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Starting with the why has worked really well for brands looking to connect with their customers at a deeper level. Inspired by our recent discussion in class about purpose as the 4th P in Sustainability, an interesting case study to look at is Adidas. Being the only textile, apparel or luxury good company to make the Corporate Knight’s Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, Adidas must be doing something right, not only in how they conduct their operations but more importantly, how they communicate their sustainability agenda.

While cutting carbon emissions across the value chain to create the products at Adidas is something that is worthy of praises, I think it’s important to highlight how “purpose” remains an important piece of this multinational brand. One of the definitions we came up in class- “Purpose is something that’s greater than an individual”.

This is evident through Adidas’ open source partnership with Parley for the Oceans. Creating a shoe entirely made from reclaimed and recycled ocean waste is clearly making a statement and leading by example to show that creativity and innovation with the power of big brands can help the sustainability agenda. Companies often struggle to relate their customers to the bigger picture, a larger purpose. Adidas seems to have the answer:

“We can only engage with fans on topics they can relate to, and people relate to cleaning oceans… climate change is a big topic; we aren’t going to run away from it. We just need to connect with fans in a relatable ways when we do talk about and/or take action on climate change”. Starting with the why has now become central to all brands that’s looking to engage with their customers in a meaningful way.

Doing a quick brainstorm of the different companies we talked about in class and their greater purpose includes…

• Tesla – creating a sustainable, smart world through transportation and home technologies
• AirBnB – creating your belonging anywhere in the world
• IKEA – making everyday life better for all global citizens

What are some other brands you’ve seen successfully used “purpose” to engage their customers?

While certifications is one way for brands to communicate to consumers what they stand-for, partnerships with certain organizations also help communicate sustainability by association. The ideal is to create win-win situations where the organizations mutually benefit each other. An arguably successful example comes to mind- Coca Cola and WWF. While the partnership generates positive PR for Coca Cola, WWF also becomes more powerful as together they are able to influence local policy makers. More recently WWF has partnered with Bosch, a German multinational that produces automotive parts as well as different types of household appliances. I found this partnership very strange. I can see how Coca Cola’s water resource consumption makes sense to partner with WWF. But the partnership between Bosch and WWF is one that makes me scratch my head.

The two have created a #KnowYourSeafood campaign in hopes to promoting more sustainable consumption of seafood in Singapore, one of the biggest consumers of seafood in the world. The campaign includes a series of cooking videos featuring Bosch chef ambassadors to prepare popular dishes with sustainable seafood varieties. Within these videos, the chefs also share tips to help consumers make more responsible choices when cooking seafood dishes. I know that currently MSC, Marine Stewardship Council is the by far the more prominent label and partnership when it comes to sustainable seafood. I question whether MSC would’ve been a better choice of partnership. With Bosch’s extensive product offerings in machinery, they have already turned to remanufacturing as a means to close the loop. While partnerships with WWF sparks an important conversation in the seafood industry, I think as a brand sustainability marketing strategy, partnerships with an organization like Cradle to Cradle would make more sense.

What are you thoughts? Have you come across any interesting partnership choices?

One concept that has now become the new buzzword in tech is blockchain. In the media, we often hear about blockchain technology being deployed in the financial sector resulting in products like BitCoin. The interesting thing about this technology, is that very soon, it will deployed in supply chain increasing transparency and traceability. With a large section of sustainability marketing being focused on third-party certifications, the application of blockchain can potentially render existing certifications obsolete or create new certifications that focuses solely on supply chain transparency.

Blockchain for a Non-Techie
Blockchain stores information across a network of personal computers. The key point is that these personal computers are decentralized and distributed which means no one person or system can control it. While passing information through this system, everyone on the system will help “validate” this information and this prevent records from being corrupted or altered. A quick two-minute video will get you up to speed about the concept of blockchain.  

Current Examples
That leads us to the issue of supply chain transparency and traceability. Companies long recognize the need for a transparent supply chain but struggle with sharing data with competitors, customers, suppliers or even neutral 3rd parties. Blockchain will allow participants across the ecosystems to achieve traceability without compromising the security of data. Walmart, one of the world’s largest retailer has already started piloting blockchain their their supply chain. Currently, they are using blockchain to get data on suppliers, details on how and where food was grown and who inspected it. Information from the pallet to the individual package is available. Not only will this allow Walmart to be more accountable but the could potentially decrease the firefighting time in recalling few packages vs. all stock across all stores.  Provence is another company that piloted blockchain to track tuna supply chains in Indonesia which supplies to the British grocer, Co-op foods. Looking away from the food industry and into the clean energy sector, L03 supported by Siemens is using blockchain to trade clean power across solarfed grids.

Implications
Certifications for sustainably managed forestry and and non-conflict materials all rely on rigorous checks and balances to ensure traceability. Would blockchain technology replace these certifications or perhaps simplify the certification industry. Maybe getting certifications in the future will be cheaper because blockchain can get the same verification job done in a fraction of the cost. Certifications and metrics will be one of the key areas of potential impact. I’m interested to see where blockchain can be deployed next in the realm of sustainability.

This past Thursday, I attended a conference and in the swag-bags that they give out, I found a box of water. The label said “Boxed Water is Better”. With minimalist packaging, I immediately googled what it’s all about. Bottled water has long been the poster-boy for greedy capitalism and environmental destruction. Any high school student could probably tell you that plastic packaging is the culprit. As you get deeper into the issue of bottled water, you’ll find the complexity of packaging,  shipping, distribution, and water equity come into play. Here are some fast facts on bottled water before diving into the new boxed water phenomena.

• Planet
  • Takes 3L of water to produce 1L of bottled water
  • One bottle of water equates to filling a quarter of that bottle with oil
  • Plastic bottles take up to 1000 years to biodegrade while leaking toxic chemicals into the groundwater
  • Incinerated bottes release toxic chemicals into the air
  • Ocean plastics remain the top killer for marine life

• Profit
  • For consumers bottled water can cost more than a litre of gasoline
  • For manufacturers, some can take advantage of dated water laws paying only $40 for 319 million litres of water
  • Driver of Sales
    • People think it’s safer and healthier than tap water
    • Advertisements shows pristine glaciers and mountain streams which leaves consumers with that impression
• People
  • Water Safety
    • In Canada, local water suppliers are inspected every day while bottled water plants are inspected once every three years
  • Water Crisis
    • Nearly 1 billion people in the developing world doesn’t have access to clean safe drinking water

Boxed Water Is Better wants to change the way water is sold, shipped and consumed by providing consumers a better option when purchasing water, while still enjoying the convenience. It boasts that 76% of the product is made with paper, using sources from certified, sustainably managed forests. The selling point for the company is the shipping. 35000 empty cartons are flat-packed to the plant before the filing happens. In contrast to traditional companies that are filling with rounded plastics, this is a great step towards reducing impact.

It didn’t take too long before I found a competitor called JUST Water. Their website is more transparent about the stats and the facts, covering all the aspects of potential impact including detailed explanations of how their product is made. On the point of shipping, 1.5 million bottles fit into a standard 40ft truck versus the same amount would take 2.5 trucks for traditional “pre-formed” bottles. If bottles are pre-formed, it will take 13 trucks. It’s interesting to see that even though packaging has been long debated issue, it’s only in these couple of years where we can see successful entrants breaking into the beverage market with more sustainable packaging.

The good news is that these new entrants now add competitive pressure to traditional companies like Coke and Nestle. You’ll usually see these companies in the lean green quadrant or defensive green. In 2015, a couple of these giants teamed up to create the PET bottles made with plant-based materials like sugarcane and corn.

While these companies are shifting towards renewable resources and away from fossil fuels, I’m curious about the ripple effects for each particular raw material. Corn is already being heavily used for animal feedstock. One of the criticisms against biofuels was the depletion of such resource could jeopardize worldwide food security. The recyclability of paper is widespread in North America which arguably closes the loop better than developing countries where recycling facilities aren’t as widespread. As discussed in class, many people in developing countries turn to bottled water or beverages because of unsafe drinking water conditions. What are other raw materials that these companies may have overlooked? Will it become a problem in 10, 20 years?