Event - Global Sustainability [Retail Food] Summit

This event will take place August 19 - 21, 2015 at the Sheraton Denver in Downtown Denver, Colorado. This event will address ways of strengthening your sustainability efforts in the retail food sector. It will include information on the demand for transparency, sustainable sourcing and CSR.

Course - Social LIfe Cycle Assessment (Barcelona, Spain)

The course on on Social LIfe Cycle Assessment will take place in Barcelona Spain and will start on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 and run through Friday, February 21, 2014. This course is composed of 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of workshops/exercises. It is an ILCA Approved ILCA course.

Office Depot's Back to School Cause Marketing

For a second year in a row Office Depot is successfully using cause marketing to increase its profile. It would appear that the efforts are paying off as sales from this year's campaign are already out-performing last year's effort. Office Depot has been a business leader through its anti-bullying effort. Last year Office depot's We Supply Kindness' campaign partnered with Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation and provided a one million dollar donation. This year Office Deport continued its anti-bullying campaign and partnered with the boy band One Direction offering another million dollars for anti-bullying education in schools.

According to David Hessekiel, President of Cause Marketing Forum, here are three lessons to be learned from Office Depot:

Event - 2013 Cause Marketing Forum

The 2013 Cause Marketing Forum (CMF) will take place on May 29-30, 2013 in Chicago. If you're like most cause marketers, partnerships are critical. You can prioritize these essential relationships by registering to attend the industry's most important conference: the 2013 Cause Marketing Forum - the only conference where you will find an exclusive focus on company/cause partnerships.

3 More Reasons to Attend

1) Your colleagues are attending making this a prime networking opportunity.

Event - CMF13: Captivate. Connect. Activate

Cause Marketing Forum 2013 (CMF13) will take place May 29-30, 2013 at the JW Marriott in Chicago. As a savvy cause marketer, you know that it's not enough to simply create a company/cause partnership. You must captivate your audience with a compelling story, connect on a meaningful level and provide accessible ways to activate consumer participation while generating business and social benefits.

SourceWatch on Greenwashing: Definitions, Allure and Detection

This January 10th 2013 article offers a great summary of greenwashing as well as an explanation of why greenwashing occurs and rough rules of thumb to detect it.

Greenwashing is the unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government, a politician or even a non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image, sell a product or a policy, or to try and rehabilitate their standing with the public and decision makers after being embroiled in controversy.

The U.S.-based watchdog group CorpWatch defines greenwash as "the phenomena of socially and environmentally destructive corporations, attempting to preserve and expand their markets or power by posing as friends of the environment." This definition was shaped by by the group's focus on corporate behavior and the rise of corporate green advertising at the time. However, governments, political candidates, trade associations and non-government organizations have also been accused of greenwashing.

Video - Greenwash Coverage from TerraChoice: The Seven Sins (CBC Newsworld)

TerraChoice Environmental Marketing Inc president Scott McDougall talks about the dangers of Greenwashing on CBC NewsWorld on April 17th, 2009.

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New FTC Green Guidelines for Marketers

In October 2012 the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) updated its Green Guides for marketers. The original draft of the updated guidelines were released in 2010. The changes that should be noted pertains to the FTC's interpretation of general environmental benefits, more specifically claims that a product is “eco friendly” or “green,”

There are at least two salient points to be made here. The first is that the FTC now requires proof of any stated environmental benefit and the second is what it calls “environmental tradeoffs.” The replacement employed in the greener offering must indeed be green. The net effect is that companies will have to work harder to prove the claims they make. The FTC also has new powers to act against those who contravene these guidelines.

The Days of Overconsumption

Everyone is well acquainted with the twelve days of Christmas, in the modern era, that is being replaced by 6 days of overconsumption. The period around Thanksgiving is the busiest U.S. shopping period of the year. Thanksgiving has long been a spectacle of consumer overindulgence, but now this rampant consumerism extends well beyond Black Friday. Marketers are finding more ways to entice consumers, but they ignore the fact that we cannot sustain our current rate of consumption.

Communications Disconnect Revealed by the Sustainability Leadership Report

Although companies are adopting sustainability in record numbers, there can sometimes be a disconnect between these efforts and the perception of the general public. When corporate sustainability was first introduced it was a low priority issue that focused mostly on reporting, however it is now influencing core strategies and transforming businesses around the world. Companies recognize that a proactive stance on sustainability is becoming a competitive necessity in attracting investors, employment talent and supply chain partners, as well as customers. Because of this, those responsible for creating and maintaining brand relevance need to pay close attention to their company’s sustainability practices. However, engaging is sustainability is only part of a successful strategy, corporate communicators must reconcile operational practices and brand communications.

How We Can Engage Businesses and People in Efforts to Combat Climate Change

Effective communications are crucial to efforts to change behavior and integrate sustainability into a corporate culture. Climate Change is an irrefutable scientific fact, but not everyone is on-board, and many of those who accept the science, are not personally engaged. Effective ecological communications involves more than scientific discourse or economic diatribes.

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Educating Consumers about Sustainable Consumption

Businesses need to address consumer confusion about sustainability. A 2011 WBCSD report reviews how business can help to take sustainability from a niche market to the mainstream. As reviewed in the report, businesses need to be part of the effort to explain sustainability to consumers. Ultimately consumers need to understand that sustainability is about a pragmatic approach to solving the climate change crisis we are facing.

One of the chief obstacles that businesses face has to do with the false choice between the economy and the environment. Many consumers fear that sustainable consumption will translate to a decrement in their standard of living. However, sustainable consumption does not have to mean a lower standard of living, just a higher level of intentionality about encouraging more sustainable products, systems and services.