle approach is used in all aspects of business operations for scarce and potentially dangerous materials where alternatives have not yet been developed.

A positive focus is placed upon the development and maintenance of the stability and capability of customers and potential customers.

Business operations function with minimal energy utilization and go beyond renewable energy with use of bio-energy harvesting. Technology utilises massively distributed industrial production capable of aggregation, hyper low-voltage technology/energy systems and biological production processes.

The planning and execution of commercial activities is required to demonstrate a positive contribution to social and ecological utility, which in turn is supported by staff reward systems. Because it is in the company’s interest to maximise the pool of capable healthy customers, it ensures that none of its activities undermine this goal and that instead they make a positive contribution.

A sustainable future is within our grasp

The vast majority of the behaviours and technologies likely to support a future fit for us and our descendants already exist — should we decide to use them at the scale required.

Business evolves all the time; the coming decades will bring a more seismic change to business as usual than has been seen since the Western Industrial Revolution.

Rejuvenative enterprises are those that understand, respond and capitalise upon the changes our planet faces, for the good of themselves, the planet and its people.

Rejuvenative enterprise promises new life, new hope and new wealth for us all — let’s embrace its challenge. 

On Thursday, adidas announced a long-term partnership with recording artist and producer Pharrell Williams on a new adidas Originals line of shoes and apparel. The first adidas Originals x Pharrell Williams products will debut this summer.

Details of the collaboration are being kept tightly under wraps, but a teaser video released Thursday provides a glimpse:

"Working with an iconic brand like adidas is such an incredible opportunity,” Williams said. “From the classic track suit, to growing up in Virginia wearing Stan Smiths, adidas has been a staple in my life. Their pieces are timeless. This is an exciting partnership for both me and for Bionic Yarn."

This is the first time adidas has partnered with a designer with his own textile company: Williams co-founded Bionic Yarn in 2010 to produce fabric from marine plastic — the collaboration will incorporate Bionic fabric into some of Williams' adidas Originals products.

"I am truly thrilled to work with Pharrell,” said Dirk Schoenberger, Global Creative Director of adidas' Sport Style Division. “He is a pop-culture icon that never fails to inspire, not just through his musical talent and craft, but through his many other interests. He is the perfect fit for the multi-faceted company that is adidas."

While Williams is no stranger to fashion – with collaborations already in the works with G-Star (on a line of denim featuring Bionic Yarn fabric, also set to debut this summer), Uniqlo, Comme des Garçons and Moncler, according to Elle— adidas is no stranger to teaming up with designers from the music world; Williams is the latest in a recent string of collaborations with artists including Kanye West and Nigo.

Last month, adidas released a video detailing its commitment to more sustainable materials and waste minimization in its design and manufacturing processes — adidas by Stella McCartney range, released February 1, includes Low-Waste Tees and Shorts made from 95 percent organic fabric and created through precise cutting techniques to ensure 95 percent of the fabric used makes it into the final products, with the remaining 5 percent recycled or repurposed; the Running apparel line was designed to maintain high-performance objectives while reducing material use as much as possible. Through changing the pattern, the team was able to increase pattern efficiency to 96 percent — meaning 4 percent of the materials, such as inlay soles, textiles, finishings and rubber, were recycled for use in other products, adidas says. The line became available in Fall/Winter 2013. 

"Every man dies. Not every man really lives."— William Wallace, Braveheart

Nobody really wants to think about their own mortality, but the cold truth is that sooner or later, it’s going to happen. Now, your personal beliefs on whether or not you will ascend to Heaven, reincarnate, or simply just be dead don’t really matter; you’re going to leave a body behind when you go. It has now become a custom to either pump dead bodies full of formaldehyde and seal them into a steel and concrete vault or be cremated and have the ashes just sit in an urn.

An increasing number of people are choosing to do more with their bodies after they are gone in an effort to be more eco-friendly, help advance scientific knowledge, or do something awesome that couldn’t be achieved in life. 

Here are some of the coolest science-friendly options available:

If you want to be buried

Decomposable coffin: Burial is pretty much the standard way that most humans have been burying each other for at least 130,000 years. As the body decomposes, it can release nutrients to the soil. Modern caskets and vaults deny this opportunity. For those who would like to carry on the tradition of being laid to rest after death, there are a variety of eco-friendly options. 

While some prefer a plain pine box, there are also attractive biodegradable options made from paper, cardboard and wicker. Some cemeteries have restrictions on the type of vessel and shrouds the deceased can be buried in, so that is something to consider ahead of time.

Mushroom food: In order to expedite your body’s decomposition, you may want to invest in the Infinity Burial Suit. The death suit has mushroom spores embroidered into the fabric. An alternative embalming fluid is used after death, which helps facilitate mushroom growth. Not only does this have the benefits of biodegradable coffins, but it actually takes it a step further by purifying the soil from the toxins already in your body: As the body decomposes, the mushrooms take up the preservatives, mercury, lead and other toxins that have accumulated over a lifetime. Those toxins then become fixed in the mushroom and are not left to pollute the soil. In 2011, the suit’s inventor Jae Rhim Lee gave a TED Talk and explained the suit in detail.

If you want to be cremated

Biodegradable urns: For those who prefer to be cremated but don’t want to end up in some ornate urn on a mantel (before ultimately getting knocked over and vacuumed up at some point), the ashes can be buried. While there are many options for biodegradable urns for water or ground burials, some places have restrictions on where ashes can be spread.

Urna Bios has become the premier company for turning ashes into memorial trees or plants. The urns are made from coconut shell and contain compacted peat and cellulose. The ashes are mixed with this, and a seed is placed inside.When buried, the tree seed is nourished by and absorbs the nutrients from the ashes. You can even choose which type of tree you'd like to grow!

The urns do not have an expiration date, so they can be purchased well ahead of time and saved for when they are needed. Any type of seed is compatible to be planted, so you can choose a tree seed native to the area to ensure its best growth.

Save the oceans: Due to many factors including pollution and climate change, the world’s oceans are losing coral reefs at an alarming rate. Considering reefs are incredible sources of marine biodiversity, this is fairly problematic. Those who were an advocate for sea conservation in life can physically help rebuild reefs in death.

Eternal Reefs combines a person’s ashes with concrete and is molded into a shape that mimics the natural growth pattern of a reef. Additional concrete is added and family members can add handprints, write messages, or embed keepsakes such as a plaque or military medals. Family members can be involved with as much or as little of the process as they would like, from the initial casting to placing it in the water.

Diamonds are forever: Using only eight ounces of ash remains, LifeGem will use you or your loved one as the carbon source for a lab-created diamond, which can then be integrated into jewelry. This also works with those who are to be buried, as locks of hair can also be used to source the carbon (which is extremely cool, since it means you can also do this when you are alive). Stones can range from 0.20 carats to over 1.50. 

To create the diamond, the sample is subjected to extreme heat, which converts all of the carbon into graphite. The graphite is then placed into an individually numbered crucible that is heated to 3000 degrees Celsius. Next, it is subjected to extreme heat and pressure that is about 1,000,000 p.s.i. in order to press it into its rough shape. After the diamond is done, the facets are cut into the gem, which is then  nspected, graded, and identified.

We are all stardust: All of the elements in our bodies were originally forged in stars, so why not go back and pay them a visit after you’re dead? It is now possible to have ashes launched into space where they will drift forever among the cosmos. If such a permanent and distant farewell isn’t desired, it is possible to send the ashes up and have them return to Earth.

James Doohan, the actor who portrayed Scotty in the original "Star Trek" series, had his ashes scattered into space in 2012. Some of the remains of Clyde W. Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto, were sent on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft and are destined to encounter the dwarf planet in addition to other Kuiper Belt objects.

Pushing up daisies: For those looking to supply nutrients to the soil but don’t want to be cremated, Sweden-based Promessa Organic uses liquid nitrogen, which does not have any known environmental concerns, to convert the human remains into fertilizer. 

The body is frozen to -18 degrees Celsius and then dipped into the liquid nitrogen. Once the remains are solid and very brittle, sound waves are used to shatter the body and create a fine powder. Any metal pieces such as shrapnel, surgical pins, or dental fillings are removed and will not be in the final product. The powder is put into a vessel that is made out of cornstarch where it can be buried just below the surface of the soil and will become part of the grass, bush, or tree that it is planted near.

Other alternatives

Burial for the birds:Sky burials are performed by some Buddhists living in Tibet and Mongolia. The soil in the region is too hard to dig a grave, and the resources required to make a wooden casket just aren’t worth it, as most of Tibet does not have trees.

While there can be elaborate spiritual rituals involved with how the body is prepared, some people are just as happy to place the body on a rock where it will decompose or be consumed by vultures. When only the bones remain, they are hammered into a powder and mixed together with tsampa (roasted barley flour) and butter. This mixture is now given to the crows and hawks who had to wait while the vultures consumed the meat.

This post first appeared on the IFLS blog on March 24, 2014.

To learn more about innovative ways companies worldwide are turning waste into resources, check out the #WasteNot editorial channel.

For more examples of #startups increasing social and environmental sustainability through disruptive innovation, check out the editorial channel.

On Thursday, Swiss specialty chemicals giant Clariant announced it is the newest member of “Together for Sustainability” (TfS), a chemical industry initiative founded in 2011 aimed at improving sustainability practices within its supply chains.

Clariant joins AkzoNobel, BASF, Bayer, Evonik Industries, Henkel, Lanxess and Solvay in jointly operating global supplier assessments and third-party audits, by sharing scorecard ratings within the TfS member group on a web-based collaborative platform, eliminating the need for each company to conduct its own. Assessing sustainability requirements through the program, TfS aims to lower risks in the procurement process while reducing the burden for suppliers by allowing them to participate in one comprehensive program.

Mathias Lütgendorf, member of Clariant’s Executive Committee, underlined: “Corporate Sustainability is a core element of our corporate strategy. With the TfS membership, we enhance our procurement and supply chain activities into our corporate sustainability strategy.”

“Joining the TfS initiative, Clariant confirms the commitment to sustainability in procurement and to further improve quality standards in our industry supply chain,” added Norbert Merklein, Clariant’s Head of Group Procurement Services. “With TfS, we provide a platform to enhance our supplier selection process, and to guarantee supply and supplier risk management.”

Industry-wide collaboration is happily becoming more common, as global players pool their influence to effect improvements in their supply chains. In December, Coke, Danone, Ford, Heinz, Nestlé, Nike, P&G, Unilever and WWF launched the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance, to support the responsible development of plastics made from plant material and promote a more sustainable future for the bioplastics industry; in January, I:CO and its retail partners H&M, The North Face, American Eagle Outfitters and Levi Strauss & Co., along with the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Goodwill Industries, launched its first-ever I:CO City initiative with the City of San Francisco, creating a public, private and non-profit infrastructure to encourage and enable residents and businesses to recycle textile-related items; and just this week, the European Automotive Working Group on Supply Chain Sustainability, comprised of 14 global automakers, announced a landmark agreement on a set of supplier criteria on issues including human rights, environment, working conditions and business ethics.

For more examples of advancements in #GreenChemistry, check out our editorial channel.

While people, organizations and superheroes around the world are preparing to take part in Earth Hour— an hour of darkness to raise awareness of climate change — tomorrow at 8:30pm local time, Durex condoms is taking the opportunity to encourage people to “reconnect” with each other whilst the lights are out.

As much as technology can help to bring people together, increasingly it seems to be keeping us apart — with people spending more time interacting with their devices than each other (the basis for Coke's clever "Social Media Guard" campaign), Durex is asking if gadgets and gizmos could be behind the fact that people are having 20 percent less sex than in 2000*. 

"Earth Hour is a great, yet rare excuse for couples to give each other their undivided attention," said Aurore Trepo, marketing director at Durex USA. "And with recent survey research revealing our smartphones get more attention than our partners, we want to encourage all of America to turn off and get turned on for March 29."

The company points out that 20 percent of US 18- to 34-year-olds have admitted to having used a smartphone during sex (Harris Interactive) and Twitter users on average have shorter relationships than non-users (OK Cupid). And a recent poll for Durex (OnePoll) on the UK's sex life revealed shocking statistics: 12 percent of people have answered a phone during sex, one in ten had read a text and over 5 percent of respondents had even checked Facebook while making love. 

“Durex believes nothing should get in the way of great sex,” the company said in a statement. “So let's log off and switch off. Escape the screen to embrace the dark. This Earth Hour, let's take the opportunity to reconnect while the lights are off.”

As a call to action, Durex has released a short film that follows the stories of several couples who, like many, have become distracted by the lure of a screen.

Ukonwa Ojo, who leads Global Brand Equity Marketing for Durex says: "Earth Hour provides the perfect opportunity for couples to switch off for an hour and focus exclusively on reconnecting with each other. What else is as much fun to do in the dark that is as energy-efficient as it is energetic?!"

While Durex is cleverly using a good cause to encourage human "connection," the Center for Biological Diversity recently used romance to raise awareness for a good cause: The nonprofit took full advantage of the love in the air on Valentine’s Day by disseminating 4,000 free Endangered Species Condoms to eight of the most romantic getaway cities in North America. From Bar Harbor, Maine, to Santa Fe, N.M., the condoms were given away by volunteers to playfully raise awareness about how runaway human population growth is affecting endangered species around the globe.

*Source: The Lancet – UK adults between 2000 and 2010

For more examples of how brands are driving #BehaviorChange, check out our editorial channel.

For more examples of how organizations are using #Communications to share their values with consumers, check out our editorial channel.

For too long, sustainability executives have been focused on external stakeholders — selling their company’s story in order to build reputation and fill polished social responsibility reports.

Now, according to a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article by George Mason University’s Gregory Unruh, sustainability managers have had enough. They’re turning their gaze inward, to the functional managers and line employees who control the management tools — budget, staffing, incentives, etc. — to make change happen.

“Insurgents accomplish their goals by identifying like-minded allies in key functional positions and persuading them that it is in their own interest to take action by demonstrating the value in sustainability,” says Unruh.

The key ingredient is “social intelligence.” Social intelligence involves the embedding of social and environmental responsibility into every level of decision-making. And it can be a valuable corporate asset. For example, “knowledge of the Millennial Generation’s greater expectations about social responsibility can be key in attracting, motivating and retaining the next generation of employees. Understanding activist and shareholder demands for transparency in political contributions can avoid damaging revelations about your company’s lobbying policies.”

But the most important practice of social intelligence is when it is used for everyday business decision-making. Insurgent sustainability managers recognize this, and focus their efforts on making sure that line managers know the personal and business value of applying social intelligence to decision processes. “Implementation often follows quickly after the value is understood,” says Unruh.

The Israeli bank Hapoalim, for example, had generally followed the industry norms by encouraging customers to buy the highest value home possible, in order to maximize the size of the mortgage loan. However, when employees and managers incorporated into their thinking the effect of defaults and bankruptcy on the community, should market conditions shift, they changed their approach. Instead of emphasizing jumbo loans, Bank Hapoalim worked to educate its customers with financial advice, to help them choose the financial product that worked best for their situation. “The end result was financially savvy and loyal customers that offered Hapoalim more and better business on an ongoing basis.”

“Hapoalim’s insight came through relating with the community and paying attention to the impacts of the company’s decisions on customers and society,” says Unruh. “In essence, they leveraged the social intelligence of their managers to improve company performance. This application of social intelligence is the goal of insurgent sustainability directors.”

Up until now, most managers have used “commercial intelligence” in business decision-making, but they’ve left behind their social intelligence when they pass through the office doorway. The new emphasis for the insurgent sustainability director is to help functional units and their leaders understand the value of incorporating sustainability and social considerations into the initiatives they take and the processes they create. This fundamental rethink of the role of sustainability executives will fuel the insurgency that Unruh predicts.

This post first appeared in the MIT SMR blog on March 22, 2014.

“More than 24,000 children die every day from preventable causes. One in eight of those deaths could be prevented with soap and clean water. You buy. Together, we give. It starts today.” — From SoapBox Soaps' crowdfunding video.

Founded in 2010 by David Simnick and Daniel Doll, SoapBox Soaps was created around a simple idea, “Soap Equals Hope,” and a powerful business model dictating that for every purchase made, SoapBox Soaps will donate a bar of soap, a year of vitamins (with partner, Vitamin Angels) or a month’s supply of clean water (with partner RainCatcher) to a child in need. A model mirrored by other mission-driven enterprises including TOMS, Plum Organics and Bombas Socks and that, so far, has generated donations from Soapbox in over 120 countries around the world, including the United States.

“Each product in our three lines — bar soap, body wash and hand soap — has a social mission at its core. We specifically tailor partnerships between the social mission and the NGO partners to align with the product quality standards we go out to market with,” said David Simnick, after his company’s recent win of the NEXT Accelerator Pitch-Slam event at this year’s Natural Products Expo West.

Co-founder Daniel pointed out that first-time SoapBox soap buyers are first compelled to buy in support of the company’s social mission. But they come back for repeat purchases because they find that SoapBox Soaps are of higher quality and more aesthetically pleasing than any products they were using before. Clearly, scalability of this mission is fueled by the irresistibility of the product that funds it.

Whenever possible, SoapBox Soaps works with soap makers in the same developing countries where they donate soap, thus building a system of empowerment, rather than one that creates the need for perpetual aid. In many cases, a portion of that locally made soap is sold on the open market at an affordable price to support the soap-making operation. Another portion is then often donated to nonprofit and faith-based organizations that give soap to refugees, orphanages and individuals in need.

These organizations have the local relationships that help them be extremely effective in finding and helping the underserved. The partnership with SoapBox Soaps also enhances programs these NGOs already have in place for educating families and school-aged children about the importance of hand-washing for preventing disease and early death.

SoapBox Soaps is working hard to make sure that all people, both here at home and around the world, have proper access to hygiene to ensure they enjoy longer, healthier lives, and reminds you to thank yourselves for the important part you play in making this incredible dream come true.

Find Soapbox Soaps on the COMMON Marketplace.

For more examples of #startups driving positive social and environmental change through disruptive innovation, check out our editorial channel.

Unilever, Philips, 3M and several other members of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) have signed a letter sent to the European Commission calling for a new set of competitiveness objectives to exploit all possible cost-effective energy-efficiency opportunities by 2030.

In the letter, Monica Frassoni, President of EU-ASE, writes that the energy-efficiency goals set in the Commission’s recent White Paper are disappointing, and there is a growing number of countries that support taking stronger action. For instance, the French and German governments recently called on the European Commission to develop proposals for binding energy-efficiency targets and measures, and to make available new financing instruments to support energy efficiency.

At the forthcoming European Council, a major point of discussion will be how to improve European competiveness and the Commission’s proposals for a 2030 energy and climate change package. However, Frassoni says, the debate should not be framed as if there is a choice between competitiveness and taking action on climate change. The business community represented by the EU-ASE believes that, by improving energy efficiency, Europe can improve its competiveness, shore up energy security and achieve climate-change objectives.

According to Frassoni, Europe could save €1-2 trillion ($1.37-$2.74 trillion USD) from 2020-2030 by taking advantage of existing cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities. In a time of austerity, this could be a major source of savings that also could generate jobs across the continent, reduce energy import costs and increase manufacturing investment in the EU.

Taking action on energy efficiency also would reduce European dependence on imported energy, Frassoni writes. Cost-effective efficiency opportunities currently are under-exploited by companies and consumers because of entrenched market, government, regulatory and financial failures.

“These barriers will only be removed through a concerted effort to drive economic and market reforms at Member State and European level,” the letter claims. “Strong goals and measures at European level will be crucial in helping deliver these reforms.”

The letter emphasizes three conclusions that the European Council should support:

• Energy efficiency is fundamental to European competitiveness and must be the foundation of future energy and climate policy.
• Europe cannot afford to leave cost-effective energy-efficiency opportunities unexploited.
• The European Commission must develop new proposals for binding energy-efficiency goals and measures by October 2014.

“We are strong supporters of ambitious, binding legislation for 2030 and believe that this can only be positive for the economic, social and environmental good of European businesses and citizens,” the letter concludes. “We urge you to consider our point of view and to provide a level playing field for all the business groups involved in this debate.”

Here in the US, energy-efficiency programs are helping industry achieve higher energy savings, cost savings and productivity improvements, according to a recent report by the SEE Action Network and the Institute for Industrial Productivity (IIP). The report, which investigates successful and well-designed industrial energy-efficiency (IEE) programs in the United States, provides a strong case for industry participation in statewide programs.

Last year, Ceres and its Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) released a report that said energy efficiency could be a multi-hundred-billion dollar investment opportunity in the United States, but better policies are required to unlock broad-based financing from institutional investors.

Climate change and unsustainable development increasingly are threatening some of the world's most popular and appealing travel destinations. In response, Royal Caribbean Cruises and several other organizations have partnered to address these challenges by helping tourism destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America "to safeguard their natural and cultural assets, while enhancing communities and securing a vibrant regional economy."

The new Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas (SDAA), launched last week at an event in Barbados, marks the largest-scale effort to date through which public and private entities have united to focus on destination sustainability in the Americas. The Alliance includes the Organization of American States Caribbean Tourism Organization, global NGO Sustainable Travel International, Royal Caribbean Cruises, and the US government, through the United States Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States.

The SDAA will offer seven destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America significant support with their sustainability efforts. Each participating destination will begin with an evaluation of destination-management practices designed to recognize areas of strength, and to identify areas in which they have the greatest opportunity to improve.

Destinations also will have access to an online sustainable tourism course called Sustainable Tourism Professionals, designed to facilitate implementation of sustainability practices, and a destination sustainability monitoring framework called SMART, which will support the tracking of key performance metrics. Results and lessons learned will be disseminated regionally to leverage market advantage, and to foster greater understanding among destination decision-makers.

Sustainable Travel International, the Alliance's non-profit implementation partner, will conduct assessments in each destination using its Rapid Destination Diagnostic tool, which provides a snapshot of the destination's sustainability status, a summary of destination-management priorities, and valuable input to inform and shape destination-level policies.

The aim is for these seven destinations to follow the successful implementation of similar pilot programs in Cozumel, Mexico and Roatán, Honduras.

"It's critical that companies look at ways they can have a positive impact in the places where they do business," said Rich Pruitt, VP of Safety and Environmental Stewardship at Royal Caribbean Cruises. "We want to see the uniquely beautiful destinations of the Caribbean and Latin American region thrive, and are committed to collaborating with the organizations that can work to move these destinations toward greater sustainability."

In-depth work in the first seven destinations is being financed through resources provided by the United States Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States and by Royal Caribbean Cruises through its Ocean Fund. Four destinations will be funded by the US Mission, and three will receive funding from Royal Caribbean.

SDAA hopes to expand to include more than 30 destinations in the next few years, which would make it the largest initiative of its kind in the world.

Royal Caribbean Cruises also announced its Destinations for Tomorrow toolkit— an online resource for destinations that wish to complete sustainability self-assessments, learn how to prioritize sustainability practices, and become part of a community of organizations and destinations with similar goals.

In August, the Honduran island of Roatán became the first tourism destination to complete a comprehensive 360-degree assessment and action plan for destination-level sustainability. The diagnostic process evaluated Roatán’s performance on five key pillars of sustainability, which include sustainable tourism planning and governance, economic linkages, preservation of cultural heritage, social and community issues, and environmental protection. Elsewhere in the Caribbean, Aruba has established a goal to become fully energy-independent by 2020 through several clean-energy investments and initiatives.

Global natural capital consulting firm Trucost has released the results of a study comparing the environmental value of monoculture and agroforestry for producing palm oil and soybeans.

Based on pilot studies carried out by Brazilian cosmetics company Natura and agricultural biotech giant Monsanto — which found that the environmental and economic value of agroforestry was higher than that of monoculture — the report recommends that companies should understand and incorporate the economic value of biodiversity, ecosystems services and their environmental impacts into their decision-making processes, in order to pursue more sustainable ways of doing business and to design polices to achieve sustainable development.

The study is part of Conservation International's TEEB for Business Brazil project, a multi-year study of ecosystems, sponsored by Vale, Monsanto, Natura and Santander, and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP–WCMC) and the National Confederation of Industry Brazil (CNI).

Luciana Villa Nova, sustainability manager at Natura said: "We believe that a detailed consideration of the dependence on ecosystem services is fundamental to the business sector and society as a whole. We see TEEB as an opportunity to foster discussion about a new economy that is greener, more inclusive and more accountable."

The balance between the costs of environmental impacts and benefits of the different agricultural practices were measured in monetary terms:

• In Natura's pilot, the total environmental value of agrofrestry (R$410,853), where palm oil cultivation was integrated with trees and crops such as banana and cacao, was three times as high as that of palm oil monoculture (R$122,253 per hectare). The study also showed that agrofrestry contributed to a diversification of farmer income and minimized the risks of pests and diseases in cultivation.
• Results were similar in the case of Monsanto's soybean cultivation: The environmental value associated with one hectare of soybean production (R$1,031 per hectare) was 11 percent higher than one hectare covered with a mix of 80 percent soybean and 20 percent indigenous Cerrado forest (R$1,139 per hectare).

"By exposing the monetary value of nature, previously treated as invisible in issues of natural resource conservation, TEEB demonstrates that the preservation and sustainable use of natural capital are essential actions for achieving sustainable economic development and ensuring the social welfare of current and future generations," said Helen Pavese, project coordinator of the TEEB for Business Brazil project.

The relevance of natural capital to business is increasingly being pushed to the forefront as the linkages are better understood.

“Factoring natural capital into business decision-making not only helps companies to make the right decisions when optimizing production, it also builds resilience into business models by identifying risks and opportunities not visible in traditional business accounting," said Neil McIndoe, Head of Environmental Finance at Trucost.

The full report is available here.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report today that says the effects of climate change are already occurring on all continents and across the oceans and the world, in many cases, is ill-prepared for risks from a changing climate. The report also asserts that there are opportunities to respond to such risks, though the risks will be difficult to manage as warming continues to increase.

“Understanding that climate change is a challenge in managing risk opens a wide range of opportunities for integrating adaptation with economic and social development and with initiatives to limit future warming,” said Chris Field, co-chair of Working Group II. “We definitely face challenges, but understanding those challenges and tackling them creatively can make climate-change adaptation an important way to help build a more vibrant world in the near-term and beyond.”

The report, titled Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, from Working Group II of the IPCC, details the impacts of climate change to date, the future risks, and the opportunities for effective action to reduce risks. The report was produced by 309 coordinating lead authors, lead authors and review editors from 70 countries, with the help of 436 contributing authors, and a total of 1,729 expert and government reviewers.

IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said: “The Working Group II report is another important step forward in our understanding of how to reduce and manage the risks of climate change. Along with the reports from Working Group I and Working Group III, it provides a conceptual map of not only the essential features of the climate challenge but the options for solutions.”

The Working Group I report was released in September 2013, and the Working Group III report will be released in April 2014. The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report cycle concludes with the publication of its Synthesis Report in October 2014.

Observed impacts of climate change have already affected agriculture, human health, ecosystems on land and in the oceans, water supplies, and some people’s livelihoods in communities worldwide, regardless of location, climate or socioeconomic status. Organizations are beginning to take steps to address climate-related risks, but mostly on a reactive, rather than a proactive, basis, according to Field.

“Climate-change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has never been tried. Governments, firms and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation,” Field said. “This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as climate and society continue to change.”

The report identifies vulnerable people, industries and ecosystems around the world; finds that climate-related risks come from vulnerability (lack of preparedness) and exposure (people or assets in harm’s way) overlapping with hazards (triggering climate events or trends); and argues that each component provides the basis for smart actions to decrease risk.

“We live in an era of man-made climate change,” said Vicente Barros, co-chair of Working Group II. “In many cases, we are not prepared for the climate-related risks that we already face. Investments in better preparation can pay dividends both for the present and for the future.”

“The IPCC’s reports are some of the most ambitious scientific undertakings in human history, and I am humbled by and grateful for the contributions of everyone who make them possible," Pachauri said.

We all know that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an essential piece of the puzzle for any successful organization, no matter its size. We also know that many companies go to great lengths to do meaningful charitable work that actually makes a difference. But are these efforts really impacting the public’s perception of those brands?

While CSR sites are designed to engender trust in consumers, turns out they were 17 percent less trusted than the most trusted vertical we’ve studied. Just last month, our research and strategy firm Change Sciences compared the CSR websites of 12 top companies — AT&T, Bank of America, Chevron, The Coca-Cola Company, ExxonMobil, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Company (GM), JPMorgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and Verizon Communications — by analyzing what people did while exploring their sites and how they felt about the experience.

Study Methodology

Our research captured user experience metrics for usability, engagement and conversion, combining objective metrics (what people did) with subjective metrics (what people said) in each category. The study included a total of 305 general population participants, representing of a mix of age groups, gender, income levels, and tech profiles. Each respondent was randomly assigned to one site and spent about 10 minutes performing tasks and exploring the site. Immediately following the tasks, participants then completed a survey about their experience.

What we found is that despite the time, effort and large budgets that corporations put toward becoming more sustainable and better global citizens, the way they presented this information on their websites did little to change people’s opinions of the brand, for better or worse.

AT&T was the best-performing site overall, scoring 10 percent better than the average site, but some sites struggled more than others to foster trust — Coca-Cola's site was rated the least trusted site of the group, four times greater than the average for the set. Conversely, Proctor & Gamble was the most trusted site of the group, with a 15 percent higher trust rating than the average site in the set.

Overall, the sites studied didn't do a great job of showing transparency around their charitable and sustainability efforts. According to one user, “There was not as much detail as I would have liked. It seems like it is attempting to be transparent, but I could not find a lot of details in the actual text.”

What Companies Can Do to Improve Trust

While website user experience may not directly affect adoption of a product or service, it can be a way to connect positively with consumers. Based on the data collected in our study, here are three key areas of focus to improve consumer trust:

1. Usability: Minimize the corporate feel with plain language and direct navigation.
   • Avoid corporate speak. People are turned off by boiler-plate content or “corporate-speak.” Eliminate jargon and stock photos — good stuff without any bad feels too fake and corporate.
   • Making initiatives easy to find. Make it easy to get right to specific details on your company’s charitable works and sustainability initiatives.
   • Use plain language, especially in the navigation. Use common terms and issues people care about in navigation, so they don’t feel like they are navigating a corporate maze to get to the information.
2. Engagement: It’s more about what you do, less about who you are.
   • De-emphasize management. People don’t care about the company management (there are some exceptions to this, but not for the most part). Hence, don’t emphasize content on the executives, such as a video interview with the CEO.
   • Focus on initiatives people care about. Tell stories: Emphasize content that highlights initiatives such as education, helping veterans, climate change, health/safety initiatives, etc.
   • Show rather than tell. Use infographics, simple visuals, brief articles, bullet points, short videos, and interactive quizzes to show rather than talk about the impacts your company is making.
3. Conversion: Admit failings and speak openly about challenges.
   • Show progress made toward goals. Highlight concrete examples, actual projects funded and simple data points illustrating progress toward a goal.
   • Provide some transparency. AT&T, ranked first for trust and overall in the study, provides a transparency report on how it reports data to government security organizations.
   • Acknowledge past problems or upcoming challenges. Past PR challenges can be acknowledged and providing transparency on meeting those challenges helps engender trust. For instance, Chevron acknowledges the challenge of developing alternative fuels. It’s a tough balance, but it’s possible.

   In the end, the top-performing sites in our study made their CSR initiatives easy to find, avoided corporate-speak, and provided transparent progress towards initiative goals. On the other hand, the lowest-performing CSR sites over-emphasized corporate leadership, made it difficult to get to initiatives, and did not provide a clear indication of progress made towards initiative goals. To bridge the gap between the great charitable work that’s being done and how people feel about it, the research shows that transparency and simplicity are what make the difference.

    

In an ideal COMMON day, every little thing you do effortlessly contributes to the health and well-being of the planet and all the creatures on it. Skeptical?

Consider, then, the story of Sanjay Rajan and Tricia O’Keefe, their company SLOWCOLOR, a few beautiful scarves and a big but attainable vision.

We start with this well-known satellite image of the Pearl river in China, literally dyed an unnatural, chemical blue by some of the 15,000 denim factories in “Cowboy City,” Xintang, China, dumping fabric dye into the waterways, creating a toxic stew of environmental damage and serious health concerns.

Then consider the high incidence of pollution and poisoning around the world caused by chemicals sprayed on cotton plants at the front end of the fabric supply chain. Add to these already huge issues the steady demise of home-based handlooming (and a shocking rise in suicide rates among home weavers) due to the rise of megafactory manufacturing, and you have a confrontation that stopped Rajan dead in his tracks.

It’s a story of pollution, depression and inequality. About the loss of a handcrafted tradition and centuries of art and artisanship, literally going down the river. And of a company dedicated to righting some of these wrongs.

“This is my hometown, my home state,” Rajan says about Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, “and you have all these home-based handlooming artisans literally no longer being able to make a living. You had a steep rise in suicides, which of course is a huge tragedy in human terms, and you also have this massive loss of tradition and artisanship, a tragedy from a cultural perspective. For no good reason.”

So in 2010, he and O’Keefe started rethinking the fashion supply chain. They envisioned a hub-and-spoke approach to a natural dyeing and handlooming process that would:

1. supply fair living wages to millions,
2. remove tons of toxins from the environment and
3. deliver beautiful fashion supporting time-honored traditions of home-based artisanship.

In India alone, there are an estimated 4.3 to 5.6 million home-based handloomers.

“Now imagine,” O’Keefe says, “that those millions of home businesses could be networked together into the world’s largest virtual fair-trade non-factory factory with the scale to produce natural and naturally dyed fabrics for an entire industry.

“In one collaborative move you get economies of scale, reduction of chemical pollution along with its associated health risks and the preservation of a cultural tradition,” she continues.

In such a system, home-based (often living-room-based) looms such as this become the spokes of the system, and the hub is the natural-dyeing facility Rajan and O’Keefe plan to build in Hyderabad. This centralized dyeing facility will allow all-natural mineral- and plant-based dyeing of yarn at a scale not possible in individual homes, with the subsequent distribution of this now environmentally clean yarn to the home weavers. They have kickstarted this vision with their linen Origins scarves and wraps but see this virtualized hub-and-spoke supply-chain model scaling to provide naturally sourced and dyed fabrics to a global fashion industry.

Already a recognized thought leader in this movement, SLOWCOLOR has been invited into the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise — a collaboration between the US Department of State and the Aspen Institute — where Rajan sits on the Steering Committee along with representatives from Walmart, West Elm and others. SLOWCOLOR is an Ethical Fashion Forum Fellow, a Green America–approved business and a certified B Corp. All of which says to us that the SLOWCOLOR dream is well on its way to becoming reality.

So we say: “Thanks, Tricia and Sanjay, for taking care of the planet and all the creatures on it.” Heroes, both of you.

Find SLOWCOLOR scarves and wraps on the COMMON Marketplace.

When Patagonia launched its Responsible Economy campaign last fall, VP of Environmental Initiatives Rick Ridgeway eloquently summed up the ‘elephant in the room’ of capitalism: Growth is not sustainable. Ridgeway accepts that evolving from our current economic system will be especially challenging for larger companies with insatiable IPOs, but I’d like to share some ways it not only can be done but is being done.

1. CSR

Corporate social responsibility has been a fantastic gateway for newcomers to sustainable business values, allowing a brand to better understand its impacts and act as a baseline to refer back to over time.

How?

The good news for anyone looking to pitch CSR to their company is that there’s a clear ROI angle to be played. Reputation Institute’s 2013 Global CSR RepTrak® 100 study found that 73 percent of global consumers surveyed are willing to recommend companies that are perceived to be delivering on their social responsibility programs.

Inspire your team with what Microsoft, Disney, BMW and Google have been doing, and here are some other customer research report findings to pull from.

2. Certification

If you have dabbled in CSR and have implemented some positive changes, seen positive feedback internally then the next natural step is to reach the industry standards and get some credit. In return you earn a badge of honor and a partner who can help you stay on track. We recently saw IKEA have their standard revoked and quickly reinstated by the Rainforest Alliance as an awkwardly public example of this type of relationship. As with any relationship worth having, there will be ups and downs but you will ultimately make each other stronger.

How?

See what standards/labels/awards your competitors have and reach out to their certifiers. Find out what it would take to reach or surpass them. Take advantage of alliances/groups/initiatives in your industry to find out what is working well; if they don’t exist yet, you can work together to build your own — take this very recent example from the auto industry. 

3. Start a spin-off

Some companies have found transforming their brand completely is too big a risk or unfeasible due to shareholder commitments and C-suite concerns. Creating a separate entity to lower the risk on brand perception and/or balance sheets can be a way forward.

BMW i is a fantastically ambitious case where the parent company invested $2 Billion into a sub brand to reimagine their cars and embed sustainable values into every aspect. This was in-part made possible by BMW remaining a private company and therefore more agile when green-lighting company shifts.

Ronald Schaich, CEO of Panera Bread, didn’t have this advantage and knew his board would be skeptical of his vision of “Pay what you can” restaurants so created a nonprofit spin-off from the Panera brand.

Both of these models create more exciting stories to tell customers and allows your teams to apply themselves creatively on product/service integrity. There is risk involved but that can be mitigated by attaching it to the spin-off brand or nonprofit entity. Meanwhile the payoff could completely transform your brand’s direction.

How?

Listen to Dreher describe the company's process at SB '13 or watch Shaich’s SB '11 talk.

4. Knead, fold and bake sustainability into your brand

Clarke had the leading share of the pest control market and could have comfortably continued scaling under the same business model but their CEO, John Lyell Clarke decided they could and should do better. He engaged his employees and board for their insights on the vision and execution, earned their trust and recreated their brand. He succeeded and has seen their market segment expand even further in the process while creating a happier workforce with a lower turnover rate.

Social enterprise is typically associated with startups, but these will be the brands of tomorrow. They have found a way to entwine profit with purpose so their success means success for others. TOMS Shoes, probably the best-known proponent of the "buy one give one" model, recently launched its Roasting Company, proceeds from which will help provide clean water to developing communities around the world. Models such as this that tie economic gain to social gain are worth percolating through your own brand. Another example would be ecofiltro, which is creating microeconomies in developing countries through local manufacture of its water filters.

How?

Gain insights by watching SB Talks with Lyell Clarke and former Seventh Generation president Jeffrey Hollender.

5. Collaborate rather than decimate

Business and economics in the Western world is almost always framed as a combative competition. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is touted as a revered set of business guidelines, we revel in competitor failures, and secrecy during internal innovation is of the utmost importance. Competitive goals can be shifted in a positive direction but a step beyond that is to become a pacifist and start working for mutual benefit. In 2012 USPS, the world’s largest postal service, and UPS, the worlds largest delivery company formed the Blue and Brown Sustainability Initiative. By sharing transportation to cut fuel costs both made significant financial savings, reduced their environmental impact and turned a supposed enemy into an ally.

Before you write me off as a hippie, let it be known this collaborative approach is working its way into macro-economics. Earlier this year Islamic Banking made its way into the Western financial markets when UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced an Islamic bond would be issued in the UK. Islamic banking integrates morals into investment decisions and collaboration in the execution. Instead of buying a loan from the bank, the bank buys equity in your investment and you share the spoils, you pay no interest on the loan and gain a useful partner. Islam comes into it as the banks will only invest in tangible assets in line with their religious values such as benefiting society and the environment. The relationship is a partnership for good based on mutual respect and co-success. Could your brand be working with someone rather than against?

How?

Future500’s Bill Shireman specialises in mediating between rivals. Watch his 2013 talk on how to bridge divides; see Unilever's Gail Klintworth discuss Leading for the And; hear Terracycle CEO Tom Szaky describe how his company is successfully partnering with brands to turn their trash into treasure. 

6. Profit collectively

Post Growth Institute's Donnie Maclurcan spoke at our New Metrics conference last year about the emerging Not-For-Profit Economy. There is the common misconception that not-for-profit means no profit when really it just means smarter investment. There are already strategic advantages to being a not-for-profit such as lower taxes and employee turnover, but as society’s thirst for purpose with profit continues to rise these brands will acquire a larger market share as well.

In the wealthy economies, thanks to abundance of choice, the longing to be more connected to our purchases is steadily being revealed and not-for-profit service/product providers have the edge. This is most evident in the food industry where Organic, Free Range, Fairtrade, Locally Sourced, GMO Free, Zero Trans-Fat have all been added to the public vernacular and shaken up the industry. The auto industry is shifting to hybrid or electric mobility; white goods are competing based on efficiency; reclaimed material demand is increasing and this interconnected, social world we now live in has made raising awareness much easier and greenwash much riskier.

We’re seeing plenty of large companies partnering with NGOs and charities so a natural next evolutionary step is that they converge. Those who know how to make money responsibly merged with those who know how to put money to good use would be a potent concoction.

How?

Listen to Maclurcan’s SB talk on the emerging Not-For-Profit Economy to understand the benefits of being a not-for-profit brand. Get some great data supporting the customer trends from Chip Walker’s SB talk about the rise of “mindful purchases.”

7. Change the game

Pepsi and Coke, McDonald's and Burger King, Nike and adidas are well-known brand rivalries. The punches thrown are typically market share, resources amassed and share price but more recently a new battle ground has been emerging — the Good Market. My favorite example of this is Nike releasing their Better World initiative and adidas revealing their Better Place initiative at roughly the same time in 2011/2012. Both were trying to claim the crown of the most consciously positive brand in their industry. These are both companies with vast reach and influence competing to be recognized as the better for people and planet instead of on product performance. This race-to-the-high-ground trend has incredible potential by refocusing talent on doing more good in the world rather than trying to out-squeeze their profit margins or out-shout each other.

Imagine a marketing plan that involved replanting the most rainforest, completely wiping out a disease or building vast community gardens. It could reconnect brands with people with authentic engagement that actually improve lives. Make positive impact a regular consequence of your work and you transform your competitive landscape into a healthy place to be. Cause Marketing has been around for a long time but if you make doing good part of your brand proposition then it can become just good ol’ pure Marketing.

How?

Hear Chipotle's Christopher Arnold describe bringing ethical farming into the fast food industry and Nike's Dave Cobban describe Nike’s Better World vision in their SB '12 talks.

8. Flip Icarus the Bird

It’s easy to divide opinion on how or if to regulate the “free market” but I’d argue with the premise. I’m free to eat as much chocolate as I want right now; I eat as much as I want and I self-regulate how much should be in each portion (admittedly some weeks better than others). There’s not a condition that each time I eat a portion it needs to be larger than the previous — I’d be dead in a month! Public corporations in the US are bound by law and culture to increase gains for their shareholders. To me, this isn’t freedom — it is voluntary enslavement. Going public can open many doors for ambitious companies but it’s ultimately chocolate suicide. You can’t rise forever without losing product/service integrity or ethical integrity or both — you will sugar crash eventually.

Patagonia’s aforementioned Responsible Economy campaign aims to, in the company’s words, “...confront the ‘elephant in the room’ — growth-dependent capitalism.” Patagonia first raised eyebrows with its “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ads and has even mapped out where its thinks its peak profitability should be in the future. What will its staff KPIs be then? A fascinating prospect. Such bold ambitions are only possible because Patagonia understands its core brand values extremely well and is not afraid to continue to look inward to better itself. Create a brand with a pure heart and it will become much easier for sustainable values to proliferate through your business practices.

How?

Show us.

I see the first seven steps as stepping stones for business to slow and curb runaway capitalism so it can bend into becoming a sustainable economy. An economy in which people, planet and profit form a mutually respectful, consciously interdependent relationship that can lead to prosperity for all. Whether you’re part of a brand making step 1 or 7, take pride in your contribution to this shift and keep pushing to get to the next one.

Let us know which step you are working on now and any advice you have for taking them in the comments below. I'll be eating chocolate in the mean time.