THE SUSTAINABLE BRANDS CONFERENCEJune 2 - 5, 2014 in San DeigoForever changed. Inspired. Determined...

Three simple words.

T O P TA K E A W AY S

REIMAGINE.REDESIGN.REGENERATE.

1. LOOK UP!!

The sustainability conversation has to be a positive one. There is lots of talk of doom and gloom, apocalyptic consequences from our collective failure to take action – but this talk is paralyzing. The positive take engages and inspires us to action. Check out this fabulous little video that simply and sweetly demonstrates the power each one of us has to reframe the conversation. It opened the conference and was played several times over the four days. SB’14 San Diego - Make More Than Lemonade.

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So what did I take awayfrom my experience?

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2. CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

At the core of sustainability is creativity and innovation - being able to think in a radically different and disruptive manner. Take Desso, the largest carpet manufacturer in the Netherlands. Desso is disrupting the carpet industry by going beyond eco-efficiency, and pursuing eco-effectiveness. The average person spends 90 percent of their time indoors, and poor air quality indoors leads to many chronic health issues. Desso has developed a carpet that captures fine dust, improves air quality and is made from 50 percent Cradle-to-Cradle certified materials. The company has a manufacturing facility in Europe that takes old carpets and break down elements, avoiding the landfill.

“In redesigning, you come to all kinds of new possibilities,” said CEO Alexander Collot d’Escury. “This is what sustainability is; it’s making a better life for all of us and innovating.” Another leader in innovation is Coca-Cola with their EKOCENTER program. These kiosks are designed

to “help people help themselves” in the developing world by providing safe drinking water, allowing people to connect to the Internet, and delivering products and public services. Eventually, Coca-Cola hopes to offer more complex services such as microfinance and business classes. A “downtown in a box,” EKOCENTER is not a silver bullet admitted Derk Hendriksen, who heads up the program for Coke - just part of the brand’s learning journey.

Shokobutsu Hana, a natural cosmetics sub-brand from Japanese company Lion, has launched a campaign to build awareness of the “healthy beauty brought by the power of nature” by literally cleaning a polluted river with an 88-foot floating organic billboard. The Pasig river, located in the Philippines, is considered “biologically dead;” the billboard is made from a special grass called vetiver, which is used to treat wastewater by absorbing deadly toxins. The plant can tolerate high levels of heavy metals and nitrates, which allows it to reduce pollution and soak up the river’s pollutants. The grass is capable of cleaning up as much as 2,000-8,000 gallons of water each day.

In addition to cleaning the garbage from the river, the campaign aims to discourage people from throwing junk into the river. With its “Clean River Soon” message, the brand says it hopes will change the way people see the river pollution problem and influence them to finally start to take care of their environment.

“In redesigning, you come to all kinds of new possibilities”

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3. MEET THE ASPIRATIONALS

They are demanding change. They are a powerful force. And it’s working.

Based on a new global survey of Aspirational consumers by BBMG and GlobeScan released at the conference, Aspirational consumers represent more than one-third of consumers globally (38 percent) and are defined by their love of shopping (93 percent), desire for responsible consumption (95 percent) and their trust in brands to act in the best interest of society (50 percent). According to The 2014 Aspirational Consumer Index, brands that deliver exceptional products and services, inspire personal relationships, support community initiatives and protect the environment are most likely to drive perceptions of responsibility. Brands like Coke, Unilever, Samsung, Tata, Nestle.

“Aspirationals are looking for companies they can believe in, and they want brands to stand for something bigger than a product or service,” said Raphael Bemporad, co-founder and chief strategy officer at brand innovation consultancy BBMG. “The world’s most responsible companies recognize that being relevant in the future means delivering on a more holistic value proposition based on high performance, authentic relationships and concrete social and environmental actions.

4. SOONER IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.

Andrew Winston (author of The Big Pivot) tells us that sometimes it’s “hard for us to “sell” sustainability because we don’t have all the hard numbers. However, on a sinking ship would we wait to act until we “had all the numbers?”

Brave, visionary companies are making difficult choices in favour of sustainability even when the stakes are huge and the risk is high. For example, CVS cut out the sale of tobacco, which typically earned the company $2 billion a year because it was inconsistent with their company’s Purpose: Helping people on their path to better health...How long will it be before other pharmacy giants in the US follow suit? Canada has shown leadership in this area - when Shoppers Drug Mart stopped selling tobacco several years ago, they did it “in the interest of contributing to healthier communities”.

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5. EMPLOYEES CARE...AND THEY EXPECT THEIR EMPLOYERS TO CARE TOO

Human Resources has been on the periphery of the sustainability conversation until now. It has now begun to take its proper place as a catalyst in sustainability, according to Andy Savitz, author of Talent, Transformation and the Triple Bottom Line. “CSR without HR is just PR” says Andy. Increasingly, employees are no longer happy to simply collect a paycheck, rather they bring their values to work and gravitate towards employers who reflect their own values.

In fact, 90% of US grads (and its likely similar in Canada) actively seek out companies with similar values and look for opportunities in the workplace to work on assignments that actively reflect these values. It’s not just about a paycheck anymore. CSR policy rates as high as pay and benefits in employee satisfaction.

6. MEASUREMENT

Introducing an exciting new syndicated data product called the Social Value Index™ (SVI). The SVI and its components - the Social Value Score™ and Social Value Scorecard™ - identify and quantify three core insights:

1. the social value drivers of a specific industry that influence consumer demand so a brand can know if their social impact efforts are relevant to their consumers;2. the ratings and rankings of key competitors within an industry so a brand can see how successfully it is using social impact to influence consumer purchase compared to its peers; and3. the estimated revenue increase, in dollars, for improving its Social Value Score™.This means that companies no longer have to guess.

Creator of the tool, Mission Measurement’s CEO Jason Saul says, “Companies can now know what social impact to deliver in order to influence consumer purchase behavior. And not only have we identified and quantified all of this data, we’ve put it into a clear, concise, easy to read 1-page scorecard that enables anyone to see what social value drivers matter, how much they matter, how a brand ranks compared to its peers and the financial opportunity it could achieve by improving its social standing.”

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Contact Liz Atkins, 416 520 9765Liz@corktownseedco.com

“CSR withoutHR is just PR”