Archive for the ‘Sustainability’ Category
Lt. Columbo investigates Best Buy’s Sustainability Report
I love technology; always have, always will. After all it could help save our planet one day, ably abetted by passionate real people of course.
When I was three (according to my parents) I took apart my first clock to find the tick-tock. Some things haven’t changed in 36 years. Last week I spent 5 minutes on the Dell support website then had my laptop open to clean it. Yes it needed cleaning but that wasn’t my reason for opening up my ageing trusty workhorse. I even took a degree in Technology Management on my meandering career path just for the pure tech geek in me.
As I get older and more comfortable with my inner geek, my adventures in CSR increasingly gravitate toward tech related issues and last week’s #CSRchat format Twitter event with Best Buy promoting its sustainability wares was an event I wasn’t going to miss. I forcibly wedged the Livestream session into a maniacally crammed Outlook calendar and also agreed to a conference call with the Best Buy video stars of the webcast the following day.
For those who haven’t taken part in a Twitter chat, especially the #CSRchat, you should; they can be an exhilarating combination of intelligent comment, foresight, learning and fun – if you can keep up the conversation threads that is.
Before the live video & chat I set off in search of an updated understanding of Best Buy and their version of sustainability. If you want to read their full report yourself click here to be taken to the Best Buy Fiscal 2011 Sustainability Report website and provided with a clear and well presented report, if a little light on raw data to interpret yourself. Not an integrated report by any means and nothing earth shattering impressive but a decent commitment delivered in an accessible manner. The school report would say Read the rest of this entry »
Irish Innovation Wins The Imagine Cup 2011
When you’re asked to judge six entries in a student technology competition it could be easy to not relate to the more than 350,000 first round entries from across the entire globe. Wait a few hours and throw in appearances by the Salesman Mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg and Eva Longoria and the cream of student technological innovation at an extravagant Awards finale and you really aren’t able to miss the big picture.
The Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s student competition encouraging innovation through technology in order to solve the world’s toughest problems. This year following feedback from students themselves the Millennium Development Goals were offered as inspiration for the teams to focus their efforts on.
I’d agreed to take part in judging the finals in New York City and ended up seeing the Imagine Cup world the wrong way around. I arrived in to cast my eye on the best and then got to see the rest of the 400 invited students at the event Showcase at the Lincoln Center the following day.
I’ll always offer whatever time I can to support or encourage young people of every circumstance to strive to make an impact for a better world. It also usually a fantastic environment for perspective and inspiration. I recently participated in a very similar event as a judge for Societe Generale’s Citizen Act, but with more of an obvious financial focus. I will guarantee that a social impact leader will emerge from either if not both events, and most others like them.
The Imagine Cup 2011 goes to the winners in the Software Design category, my judging task, and was awarded to Team Hermes from Ireland (pictured right and in the video below) with their approach to improve road safety. Read the rest of this entry »
3BL Media Steps It Up A Gear
Today 3BL Media proudly announced the acquisition of Justmeans.
I’m glad the news is out as I’m no good at keeping secrets!
3BL’s CEO, Greg Schneider, has a powerful entrepreneurial drive to make a commercially successful company in the niche area that CSR is, and hopefully beginning climbing away from into bigger ponds. This to me demonstrates a step change in the maturity of CSR communications specifically in the social media channels, i.e. the first substantial consolidation within a profileration of smaller news / opinion sources and portals.
I was a fan of Justmeans when it launched, and even short time CSR Editor (for a whole month) so it’s personally fulfilling for me to be so involved with the integration and future development of both organisations. The combined strengths and the additional opportunities that this deal creates will be keeping us all busy at 3BL for many months, if not years to come.
Without doubt this move consolidates the clear water lead between 3BL Media and all the other players in the CSR content distribution field. The challenging debate internally is how 3BL strategises the exploitation of the newly gained additional assets into new complimentary and profitable channels. Watch this space!
In addition to the technical assets and new client base Justmeans CEO Martin Smith joins 3BL as Chairman reinforcing the depth of the strategic management team.
The announcement of the deal has already generated a strong positive response from the online and client communities with audiences of both companies very being supportive, if maybe initially a little surprised.
My first task is to take over the reins of Justmeans’ Ethical Sourcing and Certification conference in London on September 16th. Please take a look at the microsite and get signed up for the first public event from the 3BL / Justmeans combined team.
Here’s a link to this mornings press release if you’d like more of the details.
I would be really interested in your opinions of what this market needs and how 3BL Media combined with Justmeans can service those needs?
L’Oreal – Because Sustainability Is Worth It
If beauty is merely in the eye of the beholder, nobody has told L’Oreal.
They have 66,000 employees, sell 161 products every second in 130 countries and produce 5.4 billion products every year.
Yesterday saw L’Oreal step up its sustainability engagement with the first of four planned global stakeholder engagement forum events, with the first held in London.
My expectations were similar to those before the Microsoft Accelerator Summit I was invited to last year, i.e. not huge due to minimal information sent beforehand, me being a busy 3BL Media bee and L’Oreal never over energetically communicating their activity, all against a backdrop of a couple of slippery issues including animal testing and the acquisition of Body Shop part of their history.
Much more information on their sustainable development approach is available online here, but I’ll give you a brief perspective on the event and some of the key issues below.
The headlines include the company looking to double their business by 2015 whilst reducing CO2 by 50%, waste by 50% and water use by 50% (across the period 2005 – 2015). Read the rest of this entry »
Watch This Video And Don’t Worry About Climate Change
My briefest post ever.
Watch this video and don’t think about climate change this week:
Still think it’s all unrelated?
Words feel irrelevant.
What will our climate gift us next year?
‘CSR – Size Is Important’ says UN Global Compact
Today saw the release of the 2010 UN Global Compact Annual Review and Implementation Survey.
“While the sustainability movement has taken great strides in recent years, significant challenges remain,” said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact.
“Helping smaller companies close performance gaps, stimulating collective action on all fronts and making a stronger case for human rights and anti-corruption engagement will be critical if we are to bring corporate responsibility to scale.”
Compared to around 99% of business being small or medium enterprises ( SMEs) in many developed countries, only 54% make up the participant base of the Compact, and even less, 38% responded to the 2010 survey.
Even though the Global Compact is often about as far away as possible from the innovative and entrepreneurial flavour of Corporate Responsibility / Corporate Sustainability (terms used interchangeably by UNGC) I gravitate towards, I always feel a reassurance from UNGC’s role and Georg Kell’s stewardship at the top of CSR pyramid steering through the treacle-like waters of politics and international bureaucracy.
We all know that smaller businesses aren’t engaging and resources are an issue, don’t we? I personally think that a lack of resources is an stock cop out by too many SMEs. Thought, behaviour change and innovation can be inexpensive and often free.
I have to mention a feeling of unease I felt right at the end of the 12 minute webcast (click on image below) today as Georg Kell asked for questions to be met only with an eerie silence. Was this a demonstration of the lack of support / enthusiasm for UNGC, as the camera panned to show a mere scattering of bashful audience members? It may have been more of an organisational faux pas than my cynical mind created but these are global issues being presented, surely appropriate representation from public and private sectors was the order of the day? Did FIFA organise the tickets?
Here are some of the Survey’s key findings: Read the rest of this entry »
6 Things I’ve learnt About CSR Communications
It’s getting close to six months since I took the European Director reins at 3BLMedia and what a honeymoon it has been.
3BL were one of the first good friends I made when I stumbled into the blogosphere and Twitterverse like Bambi on ice, instantly forging a strong and like-minded relationship. Over two years or so they guided and helped me to understand the landscape, until we decided to announce our formal marriage back in November.
I’m a CSR strategist by nature with a healthy dose of creativity and passion for innovation thrown in. I’ve encouraged many clients to step up their communications but never really dealt in the specific detail such as my latest role requires. My learning curve has been closer to a vertical rocket launch, but all good fun. I’ve already learned so much and wanted to share a couple of the key messages so far:
Few companies connect CSR to social media
In particular, reporting is missing out. Go to Corporate Register’s website or the latest list on The Environment Site and go through each report one by one to see how many reports (from names I thought better of. Ikea for example) are still pdf files or microsites hidden away and not even adequately connected. Some passively encourage feedback and a few have a kind of ‘share’ button somewhere if you look hard enough. The gold medal goes to Read the rest of this entry »
Twitter, CSR and Me: A People Fascination
Having been to a few real world CSR events recently and not able to duck the subject of a certain
“real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations”
cropping up, I’m increasingly feeling like a salesman for Twitter. (where’s my commission @dickc ?)
I’m also noticing and uncomfortable with how often get mistaken for a social media expert. I’m not and I don’t pretend to be. I’m having a great ride on Twitter, I’ve definitely learnt more than a few social media tricks on the way but there are numerous eminently more knowledgeable people a Google search away.
At every event the process is the same. I say hello, social media enters the conversation, Twitter is discussed and then I feel uncomfortable and that I have to justify so many followers, before realising where they came from, and why I should be proud of this achievement. At the recent Sport and Social Responsibility Summit whilst sitting on a Q&A panel, Daniel Cade (@Responsiball) was playful (?) enough to compare me to the “Justin Bieber of CSR”… but without the followers. I still smilingly cringe at the memory, and for reference you really don’t want to hear try me sing.
Aman Singh over at Vault CSR last week wrote a great post on ‘In Defense of Twitter: 5 Reasons Why I’m A Mad Tweeter’ which I completely connected to Read the rest of this entry »
World Changing Social Entrepreneurs
The Skoll World Forum describes itself as:
“the premier, international platform for accelerating entrepreneurial approaches and innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social issues.”
In reality it was far more surreal than that and not just another do-gooder conference.
How else could you define a gathering of Hollywood stars*, An Archbishop, A legendary singer singer-songwriter, A Queen, thought leaders from across the social and environmental spectrum and countless unsung international heroes delivering grassroots change for good? Aside from the recognisable names it was an education in its own right to meet a myriad of social entrepreneurs to learn directly from their individual successes, failures and share knowledge.
From the beginning it was a bewildering array of workshops with any one of the six or so at a time tantalisingly offering insight into world-changing best practice. Not a place for those who struggle to make decisions, never mind including any consideration of the Oxford Jam fringe events on top.
I never find it easy to report back from such events beyond a couple of minutes of initial ferocious note taking before falling deeply into the intellectual debate. The key themes that emerged to me were those of solidarity, simplicity, scale and passion. I know I’ve developed a penchant for over-simplification of late, quite possibly workload related, but the 3 days in Oxford reminded me of how simple the world really is. We make it complicated usually to justify our own fiefdoms for numerous reasons. Firstly it’s about our planet, then every single person on it. See? Simple. Read the rest of this entry »
