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It's now a given that most multinationals are paying at least some attention to their ethical performance.

With the environment becoming such a big issue, the area of corporate responsibility is going to be under the microscope even more than in the past.

The problem is that there's very little performance measurement and comparative auditing between companies.

There are surveys and polls, but it's hard to find anything else that challenges and compares company standards.

It was therefore interesting to be send a press release from Covalence in Switzerland, who have been measuring and ranking companies on the their ethical performance for the past 3 years.

The company tracks performance by examining a variety of sources including the companies themselves, news media and non-profit organizations.

Covalence has just released its performance data for 2007 and there are some interesting findings.

The company provides three rankings.

1. Best Ethical Quote Score (positive minus negative news)

2. Best Ethical Progress

3. Best Reported Performance (How the company presents itself)

It's interesting and something of a challenge for US companies to see the foreigners, Unilever, Toyota and HSBC leading the way, with HP, Alcoa and Starbucks trailing in their wake.

On a cynical note, the US companies do a rather good job at talking up their own performance with Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola emerging as the leaders in that category.



Covalence also found that in 07, the environmental impact of production, eco product innovation and anti-corruption policy were the leading areas of ethical responsibility.

In addition to the annual report, Covalence provides real-time tracking of ethical peformance.

Useful if you manage an ethical funds or work in the CSR or PR department.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, audits and quality standards are going to emerge as an important issue for the environment and corporate ethics this and its good to see someone attempting to provide some comparative data.





Posted by Ed Cotton At last week's LA Auto Show, "Green' was the dominant message, it was almost a case of being too much.

Green slogans plastered everywhere, big press conferences where 68mpg fuel cell cars were being launched (but only 3 units would be available and there are no refuelling stations) and then there was the Escalade Hybrid.

Enough..


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Posted by Ed Cotton Wal-Mart has launched a number of green initiatives in the last 24 months, but all of them have been internally focused.

A couple of days back, the company went further than it's even done by bringing its suppliers into the mix. It's picked some categories and is asking suppliers in DVDs, toothpaste, soap, milk, beer, vacuum cleaners, and soda to look at their greenhouse gas emissions. It looks more of a carrot, than a stick, allowing suppliers to benefit from its own learning, rather than an accounting system to punish those that don't achieve targets. In fact, there are no targets for individual suppliers, Wal-Mart only has its own goal.

The net impact of the initiative will be to raise the profile of green measurement across a broad range of categories in consumer products. Obviously, the benefits for those that jump on board will be two-fold.

1. Cost savings- the accounting system will identify areas where companies can save money- as well as greenhouse gases

2. PR- There's the potential to publicize your efforts, but tread very carefully here.

Overall, it looks like its a smart step in the right direction with obvious benefits for Wal-Mart and its supply chain.

However, it's toothless and without serious targets in the program, one has to question how much impact it's really going to have.


Posted by Ed Cotton Back in July, I wrote about the green initiative that French communication group Havas was launching. My prediction was that other agencies would leap on board to try and seize some kind of competitive advantage.

The first to bite in the US, interestingly, is Grey, who announced a big initiative a couple of days back.



What’s surprising about Grey’s move is the attempt to try and become the agency world’s Pied Piper of the green cause by inviting other agencies to work and learn together through Grey.

While it’s good to see Grey leading the green charge, I doubt others will be happy for Grey to take credit for helping them out.

I now expect the green statements to come flying out of most shops before the holidays and for RFPs to ask prospective agencies about their green policies.

Via Adland







Posted by Ed Cotton Last night, the fine people at frog design, San Francisco hosted an interesting discussion on “The Many Shades of Green”. They assembled three very interesting individuals who explored the issue from three different perspectives. Dr Charles Ehrhart of CARE who looked at the global impact, of Kirsten Ritchie of Gensler who examined the corporate impact and of Ashley Menger of frog who talked about her personal experiences with the issue.

Some interesting themes and ideas emerged:

Dr Charles Ehrhart, Coordinator of CARE International’s Poverty and Climate Change Initiative

“Climate change is happening, we’ve got to try and stop catastrophic climate change.”

All non-profits need to make sure they are minimizing their environmental impacts and carbon footprint. This has significant implications for an organization like CARE who are shipping food supplies to people in need.

The importance of political action to try and change decisions that are being made today that will negatively impact generations for years to come- such as the decision to build more coal fired plants.

Design for a climate changed future. Don’t consider today, understand the realities of tomorrow and design for it.

Help the developing countries to grow by allowing them to do it with minimal impact on the environment.

Kirsten Ritchie, Director of Sustainable Design, Gensler

“The issue of the environment has moved from a moral imperative to an economic one.”

Branding matters with green because it’s a category created by environmental engineers, not marketers.

“It’s hard to spell Sustainability, let alone pronounce it”

EnergyStar and Leed were examples of good green branding in action.

Standards are everything. You can’t be green without the proof, so certification and standards matter. Organic labeling is an example of a system failure, but Fairtrade and Leed had got it right
 
Ashley Menger, Design Analyst, frog design

Ashley’s motivation was drive by her desire to making the green issue a personal one, where her experience could inform design decisions.

To do this, Ashley developed “Trash Talk” a program where "frogs" get the chance to carry their trash around with them everywhere for two weeks. Ashley talked about how this experience informed her projects and the story of her first piece of trash; a home thermostat that she later discovered contains mercury.

Trash Talk has now become a global, company-wide initiative with dozens of frog employees wanting to participate by carrying around their trash for two weeks and  blogging their experiences.

Overall, the evening added some perspective to the importance, complexity and communication challenges of the green issue.



Posted by Ed Cotton


Maybe you've recently tried to calculate your own carbon footbprint, or have been more in tune with the environment.  It's hard not to be the way gasoline & CO2 have been glistening in the green spot light.  We all know about the rapid depletion of this precious non-renewable resource, but while our attention has been focused on gas we’ve neglected other resources that are equally strained.  Our perspective about being environmentally conscious is about to rapidly change again thanks to two main players in the beverage market.
 
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are contenders again, but this time it's a race to quench our thirst for non-renewable resources.  Both companies have jumped on the corporate social responsibility band wagon with a few of their own green initiatives.
 
Coca-Cola was originally green.  No, it has always been brown; Snopes put an end to that myth.  It may, however, have to amend its fact page now that Coke has become so environmentally responsible.  Coke is taking some big strides.  It recently released the Coca-Cola Water Conservation Plan in an attempt to conserve water by replacing the 75 billion gallons of water it uses in the production of its beverages.  It is one part of an efficient water management plan that will help restore its image.  This comes after Coke was slammed for depleting and polluting water supplies in China and India.  Now it's seeking to create its beverages without destroying the surrounding environment or “de-hydrating the world.”  It may not come as a surprise to some, but a recent article by Canadian experts warned that within 3 years Sydney’s water supply could be the first to be limited to drinking purposes only.  Mexico and Bejiing are noted as the other two cities in a triad of countries that are most threatened by the global freshwater crisis.  It seems Coke is leading the way in recognizing impactful ways they can approach the green arena and help resolve these issues.  They are partnering with third party companies to recycle their bottle labels, produce bottle cap purses and are upgrading their headquarters to run more efficiently.
 
Pepsi upped the ante and is now leading a different, and possibly more powerful environmental front.  They have attracted great attention with their recent announcement of their own green initiatives.  They are purchasing 1 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy, enough to power 90,000 American homes for a year; an amount that offsets 100% of its electricity with renewable energy.  This is a big deal.  They are the first to take this sizable of a leap and it will be interesting to see how they leverage this expense as a marketing tool.  Like Coke, Pepsi has also taken a creative approach with the release of aluminum can Green Label Art.

These two Cola companies have taken green to the next level and set a precedent for other companies to change the fundamentals of how they are running their business.  As green initiatives become more of a standard practice, not adopting new practices and technologies is going to create image problems for companies who aren't on board the green train.




Posted by ken fisher