A few years ago, my ad agency was acquired by Maddock Douglas, an innovation agency based in Chicago. For a year, I worked with the team at MD, honing a green innovation process for their clients. I learned a number of incredibly useful things from my friends at MD, but one has served me particularly well in the business of building futureproof brands: the power of a global expert network. READ MORE
In seven earlier parts of this series, we’ve discussed 17 pitfalls of sustainabilitymetrics. But there is another subject lurking deeply in metrics conversations: What if some of the goals we are seeking, or actions we’re considering, aren’t really measureable? If even slotting an “Intangibles” or “Qualitative” column doesn’t seem entirely adequate? What then, in a world that worships numbers? We will discuss perspectives of some industry practitioners grappling with this issue. READ MORE
Only one in five companies has fully integrated sustainability into business, according to the BSR/GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business Survey 2013, which received responses from more than 700 sustainability executive — the largest pool to date. Respondents were asked for the first time to indicate the extent to which sustainability is integrated into the core of their business. READ MORE
In their recent book Switch, Dan and Chip Heath describe the rational self as “The Rider,” a rider sat astride a large and often unwieldy “elephant” — i.e. our emotional selves. This is a helpful analogy to use in employee engagement programmes. The rider may have control for a while, but elephants are big and powerful, and unless they want to head in the same direction as the rider … READ MORE
This was the question that motivated Bruno Sarda and Dr. George Basile. Sarda and Basile were jointly tasked with creating an Executive Master’s program for the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives at ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability and were looking for input from sustainability executives on how to make the degree program as impactful as possible. READ MORE
Is it wise and value-adding to announce specific bold sustainability goals without necessarily having a play-by-play roadmap for how you will get there? How does the value of intentionality manifest itself and how do big goals inspire big ideas? How does the voluntary release of total environmental impacts across the supply chain, operations and portfolio of products add brand value to a global company? Are the benefits of such transparency a no-brainer? READ MORE
