Pecha Kucha's rapid success is representative of the number one sustainability issue today: Feeling connected with my friends, my family, my community. Pecha Kucha Vancouver is hosted by the talented duo Steve and Jane Cox, owners of design consultancy Cause & Affect who do a great job of building creative community in Vancouver, first with their Movers & Shapers exhibit and now with hosting Pecha Kucha. 

I've been asked to present at Pecha Kucha Vancouver tonight and my 20 images are inspired by my friend Craig Damrauer, an artist and writer who lives in Brooklyn with his family. Craig created New Math: Equations for Living. His Equations for Living applies mathematical formulas to everyday cares and concerns. Distilled insight in a quick hit, they were first shown in conjunction with Move Lab, the curated shop/gallery of the lovely designer Missy Wilson in Manhattan's Meatpacking District around 2000 (I think it was). Here are some of my favourites:

BEAUTY = PUBLIC OPINION + EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
MODERN ART = I COULD DO THAT = YEAH, BUT YOU DIDN'T

You can check out more of Craig and New Math: Equations for Living via Google Books or his websites
www.morenewmath.com
www.assortedbitsofwisdom.com

Pecha Kucha Vancouver is being held at the Park Theatre, in the Cambie Village area. Tickets can be bought at the door or online. 

One of the reasons I love my job is the interesting and inspiring people I get to meet. Sometimes this means sitting in someone's living room hearing them talk about sustainability and social responsibility. Sometimes its connecting with other business leaders in the sustainability space. I was asked to participate in Focalyst Executive Forum the week before last in NYC at Chelsea Piers. It's a popular annual event focused on marketing to Boomers put on by AARP and Millward Brown. On the second day of the presented some findings on sustainability and the 55+ consumer from Ci's SHIFT Report:what issues they care about, what motivates them to make sustainable and responsible choices, the Sustainability Passion Index (SPI) and more. 

On the first day of the conference, I introduced Senator Tim Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation, just before his keynote, and then I moderated a panel of leaders in sustainability + business. My goal was to facilitate honest - not just glossy- discussion that left the audience inspired, and with a tool kit of ideas and approaches they could use. Jeff Renaud, Director of Ecomagination shed insight on GE's initiatives around Ecomagination, some of its hits and misses, some challenges and how GE faced them. Bill Bass, founder of retailer Fair Indigo, talked eloquently about the importance of authenticity and a key sustainability issue in the social sustainability pillar: Fair Trade. And Senator Wirth shared his perspectives and personal experience from hit and misses, to challenges and opportunities, informed by his long time experience as a Congressman, Senator, Co-Chair of The Clinton/Gore Campaing, President of the United Nations Foundation and Betterworld Fund and more. It was a great experience all around. Check out the UN Foundation's very cool Nothing But Nets campaign where you can buy a bed net to help save people from death by Malaria.

The one key belief all the panelsts shared: Change the Rules. Change the Equation.  

The July 14th/21st issue of Business Week had a small article in the News You Need to Know section on Wal-mart and it's 2 million labor law violations titled "Whacking Wal-Mart". Ouch! On one hand, Wal-mart is making great strides in its environmental sustainability commitments (albeit as a bit of the benevolent dictator). On the other hand it's sorely lacking in it's social and personal sustainability commitments. The Personal Sustainability Program was great for PR, but 2 million labor law violations are not the results of a thriving PSP program.

Sticking environmental sustainability in one bucket and social sustainability in another is just not smart. They are not mutually exclusive. This corporate siloing (is that a word?) strategy is not reflective of people's relationship with sustainability - of which eco or 'green' components make up just a piece. And Wal-mart doing just that is the reason why, despite the major money they have spent 'marketing green' only 18.49% of the North American population feel Wal-mart is a socially responsible brand, according to the latest intall of our SHIFT Report. Drilling into the US population it dwindles even further to 16%.

 

 

Ci in the news:

Ci and The SHIFT Report is featured in the latest Business in Vancouver Magazine- Sustainability Special.Check out the 5 page feature on Ci and some more insights from The SHIFT Report. I must admit, we do love it when people write about us.

For Immediate Release

New SHIFT Report™ Study Reveals Why ‘Green’ Branding Campaigns are Missing the Mark when Connecting with Consumers
- North American Study Uncovers New Data; Personal Issues Like Community, Fair Trade and Employee Treatment Rate Higher than Green Issues

Tuesday May 6th, 2008, Vancouver, B.C. --- An April 2008 online poll of 5,000 North Americans reveals “green” is not the most important sustainability issue for consumers and isolates the key brand characteristics consumers are looking for when defining a company as socially responsible or not. These findings provide key insight into exactly why the increasing number of ‘green branding campaigns’ while high on recall, are both connecting with consumers nor collecting a return on investment despite expensive marketing dollars being funneled into eco-based initiatives.

Sustainability marketing consultancy and think tank Conscientious Innovation (Ci) released findings today from the latest installation to the SHIFT Report™, Ci’s proprietary market intelligence tool on consumers and sustainability. The study ranks the most pressing sustainability issues for the North American population revealing ‘green’ does not top the list. These sustainability ‘issues’ were defined by consumers in preliminary research and fell into what the SHIFT Report™ defines as consumers’ Four Pillars of Sustainability™. While the majority of people rank global warming as an important sustainability issue (58%) when looked at in context of sustainability overall, they rank far lower than issues that fall into the social, personal and spiritual sustainability sectors such as connecting with friends, family and community (90%), fair trade (73%), employee treatment (85%). Organic products fell near the bottom as an important sustainability issue for only 30% of people and a commitment to “buying local and supporting locally based business” ranked much higher.

“Whilst this insight may seem to complicate the challenge of marketing sustainability, it actually opens the door for much more opportunity to communicate more accurately and successfully to a marketer’s audience,” says Ci’s CEO, Kierstin De West.

The study also revealed that people are sensitive to a disconnect between glossy ad campaigns and tangible operating practices when ranking key brand characteristics people look for when determining if a brand is socially responsible or not. These include product design (65%), packaging (64%), produced locally/sold by a locally based business (57%). While not at the top, affiliation with a not-for-profit or charitable cause is also important to 41% of the population.

An increasing number of studies including recent reports by Nielsen Online and Burst Media’s study of environmental marketing perceptions reveal the lack of impact that green ad campaigns have, and how consumer fatigue is creeping. Ci’s study confirms that the majority of green campaigns are not packing a punch when 71% of North Americans want to know about the socially responsible behavior of brands they buy – but the majority of people cannot identify a list of major brands as socially responsible or socially irresponsible. The study also demonstrates that brands that have spent significant marketing dollars communicating green initiatives such as Wal-mart and GE are not connecting. Only 19% of people identify both Wal-mart and GE a socially responsible companies. Only 6.5% of people identify Bank of America as a socially responsible brand, while these companies have lead the way with green and CSR (corporate social responsibility) marketing communications in 2007.

On the other side of the success barometer, communications campaigns such as KEEN Footwear’s Hybrid Life campaign reflect a thorough understanding of these issues and are seeing demonstrable results in their bottom line. “ At KEEN we encourage consumers to live a HybridLife. A life that is balanced with creating possibilities, engaging with the outdoors and caring about the world around them, both socially and environmentally. Living outwardly allows one to impact change within themselves and their community” says Bobbi Parisi, VP Marketing of Portland, OR based KEEN, Inc, manufacturers of footwear, bags and socks. “We worked with Ci on this critical research to gain a stronger understanding of our target consumer. The research reinforces our shared beliefs and reflects true insight on people's relationship with sustainability and the world around them.”

“What’s happening is simple” says Ci’s CEO, Kierstin De West, “Brands that haven’t taken an in-depth look at what sustainability actually means to consumers, think that “green” is the sustainability story they need to be talking about, and are rushing into something that isn’t right for them when eco-related concerns make up one only one quarter of the sustainability matrix. Often, they are totally missing their own, brand-specific sustainability story, one that can powerfully express real actions and real values around other facets of sustainability.”

The study reveals particular opportunity – and challenge for the top three categories consumers plan to make socially responsible decisions: Vacation Choices (46%), Financial Investments (45%) and Choices Related to My Car (43%).

Study Methodology: Reports are based on data and insight from Ci’s SHIFT Report™ online survey of 5,000 North American (U.S/Canada) general population adults fielded in April 2008 by Survey.com. The results are nationally representative of the North American adult population, and tested for significance at a 95% confidence level. Survey.com was selected to work with Ci in part due to their sustainability commitments from eco-office policies to client screening criteria.

About Ci: Ci is a sustainability marketing consultancy and think tank established in 2003. Ci looks through the lens of sustainability to uncover opportunities that deliver on business priorities working with leading brands to define and tell their sustainability story. Clients include local, national and global thought leader brands in the US and Canada such as KEEN Footwear, Nike Inc, Worldchanging, Global Television, Ethical Funds. Ci acts as the sustainability marketing advisors to leading ad agencies including GSD&M’s Idea City, Lowe Worldwide, Publicis, Droga 5.



###


Interested media please contact:

Kierstin DeWest
CEO /Principal, Ci
Email: kierstin@ci-shift.com
Phone: 604.877.1277

Not afraid to be provocative in a sea of green on Earth Day the Vancouver Sun's Business Writer Bruce Constantineau comments that 'green branding is not always the best choice' for a company; and refers to the latest installation of Ci's SHIFT Report - the recent 5,000 person North American study. Ironically, his story was surrounded by green marketing print ads that fulfilled the 'green marketing' category conventions. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=30a9e5f9-ef18-457b-bab1-309ccc5246cc

Our congratulations to Ci client SEE (Sweat Equity Enterprises) who is featured in this month's Fast Company! The article is linked here.

We're pretty excited here as the latest installment of the SHIFT Report gets ready to roll. SHIFT is a 'live' document. It's Ci's proprietary research and insight tool on the shift to sustainability. And our latest installment is a North American quantitative study. We're doing a segmentation study fielded in the US and Canada with a sample size of 5,000.

Since Ci was first launched, we've always stated that the cultural shift to sustainability will spawn new business categories; and it will also challenge current ones. There are many categories we have brainstormed and discussed; articles and research reports we've written on this and strategic recommendations we've made to clients that reflect this thinking.

Ci's Dear China site has been written about on Treehugger. Conversation has been sparked. See the posting here.  

Ci launched Dear China yesterday.

Dear China was inspired by a simple idea. Many say the possibility for a sustainable world lies with China. Lots of people. Lots of production. Lots of consumption. Which often gets lots of criticism. People in China may have issues with the criticism. After all, everyone else has 'enjoyed' lots of production and lots of consumption. This web site is about spurring engagement.

While the Amazon Kindle is getting a lot of press these days, there's something about the printed page that offers a distinctly different experience. Maybe it's the step away from technology overload and fractured brainspace. I'm well aware of the environmental sustainability angle to e-books. What's often not discussed are the other Pillars of Sustainabiliity associated with the e-read experience. What's the relationship with sustainability in its entirety as defined by consumers: personal, social, environmental, spiritual.

The Story of Stuff came across my path last week.

www.storyofstuff.com

Environmental Sustainability is very much the subject du jour these days. And this is a good thing. But Sustainability is much more than 'green' alone. Myself and Ci's Craig Trames just came back from a series of workshops we designed and facilitated for our client, ad agency GSD&M's Idea City down in Austin, TX. We worked with teams of senior managers from various teams including AARP, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Kohler.

Back in high school I was a member of the Environment Club. I joined in the tenth grade. In fact- as I recall a small group of us were the founding members, several of which I’m still in touch with today. The environment club made sense, given – as my mother tells it - I was the gal who as a ten year old knocked on peoples’ windows if their cars were idling in the ferry line ups, with “Excuse me, would you mind turning off your engine please, you’re polluting the environment”. We lived on the coast and ferry travel was quite regular.