Food waste is one of the many problems our world is suffering from right now. Over 30% of the food supply is wasted every year in the United States. Consumers and retailers are responsible for this huge amount of food waste: consumers look for perfect looking products while shopping and retailers reject produce due to its “aesthetic appearance”.

Fresh fruits and vegetables have to be pretty enough to be sold, bought and eaten. The standards for fruits and vegetables are not a quality issue and these have been criticized in the past years. Even though these standards have little relevance in terms of nutrition or product quality, retailers are only willing to sell “good-looking” fruits and vegetables. By doing so, retailers create high expectations for consumers on how these products must look like. And the worst part is that appearance standards for fruits and vegetables are voluntary guidelines, which are not set by any regulatory organization and retailers do not have to follow them.

Nonetheless, an increasing number of retailers have started to offer “not pretty enough to be sold in grocery stores” produce. The appearance standards for fruits and vegetables are slowly changing and so is the food industry. Many startups are trying to convince us that there is nothing wrong with ugly produce and that taste is all that matters. Consumers are starting to demand this aesthetic produce and big companies in the grocery industry, such as Walmart and Whole Foods, are slowly starting to see an opportunity to combine business with social good.

The food market is driven by these standards and the industry offers what consumers demand. In order to reduce food waste, we have to change consumer acceptance first. Grocery stores only offer aesthetic products, because that is what consumers are willing to buy. Retailers will only dare offer ugly fruits and vegetables when customers ask for them. Therefore, consumer awareness is fundamental in order to fight food waste. All my life I have been told no to judge a book by its cover and I think we could, and should, apply this sentence to the food industry.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/apr/02/ugly-fruits-vegetables-whole-foods-hungry-harvest-imperfect-produce

http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/what-is-wfd

The life expectancy of electronic devices is getting shorter every year. According to the CE Product Life Cycle study, consumers expect smartphones to last approximately four to five years. New products are released at a pace never seen before and consumer perceptions of product life cycles are changing. In order to encourage customers to buy the new model, companies slowly stop supporting older operating systems. As soon as a device reaches the end of its useful life, customers simply replace it. This leads to the issue of what happens to products once they are replaced. E-waste has become a serious problem for the environment and the emergence of ethical electronic devices could be the solution to this issue.

Ethical electronic devices are designed and manufactured to have a long-term use. These products are not designed to be obsolete in a few years and to be replaced by a new generation of products. The companies promoting this “new movement” are thinking about the future of the industry by developing sustainable electronics. Yesterday, Apple announced a new recycling program, which aims to reduce the company’s e-waste. Since 2007, when the iPhone was first launched, most of the company’s smartphones have ended up in landfills as e-waste, contributing to air and water pollution. Apple Renew is an initiative towards better recycling processes and encouraging customers to recycle their devices. Apple will collect them for free and deconstruct them, so that many parts can be reused in other phones.

Even though it is great news that a huge company like Apple announced such changes, other companies have been doing things better for a long time and the Dutch startup Fairphone is one of them. I really think that big companies like Apple can learn a lot from this startup. Fairphone offers a smartphone developed with ethically sourced materials, better for the environment and respectful with the people in the supply chain. Its smartphone is easy to repair and customers can do it themselves. In order to stop creating so much e-waste, first we have to change the way smartphones are manufactured and repaired. The idea of a product should be to keep it for as long as possible. Fairphone designs its products to last and to be ethical: “Building a phone to create a fairer economy”.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/21/apple-tim-cook-renew-recyling-electronic-waste-landfill-environment-tech

https://www.fairphone.com/about/

http://www.cta.tech/Blog/Articles/2014/September/The-Life-Expectancy-of-Electronics

Kraft Heinz made a surprising move. The American company decided to take the artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes out of its flagship product Kraft Mac & Cheese. In April 2015 the American worldwide food company announced the complete removal of such ingredients by 2016. The new Kraft Mac & Cheese was officially launched on March, but the “all-natural” product had already been in the market since December 2015. Kraft did not tell about the new changes in its recipe and nobody noticed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-kul627Y3g

Over 365.000 people signed a petition asking Kraft to “remove all dangerous artificial food dyes from their line of Mac & Cheese.” Kraft responded accordingly and changed some ingredients of its flagship product. But despite all the changes, the “new” Mac & Cheese had the same signature color and the company still sold over 50 million of them. All these sales were made before the company made a formal announcement about the new recipe. That is why Kraft is calling its campaign “the world’s largest blind taste test”. “We wanted fans to experience the new recipe for themselves without being prompted.”

In my opinion, Kraft’s marketing campaign has been really smart since the beginning. The company promised to remove all dangerous artificial food dyes from their line of Mac & Cheese and they kept their promise. Moreover, Kraft was smart enough not to tell customers about the changes the new recipe had and customers could not tell the difference: “It’s changed. But it hasn’t.” Kraft was able to keep its promise and maintain the same taste and color of its iconic product at the same time. The company’s success may lead other companies to follow the same path and avoid such harmful and unnecessary food ingredients in the future. The food industry has now the chance to make its products healthier. If one of the largest food companies in the world can change its product, making it healthier without compromising on taste, then other food companies can do the same. Artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes could become something of the past.

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/brand_innovation/hannah_furlong/americans_didntnotice_when_kraft_mac_cheese_went_all-

http://www.brandchannel.com/2016/03/07/kraft-macaroni-cheese-030716/

https://www.change.org/p/kraft-stop-using-dangerous-food-dyes-in-our-mac-cheese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPETP7-UfuI

The next generation of the fashion doll Barbie is coming in 2016. The American multinational toy company Mattel announced a dramatic makeover in their flagship product. Barbie will now be available in four different body types –petite, tall, curvy and original-, in seven different skin tones and in several eye colors and hair styles. Moreover, the new Barbies will have solid thighs instead of the thigh gap the original Barbie had. The company started revitalizing the brand in 2015 with the “you can be anything” campaign. The launching of a new, more realistic generation of Barbie dolls can be a new step towards this goal.

Changing their classic blonde, blue-eyed with model proportions doll to a more realistic doll is a bold move from the toy company. The new generation of Barbies is partly addressed to the so called “Millennial Moms”. “We were seeing that Millennials are driven by social justice and attracted to brands with purpose and values, and they didn’t see Barbie in this category” said Tania Missad, Mattel’s director of global brand insights. According to Missad, “compared to Baby Boomers and Gen X parents, Millennials are more likely to question institutions and harbor anti-consumerist sentiments.”

The brand has received many criticism in the last years because of its controversial influence and impact in young girls. The popular doll has body proportions often described as unrealistic, unreachable and unhealthy. Barbies can be seen as an inappropriate cultural icon of female beauty for young girls. Many “millennial moms” were not sure about purchasing Barbie dolls for their kids and that could have forced the toy company to change and revitalize their flagship product. Barbie’s demand and sales have been in decrease in the last quarters.

Even though it is a big update for Barbie, the brand has been criticized because of its lack of categories. Every woman is unique and categorize them in four body types cannot reflect that. In my opinion, it was about time that Barbie included different body shapes, heights and skin tones for its dolls. This is the biggest change in the brand since the first doll was launched in 1959. The brand needed an urgent renewal and some updates. Women’s body image, and the world in general, have changed a lot in the past 60 years, but Barbie had not. I hope more changes and updates will follow in the future.

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/brand_innovation/hannah_furlong/barbie_breaks_out_blonde_blue-eyed_box_range_new_shap

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/12122027/Introducing-the-new-realistic-Barbie-The-thigh-gap-has-officially-gone.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJn5ew-vAMg

Wendy’s is a North American fast food chain. It is the third largest fast food chain in North America with over 6500 locations. McDonald’s and Burger King are the only fast food chains bigger than them. The American international fast food company has been appearing lately in the news because of their new marketing campaign. The “Deliciously Different” campaign and Wendy’s new message “fresh never frozen” try to emphasize the local sourcing of the company’s products and their intention of changing how business is made within the company from now on.

It is not easy for fast food chains to meet their huge demand and source local at the same time. It is a big challenge for them but it may be worth the effort if consumers view this local sourcing as a differentiator. New research seems to support this idea. 89% of Americans recognize where a food product is produced as an important factor when making a purchasing decision. And 66% of the people surveyed see food produced close to home worth a premium price, according to a research published in 2014. Briefly, consumers are willing to pay more as long as food products are produced locally. Wendy’s is aware of the “local food movement” going mainstream and is willing to profit from it. Food products produced close to home is not a trend limited to little businesses. Large companies can use this trend to differentiate themselves from other competitors. Wendy’s is the first big player in making a real effort. Their debut ad “Where’s the Beef?” has already reached 1.9 million views in Youtube.

Wendy’s needs to inform the consumers about where they source their food and what impacts on local communities they have. The consumers are the ones that have to decide if they trust the company’s promise of delivering “fresh never frozen” beef from close locations or not. The North American fast food chain is appealing to Millennials and revitalizing their brand at the same time. They are following the 7th strategy of Jacquie Ottman’s 15 Strategies for sustainable product design: Think global, grow local. Wendy’s is making an effort to turnaround their environmental impact. I really think the company’s effort in differentiating themselves while having a positive impact on local communities can be a game changer in their industry.

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/marketing_comms/hannah_furlong/wendy’s_new_campaign_suggests_local_sourcing_what_make

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/stakeholder_trends_insights/sustainable_brands/77_americans_say_sustainability_factor

https://www.wendys.com/en-us/about-wendys

2014 was the warmest year in modern record according to NASA. Climate Change can be found in the 5th position in the Council of Councils’ Ranking of the Top Global Challenges. Global warming is a real threat not just to us, but to future generations as well. A rise in global temperatures can have a lot of catastrophic consequences. It threatens the earth, our future and future generation well-being. We must do something about it as fast as possible.

Sweden’s highest peak is an example of the rise in global temperatures the earth is suffering. The countries tallest mountain could stop being the tallest one in the years to come. The peak has been shrinking for the past 15 years. Bigert & Bergström is an artist duo formed by Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström. They both live and work in Stockholm. In an attempt to stop the peak’s shrinking trend the two Swedish artists covered the glacier on Mount Kebnekaise with a blanket. This may not seem a very effective idea in order to slow glacial melting, but it can get people’s attention. And it did. “The rapid melting of the southern peak was front-page news in the summer of 2014,” the artists explained.

The two Swedish artists’ attempt is more a symbolic gesture than an actual solution to stop the shrinking. But, in my opinion, their idea of covering the peak with a blanket can be seen as an out of the box marketing idea. Their intervention got the attention and interest of the media. Now that the public knows about the danger of Sweden’s highest peak, the government will be forced to address this issue.

Bigert & Bergström are a great example of what humanity is able to do. Climate Change is a reality and an extremely dangerous issue we must address. We can change the climate for better or for worse and it looks like we have been changing it for worse for some time now. It is time to turn the tide. We can’t ignore Climate Change anymore.

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/marketing_comms/hannah_furlong/artists_cover_sweden’s_tallest_peak_help_slow_glacial_

http://www.cfr.org/councilofcouncils/reportcard/#!/ranking/2015

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record

At the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Carlsberg Group revealed a prototype of the first bio-degradable Green Fiber Bottle ever made. The Danish brewing company seeks to develop sustainable packaging solutions for its products in the years to come. The also Danish packaging firm ecoXpac is involved in the creation and development of the bio-degradable bottle too. EcoXpac is a company specialized in designing, developing and producing fiber-based products. Even though they have been working on the project for some time now, there is still work to do and we will have to wait some years to see a Green Fiber Bottle in a restaurant, bar or store.

The “Green Fibre Bottle” is in a relatively early stage, but we can already see some of the environmental and production related advantages that Carlsberg’s project could have in a future. It is clear that bio-degradable bottles like the one presented in Davos are more sustainable than the ones made of glass. Carlsberg aims to achieve an environment friendly replacement for them. The prototype presented at last year’s World Economic Forum is a bottle entirely made from sustainably sourced wood-fibers, which means that in a future Carlsberg’s beer bottles could be a 100% made from renewable materials. In a world with finite natural resources that can be a turn point for the industry.

According to the Director of Sustainability at Carlsberg, Simon Hoffmeyer Boas, Carlsberg’s “traditional core demographic probably values great taste and good times over sustainability as a purchase motivator”. In deciding which beer to buy we do not usually look for sustainability and that could be a problem for Carlsberg’s Green Fiber Bottle. But the world is changing and so is the beer industry. We are now more interested than ever before in how, where and by whom the products we purchase are made. Carlsberg has the opportunity to differentiate their brand and to be seen as a company worried about the environment. As a possible customer, my perspective of the company and the brand meaning are changing because of their sustainable innovations. They are thinking ahead and more companies should follow their lead.

“Sustainability is about doing the right things, which are also right for the business. Every step of that process is an opportunity to share content with our employees, suppliers, and consumers.” – Simon Hoffmeyer Boas, Director of Sustainability at Carlsberg

http://popsop.com/2015/07/carlsberg-has-presented-a-prototype-of-the-worlds-first-bio-degradable-green-fiber-bottle/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2016/01/18/will-carlsberg-ever-sell-beer-in-wooden-bottles/#7ac8df5042fe

http://www.greenerpackage.com/renewable_resources/closer_look_carlsbergs_fiber_bottle

http://www.ecoxpac.dk/project-the-green-fiber-bottle.html

As seen in class there are two kinds of sustainability marketing objectives: change what people do and change the way they see the world. The documentary Blackfish premiered at the 2013 Sundance film festival achieved both goals.

SeaWorld is a company with many marine mammal theme parks in the United States. Killer whales and dolphins among others are kept in captivity as trained show performers in these parks. Blackfish is a documentary by director-producer Gabriela Cowperthwaite that follows the controversial captivity of killer whales. By telling the story of Tilikum, a performing killer whale responsible for several human deaths while in captivity at SeaWorld, the documentary unveils the dangers of keeping orcas in captivity for both whales and humans. In 2010 trainer Dawn Brancheau died during a show at SeaWorld. Her death lead to a series of investigations about the risks and psychological effects of keeping orcas in captivity. The documentary is firmly against keeping killer whales in captivity and highly critical about the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry. 

In my opinion Blackfish cannot be seen merely as a documentary. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite was able to deliver a really strong message. Shortly after the documentary was premiered at the Sundance film festival we could already see the so-called “Blackfish Effect”. People’s opinion (mine included) regarding killer whales in captivity changed drastically because of Blackfish. I firmly believe Cowperthwaite’s documentary changed the way we see the world. Surely mine did. I have to admit I was never a great defendant of animal rights and I had nothing against theme parks like SeaWorld before. Blackfish certainly changed that. John Racanelli, chief executive officer of the National Aquarium, said “baby boomers grew up on Flipper, but millennials grew up on Free Willy”. Now we care about these animals being treated more humanely and we are interested in their welfare. We have evolved as an audience and we want to change how things are being done. Blackfish exposed some uncomfortable truths and people have reacted. SeaWorld is not the first company to suffer from public opposition and will not be the last one.

“I hope this movement grows beyond the SeaWorld discussion. Maybe if we continue to consider how someone else is experiencing our footprint, we’ll walk more softly in general. And that’d be a win for the planet.” – Gabriela Cowperthwaite

References

http://www.blackfishmovie.com/about/

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/nov/11/brancheau-blackfish-san-diego-shutdown-seaworld-timeline 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/blackfish/seaworld-orca-whales-finding-dory/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/20/killer-whales-not-suitable-captivity-seaworld

Blackfish Poster (Left). Dawn Brancheau with Tilikum (Right)