One of the companies I had interviewed with was LF USA, the subsidiary of a billion-dollar Chinese conglomerate that you’ve likely never heard of. While the position seemed interesting, involving the development of an employee social network as the company is planning to rapidly expand in the coming years, it was their highly visible commitment to sustainability that caught my eye.

Considering their specialty in the end-to-end design, sourcing, production, and distribution of various merchandise in 30+ countries, it’s relatively easy to understand how a commitment to eco-efficiency can be important to the bottom line. However, based on my impressions from the wording of the various posters and web copy I found online, there was an ethical imperative underlying it all.

With my smartphone at hand and the opportunity to grab some coffee in the break room, and see the restroom, I just had to snap the following photographs to share what I found to be a fantastic example of bringing the sustainability message to employees without being too subjective.

Only thing missing from these goals is a expected completion date for the quantified ones (#2 – 5).

Pretty neat new campaign by Greenpeace, this time against Volkswagen. Read the whole whole story at Futerra.

Funny new Greenpeace campaign against Mattel for using Asia Pulp & Paper as a 2nd/3rd tier supplier for its Barbie packaging. Combining the video shown below along with the URL http://greenpeace.org/ken which links to a special Facebook page app, the campaign is pretty neat for its humor (video viewership at 120,000 after 4 days online) among other unique features like changing your Facebook photo to an angry Ken, and sending an email to Mattel’s CEO Bob Eckert.

Here’s the LA Times coverage including reactions from Mattel, and Business Wire’s press release response from APP.

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via Toby Webb

A couple months ago, I attended a neat panel discussion on how documentary films could reach larger audiences and hopefully have a positive impact or influence, based on the filmmaker’s intent. Here’s the official description:

“Documentary films unveil important truths, challenge assumptions, and often compel audiences to take action. Many of today’s filmmakers are faced with an additional challenge—how do they ensure their film will have a significant impact on the public and on the policies their story highlights? The collaboration of filmmakers with NGOs and community groups has created a new distribution model, and the measure of success now reaches beyond sales to changes in public perception and policy. Join filmmaker and activist Abigail Disney, Give Up Tomorrow director Michael Collins, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Impact Partners Dan Cogan, producer Cynthia Lowen of The Bully Project, Josh Baran of Baran Communications, and others for an insightful discussion on the new paths of distribution for nonfiction films and the ways filmmakers and their subjects are making their voices heard. Moderated by independent producer and Outreach Director of The Good Pitch, Sandi DuBowski.”

Josh spoke about “Race to Nowhere“, about education and kids stress. Distributed through schools and grassroots orgs, viewers paid $10, $5 of which went to the production company, and $5 to the school. Additionally, each school paid a nominal screening fee. Following the film, there was a discussion and action plan. Big organic publicity came after initial screenings.

“Gasland” was shown at Sundance Film Festival 2010, HBO picked it up, and it got 3.5 million viewers through their network. Compared to the 30k who saw it in theaters, that’s phenomenal. It was also shown through community and university screenings. CBS 60 minutes then did their own investigative story, followed by other news orgs around the country. Josh claims the flaming water faucet scenes were “gold”, and became the hook to draw people into the issue of fracking and water contamination.

Abigail spoke of how documentary filmmakers shouldn’t have to “beg for crumbs” and live poorly to make and distribute their production. There should be the option to somehow monetize it.

A big theme seemed to be how community screenings afforded people to stick around after the film and discuss it with others, compared to the big screen experience in which people leave their seats, and may talk about it within their little group on the way to the car.

Dan mentioned how “No Impact Man” had influenced 50k colleges to host voluntary “no-impact” weeks for students.

Abigail then talked about Lioness and the story of women combat fighting in Iraq. Though illegal, it was happening anyway. It started with women who could pat down Iraqi females, since male soldiers were severely chastised for doing so. These women never got combat pay and no healthcare treatment for PTSD or other ailments since they weren’t legally allowed to be fighting anyway. What ended up happening with enough exposure, is that it affected U.S. policy in the Senate, started discussions at Westpoint and the Defense Dept., and resulted in a commission’s recommendation to end the combat exclusion policy.

Cynthia spoke about “The Bully Project“, which premiered this Spring at Tribeca. They too are working on community screenings, 1st planned in Sept. in Philadelphia, with funding through foundations and nonprofits.

Personally, I really like the community screenings, but feel the option for distributing the film could be much wider through websites like Hulu, YouTube, and Netflix in addition to the cable networks. Depending on the situation (money/partners), I’d recommend creating a tiny program that downloads the movie and any additional media, through BitTorrent.

I like the “Buy One, Give One” business model embodied by Tom’s Shoes. It’s very intuitive, and not some limited promotion like some cause marketing programs. So long as the price and value are aligned, it’s all good. Here’s another interview I liked from BBMG, this time with a local NYC company I find fascinating. While cognizant that 14min is a long investment, you can listen in the background too.

“Mitch sits down with Neil Blumenthal, co-founder of Warby Parker, to discuss how the disruptive eyewear company delivers on style and substance. By designing their own frames and selling direct to consumers, Warby Parker saves customers hundreds of dollars per frame. By adopting a “buy a pair, give a pair” model, they embed a sense of purpose into their business design.”

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Here’s a recent interview of mine with Labeeb Abboud of Rainforest Alliance on how all value chain partners need to benefit in order for the system to work, and secondly how both poverty alleviation and environmental stewardship can be accomplished. Enjoy!

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Following a recent evening affair, I asked Seventh Generation co-founder and business leader Jeffrey Hollender his thoughts on Shared Value, as proposed by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School.

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Would have liked to get some further elaboration, however I was grateful he granted me 90 seconds of his time before running off to another engagement.

Stakeholder engagement is important. In the corporate realm, investors and analysts are kept best in the know regarding financial data, but very likely don’t know anything about social responsibility. The inclusion of ESG data on Bloomberg terminals is great progress, but some folks think integrated reporting is the only way to get this info in front of investors. Well, having heard about the Shell Oil mobile application for investors, I thought of trying it out to see how objective company communications could be made even more concise and relevant when the smaller screen estate demands greater focus on just the essentials (and the fluffy marketing speak can be left out).

Here’s the opening screens:

Hitting on the “Full Menu” button brings us the listing screen on the left. Scroll down a bit and low and behold, is a section on Social Responsibility. Yay!

As you can see in the right screen above, this section is also available as a permanent menu item (out of 6 choices) in “My Library”. You can finger scroll left to right, through 5 various reports Shell provides, and download the PDF to your phone.

via IR Web Report

This cause campaign from United Nations Women and MasterCard is a contest for $25k where entrants submit a 5-minute video or 2-page pitch to help empower disadvantaged women or girls.

What I love about the website is its limited content of 4 pages explaining the program, and clear communication design for the instructions. Want people to participate? Create an environment and use language that facilitates understanding, emotional appeal, and promotes action. Basta!

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One of my favorite marketing thinkers on sustainability is John Grant, who gives here a historical perspective on the transitions in business and society, the current evolution taking place, and the future of sustainable branding and people’s changing behavior in regards to commerce and sharing.