earthsayer's Open Salon Blog

Portland State Univ Business and Sustainability Conference

Thu, 4 Nov 2010 23:11:49 -0400

Attended Business and Sustainability conference sponsored by Portland State Univ. Interviewed SaraJoy Pond - Founder, The Tipping Bucket, Heidi McCloskey - Textile Exchange, Lorie Wigle - Intel Corp and
Dominique Nils Conseil - President of Aveda. Will be editing the video interviews and posting to our site, EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability.

Meantime visit our new "Transforming Our Economy" special collection and hear from John Fullerton or William Rees or Juliet Schor of "Born to Shop."

Values-washing of Sustainability

Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:03:11 -0500

Yesterday I wrote a long piece on the JustMeans site, where Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) folks hang out, about the ethical implications of a recent publication of the "2010 Best Corporate Citizens” by a group called the CRO*. To give you a taste of the list's value, Exxon is number 51 in the CRO rankings. HP is no. 1, Intel no. 2 and General Mills no. 3, but Exxon was no. 11 last year)

But CRO is just one of many list makers.

JustMeans member, Madeline Ravich, did an excellent comparison of these lists that are proliferating (the CRO one was not included as it was just published but will be in her next review) to include 2009 Best Corporate Citizens, 2009 Most Ethical Companies, 2009 Newsweek Green Rankings (top 100 companies), 2010 Global 100 by Corporate Knights, and the 2010 Global ESG 100 by RiskMetrics Group. She notes: "It turns out, however, that there is, in fact, NO COMPLETE CONSENSUS. Upon double-checking my work, I figured out that the one company that I had thought made all five lists was, in fact, not mentioned in the Most Ethical Citizens."

So why is this list making and shaking so important? Well, two reasons, both of them related to what I am calling values-washing.

First, very large corporations know the messaging of social responsibility has become very valuable because customers, especially younger ones, are showing preferences for buying from companies with sustainability related values - environmental and social - as well as those companies with green products. Advertising products as green when they are not is called greenwashing. What I am talking about I will call values-washing. These lists establish credibility for those practicing both green and values-washing.

The lists and buzz that surrounds them create confusion in the marketplace among consumers, as do the many conferences and consortiums targeting the professional class that are themed around sustainability, corporate responsibility and good citizenship.

Recent research from the New Scientist shows that there is a huge gulf (their word) between perception and reality on the part of consumers. They cite as one example the media firm Discovery Communications: its environmental impact, per dollar earned, is almost indistinguishable from TV and movie giant Viacom. Yet Discovery has a stellar green reputation that Viacom does not enjoy - which could be due to Discovery's content, which includes Animal Planet TV and websites such as TreeHugger. Why does this not surprise me?

Secondly, there is the Supreme Court decision that will allow Corporations to throw even more money at creating sustainability shell organizations, and here again lists, conference sponsorships, and awards are all very important to establishing credibility for sustainability-related claims and statements. Organizations representing "high powered boards" are already using the Internet very effectively to steer our citizens searching for information to networks of professionals such as the CRO one above, but also carefully embedded elsewhere in Facebook, even in citizen actions sites such as Care2.

Seeding the Web with free speech

Part of seeding includes establishing groups on magazines such as Ode and Eons, not to mention social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There is blogging on Salon.com et. al with quality content coming from the growing ranks of "journalists-turned-PR-Pros." Seeding the Web is easy and not as expensive as TV or print campaigns and one can be less transparent. How do I know this? Because I have been seeding the Web for EarthSayers.tv and know first hand how easy it is. Because I have years of online marketing experience and know the importance of search. Because research shows the top results or page one of organic results is generally only what we see. This is especially true for children. And because organic listing are more trusted than paid ones. Page one of Google Search Results is the single net impression for sustainability.

Here is the search playing field.

Look at trends for sustainability search, 2009, and you see environmental sustainability and sustainable are top ranked.

But note "rising searches" in the same period finds conferences and consortiums easing out environmental with Walmart in no. 5 position. Worldwide it's SAP in no. 2 position with Walmart nearly edging out environmental sustainability. Search results on the term, sustainability used to be primarily Wikipedia, the EPA and a variety of B2B research and consulting companies.

As my dad would have said, it’s a horse race. What do you see today? This ranking has appeared only beginning this week:

It isn't a stretch to see into the future and have the single net impression of sustainability be a Corporate one.

Perfection

What I hear all the time about our quest for sustainable lifestyles at home and in our work is that "no one is perfect." But that obscures the fact that individuals at work and in their homes should act ethically. What should be placed front and center on the Web is not perfection, but ethics and the core values that earn our respect and business. Values-washing is easy and it's not ethical.

This is not to say that the companies referenced above or in the myriad of lists or at business conferences do not have green products or sustainability initiatives. What I am saying is that the landscape of sustainability should not be defined solely by large Corporations or by the folks who remain anonymous on the much-referenced Wikipedia. It is this belief that fueled our investment in EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability, to show value and not be the storyteller, but the medium for the sustainability stories. The Web supports hearing directly from the thought leaders representing all sectors of our economy as well as citizens from all walks of life, but it is a horse race and we need sponsors to keep in the running. For our part at EarthSayers.tv, we are seeking sponsorship from companies that are certified as “for benefit.” We do not want to compromise our values, as our reputation is what “brand” is all about.

Note:

CRO is "Led by its high-powered 16-member Board of Governors and in partnership with the 6,900-company NYSE Euronext, the fast-growing Corporate Responsibility Officers Association...” and unlike the site, Business Ethics, the Magazine of Corporate Responsibility, is not affiliated with any organization offering credibility such as Open MIC which values “diversity and competition, creativity and innovation, openness and transparency.”

Five Leadership Qualities: The Short List

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:01:25 -0500

A short list of five qualities I have found in sustainability leaders and now “findable” in abundance at EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability.

Now that I live and work in a community (Portland, Oregon) where there is much more support for sustainability I don’t have to spend as much time doing missionary work on the relevancy of it, but I do talk more about leaders and why sustainability leaders need to ban together and become much more visible, not just on EarthSayers.tv, but, locally in their communities.

I have been listening to leadership experts who generally don’t reference sustainability (more missionary work needed here), but who have been talking about the qualities of leadership that are lacking and, as Bill George of Harvard and a member of the Board of Exxon Mobile and Goldman Sachs observes; it is a ”failure of leadership” that has put our country at risk. Of course it’s not just our country is it?

So here is my leadership short list and feel free to add to it, because right now is a good time to talk about leadership for two reasons: we need sustainability-conscious leaders to come to the front and lead and we need to look for these qualities in both the young and old for we are all leaders. It's not just me saying this: listen to Bob Edgar of Common Cause or Bill George or...

1. Givers not Takers

Sustainability leaders don’t fit the old model of leadership. Bill George asks: "On what basis have we been choosing our leaders? More for charisma, than character, more for style than substance, more for their image than their integrity. Not very authentic people, smart, but not committed, takers rather than givers.”

Listen to the leaders of B Corps. The "B" stands for benefit. Two come to mind immediately - Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation and Jay Cohen Gilbert, a co-founder of B Labs.

2. Motivators

Again from Bill George: “Economists told us for many years that people only interested in money. Not motivating people. Today we want to find meaning and significance in our work.

Over 90% of the voices on EarthSayers.tv (nearly 300 and growing) have motivated me to continue with my work and many in different ways emphasize the significance of taking the first step. I don’ think anyone says this better and more simply than Kip Ward, owner of a completely recycled motel in the beach community of Lincoln City, Oregon. Give him a listen.

3. Different and Humble

According to Blair Sheppard, dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, company recruiters are saying they need a “different kind of person. (They) need a person who is more of a leader, but humble.” I think the collection of leaders on EarthSayers demonstrates how different the sustainability leadership is and you can hear and see it for yourself.

4. Multi-cultured

Here’s Dean Sheppard. “If you think about the structure of the problems businesses are grappling with today, more and more of it requires that people work effectively with other people, often times from different civilizations from their own." It’s not just businesses is it?

Organizations such as the Ecotrust recognize the most innovative indigenous leaders for their efforts to improve conditions in their communities through award programs and public events. There is Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund For Women and then there is the The Goldman Environmental Prize, world’s largest award for grassroots environmentalists.

That’s my short list for now. It will grow as we add more and more sustainability leaders to EarthSayers.tv. Oh wait, I forgot the last one.

5. Visable

Robert Seireeni in his book, The Gort Cloud, references “The Invisible Force powering today’s most visible Green Brands.” Well, it’s time to get visible.

That's one big reason we founded EarthSayers.tv so you can find them. Now we need more sustainability-conscious leaders to step forward and talk with us about their vision and core values - the ones they put into practice.

Sustainability: A Thousand Suns

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:10:05 -0400

http://bit.ly/SymJS

View Trailer of A Thousand Suns on EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability. Only takes a couple of minutes and will wet your appetite to view the entire documentary.

A Thousand Suns tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley. Shot in Ethiopia, New York and Kenya, the film explores two interrelated threats to the Gamo Highlands: 1) the evangelistic aspirations of the protestant church that are destroying the Gamos indigenous spirituality and governance systems; and 2) the efforts of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a Western aid organization which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars bringing chemical pesticides, fertilizers and‚ improved seeds to the continent. Through these external forces we gain insight into the modern worlds untenable sense of separation from and superiority over nature. And we see how the interconnected worldview of the Gamo people is fundamental in achieving long-term sustainability, both in the region and beyond.

Sustainability Awareness

Sat, 4 Jul 2009 11:07:09 -0400

The United States is in 8th place in Google search traffic on the word, sustainability, according to Google Trends. We are behind Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the U.K., Canada, Singapore, and Malaysia. On the term, ecology, we are dead last, number 10.

A search on sustainability and ecology didn't net enough traffic to report as a trend graph!

The only two U.S. cities to be in the top 10 on Google search for the term, sustainability, is Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C. (Washington has come up only since President Obama took office).

How do we increase traffic to and interest in sustainability among our citizens? Talk about it as employees, employers, and citizens. As journalists and bloggers, report about it. We need buzz that sparks interest, that leads to searching and then finding. From here the learning cycle has been launched!

We here at EarthSayers.tv are seeking people who want to help us get EarthSayers.tv in the top five listings on the search term sustainability. We think in addition to increasing the number of searches, we need to improve the "finding" by providing the voices of sustainability at the very beginning of the learning cycle.

Visit EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability, and hear about sustainability, and contact us. We need reviewers for the content as each program is reviewed for relevancy and quality.