Kiwano Marketing » green marketing

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment

Sofia Ribeiro — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:11:16 +0000

Yesterday I read quite an interesting article by Andrew Winston in the Sustainable Life Media blog, titled “Why Companies Keep Investing in Renewable Energy.” It goes like this:

” One of the big misperceptions about going green is that it always costs money. In reality, seeing your business through an environmental lens will greatly lower costs and risk. But of course, beyond the quick payback of eco-efficiency projects, managers face choices about more expensive investments that may take longer to pay off. At the top of that list is buying renewable energy, which is what many execs think of first when they think ‘green’ (thus the misunderstanding that ‘green equals cost’).

Yet many large companies seem to be accelerating their renewables investments, both for onsite generation and through buying renewable energy certificates (RECs) to ‘offset’ their carbon emissions. By my calculation, the total green power generation of the top 25 [Green Power Buyers] is up 14% since last year and has tripled over the last 5 years.”

Some of these companies include the Kimberly-Clark, P&G, IKEA and (believe it or not) Ford.

One cannot help but wonder… why don’t we see more companies investing in renewable energy? I believe it’s mainly lack of knowledge. And that’s why the latest CBSR event is so timely.

Join CBSR in Vancouver on Wednesday, May 18, and learn how local and international businesses have grown their organizations by providing services, products and knowledge that help create a more sustainable world.

When:
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
8:00 AM – 11:15 AM PST

Where:
Vancouver Convention Centre
1055 Canada Place, West Building
Vancouver, BC

Keynote Speaker: Geoff Green, Founder of Students on Ice, Adventurer, Explorer, Environmentalist and named one of the 25 Transformational Canadians

Leadership Panel:
Andreas Souvaliotis, President, AIR MILES for Social Change
David Demers, CEO, Westport Innovations
Stuart McLaughlin, President, Grouse Mountain Resorts and Whistler Water
Ben Packard, Vice President of Global Responsibility, Starbucks Coffee Company
Francois Taschereau, Executive VP, Weber Shandwick

*UPDATE*
This event has been canceled.

For more information on upcoming events, please visit CBSR’s event page.

Cleaning The World… While Cleaning Tushis

Sofia Ribeiro — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:14:29 +0000

This week I had the pleasure of meeting Marcie Weinstein Smith, the owner and brains behind Lovey’s Body Products. Marcie was a mother with an enormous challenge: none of the products available was compatible with her son’s skin. He’d frequently have rashes and dry skin, and every time she’d try a product for sensitive baby skin, he would just get worse. What does a mother do in this situation? If you’re a dynamic, passionate woman like Marcie, you create your own baby product.

Marcie’s first creation was Lovey’s Tushi Wash, a natural spray that gently cleans the baby’s tushi. With no parabens, sulfates or lavender & tea tree oil, Lovey’s Tushi Wash is sourced from natural ingredients, reducing the amount of harsh chemicals babies are daily exposed to.

“I was careful to use ingredients that didn’t irritate my baby’s skin, but instead offered soothing and calming elements, while still cleaning effectively,” says Marcie. “I prefer to use natural products and I didn’t want to expose my son to all the [aggressive] chemicals in the wipes that I was seeing on the market. Even the wipes that were for sensitive skin or supposedly ‘natural’ would give my baby a rash. Plus, I wanted to do my part by not contributing more environmental waste. Used with a washcloth or a disposable, bio-degradable cloth, Lovey’s Tushi Wash users will be reducing waste in our landfills”.

Personally, I was very impressed by Marcie’s energy. She literally took matters into her own hands and, without realizing, created a brand that is helping mom’s around the world take care of their babies while having little impact on the environment – hence partnering with Shoo-Foo, a local provider of reusable and biodegradable cloths.

Lovey’s baby products are regularly featured in the media, with mentions in The Vancouver Sun, YoYo Mama and Vancouver Mom, among others.

For more information on Lovey’s products and where to get them, check Lovey’s website or contact Marcie at info(at)loveys.ca.

Business in a Changing Climate

Sofia Ribeiro — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:28:31 +0000

It’s becoming more and more evident: the climate is changing. In 2007, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produced a notorious set of reports showing the extent to which climate change is already with us, and making disconcerting predictions of the future if we fail to take action. Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami – followed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster – makes it all too clear that natural catastrophes have a hefty impact on how we conduct business. But how can businesses respond to climate change with strategies that build economic success and a better world?

Climate change presents both risks and opportunities. Much attention is being focused on managing the risks of climate change to both environment and business. However, leading companies are recognizing the opportunities to leverage and adapt their strengths to find the intersection between strong strategy and a better world.

Join the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) in Vancouver on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, and learn how local and international businesses have grown their organizations by providing services, products and knowledge that help create a more sustainable world.

Keynote Speaker: Geoff Green, Founder of Students on Ice, Adventurer, Explorer, Environmentalist and one of the 25 Transformational Canadians

When:
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
8:00 AM – 11:15 AM PST

Where:
Vancouver Convention Centre
1055 Canada Place, West Building
Vancouver, BC

CSBR will also be providing afternoon workshops for business leaders who wish to get a hands-on approach on sustainability best practices. Workshop topics include Engaging Stakeholders To Improve Reclamation Success, Defining and Developing Employee Volunteer Programs and Sustainable Procurement: A Strategic Approach. For more information on these workshops and to register, please visit CBSR’s event page.

Our Journey To Sustainability – Part 1

Sofia Ribeiro — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:15:25 +0000

Exactly a week ago, we joined Climate Smart’s program with the goal of reducing our carbon emissions. What a journey so far! Earlier this month, I spent 4 hours with other business owners learning about the basics of carbon emissions, top sources and the most dangerous greenhouse gases to our planet. Now that I know the nuts and bolts of greenhouse gas accounting, I’m moving to step 1: identifying Kiwano’s emissions, so we can start planning our reduction strategies.

This is not an easy task. Since we’re a small, home-based business with no manufacturing facilities or major printing processes, we have quite a small take on the environment (when compared to other businesses. One can always argue if a polluting impact on the environment can be considered small or insignificant). So we’ve decided that Kiwano should look both upstream and downstream of what we’re doing and account for those GHG emissions from third-party organizations associated to us – such as our partners, clients and contractors. Our goal? To become carbon neutral by December 2012.

And to show that we’re serious about reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, we’re publicly announcing our commitment to go carbon neutral in 21 months. There. It’s public!

I will also be posting frequent updates on the whole process, so you can see what goes into this plan and hopefully feel inspired to follow our lead.

Laying Down the Foundation

Where do our carbon emissions come from? Exactly where do they occur? Who are the biggest offenders?

According to Michelle Bonner, consultant at Climate Smart, we need to rate our greenhouse gas emissions according to their source. Each source should be rated scope 1, 2, or 3:

Scope 1:
Direct emissions. These can be natural gas or other heating fuel, electricity generated on-site, vehicle fuel (for the vehicles that you own) or refrigerants. Don’t include electricity here.

Scope 2:
Indirect emissions. It’s basically anywhere you use power that you don’t generate yourself, such as purchased electricity.

Scope 3:
Indirect emissions. In here you put everything else – anything you don’t have ownership or operational control over, such as commuting, paper use, waste, couriers, air travel and so on.

Where your reduction strategies will focus highly depends on the nature of your business. For instance, at Kiwano we don’t have significant scope 1 emissions, so we decided to take the process as far as we possibly can – and include scope 3 emissions in our reduction strategy. If you’re in the transportation business or you’re a product manufacturer, perhaps you should only focus on scope 1 emissions at this point.

We’re also following Michelle’s advice on using the TRACC methodology – principles to keep our company focused when dealing with GHG tracking and reduction strategies:
Transparency
Relevance
Accuracy
Completeness
Consistency

While doing this, we also had to answer a handful of critical questions that will help us establish best practices for the future. These include:

1. Who will lead the effort?
2. Who to enlist for help?
3. Where to store the inventory data?
4. Where to document assumptions and internal process?
5. When to schedule the annual inventory?

Finally, we needed to take into consideration which inventory period we’d be looking at. Since we’re in early 2011, and taking into consideration that our fiscal year starts in January, we decided to use 2010 to calculate our greenhouse gas emissions.

Step 1 – Mapping our Emissions

We’re still on the early stages of the process, but here’s a list of our emission sources and other considerations based on the information above:

Scope 1:
Home office.

Scope 2:
Fuel for our car (only bought in 2011)

Scope 3:
Commuting: skytrain, bus, bike (zero emissions), air travel, car (rental).
Waste: currently we recycle. Looking to compost and recycle electronics in the future.
Paper: minimal use, since we only print drafts of the materials we’re working on for our clients. Other paper usage includes our brochures (printed only when needed) and business cards. All paper has a high percentage of recycled material and/or is FSC-certified.
Other: events that we promoted or organized (5 last year); web hosting (100% wind-powered website) and data warehouse for database, CRM system and email marketing software.

As I mentioned above, this is just the initial list. Once we start gathering information on each of these emission sources, we may need to adjust our goals. As Michelle put it, we need to first focus on what we can track and then move towards a broader scope. Our goal is to include as much as possible, such as the emissions from manufacturing the computer I’m writing this post on to the recycling facility where they adapt the little amount of paper we use to produce new paper batches.

Check back in two weeks for the next step for us – calculating current emissions.

How about you? Are you considering tracking your greenhouse gas emissions? If you’re already doing this, what were your AHA-moments?

Musings from a Traveling Green Marketing Professional

Sofia Ribeiro — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:20:28 +0000

Well, that was a long time without writing! I’m finally back in Vancouver after traveling around the world for the past 2 months. Quite some lessons I’ve learned along my journey… The most important one? The environment is definitely not on everyone’s priority list.

During my stay in Angola, Africa, I noticed a lack of the most basic living conditions, such as housing and sanitation. When asked about their top concerns, most people would reply “food on my table tonight” or “not letting the mud waters stop me from going to work, so I can keep my job.” For an entrepreneur such as myself, I couldn’t stop thinking that there’s an enormous business opportunity here – with a great potential to actually make a difference.

So, you provide a service that overall has a considerable minor impact on the environment when compared to your competitors. You’ve been fairly successful in established markets such as the US, Canada and Europe, and you want to get into new, developing economies… but your market research shows that they’re not ready yet to invest in eco-friendly businesses (countries such as Angola). Don’t feel discouraged; you may just need to tweak your key selling proposition.

Just a few days ago I was having coffee with my good friend and fellow marketer Joyce, a local online marketing expert and a young business professional. We were talking about the green industry, and how too many people focus only on the eco-friendly benefit. “If you have a product that does one thing amazingly well or fulfills a unique market demand… why wouldn’t you focus on THAT?!,” said my wise friend.

She’s right. For the past five years the green industry has grown exponentially, and it seems some business leaders are just not getting the point. On their book Green To Gold, Andrew Winston and Dan Esty outline how businesses should stay away from focusing on the green selling point; instead, smart business owners use the “Third Button Rule,” where the green benefit is part of the marketing spin, but almost as a side note.

You need to answer the question “What is truly unique about my product? How is it different from the rest?” Think about performance, cost savings, improved health, … you name it. Customize your message: identify the problem, provide a solution and give it a spin.

If you’re trying to get into a developing economy, this can be as simple as looking at the basics. If, for instance, there’s a lack of shoe wear (problem), then you can provide resilient, low-priced shoes (solution) that are made of recycled materials and/or by local artisans (the sustainability advantage).

Notice the order: first you address the main issues or concerns – shoes that are resilient (quality) and low-priced (cost-savings) – and then you mention your commitment to environmental and social responsibility, almost as an after-thought. Based on my experience, if you just focus on the eco advantage, you probably won’t go far – especially in developing markets.

So, if you’re looking to get into a country where poverty, lack of housing and clean water are the main issues, you may want to focus on products and services that directly address these concerns – always ensuring your impact on the environment is as little as it can be.

The Journey to Sustainability: A Framework

Sofia Ribeiro — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:26:47 +0000

Last week, I started reading The Sustainable MBA: The Manager’s Guide To Green Business, by Giselle Weybrecht. It’s been quite an interesting read, providing managers and business owners with a simple, easy to follow framework to implement sustainable business practices into their organization.

One of the chapters that stood out in this book was “Getting Started.” It’s now well known that businesses should implement environmentally and socially responsible business practices for ethical and economic reasons. But how do you actually get started?

Here are some of Giselle’s recommendations:

1. Understand where you are now.
Start by thinking about the type of company you manage or work for. Explore what is currently happening and whether you can build on other initiatives already taking place in the company or if you should start a new one. Answer the following questions:

- Where do you currently stand?
- How is your organization impacted by society and the environment?
- What impact does your organization have on society and the environment?
- What issues are important to you?
- What kind of a culture does your company have?

2. Find out what’s happening around you.
Now that you understand what is happening in your organization and the issues that affect you, take a look at what’s happening in terms of regulations, best practices and interesting initiatives others are doing. Address the following considerations:

- What regulations affect you?
- What voluntary mechanisms are out there?
- What is the rest of the industry doing?
- What are the perceived best practices?

3. Decide where you want to go and why.
At this stage, you’re starting to define your strategy and approach to sustainability. You will need to identify your drivers, baseline, budget and the best point of entry. You will also develop the business case and identify the framework and tools that will work for you.

4. Engage others and gather support.
Experience shows that, in order for sustainability to be successfully mainstreamed into an organization, employees, the CEO and other stakeholders must be fully engaged. Engagement requires building relationships not only with your customers and suppliers, but also with communities, social groups, governments and citizens. You will need to:

- Confirm CEO/management commitment;
- Build cooperation internally;
- Engage business partners and clients;
- Identify and engage stakeholders;
- Connect with outside networks.

5. Put your plan in place and make it happen.
Develop a roadmap with clear objectives and goals to help the company go where it wants to go. You will need to make short, medium and long-term considerations when drafting your strategy:

- Create realistic targets and objectives (the so-called SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific).
- Prioritize.
- Create a structure and pilot projects.
- Align business systems.
- Give people the tools.

6. Keep it going.
Things don’t stop once you put your plan in motion. You will need to monitor your activities, reevaluate your efforts and adjust your strategy to the ever-changing sustainability industry. Keep in mind that successful strategies take time and effort to implement and should be continuously revisited. The following suggestions will boost the success rate of your sustainability initiatives:

- Communicate internally and externally.
- Monitor.
- Scale-up.
- Look for continuous improvement.

Once you implement this framework – or a similar one – to your sustainability programs, you should see an increase in brand awareness, employee retention rate and customer satisfaction.

Climate Smart: Cutting Costs by Cutting Carbon

Sofia Ribeiro — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:28:13 +0000

Last week I was attending a networking event here in Vancouver and I got to meet the owner of a local small business. We were chatting about new, lasting trends in business, and I asked him what he was doing in order to become environmentally sustainable. He told me how they reduced their printing habits, and how they switched to recycled paper and started turning off their computers at the end of the day. “That’s a great start,” I said. “What’s next in your to-do list?”

Truth is, he didn’t know what else he could do. Being a small business owner, he feels that most sustainability programs out there are geared towards large corporations, and require investments that small businesses simply cannot afford.

He’s right: being in front of a sustainable marketing agency, I came to realize that there’s a gap between environmental initiatives and businesses – especially the availability of those programs for corporations versus small businesses. And this makes me wonder: in a country where over 99% of companies are considered small businesses, how come there’s still a lack of sustainability initiatives specifically developed for this segment?

So today I decided to start a series of blog posts on programs and initiatives out there geared to help small businesses become environmentally responsible. And what better occasion to talk about Climate Smart and their upcoming training program?

As part of the City of Vancouver’s goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020, Climate Smart and the City have partnered to engage the business community in a comprehensive training program that takes small and mid-sized enterprises through the process of creating a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory and developing reduction strategies with a focus on cost savings, operational efficiency, and brand lift.

Climate Smart is a comprehensive professional development and training program that includes:

- A series of three interactive half-day training sessions
- Access to a top-rated, web-based GHG management tool
- One-on-one technical assistance

Participating businesses will benefit from a reduced fee and be showcased as early adopters of GHG management and leaders in the Vancouver business community. Businesses have the option of participating in one of two training groups with dates kicking off on November 25 and November 30.

Details:

Climate Smart Training Program
November 25 and November 30
From 8am to 12pm
Venues to be announced

Space is limited to 20 Vancouver-based businesses.

Businesses that complete the Climate Smart program are eligible to participate in the City of Vancouver’s Corporate Climate Leaders Program. This initiative supports and recognizes local businesses that reduce GHG emissions cost-effectively. For details and a list of companies that the City is profiling and showcasing, visit the Vancouver’s Green Capital website.

A brief history of Climate Smart:
Climate Smart began in 2007 through a collaboration between Ecotrust, Pembina and the David Suzuki Foundation. Since then, Climate Smart has worked with 300+ enterprises and some large training partners like Vancity, Metro Vancouver, City of Portland and the Climate Action Secretariat. Climate Smart has been recognized as the leading provider of carbon tracking tools, training and technical support to small and medium-sized enterprises and its online greenhouse gas management tool for SMEs was rated No. 1 in North America by Carbonzero.

FTC’s Update on Environmental Marketing Claims

Sofia Ribeiro — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:36:07 +0000

After 12 years of no significant developments on its environmental marketing guidelines, the Federal Trade Commission has finally proposed an amendment – one that will have significant impact on how green businesses communicate their benefits.

Most relevant amendments:

1. Marketers should not make unqualified general environmental benefit claims. They are difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.

2. Qualifications should be clear and prominent, and should limit the claim to a specific benefit. Marketers should ensure the advertisement’s context does not imply deceptive environmental claims. Marketers should not make unqualified general environmental benefit claims. They are difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.

3. Third-party certification does not eliminate a marketer’s obligation to have substantiation for all conveyed claims.

4. Marketers can make an unqualified recyclable claim only if there’s a “substantial majority” of consumers/communities who have access to recycling facilities.

5. Marketers should not make unqualified degradable claims for items destined for landfills, incinerators, or recycling facilities because decomposition will not occur within one year.

6. Non-toxic claims can only be used when an item is generally non-toxic both for humans and for the environment.

Read the summary of the proposal at FTC’s website.

What’s more interesting in these amendments is the issues that are not currently being addressed, such as renewable materials and renewable energy claims, as well as those related to carbon offsetting.

The FTC has set a 60-day comment period ending on December 10, after which it can pass a final version of the guidance.

What other issues do you believe should be addressed?

The Green Revolution: Is It Here Yet?

Sofia Ribeiro — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:02:57 +0000

Everyone is talking about it. Some think it’s already here; after all, it’s been a long time coming. Are we in the midst of the green revolution?

I don’t think so. While it’s great to see the amount of literature on green trends spreading like flowers on a spring day, it seems that green products – and green services – are not enjoying the mass adoption rates expected at this point. Why?

1. Greenwashing.

Greenwashing sucks. Not only it’s misleading, but it also makes consumers particularly wary of environmentally sustainable products. How many times have I seen a friend excited about his new cool green product, only to have someone ask “How exactly is that green?” or to point out that a specific eco feature has been around for long – basically, that you were just another victim of greenwashing? Suddenly, my excited friend just got criticized for trying to do the right thing. True, people shouldn’t care about it – but we, as marketers, cannot ignore this dynamic. So we end up by having some (not many) consumers buying green products and, except for the dark-green, tree-hugger consumer, most won’t talk about it.

2. It’s too expensive.

Another reason why the green revolution hasn’t gone mainstream yet is the fact that most green products charge a premium for their environmental and social responsibility. When I raise this question to my clients, they typically tell me “It’s more expensive to develop green products, so I need consumers to cover the extra costs.” Wrong. Instead of focusing on the short term, think volume. Remember, we want to cater green products to the masses. Only an affordable price point will do it.

3. There’s more out there besides being green.

This was a great lesson that I learned from Andrew Winston and Dan Esty on their book Green to Gold: if you want to sell a green product and foster mass adoption, you can’t sell it solely on its eco-friendly features. Think of it this way: if you don’t care for American cars, will you buy one from a sales dealer that just talks about how great American cars are? Probably not. You’ll buy a car from a dealer who talks about the car’s performance, safety, durability, fuel efficiency and so on. If the car happens to be American, well, that’s a nice coincidence.

4. Appeal to the inner economist in us.

Who doesn’t like to save money? Most green products (and services) tend to save money in the long run, either through increased efficiency or through long product life cycles. Yet, you don’t see many companies using this selling point. Do the math for your clients and show the great return they’ll get by using your services. (This is a great KSP if you’re dealing with B2B organizations.) Just don’t go around charging a premium just because your customers get 100% of their investment back in the first 12 months – we still tend to get more excited about short-term benefits than long-term ones, and you need to find the right balance between the two.

5. Where are these green products?!

I like to think that Vancouver is at the forefront of the green movement. But when I go out grocery shopping and I’m looking at the supermarket shelves, I start to wonder: “Where are these green products?!” Not in supermarkets. I have to go to 3 different stores (thank God they’re all on the same street) to get my shampoo, organic fruit and toothpaste. This shouldn’t be happening any more.

Product placement is the constant challenge for marketers: to get a good placement, we need to prove there is demand for our product, but without getting into major retailers, how will consumers buy your product? Focus on generating demand through other initiatives, such as online marketing, social media, public relations and product sampling.

How about you? What are the main reasons that keep you from buying (more) green products?

Social Media Week: Top 3 Environmental Social Media Campaigns

Sofia Ribeiro — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:33:47 +0000

Today marks the first day of 2010’s Social Media Week. This is a time we marketers take to reflect on the developments of this exciting field and its impact on businesses’ overall marketing strategy. At Kiwano, we’re taking this time to contemplate some of the best social media initiatives that promote environmental and social values… and how we can take this one step further.

It’s well known that marketers can no longer ignore social media as part of their marketing programs. Just in Canada, 9 in 10 organizations use social media, with thirty-one per cent saying social media plays a major role in public communications around their brand.

But how do you use this widespread medium to promote environmental responsibility? Here are 3 campaigns that we loved:

1. Billion Acts of Green:

The Billion Acts of Green campaign is a global effort focused on encouraging simple actions on behalf of the planet, with the goal of aggregating millions of environmental commitments from individuals and organizations to showcase the collective power of service to the planet.

Launched by the Earth Day Network especially for the 2010’s Earth Day, the Billion Acts of Green campaign featured social media tools that made it easier for the public to participate in this global effort, with Facebook and twitter apps encouraging users to pledge at least one “act of green” and share it with their social network.

The Billions Acts of Green campaign was tremendously successful, with media mentions across new and traditional media, and registered over 5 million pledges.

2. Charity: Water Twestival:

This campaign is an oldie, but one of our favourites. Back in 2009, when the number of tweets was under 22 million tweets a day (compared to 65 million daily tweets nowadays), the Charity for: Water Twestival campaign was an eye-opener to the potential of social media for cause marketing and fundraising.

On 12 February 2009, over 200 international cities hosted a Twestival to bring Twitter communities together to raise money for Charity: Water. With over 1,300,000 followers on twitter, the Twestival raised an astonishing $250,000 and brought worldwide public awareness to the global water crisis.

Charity: Water is now running its September campaign, with a rough $500,000 raised so far. Help raise funds for clean water in Africa through twitter.

3. Go Green Twitter Sweepstakes:

The Go Green Twitter Sweepstakes was another campaign especially created for 2010’s Earth Day. Spun by Create the Good and the AARP, the campaign consisted of users tweeting at @createthegood with methods for environmental action by using the #gogreen hash tag. The prize? A zero-emission trip to Washington, DC for the official 2010 Earth Day celebration. Over 150,000 people participated in this campaign and its twitter account is still running at 6,000+ followers.

What other cool social media campaigns do you know of? Share your thoughts below or send me an email.