Blue Sweaters plus Saying “Yes-&”

Last month I had the privilege of sitting with an amazing group of women in Santa Cruz and sharing a conversation with Acumen Fund founder and CEO, Jacqueline Novogratz.  She’s featured on the December cover of Forbes and the author of The Blue Sweater:  Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.  The book was a wonderful introduction to Jacqueline and her approach to investment (what she calls patient capital), philanthropy, development, poverty and privilege.  Our conversation provided all of us with a chance to share, inspire, inquire and connect with Jacqueline while opening an opportunity for more.

From that initial gathering of about 20 women, we have formed a get-it-done group we named Yes-&.  I’m not sure what else to call a group of women from all sorts of backgrounds who have agreed to show up and just get stuff done.

Yes-& is just forming as a circle of powerful, engaged, visionary women in the greater Santa Cruz area who are committed to creating programs, events, conversations, nonprofits, foundations or social enterprises that address some of our most pressing local AND global problems.  We coalesced as a group of women committed to supporting each others efforts at creating change.  Our mission is to show up in the world with a “Yes-&” attitude.  We say yes to opportunity, to challenges, to requests, to intention.  We also believe in the power of “&” — the power of inclusion, of connection, of non-duality.  It’s not either/or.  It’s the power of AND.

Our first project came from several women’s reactions to the recent debut of Jennifer Siebel Newsom’ documentary “Miss Representation,” a film that deals with media and contemporary culture’s dis-empowering depiction of women and girls.

So, are producing a local Screening and Community Conversation event, inviting 85 community leaders, high schools counselors, students, nonprofits and organizations dedicated to empowering girls and women in our community.

The purpose of the evening  is to spark discussion, connections, collaborations and projects that gel as a result of the evening’s screening and subsequent conversation breakouts.

We are hoping all of us walk away with a commitment to an action plan that specifically addresses what we intend to do to protect the young women we have been called to steward.

That’s saying “yes!”

 

Storytelling, Activism and T-shirts

I love a good story.

There is a new one that is being written right now, every day, by people who observe challenges and change in the world.

The N-Spired Story project has a simple  mantra:

A story that inspires a design.
A design that is printed on an interactive t-shirt.
A t-shirt that encourages a social act.

I heard about this project through MilkShake (another favorite social movement; more about them in another post) and am fascinated by the idea that anyone of us can share this process of telling stories through both an online medium and a series of t-shirts that are linked to a social act.

It works like this. Anyone can post a story –  simply sign-up and share in either English or Spanish.  Every month, users vote and the highest score is selected to be used as the basis for the next chapter. The most recent, Chapter 5, describes a multitude of ridiculous laws currently on the books in places like China that are desgined to create a citizenry of sheep.  Entitled “Follow the Hurd,” the story includes true facts on China’s law  prohibiting reincarnation, depicted by a line drawing of a bureaucrat with a sheep’s head.

The chapter is completed through the work of an up-and-coming artist who creates a piece of art based the selected story which is then printed on an interactive t-shirt and sold on the site for 10 days. With a percentage of the sales, the N-Spired team then performs a social act related to the story.  I’m going to keep checking back to see what social act the team will create to challenge crazy laws in China or the passivity of sheeple.

Sustainability Sector Poised for Growth in 2012

According to Verdantix, an indepdendent sustainability analyst firm,

Is Sustainability Really the Jargoniest Jargon?

The Book of Tens at AdAge seems to think so. But I’d like to propose another way of looking at the growing use of the word sustainable.

First, I take issue with rejecting a word because it’s “a good concept gone bad by mis- and overuse.” That seems to be more the fault of the users than the innocent word itself. After all, the post continues to sing praise for sustainability, “Used properly, it describes practices through which the global economy can grow without creating a fatal drain on resources.” So, maybe this word belongs on a different list – Ten Words We Wish People Would Use Properly.”

Additionally, “It’s come to be a squishy, feel-good catchall for doing the right thing,” seems like a backwards compliment to me. And captures a sentiment that warrants a bit more exploration.

- “squishy and feel-good”: Can someone tell me why these are used in the pejorative? Squishy things like pillows and actually feel good (most of the time). And feel-good might be something we could use a lot more of as we head into 2011. Frankly, after the long-lasting economic correction, environmental devastation and social upheaval the world over, a little feel-good is just what we need.

- “doing the right thing.” I am a big believer that we need lots of words and reminders and encouragement to usher in the transformation where doing the right thing becomes commonplace in business. And, let’s face it; we’re not there yet. Not sure how we can have a word become jargon before the behavior becomes ubiquitous.

It’s clear that practice of true sustainability (practices through which the global economy can grow without creating a fatal drain on resources) is still a long way from becoming a standard way of doing business. There are indicators that this discipline is growing in significance and focus.

According to a recent study from Accenture, more than 90 percent of respondents indicated that over the next five years they will be doing just that. CEOs would have indicated that their businesses would be seeking to deploy new technologies aimed specifically at addressing issues of sustainability?

According to a recent post from Patti Prairie at Fast Company, “market forecasters predict ongoing growth rates well into the double digits for corporate sustainability services, a market already valued in the billions of dollars. Sustainability is now big business in the U.S.”

Verdantix predicts that “In the post-recession economy, sustainability will become a more strategic issue as firms seek competitive advantage on a new dimension of business performance. And that CFOs will be pulled into decision making on sustainability and cleantech. In 2011, multiple factors will pile pressure on CFOs to engage in decision-making on sustainable business “

What makes this interesting is that for many, the attention of the financial sector in sustainability gives it legitimacy. What I believe is that it indicates the need for the same type of disciplined language, process, methodology and knowledge that has seen the financial dimension of business become its primary filter.

I think that the word sustainability is hamstrung by its misuse rather than its overuse. What it needs is a lot more words — perhaps an entire language — to represent all of the concepts, ideas, categories, approaches and disciplines that this one overused word has been burdened with carrying.

Any emerging industry needs its own nomenclature, and that’s not jargon.
(Blog post also appears at Sustainable Life Media)

The Challenge of Social Entrepreneurship

I’m working with several new companies that are in the thick of developing business models, branding strategies and funding for their social enterprises.  Part for-profit, part non-profit, they seek to meet the needs of the world through a business vision.  The challengers are innumerable:  when seeking funding, do they solicit grants or investments or both?  If both, then how do you develop the financials that meet the requirement of grantors while answering the questions that traditional angel or early stage investors have?

How do you develop a business model and legal structure that incorporates the traditional for-profit business and integrates a non-profit foundation or similar structure that allows people to donate and participate as supporters?  Right now, the closest we have is a B Corp and the work underway to develop a Fourth Sector in the tax code.  Either way, these are initial efforts to begin recasting corporate governance to allow for true triple bottom line operational excellence that does not just put everything in financial terms.

An article in the New York Times proclaims that “the emerging sector of social entrepreneurship appears to be booming.”  They cite the growth of conferences like SOCAP, and social investment funds like Ingia Partners.  Whatever tea leaves you choose to read, the evidence is mounting that more and more individuals and institutions are looking for truly purpose-driven businesses to support.

The communications challenge is that a multi-layered, complex story is required to explain who these newly formed companies are, and seek customers, supporters, advocates and evangelists to help by buying, giving, partnering and extolling.  Because this new business model is still being invented, there are no short cuts to educating everyone about how it all works and why anyone should care.

It has become one of the most invigorating and demanding parts of my job.  And I am grateful, everyday, to be in the thick of it.

Here are a few of my go-to sites for information and inspiration:

PBS
Ashoka
Change.org

Sustainability Signs are Promising

Image Credit:  Emilia Stasiak

These days, the talk of a double dip recession and the lagging job market could obscure several positive indicators that provide good evidence that a significant and lasting change is underway.

Pay attention to the more important transformation that is affecting product development, business formation, job creation and the very way we live and work. In any number of areas, you’ll find upbeat indicators where you might expect to find a downbeat story:

Social Capital
A month after the Sustainable Brands 2010 conference in Monterey, CA, it’s worth noting that many of the presenting and attending companies are truly integrating social impact into their sustainability efforts.

For example, environment and ‘green’ issues, which have dominated sustainability discussions in the past, have given way to more practical explorations of new strategy, measurement, metrics and marketing initiatives. This has moved social programs from the periphery to the core.

According to Jason Saul of Mission Measurement, the scale of impact and benefit to business is exponentially greater when social change is connected to the engine of the company — driving product development and market expansion — rather than being relegated to the ‘fumes’ of the business — located in philanthropy or community relations only.   

Takeaway: The true integration of environmental and social impacts alongside financials has found its footing and will forever change the face of business.

Green Consumers
The Green Brands Study –  a fifth annual study by Cohn & Wolfe, Esty Environmental Partners, Landor, and Penn, Schoen & Berland — polled almost 10,000 consumers in eight countries regarding attitudes about the environmental and social initiatives of over 350 brands.

In spite of the economic challenges dominating the news and peoples’ live, the study concludes that overall, concern for the environment is up 3.5%. It is interesting to note that respondents is China and Brazil selected the environment as a greater concern than the economy by a significant margin when compared to the US (70 versus 30%). When the effects of pollution and environmental degradation are experienced at close hand — as air quality and rain forest issues are in China and Brazil — the local citizens are far more concerned.

Takeaway: What the study showed is that consumers are still looking to change their purchasing behaviors and use their wallets to support companies whose products and initiatives have proven to result in positive environmental impact. This tendency is more pronounced in markets outside the US.

Renewable Energy
Despite experiencing a 7% drop in global investments in 2009, renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels in creating power capacity in the U.S. and Europe for the second straight year, according to two reports released in July by the United Nations.

Renewable energy in 2009 accounted for more than half of new electricity capacity in the U.S. and about 60% in Europe, the U.N. reported.   The devastation in the Gulf caused by the BP Deep Horizon disaster is playing a role also, as a growing number of celebrities, organizations and average citizens see the results of oil dependency being played out in fragile wetlands and local economies.

Takeaway: Early stage companies and established players who are tackling energy creation will benefit from the growing support for a transition away from fossil fuels.

Sustainability Industry
MIT Sloan’s Quarterly Management Review’s recent report on sustainability indicated that “many corporations view sustainability as a strategic opportunity and are pursuing it as an operational excellence…. Although other initiatives tend to pivot about a particular function such as purchasing, IT or operations, sustainability applies to every role and every action of the enterprise. It therefore requires widespread operational as well as cultural changes.”

Recent studies (and those scheduled to be released within the next few weeks) from the sustainability analyst firm Verndantix, demonstrate the reality of a growing nascent industry. A case in point is the rapid growth of sustainability software solutions.

According to David Metcalfe, director, “A new era of sustainable business software has arrived, driven by a boom in supply side activity which anticipates the increasingly strategic nature of sustainability.  But our analysis suggests that software providers in this space must cross the chasm. During the next 18 months suppliers need to expand their customer base from visionary buyers like News Corp. and Tesco to early majority buyers.”

Takeaway: A new industry is forming and the opportunity for companies to provide services, products and solutions to facilitate the integration MIT Sloan calls for, is wide open.   While the renewable energy sector might be getting all the media buzz, don’t miss the broader market here.

Work (r)evolution
According to Small Business Labs, the way we work is profoundly changing.  Enabled by the Internet and low-cost information technology, the number of personal businesses (one-employee businesses) has grown twice as fast as the overall economy over the last decade, and exceeds 22 million. They predict that, with the unemployment rate remaining high and traditional employment options limited, 2010 will be another year of strong growth in the number of personal businesses.

Takeaway: More and more of us will be working for ourselves with others in distributed and ad hoc teams. Business models will be developed to leverage the mobility and flexibility required by this new work force.

So what does this all mean?  Can we synthesize these indicators into an overall look for the next 12 months? The future, in spite of the massive changes underway, is full of pockets of real growth and opportunity. Pick one and invent something!

(Also published as an Industry Blog at Sustainable Minds)

Branding Technology as a Sustainability Solution

Photo courtesy Stockxchange

Can technology save the world?

Most of the biggest brands think they can.

Yet, as small upstarts start getting real traction with innovation, they are faced with the challenge of building strong brands as big players change the products, services and business models they offer to the marketplace.

As a center of innovation, Silicon Valley is an ideal place to gather and review its own technological prowess in addressing climate change, resource depletion, soaring energy needs, and the integration of policy and business in deploying massive scale solutions.

I recently attended GreenNet2010, produced by GigaOM, a one-day conference that showcased technology solutions aimed at responding to the social and ecological challenges facing our world.  From energy production and management companies to new transportation solutions, alongside close looks at the smart grid and IT as a solution provider, over 500 attendees heard from established brands and early stage innovators.

What struck me is the almost giddy enthusiasm for the enormous market opportunities available to the companies who most quickly and creatively address climate change, transportation issues, grid complexities, energy creation and management.  Venture capitalists, engineers, public utilities, and technologists are enthused and optimistic about their ability to solve these intractable problems and make money in the process.

Imagine a panel with Better Place, Ford, OnStar, Nissan, and PG&E al discussing how they are both individually and collectively addressing the need to radically transform our transportation industry to reduce its 30% contribution to GHG. “We are in a unique era where we’ve never had this many stakeholders trying to affect this big of a change, in this small period of time,” said Saul Zambrano Director, Integrated Demand-side Management Core Products, Pacific Gas and Electric Company.  To a man (and they were all men), they communicated their personal commitment and satisfaction in participating in the transformation.

Their language of goodness was a welcome dimension in the overall discussion of trillion dollar market opportunities.

Don’t get me wrong; I am a capitalist with the best of them.

However, as those on the car panel demonstrated, we all need to discuss, make space for, and value these other attributes.  Purpose and meaning, according to Dan Pink, are the very things that motivate us.  This is where the playing field levels a bit for large and small businesses.

Big brands like Ford and PG&E can share the world stage with upstarts like Lit Motors (also at the conference but not on stage – my opening point exactly) because what they share is an intention – to leverage business acumen and technological prowess to meet environmental and social challenges.

It will be interesting to watch the big players compete with the small innovators.  Pitting imagination and cleverness that is not hemmed in by existing infrastructure and assumptions against the ability to scale and dominate.  I think it’s going to be a matter of both/and.  It will take small players and large organizations to create solutions and deploy them broadly and quickly.

At the heart of both approaches is, frankly, the heart.  As we learn more about the cost of natural resource depletion, the power to galvanize people through campaigns like presenter 350.org, and hear from panelist like Bill Gross CEO of Idealab who links his solar efforts back to childhood passion and shop tinkering, we will be engaged because our hearts are engaged.  Brands both small and large that trust and have the courage to communicate their interior purpose will be the players who lead the technology transformation and reap its benefits.

POST IS ALSO FEATURED AT SUSTAINABLE LIFE MEDIA

CSR+Sustainability is On the Rise

According to recent research conducted by Boston Center for Corporate Citizenship, McKinsey, and the Entrepreneurs Foundation‘s 2010 Corporate Citizenship Report (which I helped research, write, analyze and present), data consistently shows that sustainability is gaining traction inside corporations.  The initial appearance and implementation of sustainability can begin inside Environment Health and Safety (EHS) departments, as a special branding and marketing campaign, within a product development task force, or as a supply chain initiative.  Where it starts doesn’t matter.  Once the sustainability mindset takes root inside two or more groups in a corporation, consistent and credible communications are required.  A new “language of goodness” that incorporates social, environmental and profit programs, and creates linkages between them to accelerate change and increase benefits.

A Shifting Sustainability Definition
The Business Roundtable’s S.E.E.(Society, Environment, Economy) Change program defines sustainability as “maintaining the balance between the human need to improve the quality of life and standard of living of current generations, and the need to preserve natural resources, and ecosystems for the economic growth, and well-being of future generations.”

Many would add that these generations, both current and present, extend beyond the human species to all living species and need to be accounted for in all triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) companies.  Ray Anderson, founder and Chairman of InterfaceFLOR, describes his company’s journey to sustainability in his recent book, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist.  As he often says, “if we can do it, anybody can. If anybody can, then it follows that everybody can.”

McKinsey’s Global Survey on Sustainability makes it clear that the lack of a consistent definition and shared language are creating blocks to deployment within companies.  The summary reveals the following:

“Overall, 20% of executives say their companies don’t [have a clear definition of sustainability].  Among those that do, the definition varies: 55% define sustainability as the management of issues related to the environment (for example, greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, waste management, green-product development, and water conservation). Another 48% say it includes the management of governance issues (such as complying with regulations, maintaining ethical practices, and meeting accepted industry standards), and 41% say it includes the management of social issues (for instance, working conditions and labor standards).”

CSR+ Sustainability
Globally, CSR is a collective of all measures that produce an overall positive impact on society through economic and social actions.

Combining CSR and sustainability is more than just linking community and philanthropy efforts to environmental initiatives.  Lasting business transformation — like the radical changes espoused by Ray Anderson — require that a business’s core strategy provide business benefits as well as social and environmental benefits.

CEOs like Anderson point to clear benefits that are driving the move to corporate sustainability: risk reduction, lowered costs, markets or revenue creation, brand value and building loyalists (i.e., transforming customers into investors, and partners into shareholders).

A Language of Goodness ™
A new vernacular is required for describing how companies — in alliance with NGOs and governments — are meeting health and service needs, exceeding governance requirements, innovating product design, and increasing brand relevance through a new approach to business.

When companies shy away from talking about their actions in CSR and sustainability while framing them in a broader corporate strategy, they often cite fear of being accused of green washing.    Given the growing push for ethical companies who are helping solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, doing and saying nothing over time is a greater risk.

This is the perfect place and time for PR professionals (with our sophisticated understanding of interrelated stakeholder needs) to take a leadership position. Sustainability is an innovation driver in new green/clean technology, in creative business models like for-benefit companies, and in customer experiences that meet growing demand for a sustainable lifestyle.

To download the report, go to The Entrepreneurs Foundation and click on the 2010 Corporate Citizenship Report link.

Carol Cone to Edelman: another proof point of business transformation

With the recent news that Carol Cone has joined Edelman, I see a strong indicator that cause marketing is clearly on the path to becoming integral/core to effective communications and a business imperative.   CSR is no longer a “fringe practice” (Carol’s words) but a dimension squarely in the center of global brand making.  I have followed Edelman’s Goodpurpose studies and believe that their research is tracking the traces of a fundamental shift in business.  We can use various labels for it — reputation, brand, citizenship, CSR, sustainability.

I call it goodness.

What’s exciting about Cone’s move to Edelman is the recognition that smart cause marketers, sustainable brand makers, are the right stewards of change as businesses grapple with the increasing call for better brands.

I share Richard Edelman’s belief that public relations, in general and in particular, is the best discipline to guide the communications challenges facing good companies and have said so In many previous posts.  PR is not just posturing and positioning. It is the two-way conversation an organization needs to have with all its stakeholders as it goes about its business. Authentic communications, listening, feedback loops are all components of public relations and have a critical component to play in the sustainability market.

I see effective communications strategy as part of the solution to global economic, environmental and social challenges.  A brand’s communication shapes timely discussion about how that individual company is participating in and adding to the business transformation that is taking place on a worldwide platform.  Critical stakeholder engagement uses two-way conversations that are relevant, authentic and transparent.

Earth Day Reflections

“Every Earth Day is a reflection of where we are as a culture. If it has become commoditized, about green consumerism instead of systemic change, then it is a reflection of our society.” 

–Robert Stone, documentary filmmaker, as quoted by The New York Times

Why not both?

If Mr. Stone is right, what do we make of the commoditization of Earth Day?  On the one hand, we lament the trivialization of  a serious situation.  Resource depletion and the exploitation of native peoples’ are center piece issues in environmental discussions and deserve the careful and comprehensive exploration of solutions and best practices required to diminish their effects.

But does this make every green product, campaign, toy, seminar and web conference irrelevant and silly?  I don’t think so (unless, of course it IS silly like the umbrella, described in today’s Times article, that is designed to catch rain run-off.  Huh?)

I actually welcome a pervasive and consistent environmental aspect to everything.  If we don’t stop and consider the planet and its peoples as integral dimensions affected by every commercial or pop culture object we consume, we won’t accelerate the mind shift needed to drive real change.

And change is what we need.

The transformation is one from a consumption culture to an experience existence.  Where thriving and well being are the measures of success.  Not simply untrammeled growth (of trinkets and toys, of banks and balances, of stock prices and stocked pantries)

We live in an amazingly abundant world, with enough resources to give every person all they need.  We suffer from distribution problems and insidious hoarding that prevents the flow required for well being.

So, if we can be playful and a bit silly with Earth Day AND be serious and deliberate, then we are onto something.  Because it will take a both/and approach.

After 40 years, it’s time to let the profound AND the trivial coexist as we heal the earth and each other.


Happy Earth Day!