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Sustainable semantics: “Global warming” vs. “climate change”
In sustainability communications, even synonyms can inspire vastly different reactions. Take “nature” and “environment,” for instance. We’ve learned that “nature,” when coupled with “conservation” or...
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Toward a never-ending circle: The circular economy model
I recently read a report sponsored by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that describes a new sustainable economic model called the “Circular Economy.” It’s defined as “an industrial economy that is...
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Pushing the Concerned Parent: Greenpeace and LEGO
A few years ago in this space, we wrote an article about Greenpeace and their targeting of Mattel. Through their “Ken dumps Barbie” campaign, Greenpeace was able to “force” Mattel to avoid using...
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Linking CSR to your supply chain
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the World Resources Institute recently announced that they had brokered an alliance between a dozen large and disparate corporations to push for market changes that...
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What’s a materiality assessment – and should you be doing one?
In the broadest sense, material issues are simply those that have a great impact on a company’s ability to do business. In essence, it’s simply risk assessment: a firm looks at all the issues that can...
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Let’s talk about love
One of the ah-has from our soon-to-be-released 2015 Eco Pulse study is that, indeed, a company’s sustainability or social responsibility commitment IS a reason to love the brand. In fact, when we asked...
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A tax on electric vehicles? Surely not!
Georgia, my home state, recently passed HB170, the Transportation Funding Act of 2015. The bill, which was signed by Governor Nathan Deal in May, took effect on July 1, creating new sources of funding...
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Americans believe in climate change! Problem (NOT) solved.
Our soon-to-launch Eco Pulse study found that American opinion about climate change has shifted more strongly than ever before toward belief in the phenomenon and in its human causality: 62% agree or...
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Keep it simple
If you’re reading this post, you’re living in the extremely complex world of energy, conservation and/or sustainability. You’re working on Big, Complex Things all day long, and at some point you have...
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4 things we can learn from California drought communications campaigns
One of my coworkers here at Shelton Group lived in San Francisco during Jerry Brown’s first time around as governor. When the drought of 1976-77 struck, she and her neighbors turned water rations into...
View ArticleUnder fire: What to do when your sustainability story is questioned
If you’ve eaten at Chipotle, you know their sustainability story. If you haven’t, take a tour of their website, and you’ll learn about how vegetables are grown in healthy soil, how they’ve removed GMOs...
View ArticleHow patriotism could motivate Americans to be more energy efficient
Several years ago, back when we were still fighting a war in Iraq and we were all very tense about that, we tested some messaging around national security as a reason to make one’s home more energy...
View ArticleThe value proposition for recycling
Sunday, November 15, was America Recycles Day. It immediately reminded me of an opinion piece I read a few weeks back in The New York Times (“The Reign of Recycling“) questioning the validity of...
View ArticleSuper Bowl sustainability ads: Enough with the baby steps
This Sunday, as America gathers to consume (according to Wikipedia) roughly 28,000,000 pounds of chips, 1.25 billion chicken wings, and 8,000,000 pounds of guacamole, they will be bombarded by an...
View ArticleFinding Your Believers
After a five-minute phone call with Mr. Steve (a volunteer STEM classroom instructor in inner city Oakland), the project was all but in the can. Granted, we had not filmed a single minute of his...
View ArticleWhy Business Is Good for Earth Day
The health of our air and water in the U.S. has come a long way since Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970. So has corporate sustainability. From the beginning, Earth Day has had a mix of grassroots...
View ArticleGreen: Where Red and Blue Agree
In this season of increasingly rude presidential campaign rhetoric, it seems that U.S. political parties have never been more divided – both internally and from each other. As conventions near,...
View Article7 Key Insights from Fortune Brainstorm E
I’ve spent the last two days holed up in a dark hotel ballroom with executives from a variety of traditional and start-up companies talking about energy, water, food, climate change, and what we’re all...
View ArticleA Tale of Two Crises
We had a very interesting finding from our Eco Pulse 2015 study that took us by surprise: the percentage of people who said they had stopped buying a product based on the environmental reputation of a...
View Article3 Themes to Ponder from Sustainable Brands ’16
I’ve just finished up two days at the annual Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego, and, as usual, I have many thoughts and ideas to share. I’ve distilled it down to three key themes … hopefully...
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