Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Corporate sustainability trends John Elkington of SustainAbility reports changes at the DowJones Sustainability Index, including these trends: (1) Sustainability is continuing its move from corporate strategy and operations into product and service offerings.... (2) Companies are converging around 'first generation' sustainability themes, such as corporate governance and environmental reporting. (3) Transparency and accountability are spreading along supply chains... (4) Sustainability indicators are increasingly linked to financial value drivers and integrated into Annual Reports... (5) Corporations increasingly recognise the importance of human capital management... 2:32:04 PM    comment []  trackback []

Bureaucracy = Death [Seth Godin]: Very little remarkable comes out of bureaucracies for a simple reason. The members of the bureaucracy seek to be beyond reproach. Reproach is their nightmare, their enemy, the thing to avoid at all costs. And the remarkable feels like a risk. Seth writes about marketing, and you may not think you're "in" marketing (even though you are) -- but if you have anything to do with risk or innovation, if you live in a bureaucracy, if you ever deal with a bureaucracy, this will be worth a few minutes of your time. One of Seth's ideas: Appoint a CNO[~]chief no officer. No longer can someone say no to an idea and leave it at that. If you want to turn something down, you[base ']ve got to pass it on to your boss....For a 'no' to be official, it[base ']s got to be approved by the chief no officer and countersigned by every manager along the way.... He continues: [W]hat happens to any organization that creates a culture where maintaining the status quo requires your boss to give you the okay?... I don't care if you're in radio, packaged goods, organized religion or an online merchant. If you're not saying yes to change, you're slowly losing whatever race you happen to be in. 1:48:43 PM    comment []  trackback []

Communicating Sustainability UNEP: A roving 'Environment Train' exhibition in Algeria, a radio series on pesticide pollution in Viet Nam and a novel ozone layer-awareness campaign in Costa Rica are among 16 innovative public campaigns featured in a new guidebook from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The guide, Communicating Sustainability -- How to produce effective public campaigns, provides national and localgovernments with professional advice on how to implement communications campaigns on environment and development issues. (Alternate download site: http://www.futerra.org/publications) I just got the announcement, haven't read it yet. But I did just spend an hour with Director of Marketing of a fairly large company - one with serious sustainability chops - discussing how to effectively communicate their sustainability commitments, trajectory and results - both externally AND internally - in a way that is coherent, consistent and compelling. (In some ways, this is a more difficult challenge than the technical challenges of 'greening' their products, production systems and supply chains.) If any of you have read the UNEP report, and have opinions - either on the report, or the broader MarComm challenge, and nuruting the conversation that is 'sustainability' - please let us know. (Just click the 'Comments' link, below.) 11:22:04 AM    comment []  trackback []

Dropping Knowledge Adam Werbach is about to add another gem to his web of progressive media enterprises: dropping knowledge is: An ever expanding body of knowledge. A facilitator of multiple perspectives that seeks to include every voice. A space for learning about and suggesting practical ideas and solutions. A fully independent, sustainable non-profit organization committed to open, inclusive debate. An international community of users who are constantly refining, expanding and prioritizing our content. A tool that allows the user to draw on the wisdom of other users to create and refine new ideas and practices. dropping knowledge is not: A 24-hour breaking news source. A supporter of any single opinion or viewpoint. A recipe for definitive answers. A media vehicle influenced by commercialism, sensationalism, politicians, political parties or personal narratives. A static, comprehensive encyclopedia of information. Solely a distributor of knowledge and ideas from a diverse set of global sources. However one defines knowledge, by dropping it freely to others, we all gain wisdom to improve the world. You got that right! 9:24:14 AM    comment []  trackback []