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Marketing & Communications

How brands are successfully communicating their sustainability efforts — and how their stakeholders are asserting their own needs and preferences

SAP Advances Business Case for Integrated Reporting

SAP is using its integrated sustainability and annual report to promote more deeply embedded sustainability in its operations, the software company’s chief sustainability officer, Dr. Read More...

The Two Deficits, Part Two: What's Exceptional About America?

This is the second in a multi-part series of posts that comprise Future 500 founder Bill Shireman's insightful essay, The Two Deficits, from the book Towards a New Agenda for America: Read More...

Sustainability: Understand, Adapt, Then Signal

Engagement with sustainability offers many perks to a company: It improves brand reputation, it helps raise prices, it maintains one’s position in the market long term and it can open doors to better investment packages. Signals are one way that companies communicate that sustainability is vital to their corporate strategy and brand development. Read More...

#BetheStart Campaign – Week 3: More Vibrant Communities

Imagine a world where everyone could truthfully say they lived in a vibrant, trusting local community and global society — where our communities were places where residents felt engaged, supported, appreciated and valued; where the local economy was thriving, and participants feel proud to be part of their community and take an active role in helping to support this. Read More...

13 Hot Research Reports on Corporate Sustainability Issues, Tools and Trends

As the fourth and final piece in our 4-part series of ‘hot lists’ (check out our other picks for hot products, books and business model innovations), this week we introduce 13 hot research reports tracking the state of various aspects of corporate sustainability, as well as respective consumer attitudes and behaviors. Read More...

The Two Deficits: Why Conservatives and Progressives Are Both Right, Part One

This is the first in a multi-part series of posts that comprise Future 500 founder Bill Shireman's insightful essay, The Two Deficits, from the book Towards a New Agenda for America: Ideas To Bridge the Left and Right and Move the Natio Read More...

Hyundai's Controversial Ad: Communicating Sustainability the Wrong Way?

Suicide may be painless in the song but it's a theme that's causing all sorts of grief for automaker Hyundai. Read More...

The Amplification Project: Translating Policy Research Into Action

Each week leading up to the Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) finals on June 5th, where the runner-up will be decided via live online public vote, we will feature articles introducing our semi-finalists. This week, meet The Amplification Project.“Advocacy is about persuasion, and connecting with the people that you’re trying to persuade,” says Richard Greenberg, founder of The Amplification Project, a socially and environmentally conscious company whose mission is to “translate policy research into action.” Read More...

Coca-Cola Announces Global Commitments To Help Fight Obesity

Coca-Cola today announced four global business commitments it claims will contribute to healthier, happier and more active communities in the more than 200 countries where it does business. Read More...

M&S, B&Q, Eden Project and More Helping UK Consumers 'Be the Start' of More Resourceful Living

Researchers tell us that by 2030 we will need 30% more water, 50% more energy and 50% more food to be fit for our growing population. Statistics from WWF echo this — if we continue our current rate of consumption in the United Kingdom, we will need three planets' worth of natural resources to continue this lifestyle, and five planets to continue the consumption lifestyle in the USA. Read More...

Sustainable Restaurant Association Launches Global Restaurant Rating System

The UK-based Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) this week debuted a global sustainability rating system to encourage more sustainable practices across the industry. More than 500 UK restaurants have already completed the rating system, a new international standard for the professional food community. Read More...

Report: Major Global Companies Failing To Report on GHG

The level of public disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions among the world's 800 largest companies is “unacceptably poor,” according to research published this week by the Environmental Investment Organization (EIO). Read More...

Consumers Rank Ingredient Transparency Among Most Important Issues for Brands

Horsemeat found in five percent of beef tested in the European Union. One in three fish commonly mislabeled in the United States. Up to 30 states now considering GMO labeling laws. Ingredient transparency is trending for brands looking to restore consumer trust. But how much do consumers care about what they put in, on and around their bodies? Read More...

Speaking AND Listening: The Key to Effective Stakeholder Communications

Fostering a two-way, inclusive dialogue with stakeholders is key to the success of corporate sustainability programs. But developing a communications strategy that delivers the transparency stakeholders demand, in an engaging, enriching way, is challenging. Read More...

Spotlight on Five Tales of Sustainability Storytelling Success

Businesses worldwide are exploring the growing potential of storytelling to engage their audiences with complex social and environmental issues, inspire behaviour change and enhance brand reputation. Read More...

Be a Part of Business in the Community's 'Be the Start' Month

This month, Business in the Community's Start campaign is running Be the Start — a month-long celebration and demonstration of how living sustainably is rewarding and meaningful.Over 31 days, 40+ businesses and organisations — including Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, IBM, Eurostar, Virgin Money and B&Q —will join in with the campaign to support and inspire people in their journey towards a sustainable lifestyle. Read More...

Communicating Sustainability at Maersk Line: Striking a Balance Between Silence and Greenwashing

Maersk Line has traditionally not been known for its sustainability efforts. Why? Well, because the company used to have a habit of hardly communicating anything externally. Previously, there had been little perceived need for communicating — and this combined with a strong value around humbleness kept the company quiet. Read More...

The Next Big Leap: Keys to a More Proactive, Creative and Brand-Branding Sustainability Strategy

No matter how often it happens, when a new idea or insight opens up entirely new pathways and possibilities in our minds, there’s always a sense of exhilaration. Read More...

What Chief Sustainability Officers Can Learn from Screenwriting

If all the world’s a stage, according to Bill Shakespeare, then one needs to look no further than the c-suite for some of its highest drama. A new, fairly misunderstood protagonist has entered this mercurial world where survival typically goes to the fittest Machiavellian mind. Read More...

Global Reporting Initiative Releasing Updated Guidelines

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) last week announced that the next generation of its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines will be unveiled at its 2013 Global Conference on Sustainability Reporting in Amsterdam on May 22. Read More...

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December 11-12, 2024
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