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  • Engaging customers in the sustainability dialog

    by David Laituri on January 30, 2009
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     When we first conceived of Vers back in 2007, we wanted to develop sound systems that were better in every way imaginable; an ambitious goal that we hoped would drive our company to do great things on into the future. This applied not only to the design and sound quality of our systems, but to their environmental thoughtfulness as well.

    As we progressed, the idea of involving our customers in a dialog about energy efficiency, sustainability and carbon reduction seemed natural to us – we wanted Vers to be a participatory brand. Since the large part of Vers is its plantation-sourced wood construction, trees were an obvious device to help connect the CO2 generated by using a Vers system to a simple, easy to understand solution. Trees are both tangible and visceral; our customers easily related to them. Planting trees became an engaging way to initiate the carbon reduction dialog and to encourage our customers to participate in making a difference.

    Though subject to many variables, an average tree can consume 40 - 50 lbs. of CO2 in a year, about as much created generating the electricity required by a Vers system under average conditions. In its lifetime, that average tree could sequester the CO2 of about eight Vers systems. While there is far more to sustainable product development than simply offsetting CO2, carbon footprint reduction is a concept a majority of our customer base already understood. If you only have a few seconds to capture their attention and request their participation, it’s important to focus on what’s already familiar to them.

    This past fall, in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, an organization well-known for dedication to the value of trees and tree planting projects, we offered a 1:1 tree planting opportunity at check out on our site; for every tree our customers planted, we would match it. To our surprise, over 18% of our customers selected this option; many chose to plant more than one. We had expected 5% at best. We’ve since added advice on how our customers can live a more efficient and sustainable existence with our products, as well as offering a take-back program for the old iPod gear a new Vers system may have displaced.

    While still early yet, the response to these cooperative initiatives with our customers has been surprisingly strong. They appreciate the difference we are trying to make, they are choosing to get involved and they tell us so with through their emails … and their purchases. Beyond making well-designed, great sounding systems, we see Vers as a laboratory for testing new ways to engage our customers on the topic of sustainability and reducing the environmental impact of their everyday lives.

    Image credit: David Laituri

     

  • Make sense of your eco certifications

    by Lorne Craig on January 23, 2009
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    These days, many corporate web sites are fairly bursting with well-intentioned fair trade, certified organic, sustainable supply-chain certification symbols. Looks great, but what does it all mean? Last week I got an e-catalogue from local clothing company Eco Apparel that answered that question. Eco Apparel is a Vancouver-based clothing manufacturer who really puts their sustainability where their mouth is. From recycled-content fabrics to responsible procurement, they work hard to do it right. They also boast their fair share of certifications – Bluesign, Intertek, 1% for the Planet, CSR Corporate Social Responsibility – as well as claims of certified yarns and fair-trade manufacturing.

    But unlike many of their competitors, they didn’t just throw another badge on to their home page. On the back of their new product catalogue is a chart that graphically depicts a simplified version of their supply-chain, showing at each stage the effects of the appropriate certification or claim. (To see a larger version visit ecoapparel.ca and click on the Environmental Standard link.) At a glance, a potential customer can see that Eco Apparel really considers every step of the process. And the fact that they take the time to illustrate their behind-the-scenes production speaks volumes about the transparency and honesty of the company. I would even recommend they take it a step further with an animated YouTube version. It would be a great educational piece for up-and-coming clothing designers and corporate buyers. Not to mention setting the bar that much higher for their competitors. Does your company boast any eco-certification? Do your customers or staff know what they mean? Do you?

    Image credit: Lorne Craig

  • Gathering your sustainability stories to build an authentic greener brand

    by Sandy Skees on January 16, 2009

     Both early stage and legacy companies share common ground when developing a sustainable brand promise. In order to communicate authentically to key stakeholders, start by identifying the ‘head and heart’ story that inspires every product design, or in a larger sense, inspires each company’s formation. These intertwined rationales will build a ‘goodness narrative’ that is the foundation of a sustainable brand.

    Companies are starting to give themselves permission to tell a multi-faceted story that goes beyond market dominance, product creation and increasing profits. Not that these aren’t important, they are. But they are not the only story. It is important to capture and communicate the anecdotes of how individuals inside companies are creating solutions that incorporate social and environmental impacts of products or companies.

    1. Make an honest assessment of where you are
    As you gather your sustainability stories, take stock of where you really are and include an honest measure of what is truly sustainable inside your operation in an accessible and clear way. Be up front about the challenges and your team’s assessment of how you will address them.

    2. Take note – and make notes – at every stage of the process
    The initial product specification conversations – what and how things are made – must be captured and leveraged as key to the true story of good companies. Take great notes that can be used later as proof points and background for describing how and why the product was designed and the company was created.

    3. Think inside the box
    We know that companies are filled with good people making smart decisions that benefit stakeholders other than investors. Share decisions, for example, about honoring local communities, or smarter packaging that reduces waste, or product design with end-of-life strategy.. What is lacking today is the process and language for tracking and talking about these other dimensions.

    Founding stories and company lore are other areas that can be mined for the rich texture inside a good brand. You have the business story – the what, and how. Find the why, the human story, and link that to actions – these are the sustainability stories that can communicate an authentic brand.

  • Taking the hit: not letting perfection get in the way of progress

    by Travis Lee on January 11, 2009
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    Co-author, Scot Herbst

    Recently, quite a few people have been asking me the same two questions: how do I feel about greenwashing and do I think we will see more or less greenwashing in the coming years? To which I usually respond that it depends on what they mean by greenwashing. Their definitions vary in the details, but they usually include two categories.

    1. The company that makes no sustainability efforts, but claims that they care about the environment more than we know.
    2. The company that releases a product and brags about the sustainability efforts involved in its creation, even when the product is not really sustainable.

    The first category is obviously despicable, and companies that engage in that kind of blatant falsity are bound to soon be exposed for what they are by the increasingly educated and concerned consuming public.

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    The second category is the much more interesting. First, what makes a product really sustainable? One could argue that products in themselves will never be sustainable; that only complex systems of well designed products, take-back services, recycling infrastructure, and renewable energy generation can ever be a truly closed loop. And that the product, considered on its own, is doomed to always be an incomplete part of that loop. So can we blame a company for taking small steps toward making their product more eco-friendly (say, replacing all the polystyrene in their packaging with paper pulp) but not purchasing the renewable energy credits to offset its production footprint? Don’t we want to encourage that kind of behavior? Don’t we want to foster that kind of change?

    Second, while I believe in the power of maintaining an idealistic goal for the future of sustainable design, I’m a pragmatist above all else. I understand that even if it seems like a disingenuous means to an end, the likeliest way to get to that future is by using the power of capitalism, marketing influence and all. And that means that if a company wants to remove the paint from their product and scream it from the rooftops in order to sell a few more units, more power too them, even if they take a hit every now and then for greenwashing. I’m not sure if we’ll see that more in the near future, but I hope so. That’s a little less paint in the world and a company that will be willing to take a slightly bigger step next time.

  • Leveraging the power of Web 2.0 to drive sustainability

    by Inês Sousa on January 2, 2009
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    This year’s Green Festival in San Francisco featured the Green Web Pavilion organized by Joey Shepp. For the first time at the Green Festival, there was a space dedicated to innovative, Internet-based organizations committed to environmental stewardship and social responsibility.

    What else did they have in common? They all use the power of knowledge sharing, collaboration, social networking, transparency, global perspective and diversity in the Web 2.0 landscape to help them accomplish their missions.

    The Green Web Pavillion showcased a number of emerging non-profit and business organizations presciently sampled by Joey from many at the forefront of this rising trend. Visitors could learn with presentations and demos about Wiser Earth, TechSoup Global, Global Oneness, GoodGuide, Green Maven, and Yahoo.Green, to name a few.

    GoodGuide was among my favorites. This product-ranking Web site began as a UC Berkeley research project, and evolved into a way for consumers to find “safe, healthy and green products.” When you type a product name or category into the search bar, GoodGuide takes you to a ratings page. Products are rated according to health hazard, environmental impact, and social assessment (there are more than 600 base criteria). A single-number score ranks them, and you can further explore it by looking at the health, environmental and social performance scores and additional qualitative information about the product and the company that makes it. You can buy it or include it in your ‘avoid list,’ share your own review and read other reviews. Collecting and processing reliable data to support this site and their product rating is quite a challenge. It looks like GoodGuide is on track, though. If it scales up to a wide variety of products, companies and audience, it can become powerful and significantly change the way we decide to buy, make and sell products to a new level of demand for and supply of better products and companies.

    Wiser Earth also carves out an ambitious objective. This online community “maps and connects organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more.” It’s sort of a combination of Wikipedia, FaceBook, and Google maps – and serves as a directory searchable by area of focus or geographic location of more than 100,000 NGOs – seeking to link like-minded people for practical world-saving activities.

    Global Oneness does much the same thing, but on a more focused inspirational plane. It uses the power of video interviews to link people around the world, wake them up to the fact that ‘the world is burning,’ but, even more, that change is possible. As one of the everyday sages in the introductory video asks, “What if this reality could change? What would it look like?” Global Oneness is a celebration of what is ‘being born,’ rather than focusing on what is dying.

    At the Green Web Pavilion, I attended a discussion panel among leaders of the featured organizations. There was an insightful debate about how critical it is for new, collaborative networks to extend their activities and interactions out to the ‘physical world.’ The DVD-sharing in homes and communities enabled by Global Oneness and GoodGuide’s accessibility on mobile phones to support real-time decisions at the point of purchase are some examples.

    One other interesting discussion triggered by a question from the audience was how these Web 2.0 entities were collaborating to leverage potential synergies between their different initiatives, technology platforms and networks. Global Oneness, for example, has already created a Group on WiserEarth. It became clear that there were still potentially valuable unexplored opportunities for collaboration among all these different organizations, along with the eagerness to pursue them. Finally, big challenges of the ‘Green Web,’ like electronic waste and the digital divides, were rightfully brought into the discussion.

    After the panel discussion, I introduced myself to Joey, and asked what he envisions for future editions of the Green Web Pavilion. He wants to grow it at the festival, and was open to new, good ideas. Here’s one: what if we bring into the mix of these Web 2.0 emerging initiatives and organizations those who directly target businesses to change the way they make and sell their products? The festival already features businesses making and selling better products, but they – and countless other companies – can always improve. Further, can they change or improve with the help of consumers attending the festival, perhaps by Web 2.0-powered participatory ecodesign?

    Image Credit: globaloneness.com