Sustainability White Papers
"Toward a Better, More Effective Brand of Green Marketing" June 2010
by: Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Inspired Protagonist,
and Ashley Orgain, CSR and Sustainability Education Specialist, Seventh Generation, Inc.
and Ted Nunez, Ph.D., Director Of Ethics and Corporate Responsibility, Kaplan EduNeering
Sustainability and Consumer Behavior
CEOs are getting the message that corporate responsibility is a powerful way to build competitive advantage and brand commitment, and more and more corporations are accelerating efforts to proclaim their values and vision. They’re driving do-good messages onto their Web sites, annual reports, and advertising, and with good reason: growing legions of “green” shoppers are a coveted high-value consumer segment that buys more products on each trip, visits stores more regularly, and demonstrates greater levels of brand loyalty.
A 2009 Deloitte Green Shopper Study found that sustainability considerations either drove or influenced the buying decisions of more than half the shoppers interviewed. The study also found that these green shoppers are still on a learning curve. They do not always immediately understand a product’s social and environmental benefits and need help at the point of purchase.
Click Here to Download White Paper
"CSR 2.0: The Responsibility Revolution Takes Off" Sustainability Solutions Paper, March 2010
by: Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Inspired Protagonist, and Bill Breen, Editorial Director, Seventh Generation, Inc.
The New Era of Responsibility
By almost any measure, corporate responsibility is now front and center on the vast majority of CEOs’ radar screens as well as on Board Meeting agendas, investor’s analysis, employee concerns and activists focus.
To cite just one prominent piece of evidence: Even back in a 2007 report by McKinsey, the global consultancy, more than 90 percent of the chief executives surveyed said they had done more to push environmental and social strategies into their operations than in the previous five years.
Today, given the number of senior managers who are scrambling to keynote CR conferences and expound on their companies’ beneficent deeds, it’s safe to conclude that CEO buy-in is still on the rise. And yet, while CR is on the lips of almost every CEO, it’s lost a good deal of its power and potency. There remains a yawning chasm between what companies say they value and what they actually do. Or don’t do.
Click Here to Download White Paper
"The Business Case for Sustainability" Sustainability Solutions Paper, February 2010
by: Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Inspired Protagonist, and Ashley Orgain, CSR and Sustainability Education Specialist, Seventh Generation, Inc. and Ted Nunez, Director, Ethics & Corporate Compliance, Kaplan EduNeering.
The Sustainability Imperative
Fundamental changes in society and business are making sustainability and responsible corporate behavior an imperative rather than something a handful of “nice” businesses choose to do. Driving this change since the 1970s are the well-documented implications of rising energy costs and the increasing scarcity of other nonrenewable raw materials. These pressures are now accompanied by a host of other drivers rapidly changing the business landscape and redefining what’s required for companies to be successful.
Success in coming decades will be measured by a corporation’s resilience to resource scarcity and global climate change as well as its response to changing consumer and customer expectations. Companies can expect to see new regulatory demands and investor requirements for sustainability. In this changing landscape, competitive position will depend on the ability to innovate continually while also managing corporate and brand reputations as transparency and corporate citizenship requirements escalate.
Click Here to Download White Paper
"What Is Sustainability?" Sustainability Solutions Paper, December 2009
by: Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Inspired Protagonist, and Ashley Orgain, CSR and Sustainability Education Specialist, Seventh Generation, Inc. and Ted Nunez, Director, Ethics & Corporate Compliance, Kaplan EduNeering.
Sustainability is a holistic, system-based approach that produces positive business, social and environmental results today and into the future. Sustainability integrates practices that enable organizations to do well for their stakeholders by doing good for society and the natural environment. Companies’ committed to sustainability believe it’s both possible and desirable to promote the health and wellbeing of people and the planet while also generating a profit.
