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!

The Car 2.0

Is the world ready for a new generation of cars, particularly the electric kind?  There are at least 41 teams hard at work, and competing, on the assumption that the world is not just ready, but that it’s in desperate need for Car 2.0.  Energy and transportation analysts as well as green media sites like Earth2Tech have begun using the Car 2.0 moniker and predicting a sizable market opportunity.  The new electric car infrastructure has implications beyond reducing the highly toxic impact that current fossil fuel transportation has on the environment.  Electric cars will link to the smart grid, making them efficient and connected communicating transportation.

According to Frank Cloutier, director at Future Vehicles Technologies (FVT), the car of the future will have a lot more in common with computers than its horse and buggy heritage.   And Frank would know.  He’s the former Vice President and CTO at HP’s imaging and printing group, and started a number of HP’s businesses, including their industry leading inkjet and notebook computers.  Frank is also a lifelong car enthusiast who’s managed to link those two passions into a single purpose at FVT.  “After more than 30 years of bringing new technology to market, sometimes in cycles as fast as every six months, I took a long look at the flailing automobile industry and decided I could have a positive impact,” said Cloutier.

He envisions a Car 2.0 industry that brings innovation and improvements to market quickly, based on rapid technology cycles and a fabrication and assembly mentality that replaces Detroit’s more staid industrial and machining approach.  “We think of our car, the eVaro, as essentially the world’s first personal driving computer.  It’s fast, looks beautiful, can be programmed and controlled to minute personal specifications from the individual driver, and can be upgraded or reprogrammed to accommodate increasingly improving battery, generator, or computing technology.”

Cloutier and FVT are not alone in seeing significant market opportunity with the electric car of the future.  Experts predict new markets for a smart charging infrastructure, energy storage technologies, telematics, and the wide open opportunity for onboard Smartphone applications and touch screen capabilities that are just now being created.  That’s Car 2.0.

FVT is just one of the remaining 41 car teams (from a beginning field of 121) betting on the electric car of the future by participating in the Automotive X Prize.  The goal of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE is to inspire a new generation of viable, safe and super fuel-efficient vehicles. $10 million in prizes will be awarded to the teams that win a rigorous stage competition for clean, production capable and super fuel efficient vehicles that exceed 100 MPG equivalent fuel economy. (MPGe)

The eVaro, FVT’s newest prototype and the next generation in hybrid development, is competing in the high performance class at the Automotive X Prize.  This summer its proven specifications will be put to the test in a series of shakedowns and race at the Michigan International Speedway. Winners will be announced in Washington DC in September.  Right now, the eVaro has succeeded in getting between 122 and 325 MPGe (and 100-125 mile range on electricity alone) with an onboard gas generator that promises unlimited extended range.

With a 3 hour re-charge time plug in at home, and 1 hour with on-board generator, the eVaro looks like a bright spot in the new Car 2.0 world.

GLOBE 2010 Brings The World to the Individual Level

“A green economy needs to just be the economy,” said Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, a board director at InterFace Global and member of the closing Town Hall session at the 20th anniversary Globe 2010 in Vancouver.  – a sentiment which would be shared by many and echoed throughout the conference.

Held every two years, Globe Foundation gathered over 10,000 participants from more than 80 countries to focus on a variety of themes that included Corporate Sustainability, Climate Change and Energy, Finance and Sustainability, Urban Infrastructure, Clean Technology, and Water: Impacts on Business.

According to many speakers, this year the conference seemed different – more participants, more women, and a greater number of students and young professionals.  One young woman, summed up her generation’s challenge with a question to the panel – as she looks for her first sustainability job, should she work for an oil and gas company and try change them, or work for something new and different? Nicholas Parker, Executive Chairman, Cleantech Group LLC in San Francisco, CA, encouraged her to “work in the lion’s den and help create the change we, and they, need to be.”  Those fossil fuel companies, Parker asserted, are facing necessary and inevitable transformation and we should all welcome and support it.

The Honorable John Yap, Minister of State for Climate Action, Government of British Columbia, Victoria, BC, David Runnalls, President & CEO, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Ottawa, ON  and Tony Manwaring, Chief Executive, Tomorrow’s Company, London, UK rounded out the panel.

Christopher Henderson, President, Lumos Energy in Ottawa, ON moderated a lively conversation between attendees and panelists that explored — what is a green economy? What is each person going to commit to changing or doing different? How do governments, citizen consumers, businesses and NGOs tell the stories that will effect the swiftest, necessary changes?

Diane Dillion-Ridgle observed that a sense of urgency of the moment is needed, alongside a long horizon view.  “This is the 21st century agenda for the completion of democracy throughout the world,” said Dillion-Ridgle.  Interestingly, she cites language as a key factor in accelerating change.  “We still have such siloed language, and we must integrate economic language to include language of the social component – one that ensures equity and parity. As a society and in business,” she continued, “we simply have to find a way to work horizontally rather than these silos of financials, and human rights and environmental concerns.”

John Yap, British Columbia’s Climate Action Minister, is showcased his provinces’ leadership in climate change legislation.  “Green must become mainstream because climate change is the challenge of our generation.  In BC we made this one of the central planks of our agenda and we now have the first ever CO2 emissions tax in North America.  We also pledge to be the first jurisdiction that is carbon neutral by the end of 2010.”

David Runnalls, founder and CEO of International Institute for Sustainable Development, took a global view of the challenges facing humanity, “There is too much business as usual.  We have to make significant reduction of our ecological footprint.”  He described the dichotomy of both a bottoms up or top down approach and articulated that it requires an integration of both efforts.

The addition of meaning, a spiritual dimension is what is missing in most discussions of a green economy, according to Tony Manwaring of Tomorrow’s Company.  “We must include a different sense of what has value and what is valued.  This means a change of consciousness about how we live and the interconnection of environment and cultural, social and spiritual dimensions.”

Manwaring asserted that to base the future of our humanity on what we’ve learned in the last 50 years (eg. The industrial revolution and management training) rather than what we have unlearned in the same time is ludicrous.  Our new worldview must be a combination of new learning and re-embracing the old wisdom.

Nicholas Parker’s stark assessment that climate change is not a problem, it’s the symptom of a problem, set the stage for a call to action and greater imagination.  “This failure of imagining the future possible is the greatest challenge we face.”

“We must accept that for all of us, especially when we consider countries like India and China, fear and a win/lose game will not work, this must be a win/win economy not dependent on government handouts, and includes full cost pricing.”

According to Parker, a green economy is powerful, abundant and inclusive, and is built on innovation and imagination.

What an exciting vision for all of us.

CSR and Sustainability in Silicon Vallley

I am knee deep in survey results, interview transcripts, background studies about CSR, and recent news and opinion pieces about sustainability trends as I move into the final stages of a research project with the Entrepreneurs Foundation. It’s gratifying to see how many hard-working people are deeply committed to creating and implementing programs that support local communities and employees. As we begin drilling down into the survey results, initial respondents are split into two distinct groups: small early stage companies, many of whom are creating market-based solutions addressing social and environmental concerns and large global corporations whose community relations programs and CSR programs are gaining more exposure and importance withing the company.

It’s the stories behind the numbers and policies that hold the most interest for me. A new CEO, who has always spent personal time volunteering, instituting a corporate wide culture that embraces volunteering as an important ingredient in employee work life. Or the developer who integrates a way for gamers to contribute to breast cancer research because a key participant’s wife is battling the disease. Or the founder who creates an entire new business model to help families caring for aging parents because he faced the same challenges and recognized a market need/opportunity.

But the thing that strikes me the most are the attitudes that people bring to their jobs — compassion and passion, pragmatism and persistence, resourcefulness and leadership. They tell me that their work is getting results and gaining interest within their respective companies in a way that is new and exciting. More employees are coming to them looking for ways to get involved. Particularly following the earthquake’s devastation of Haiti, employees want their companies to provide them with means to help. Additionally, companies are seeing an uptick in interest for green/environmental programs that link company initiatives to changes people are making at home.

The report will be compiled over the next month and results presented at the Entrepreneurs Foundation’s annual meeting in early March.

2009 Corporate Philanthropy Awards

Yesterday morning, I attended the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s 2009 Corporate Philanthropy Awards with more than 300 people gathered to honor the region’s top 50 corporate givers. Applied Materials was the top philanthropist, giving $4.99 million in a top ten that gave over $30 million. According to James MacGregor, publisher at the Business Journal, “While giving overall declined by about 4% among the top companies on the list, the breakdown between those who increased what they contributed and those who were forced to cut back was about even.” He also pointed out that this is only the second nationwide decline in charitable giving since 1956. Not a bad record for big business, especially in this Great Recession.

What struck me, as I watched the community relations, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and HR executivesm and a few CEOs as well, accept their awards, is the kindness and deep concern I heard from each one. They compete with each other for the title of biggest giver and, following host James MacGregor’s instructions, in crafting the best 10-word acceptance speech. How gratifying to watch over 50 companies be recognized for staying engaged in community work at a time when budget cuts and donation declines at non profits are met by increased need.

My favorite quotes from the morning give me hope:

“We are science focused but community based.” Amgen

“Money is a lot like manure, it’s best when you spread it around.” Deloitte

“When people are safe and happy, our communities and businesses thrive.” NetApp

“Companies are social institutions and need to behave that way.” Agilent

“Non-profits are our best bet and at eBay, we bet to win.” eBay

“We’re still Ma Bell, you’re still community, and we’re still family.” AT&T

“It’s not a question of if, but of how much more can we do?” Cisco

“Because we can, because we should, because we all must.” Microsoft

“It’s up to us to make a difference.” West Marine

I agree with Laurie Fried, chief sustainability officer of West Marine, that is is up to us — business — to make a difference. All of the facts, figures, research, opinions and news coverage tell us that people are looking for leadership and integrity from business in dealing with environmental and social challenges. And businesses are stepping up. Some are giving more donations and increasing philanthropy. Others are giving employees time off to participate in community activities. Still others are increasing their in kind donations as a way of filling the need gap.

I will be learning more about what companies are doing in a regional study for the Entrepreneurs Foundation and Silicon Valley Community Foundation that I am conducting with JonesPR. We will measure corporate citizenship, philanthropy and community engagement alongside sustainability and/or environmental efforts. We will benchmark current levels and assess what companies are doing to meet social challenges. Look for regular updates here as we review early survey results, interview local CSR leaders and gather the heart stories that lie behind corporate decisions to give back.

Dashboards and Meters: the Next Blinking 12:00?

We are bombarded with data, visuals, advertisements, tweets, updates and videos, so do we really need our products to beep, change colors, add leaves or update graphs? Especially since many people never use all of the functionality built into most products or, worse yet, simply discard the product when its complication oversteps its usefulness?

Recent product design is incorporating dashboards and metering capabilities as consumer features. Prius, Honda, Google Smart Meter, and even Mint.com are examples of products that incorporate a feedback mechanism into the product itself. ‘Hypermiling’ is the term for how to wring every last drop of efficiency from hybrid automobiles and can be found on sites like CleanMGP. While these dashboards provide a clear and powerful way to display data, they introduce a set of design challenges that must integrate social science strategies in order to be most effective.

In the same way that compelling stories can change behaviors, dashboards can do the same, if they are designed from the outset to generate behaviors that add up to a larger benefit.

I interviewed Marc Rettig, CEO of Fit Associates and social ethnographer, for his thoughts on dashboards, and he had several recommendations that help to frame the design and communication challenge: -

- Displaying information does not equal “feedback.” Just because you show it doesn’t mean people see it, understand it, know how it correlates with their behavior, or feel motivated to adjust their behavior.

- It isn’t always obvious what to measure: people will adjust their behavior according to the feedback they receive. If you’re measuring the wrong thing, their behavior change may have less impact or even the wrong impact.

- It isn’t always obvious how to measure: sometimes getting the data you need to provide good feedback is tough. Bodymedia, for example, carefully researched where they could put sensors on people’s bodies so they could get accurate data while people were active, without making them uncomfortable.

- It isn’t always obvious how to communicate the feedback: “kilowatt hours?” “tons of CO2?” Who knows what these things mean? “100 calories?” It’s up to the dashboard to help people map the feedback to their behavior. Otherwise you’re only giving them a meaningless gimmick, uninteresting after the novelty wears off because they see no connection to their lives.

- The social possibilities are relatively unexplored: how interesting might it be when we can roll up say, household and institutional energy consumption to the level of neighborhoods, cities, regions, states, nations? Would a competitive spirit set in if this were visible to everyone in the same way? Will that help us introduce new language into the conversation about change?

- For product design, there is a tension between this idea and the need for simplicity. We face an epidemic of complexity in our products, and it is making people nuts. This keeps coming up in our household studies. A dashboard could very easily be Yet Another Damn Display, yet another gadget. Increasing product cost, increasing frustration levels, and delivering little or no value. In two years there will be six of the damn things in my life, all using different visual language, controls, and metrics, and none of them talking to each other.

When we say “simplicity” we’re not just talking about too many features in each product — it’s systemic complexity. We’re to the point where even if your product has just one light and one button, it’s coming in to a home that’s over laden with lights and buttons and displays. Your product can be loved if it brings relief to that situation. If it adds without bringing relief, it better deliver significant authentic value.

Dashboards and meters can create real change when they are simple and tied to a narrative of results that the consumer understands — how every action tracked benefits me, and we.

Image source: Fotolia_16704656_XS
Image Credit: (c) Olaru Radian-Alexandru

Blog post also appears at Sustainable Minds

An Early Look at Sustainability Business Trends for 2010

Conversation and debate around the environment, ethical consumerism, corporate social responsibility and sustainability are changing fast. In just the past year, sustainability is no longer being questioned as a passing fad; it has been validated as a key business driver. PricewaterhouseCoopers has issued a report detailing how companies that report their sustainability efforts get better returns on their assets than companies who do not.

Let’s look at a few other key findings:
40% of consumers bought because they liked the social or political values of the company…Nearly half of Americans in our poll said protecting the environment should be given priority over economic growth … and this comes in the midst of a recession.” (Time, Sept 21,2009)

More than half—62%—of online posts discuss various solutions to environmental issues. This is a shift from 18 months ago when people were still spending much of their time discussing sustainability by debating whether or not the environmental crisis was real. Consumers in the blogosphere group discuss sustainability solutions into two categories: broad social, organizational, and political change; and incremental personal change.” (JD Power & Associates, Sept. 2008)

Despite taking tough economic hits, at least two-thirds of the U.S. adults who took the survey and have been green buyers in the past said their green purchasing has been stable during the first half of this year. For many, it even increased.” (Earthsense, Sept., 2009)

This research, and my experience with both large corporations undergoing massive change and early stage innovators who are creating ways to capitalize on the power of the market to generate public benefit, set up three trends I see emerging for next year.

Be, Not Buy
There is a push among consumers for a less throw away economy to one where sustainability is real and counts. Key trend watchers are pointing to the earliest signs that we are shifting to a world where things will no longer be the dominant modality, but experiences will drive our cultural norms. We will see more attention paid to quality and less purchasing of goods that have a designed-obsolesce. Technology designers, take note.

Show Me How I am Part of We
The growing proliferation of dashboards (Prius, Honda, GoogleSmartMeter) and labels are creating an expectation by consumers that the can see – from the moment of purchase throughout the entire use cycle – how their activities add up to something bigger than themselves. The zeitgeist of the moment is inclusivity and the power of the individual to change the world. This is the year of enlightened self-interest. Once unleashed, people not only expect to make a change, but watch it happen in real time. What consumers are seeking is a way for the products and, increasingly services and experiences, to add to their efforts to change themselves and bring their lives into alignment with their social and ecological values.

Narratives as Transparency
Radical transparency and zero waste pressures by consumers and governments are creating a Babel of labels, a cacophony of metrics and measures. But what do all these facts and figures mean? How do consumers, purchasers, suppliers, legislators, reporters, and others make sense of this data? It will take clear communications and the constant updating, contextualizing and story telling that a complex world requires.

2010 promises to be an exciting year for sustainable brands.

A Caring Economy

During President Obama’s speech to Congress last night, he spoke eloquently, reminding us that caring for others is a deeply rooted American value.

“That large-heartedness — that concern and regard for the plight of others — is not a partisan feeling. It’s not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character — our ability to stand in other people’s shoes; a recognition that we are all in this together, and when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand; a belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgment that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.”

More and more economists, business schools, corporations and NGOs are exploring how concern for others and the planet can be integrated into profit margins and market share growth. In seems to me that many of our elected officials are slow to recognize that a growing number of citizens are willing to accept their responsibility to care for others, and want our institutions — government and businesses — to be constructed and operated in support of that value.

The Center for Partnership Studies (full transparency, they are a client) is hard at work creating the programs and information people need to examine how we look differently at assumptions in our current economic structure. Based upon the scholarship and work of Riane Eisler (The Real Wealth of Nations), they are working to create an understanding and implementation of a “Full Spectrum Economy.” A full spectrum economy is a six-sector economy instead of the three sector model we recognize and put energy/resources into: the market, government and illegal trade.

The three new sectors that are vital in an understanding of a true economy are the household (where optimal human development starts), the unpaid volunteer sector (where relationships are enabled throughout the community) and the natural sector (where caring for the planet employs thousands for restoration and long-term sustainability). The premise is that we must track, monitor, support, nurture and integrate these sectors into a full spectrum economy if we are going to deliberately and successfully build lives that are prosperous and have meaning.

President Obama’s call to an ethic of caring, as an integral component of the American character, begins the work of building a true wealth for this nation.

The Power of Buycotting

Consumers and advocates have embraced a new found power — show up, be vocal, cast a vote, boycott a company. But there is a growing interest in a new type of activism, buycotting, that merits a closer look. A clear example is Carrot Mob. Developed under the Virgance wing, Carrotmob is a method of activism that leverages consumer power to make the most socially-responsible business practices also the most profitable choices. The opposite of a boycott, buycotts are organized efforts to deliberately buy from companies whose efforts to improve their business practices, tackle social problems, reduce environmental impacts, are rewarded by customer purchase. While Carrotmob designs and deploys a single day of buying, more and more people are looking for ways to tangibly support the businesses doing good in the world.

Can marketers create this kind of activism?

I don’t think so.

The beauty of buycotting is that it works best when it is random, grassroots, amorphous (Carrotmob’s business model notwithstanding) and tied to a growing awareness that we “vote” with our wallet. If you begin with the assumption that all of marketing is designed to encourage customers to buy, then buycotting is a natural outgrowth of that. What I like about the activity, as an activist consumer rather than a marketing/communications professional — is that it helps me continue to be conscious about where I spend my money.

Buycotting expands an individual’s point of view. Old marketing and advertising paradigms connected products and services to values and emotions that were individualistic. How does this product make ME feel? What does this product say about ME? How much value do I get if I buy this thing?

The beauty of buycotting is that the underlying assumption is from the WE point of view. How does buying this product tell a company that they are doing better as a global citizen? When I buy this product, am I part of a bigger effort to improve the planet or society? The changes that companies are making are incremental, to be sure, but buycotting is one way that a consumer’s has of participating in that incremental change.

The Rise of the Phoenix Economy

Volans , whose tagline is “The Business of Social Innovation,” offers a tantalizing view of a new economy using an powerful icon. Forget the bear and the bull, what’s coming is the Phoenix.

“A new economic order is rising from the ashes—and a new generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors is accelerating the changes essential for delivering scalable sustainable solutions to the world.”

For those whose business model involves changing the world, take a look at the web site and download the Phoenix Economy report. John Elkington, former SustainAbility founder is a Volans founder. They have written an incredibly rich report, presenting examples and rationales for an economic theory that attempts to map this emerging social innovation business sector.

In my experience, there are few resources for those in the social innovation sector who are trying to rationalize their valuation, forecast success, and establish authentic metrics. This report is a good compendium of fifty corporations and organizations who are beginning to document success and get real traction. It’s a thought-provoking assemblage of business models, new company formations, statistics and interviews with those on the forefront of a new economy.

Monitor Institute has issued a similar report, Investing for Social & Environmental Impact, that makes a strong case for the emerging financial market. According to the report,

“Evidence suggests that many thousands of people and institutions around the globe believe our era needs new type of investing. They are already experimenting with it, and many of them continue even in the midst of a financial and credit crisis. That’s why the idea of using profit-seeking investment to generate social and environmental good is moving from a periphery of activist investors to the core of mainstream financial institutions. No one can know for sure how much money has been invested or is seeking investment that generates both social and environmental value as well as financial return. But a good guess is that the total size of the market could be as big as $500 billion within the next decade.” 

Both groups make the case for an emerging economic sector that will feature not only strong (and responsible) financial returns but a business sector that matches such returns with purpose, people and the planet. What’s compelling about both is the rigor that is used to size and set market parameters. It’s a part of the momentum at corporations, business schools, legislative bodies, and NGOs to reinvent what success looks like when business takes a broader role in the world.