Friday 30 April 2010

One step forward...

Most of the stories we read about supermarkets and ‘green’ products are positive ones – about new innovations reaching our shelves. Unfortunately, things have recently moved in the other direction at Waitrose, where eco milk pouches and jugs – a smart innovation that uses 75% less plastic than traditional bottles and much less energy in production – have been withdrawn from the shelves after poor sales. Even though the pouches are marginally cheaper than traditional milk bottles, but Waitrose believes its consumer preferred the convenience of the old-style containers.

This raises an interesting question about how consumers can be persuaded to try, and adopt, new products that are better for the environment but differ from what they are used to. And not least because Sainsbury’s has had quite a different experience – its milk pouches and jugs have flown off the shelves during trials in 50 stores, and are now being rolled out nationwide. Sales of bags at Sainsbury’s already account for one in every 10 two-pint containers of semi-skimmed sold.

So what did Waitrose do wrong? Are Waitrose and Sainsbury’s customers really so different? Sainsbury’s attributes its success to spending time educating consumers about the new product, starting with handing them out to all employees so that they would become ambassadors for it. Perhaps Waitrose's mistake was to assume that its customers' appetites for greener products were so strong that the pouches would fly off the shelf as soon as they appeared.

The lesson here might be that, whilst consumers consistently express interest in seeing more environmentally friendly alternatives on supermarket shelves, this appetite is something that needs to be carefully cultivated into a willingness to change purchasing habits and accept doing things a little differently. Retailers taking the time to really talk to consumers about green choices, and educate them about new products, can only help. Manufacturers and retailers are doing well to introduce more and more ‘eco’ alternatives into their product ranges, and it would be a real shame if that hard work is undone because consumers haven’t been persuaded to give them a try.

Wednesday 28 April 2010

There's a buzz in the air


As an endangered species it's a real benefit having that 'cute' factor for this will help you no end getting your survival cause firmly on the map. Luckily, this is just the case for our British bees, who have recently seen a sharp rise in food retailers and manufacturers in particular, taking on the fight to help save their numbers. They are also instrumental to the food industry producing honey and helping pollinate other flora, so it's a win win situation.

Helpers include no less, Fortnum & Masons who now have their own bee hives on their roof through to Sainsbury's, who have recently set up a number of 'bee hotels' and the Co-op with Plan Bee, which includes support of bee documentaries and amateur beekeeping.

Here at Good Business we are proud to have helped Innocent with their quest to reduce declining bee populations through their latest smoothie range "Buy One get One Bee", helping to introduce 2 million more bees into the UK.

Isn't it nice to think that more bees will be in our skies, not only diong the important job of pollinating millions of plants but doing what bees do best, make honey!

Monday 19 April 2010

Erupting Mount Sustainability?

Unless you have been living on another planet you'll have noticed that there aren't many planes in the sky over the UK at the moment. The volcanic cloud of ash that's rising above the Eyjafjallajökull crater, which has reached heights of 36,000 feet, has brought Europe's airspace to a standstill.

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano

It has not been easy for many - with estimates of over 150,000 UK nationals being stranded abroad, there have been some Herculean efforts made by travellers to get home - check out some of these stories from the BBC.

But it's not just the human cost. There are some serious financial costs to our, already fragile, economy. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that airlines are collectively losing £130m per day in lost revenues. Some have estimated that if the no fly zone continues there is a risk of a drop of between 1% and 2% for some European economies.

With all this doom and gloom I was trying to see if there might be one or two silver (sustainability) linings to this ash cloud. Here are a few things that I thought this adversity might remind us of...

  • ...what is seasonal - it might only be 1% of UK trade that actually relies on air transport, but with even only some of those unseasonal products missing perhaps we might make a switch
  • ...how tasty UK fruit and veg can be - perhaps it will be a Cox's apple rather than a mango
  • ...how many tonnes of CO2 have been saved from the Earth's atmosphere - this website estimates 194,109 tonnes per day!
  • ...how fun the train is - assuming you can get a seat and the services are running on time
  • ...how a holiday in the UK might be a more attractive option - certainly given the last few days of sun we've had
  • ...how we haven't lost that great British spirit of adventure - assuming you have managed to get home and you are still in one piece (and I admit this last one has nothing to do with sustainability!)

Okay, so there may be a few caveats in there, but its fun to think there might be a few positives to spring from the Eyjafjallajökul crater.


Monday 12 April 2010

2010 - the year of brand responsibility?

Last month Giles spoke, as part of a panel discussion, at the Business and Sustainability Event (base). Below is an extract from his speech and also a link to read the full piece. Is 2010 going to be the year of brand responsibility? Are we about to reach a tipping point? Only time will tell, but it certainly feels like an exciting time to be in the world of brands and sustainability.

"I believe that in years to come we will look back on 2010 as the year that marketing and sustainability departments finally got it together, and started working together. This moment has certainly been a long time coming – when I started Good Business over ten years ago, people thought I was crazy when I suggested that marketing could be the vehicle for delivering sustainability goals and objectives, but it looks as if the rest of the world is finally catching up. So, what’s behind this sea change? Well, looking closely, I think we can identify four main drivers.

First, in most large companies, corporate responsibility, or sustainability teams are well established and embedded, and are doing a good job of managing social and environmental risks effectively.

The second factor is the way that climate change has shot up the agenda over the last five years or so.

The third is our emergence from the recession. The recession has held back many companies who might have been ready to move further and faster over the last two years.

And the forth and final driver is consumer desire for values, even in the face of a recession.What’s been interesting is that although the importance that consumers place on value for money has, unsurprisingly, increased, there has been no marked reduction in their desire to see companies put values at the heart of what they do, even if it means the products and services they buy cost a little bit more.

There is still some residual nervousness amongst marketers about whether they can legitimately talk to consumers about social and environmental issues. A little nervousness is no bad thing if it curbs some of the more excessive claims we have seen in the past. But that aside, I do firmly believe we are reaching a tipping point. A point from which there will be no going back. If the successful brands of the 20th century were built upon a strong consumer proposition, the successful brands of the 21st century will be built on a strong consumer and social proposition. Those brands that can demonstrate to customers that they take their responsibilities seriously will be rewarded. Those brands that can demonstrate mutual benefit will be the ones that survive and flourish.'

Click here to read the full speech.

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Sustainable futures - designing the answer


When it comes to sustainability, much of what we are encouraged to do focuses on doing less harm, feeling guilty about doing certain things, or just not doing it.

So it's refreshing to see the Design Museum in London putting on an exhibition (Sustainable Futures) that looks at sustainability in design. Rather than all walking around in hairshirts and stopping doing the things we love, shouldn't we focus on using design to make sure sustainability is at the heart of everything?

I hope this exhibition will inspire not only current designers, but also the next generation of designers, to put sustainability centre stage.

Do you have any designs that you think might save the world?

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Surely one billion minds are better than one?


Corporations and non–profits are increasingly looking outside organisational boundaries to identify people with good ideas to solve their ethical and environmental challenges and are increasingly turning to crowd sourcing, using online platforms with prize- led competitions rewarding those with the best solutions.

We all remember the Virgin Earth challenge with a prize of $25m for “preserving history for many generations to come” by significantly helping reduce climate change- no small order! It felt rather over most people's heads, however, this use of dragon’s den tactics is taking a more mainstream grip with increasing numbers of companies beginning to harness the collective brain power of consumers, accademics and entrepreneaurs.

A couple of recent additions include One Billion Minds, the innovation platform that connects scholars with solution-seeking companies & non-profits and Betacup, a Starbucks led online competition and community hub to solve the problem of the 58 billion paper coffee cups thrown away every year.

Are businesses really onto something? can a pot of prize money and some recognition be all you need to get to quicker and better solutions to complex sustainability problems- can 'we', that's any one of us, help solve some of the biggest issues? or is this just another marketing fad? .....time will tell, which should give me just enough time to get my self-growing bio based material coffee cup idea entered.

From shareholder to stakeholder

Unilever has had a reputation for quite some time as a company that takes sustainability seriously. But recent comments from its new chief executive, Paul Polman, suggest that it may be more visionary than previously suspected. Mr Polman, talking to the Financial Times, suggested that he was focused less on delivering shareholder value, and more interested in meeting the needs of the customer. Specifically, I do not work for the shareholder, to be honest; I work for the consumer, the customer . . . I’m not driven and I don’t drive this business model by driving shareholder value.”

His point is well made - if your customer is happy, it's more than likely your shareholders will end up happy too. Sounds obvious when you put it like that. But an approach that recognises that a business's health, viability and sustainability is predicated upon balancing the needs of all its different stakeholders is more likely to deliver value to shareholders in the long run than a model that focuses on driving quarterly earnings performance may sound like common sense but is in truth a radical and substantial shift for most companies. If Chief Executives could embed this thinking into the way they approach all their decision making, and encourage their employees to do the same, we'd see a massive step forward in terms of the way business interacts with society. Not to mention the fact I'd probably be out of a job...