In Women We Trust

Yes, we can (and must) Save the World through Mindful Shopping

Over on La M, the debate continues in the comment section on whether we can buy our way out of this global warming problem. The answer is not only "Yes," but "Yes, we have to."

[My thanks to Lynn Johnston for capturing in one cartoon why many give up before trying. On some level we all know our good work can be undone in a manufacturing minute.]

The "Smokestacks" are causing the problem and the ONLY thing that will keep the smokestacks happy is profit. Consumer action is half of the solution, the SMaRT Sustainable Standard is the other half. With both not only have we solved the emission problem, but transformed the market safely and kept our retirement portfolios intact. Yes, as Tom Friedman points out, we'll lose MANY products and companies along the way. Detroit's feeling that pain now, but we also will replace them with mindful companies and products we can all live with.

If you want to see how serious business is about change, take a quick read down today's blog at Sustainable Life Media. The stacks want to do it, they just don't know how to do it and they don't know how to talk about it in terms that breadwinners and buyers can understand. Oh, and by the way, it's also required by the EPA.

Not only do we/consumers have to do it, we have to write about our intent before or after we do it. Every time we write about Sustainable products we like, those products stay in the marketing mix and the other ones die.

GM has FINALLY decided that going small and green will bring bigger profits. Why? Because Toyota and Honda made the top ten brands and ate their lunch. You can't go 10 feet in California without running into either car.

Those top ten brands were made inside of buildings which a consumer can also affect - by DEMANDING that the brands are made using Sustainable Standards that certify when a product is in compliance. INSIDE the SMaRT Sustainable Standard are requirements for conserving energy and lowering emissions, VOCs and PVCs (plus over 1200 other chemicals). Not only do the standards cover their buildings, but also the operations and processes for the entire supply chain as well - even if those smokestacks are in China.   

The SMaRT Standard (Sustainable Materials Rating Technology) covers six areas of product development:

• Safe for public health & environment
• Renewable energy & energy efficiency
• Biobased or recycled materials
• Facility or company requirements
• Reclamation, sustainable reuse
  & end of life management
• Product Innovation

Under these areas, products are required to:

• Provide Feedstock Inventory Documentation
• Document No Input and Output Stockholm Chemicals
• Maintain a Manufacturing Facility Energy Inventory
• Inventory of all bio-based and Recycled Content Materials
• Have EMS Environmental Policies and Targets.
• Have Social Equity Indicator Reporting for Manufacturers
• Compete an ISO Compliant Life Cycle Assessment
• Have Operational Reclamation and/or Sustainable Reuse Program
• Meet Product Performance Durability Standards (long lasting products)

And encouraged to keep going until they have achieved:

100% Reduction of Over 1300 Pollutants covering 12 Environmental Impacts
100% Use of Green-e Renewable Power
100% Post Consumer Recycled or Organic/BMP Biobased Materials
100% Reuse/Product Reclamation
Social Equity for Manufacturer & Suppliers (worker's rights)

That's a pretty big stick, but sticks are also fun to chase - especially if you're one of the Big Dogs attending the Sustainable Brands conference.

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After the requirements are met, the Big Dogs can get competitive and earn higher and higher ratings of silver, gold and platinum. Its not impossible, Forbo/Marmoleum and Knoll Life Chair have already have done it. Milliken carpet is on its way.

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But they can't do it alone.

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They and all the other companies trying to go green need buyers for their Sustainable Certified products, people who appreciate the work that has been done on a very high level.  Which brings us back to the first side of the buyer/seller equation - consumers.

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Take a gander at that top ten list again. If you were hired to change the world, which "demographic" would you focus on to make it happen faster? On that list you have, groceries, cleaning supplies, lotion and potions, cars and home appliances. Without doing a massive research project, take a wild guess on which gender has the greater influence either directly or indirectly buying these products?

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In the end, after all the discussions and  the chatter it's going to come down to tightly linking these three tipping points together - women+companies+sustainable standards.

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That's the new balance of power in this global economy. What happens among them happens about the world and it all starts with the heart of a women making the right choices while her purse is open and being willing to talk about them.

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Men can expedite the process by educating the women in their life on the SMaRT Sustainable Standard or other Standards that use a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) across the entire supply chain. While women are the buyers, you are the "sellers." Let's get to work, shall we?

Your continuing ed starts here:

SMaRT Standard Market Overview - for High C's (9 pages)- Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/mts_smart_sustainable_standard_overview_2.1.08.pdf">Download mts_smart_sustainable_standard_overview_2.1.08.pdf

SMaRT Standard Overview - Supplier Education - (slide show) Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/act_smart_presentation.pdf">Download act_smart_presentation.pdf

SMaRT Standard for Consumer Orientation - (slide show)Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/smart_sustainable_standards_102_consumer_orientation_51008.pdf">Download smart_sustainable_standards_102_consumer_orientation_51008.pdf

Forbo Sustainability Report - for High C's, Supply Chain, Distributors, Investors, Consumers (20 pages) Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/forbo_sustainable_manufacturing_and_marketing.pdf">Download forbo_sustainable_manufacturing_and_marketing.pdf

Six Reasons Women will Love the SMaRT Sustainability Standard

Let's get SMaRT(er), shall we? (Sustainable Materials Rating Technology)

If women have to buy the right stuff for their homes and specify the right stuff for their companies and clients, then it's time we all knew about how to go about that process.

I've been told that the subject of Sustainability is just too hard for we mere consumers and citizens of the planet to understand. Oh paLEEEZE. How about we give it a shot. Women are not only the dominate consumer, but the dominate gender in marketing. If we're greenwashing products it's out of ignorance, not stupidity.

First a quickie class in the issues. Have you seen Story of Stuff yet? (kudos to Annie Leonard). It now has over 2 millions views. It's a great example of what is part of a product's Life Cycle Assessment. LCA's pull the documentation of the carbon emissions, energy and waste pollution generated in the production process of goods together. It tallies the "stuff" that goes into other "stuff". When you know the bottom line of where the energy and pollution is being saved/used/abused that's when you can start to improve it.

SMaRT is a standard that quantifies and puts the info into a balanced rule per se. You can't be certified as sustainable if the you're saving energy, but polluting the water, or using safe processes, but destroying forests. It also factors in social equity like child labor, a company must be transparent with its working conditions worldwide. SMaRT is like playing baseball, once you have the rules, you can play on a T-ball level or major league, but the rules and tools are the same.

To keep everyone above board, SMaRT has third party global certification & auditing through Ernst & Young. It's a label you can trust.

The SMaRT scorecard/matrix categories:

1. Safe for Public Health & Environment (pollution footprints)

• SMaRT requires documentation of Feedstock Inventory.
• SMaRT requires input and output of Stockholm Protocol Chemicals. These are the pervasive baddies which greatly affect our food chain: Aldrin, Chlordane, DDT, Diedrin, Dioxins, Endrin, Furans, Heptachlor, Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) Mirex, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Toxaphene. You may know them as insecticides, fire retardants or the plastic in product packaging or the backing of carpet. Input covers chemicals going into the product and output is what happens during the making of the product. SMaRT documents over 1200 Stockholm Protocol chemicals across air, water and earth impacting 3600 touch points. (can you imagine how long it would Congress to pass a bill covering that subject?)
• SMaRT gives points for  minimizing air carcinogens and VOCs, green cleaning using clean greening procedures,   
• SMaRT gives points for minimizing indoor formaldehyde emissions.

Still with me? Moms Rising wants fire retardants out of fabric, form and carpet because of what it's doing to kids, pets and breast milk. In Story of Stuff, Annie notes that breast milk is the #1 Toxic food source, "toxins in - toxins out."  The Center for Environmental Health and Justice wants PVCs out of the system and NOT recycled. They don't want a second chance of putting them into our air, soil or water.

The only way to get these things out of the system is not put them into the system by A) following a standard or B) creating a law to ban it after the fact.

2. Renewable Energy & Energy Reduction (carbon footprint issues)

• An energy inventory is required of current usage and renewable usage.
• Points are awarded on an increasing scale for Cleaner and Greener Certification, Certifications for Climate Change Emission reductions.
• More points are given if the supply chain's energy is also renewable. This covers those who provide materials for the manufacturing of the products even if they are located in China.

3. Biobased or Recycled Materials (more carbon footprint and pollution footprints)

• Once again, an inventory of all materials is required. If a company is using PVCs(plastic) to back a carpet, then this is where it shows up.
• SMaRT gives the most credit to organic bio-based meeting EPA best management practices because these products have no toxic constituents including endocrine disruptors.
• The highest points go to products made with NEW bio-based material vs. recycled material. Why would SMaRT do that? Because it's trying to encourage new products that start green to stay green vs. recycling what got us into this mess and a lot of that came from plastics and that comes from oil - that we're running out of and is getting more expensive.

4. Facility or Company Based Manufacturing (more footprints)

• This is where SMaRT looks at the operational side of manufacturing, is the company walking the walk? Required is an EMS Environmental Policy & Targets, Social Indicator Reporting and that LCA Process. 
• Social Indicator Reporting for Suppliers. It covers the working conditions for the supply chain that may not be in the US. The SMaRT audit happens globally and sweat shop conditions aren't rewarded. 
• Transparent Primary and Secondary Materials Reclamation System (no dumping)
• Environmental Management System Certification
• Sustainable/EPP Product Transaction Disclosures

5. Reclamation, Sustainable Reuse & End of Life Management (keeping the footprint light)

• Points are given for durability. How long will the product last before it needs to be recycled?
• Once that product is ready for recycling, what programs are in place to take it back?
• How much can be reused?

6. Innovation in Manufacturing (preventing footprints from the get-go)

• Cool new products get extra credit for paving the way for others to follow.
• Are they doing more with less material? The get credit for that as well.

Who decided all of the above - a balanced board of of people and interests from trade associations, financial institutes, government, Non-governmental groups, environmental groups, citizens-at-large over eight years of discussions.

Before you say, "Wait a minute, that's not democracy. I didn't vote for any of that," look around you. Everything you sit on, live in, work in, eat or drive were made via standards that you never voted on. Standards help trade groups work together. They are the "laws"of the free market. The SMaRT Standard simply pulled all the multitudes of standards for sustainability together, eliminated the redundancy and provided one, balanced standard that rewards entry level or superior performance.

What SMaRT doesn't reward is greenwash. In fact, it eliminates it. SMaRT is fully transparent and in that transparency peer pressure happens and competition begins. If corporations do one thing really well, it's knowing how to compete. SMaRT just gives them the rules to play by that we all can live with and cheer.    

Bringing Blogland and "Green"land Together

Toby Bloomberg, who hosts a regular Blog Talk Radio program, invited me and Ginny Dyson  to discuss the intersection of Social Media and Greenwash Free Marketing.  (Thanks Toby!)

Ginny works in commercial design and is considered to be the Sustainability Strategist at DMJM H&M. She spoke from the B2B side. I was there to address the B2C issues in Sustainability and how to keep the message from turning into greenwash. You can listen to our conversations here.

The Blog Talk format is a new way to get out information in a time crunched society. The 30 minute program can be downloaded or just play in the background on your computer, while you go on with your work.  For a full rundown on the program, go to Toby's Blog here or just give a listen.

The commonalities between Social Media and Greenwash Free Marketing

1. Transparency – Can you see the proof? Blogland and Greenland come together.
2. Authentic – Can you prove it? Blogland and Greenland come together again.
3. Getting your message across – Is your green story repeatable?

Develop A Credible Green Marketing Strategy

• Get your product certified as Sustainable. You can’t claim you’re “Sustainable” until you do.
• Use LCA, Life Cycle Assessment, Third Party Audits and of course Standards in your blog posts and links.
• Partner with other bloggers and businesses who are Climate Change evangelists first and business people second.
• Create ONE Summary Sheet of all green facts pertaining to your company and product. This isn’t a branding document, it’s raw data and the proof behind everything you say on blogs.
• Take the word to the women who do 80% of the buying and word of mouth influencing.

What Will Oprah Do to NOT Blow her Brand?

What will Oprah do when the consumption lights fully light up and she has to take a stand and promote only Sustainable products or blow her brand? What's her brand? Oprah Cares. Why might she blow it? Because you can't do right by the world and promote billions of dollars of non-sustainable stuff in the same space - at the same time.

On yesterday's show, Oprah covered the art of Freegan Living with Lisa Ling. (love Lisa's reporting style) Freegan Living takes dumpster diving to a new level - those who can afford to buy anything, yet choose to obtain most of their day-to-day stuff from dumpsters.

It was an important show for many iconic reasons:

1. It demonstrated how wasteful we are as a society.
2. Oprah acknowledged the irony of hosting this topic and then cutting to a commercial where someone was going to sell you something.
3. It introduced the concept that LESS (much less) is "more living" for the society. That concept is being amplified through all the other Green sites.

Then this morning, I'm exchanging emails with Jason from Scream to be Green, and he tells me about LivingOprah. (thanks Jason) Turns out it's a performing artist in Chicago. She decided to try to live the Oprah life at it is featured each week because the culture is Oprah and Oprah is the culture. It's a brilliant concept, kudos for the idea. There is no way to contact the "artist" however, so for all I know it could be one, big setup by Harpo Productions to glean information. There's a survey on the site that asks if you subscribe to Oprah's magazines or not. (hey, I'm a born again skeptic) [Correction: the artist saw this post and assured me, that Harpo has nothing to do with it, and she put up a way to contact her.]

Two minutes later, I'm skyping my husband who is working in Naples, Italy and he's describing the ever-present trash in the city. "There is smoke in my hotel room everyday with the smell of burning trash... smells mostly of plastic." Then he described his weekend boat trip to a nearby island. "the boat went through layers of junk, mostly plastic, you could hear it scraping on the side of the boat."

Wow, so much for the amore of Italy. Pretty disgusting. You hear that and it sure doesn't make you want to run to the mall and buy more junk and carry it home in a plastic bag. It doesn't even make me want to be on Oprah's Favorite Things show, the hottest ticket of the year and a show that can make or break an emerging business.

Which brings me to my final point...

I have a big favor to ask you Oprah, since you are culture and culture is you, could you do us all a favor and have a show dedicated to Sustainable Standards? We need a big name consumer champion to keep Wal Mart and other big box stores on track. Educate your world of women and you can single handedly set off a market transformation. Don't talk about green, talk about products and processes that can prove they don't put dioxins in our air, or chemicals into our children and most of all CO2 in the atmosphere. The White House doesn't control the world of consumer consumption - YOU DO.

Here's my wish list line up:

• EcoMom Alliance (they are probably already on Oprah's radar after the NY Times article)
• Big Green Purse (Diane MacEachern's scientific and pragmatic approach to shifting buying dollars from pollution to solution - the book and the site)
• Annie Leonard (her Story of Stuff explains the problem in everyday language)
• Mike Italiano (SMaRT the solution)  (Sustainable Material Rating Technology, it takes away the problem by providing a standard that is ethical, accountable and greenwash free. Consumers want truth and investors need quanitfied proof.

That's a show in itself right there. Will Oprah do it? It's a VERY scary move for  her economically if she did. She's in the same place the big chains are in, she's a promoter of goods and has to make a living while promoting the very things that cause her female viewers problems. That's not good, but I believe in Oprah. More than not wanting to break her brand, she understands that you either "stand for something or stand for nothing." She keeps saying how she doesn't need the money. This one move would prove that beyond a doubt and set off a tipping point for social change like the world has never seen.

BIG GREEN PURSE, the most important book your book club will read this year

It was 4 am and I opened Big Green Purse and read, "Did you make a cup of tea or throw in a load of laundry before starting to read this book"? I laughed out loud, that's exactly what I had done. How did she know? Perhaps that's why women like listening to Diane, she knows how women work.

"She" is Diane MacEachern the author of Big Green Purse who I met for the first time last month. I already knew her from our virtual connections and was impressed with her ability to synthesize the scientific with the pragmatic when it comes to making our lives more green. Her book, Big Green Purse brilliantly blends the two, providing the HOW TO's that you don't see anywhere else with stories that burn a visual into your brain.

Take Chapter 1 where she asks, "If it can happen to an alligator, can it happen to your son"? The alligator has survived 80 million years and yet pesticides are messing with his personal parts making mating "out of reach" per se.  This is happening because of pesticides in the alligator's water.

The same exposure is there for babies, she explains how babies can accumulate these dangerous chemicals quickly. "When corrected for body weight, it's as if an adult were to drink seven liters of water or thirty-five cans of soda daily." She then she lists off off the chemicals found in breast milk.The Mom's over at MomsRising, and BlogHer know that last issue well.

So what do we do? Go after the government? Diane's lived in DC the majority of her adult life and has been an environmental advocate for 40 years. She outlines why policies to protect us have failed or never were initiated. That leaves it up to us to make the changes that force the issues back on the companies causing our system breakdowns in the first place, and to do it quickly.

Like many "tip books" this one is packed, but it comes with context and real life experiences - that's the motivating difference for me. Before a product or service was given a thumb's up, it had to pass the "Diane test" which is harder than anything the EPA could dish out. The test is a combination of what is scientific fact with personal use with the bigger environmental impact. Products get a thumbs up or down and the reader gets to learn why Diane made that decision and often times get an inside look at Diane's own test site - her home.

Products will evolve, but knowing how to evaluate them won't. This book is an entertaining way to rewire your personal spending habits while educating yourself on the bigger issues. Big Green Purse is a "must read, save, refer to" book that will get us through the next critical decision making years. It's filled with links and ideas for gardeners, nutritionists, designers and business alike.

Perhaps the #1 link that Diane offers, however, is linking to each other. If Big Green Purse is the "Green Bible for Individuals" then Big Green Purse the website is the church where we can join together and commit to a greener lifestyle and planet. The Million Women Pledge to swap $1000 of everyday buying habits to green buying habits, will have a Billion dollar impact. When buyers tell sellers what they want on such an open forum, that's all we need to create a tipping point for change.

If you are in a book club or are starting a group like Eco Moms, this is one book that you'll be discussing for a long time.

What a REAL Sustainable Product and Company looks like

Check out my last post, 100 Most Sustainable Companies. What a joke. They should take lessons from Forbo Flooring who wasn't on the list. Now there's a company who walks the walk.

I know I've mentioned Forbo before, but that's because it's a poster example of what can be done and few companies match it. If you know of any, PLEASE send them my way. Forbo just released a ECO-brochure which changes the way companies do business. It's a crib sheet for operational and marketing excellence.

Go ahead and download yourself a copy. Download forbo_marmoleum_smart_certified_sustainable_flooring.pdf

Forbo's GM, Denny Darragh welcomes the competition and encourages others to reach the same benchmarks they've established. That's the kind of person I can get behind and promote with an open heart. Denny believes that the only way we are going to transform the market to sustainability is if we share ideas. 

Under bloggy disclosure, I helped put up the group blog that Denny recently posted to, which is why I'm aware of his insightful words. Are corporations bad? Not if they all behaved liked Forbo, and that's why they are at the TOP of my list.

100 Most Sustainable(?) Companies in the World

Ladies you buying this list below? Are you feeling a little green washed? I am. Let's take it out of the spin cycle.

I just saw a GREAT presentation by Umbria on Green Market Trends. Umbria has dropped "green" and now uses "Sustainable" and the presentation made this list look questionable as it focused on the consumer perception vs. the investor's check sheet. And as investors know well, perception can greatly influence their reality.

Umbria measured the conversations of 160,000 blog postings which were scanned and picked up due to the key words used in the post that directly tied to Sustainable issues (recycle, green, eco-friendly, greenwash...) They could also determine via the tone and words chosen in the posts with a high degree of accuracy, what percentage of the posts were male or female, gen X, Y or boomer. Scary, huh?

It's scary, except that it proves what we've been saying here and on Lipsticking and Big Green Purse and WonderBranding and Diva Marketing and Learned On Women, Marketing to Women Online and BlogHers at large... Woman buy stuff and lo, women are greener than men.

Now back to the "Most Sustainable" 100.

The word "most" covers a lot of sins. Any reasonable person looking at the list below can pick out 20 companies that they know in their heart and mind are no where near Sustainable (and they don't even know what Sustainble means." Good intentions don't cut it. Greening up a factory while the products aren't sustainable doesn't cut it either. Then there's that little issue that the EPA has with making broad sweeping statements. This list implies that that are Sustainable because they are the most Sustainable. Compared to what?

"The Global 100, initiated by Corporate Knights Inc. with Innovest as the exclusive research provider, includes companies from 16 countries in sectors ranging from Oil and Gas to Wireless Telecommunication Services that were evaluated according to how effectively they manage environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities, relative to their industry peers."

"Manage risks and opportunities, relative to their industrial peers..." Even the wording sounds like a bit shady, but I'll cut them some slack however, because that's how investors gauge information, by comparing it to peers.

The good news?

Creating a list of any sort starts the comparisons, and the competition to be ON the list. Once ON the list, they want to be at the top of it. That's healthy competition that can make the planet better. All they need are rules so that everyone is playing the same game. I'm glad investors are recognizing the value in Sustainabily as a tread that isn't going to go away. You can believe in Climate Change or not, but everyone has a retirement fund and those retirement funds are tied to this "Sustainable" trend. For the full press release go here.

If you want to see what a REAL Sustainable Company and Product check out Forbo here. They are the poster company and proof that Sustainability can be reached.

The 2008 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World
3I Group PLC	Diversified Financials - UK
Accor	Hotels Restaurants & Leisure
Adidas Salomon Agency	Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods
Advanced Micro Devices	Semiconductor Equipment & Products
Agilent Technologies Inc	Electronic Equipment & Instruments Goods
Air France-KLM	Airlines
Alcoa Inc	Metals & Mining
American International Group Inc	Insurance - N. America
Atlantia	Transportation Infrastructure
Atlas Copco AB	Industrial Machinery
Babcock & Brown	Investment Banking & Brokerage
BASF AG	Diversified Chemicals
Baxter International Inc	Health Care Equipment & Supplies
British Land Company PLC	Real Estate Management & Development
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC	Broadcasting & Cable TV
BT Group PLC	BT Group PLC
Cable & Wireless PLC	Alternative Telecommunication Carriers
Cattles PLC	Consumer Finance
Centrica PLC	Multi-Utilities & Unregulated Power
Coca Cola Company	Beverages & Tobacco
Credit Agricole SA	Global Banks
Daikin Industries Limited	Building Products
Deutsche Boerse AG	Diversified Financials
Deutsche Post AG	Air Freight & Logistics
Dexia	Banks - Europe
Diageo PLC	Beverages & Tobacco
Eastman Kodak Company	Leisure Equipment & Products
Electrocomponents PLC	Trading Companies & Distributors
Fabege AB	Real Estate Management & Development
Fortum Corp.	Electric Utilities - Intl
FPL Group Inc	Electric Power Companies - N. America
Fresenius Medical Care AG	Health Care Providers & Services
Gamesa Corp. Technologica	Electrical Equipment
General Electric Company	Industrial Conglomerates
Genzyme Corp.	Biotechnology
Glaxosmithkline PLC	Pharmaceuticals
Grupo Ferrovial SA	Construction & Engineering
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB	Specialty Retail
Hbos PLC .	Banks - UK & Ireland
Hewlett-Packard Company	Computers & Peripherals
Holmen AB	Paper & Forest Products
Iberdrola SA	Electric Utilities - Intl
Inditex SA	Specialty Retail
ING Groep NV	Diversified Financials - Europe
Insurance Australia Group	Insurance - Asia
Intel Corp.	Semiconductor Equipment & Products
Johnson Matthey PLC	Metals & Mining
Kesko Corp.	Food & Drug Retailing
Kuraray Company Limited	Commodity Chemicals
Lafarge	Construction Materials
Land Securities PLC	Real Estate Management & Development
L'Oreal	Household & Personal Products
Marks & Spencer Group PLC	Multiline Retail
Matsushita Electric Industrial Company	Household Durables
Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG	Containers & Packaging
Mitchells & Butlers PLC	Hotels Restaurants & Leisure
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited	Industrial Machinery
MTR Corporation Limited	Road & Rail Transport
Neste Oil Corporation	Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Nestle	Food Products
Nexen Inc	Oil & Gas Exploration & Production
Nike Inc	Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods
Nikko Cordial Corp.	Diversified Financials - Asia
Nippon Yusen KK	Marine Transport
Nokia Corporation	Communications Equipment
Novo Nordisk A/S	Pharmaceuticals
Novozymes A/S	Specialty Chemicals
NTT Docomo Inc	Wireless Telecommunication Services
OMV AG	Integrated Oil & Gas
Pinnacle West Capital Corp.	Electric Power Companies - N. America
Reed Elsevier PLC	Publishing
Ricoh Company Limited	Electronic Equipment & Instruments
Roche Holdings Limited	Pharmaceuticals
Royal Bank Of Canada	Banks - N. America
Royal Bank of Scotland	Global Banks
Royal Dutch Shell PLC	Integrated Oil & Gas
Sainsbury (J) PLC	Food & Drug Retailing
Saipem	Energy Equipment & Services
SAP AG	Software & IT Services
SCA AB	Paper & Forest Products
Scania AB	Construction & Farm Machinery & Heavy Trucks
Sekisui Chemical Company Limited	Homebuilding
Smith & Nephew PLC	Health Care Equipment & Supplies
Smiths Group PLC	Industrial Conglomerates
Societe Generale	Global Banks
State Street Corp.	Diversified Financials - N. America
Swiss Reinsurance Company	Insurance - Europe
The Capita Group PLC	Human Resource & Employment Services
Tietoenator OYJ	Software & IT Services
Toppan Printing Company Limited	Commercial Services & Supplies
Toyota Motor Corp.	Automobiles
Transcanada Corp.	Gas Utilities
Unibail Holding SA	Real Estate Investment Trusts
Unilever PLC	Food Products
United Technologies Corp.	Aerospace & Defense
Vestas Windsystems A/S	Electrical Equipment
Walt Disney Company	Movies & Entertainment
Westpac Banking Corp.	Banks - Asia
Yell Group PLC	Advertising

Sundancing with Hollywood and Eco-Stars

We were at the Sundance Film Festival last weekend to bring REAL Sustainability to the stars.  It was surreal - the confusion, the tight quarters, the crowded streets - I can see why the locals leave when Sundance is in town. We heard that Al Gore was wandering the scene, throwing his clout behind some film, but we didn't see him.

Diane MacEachern and I were on the Second Floor of the Treasure Mountain Inn hosting the Sustainability Suite. Our goal was to give the stars who care about the Climate Change conversation, a hands-on experience with the best examples of Sustainable products. Bill Pullman and Tim Daly, were two of the stars who came by to sign a square of Marmoleum Click(tm) (SMaRT certified Sustainable, Platinum level) and then sign it again via Olympic Paint (Green Seal Certified). The Sustainable Hands-o-Fame Squares will be sold off later on E-Bay with the money going to World Peace One and Alaska Wilderness League.

CNN came down to learn about the Sustainable products as well - they had the top floor of the hotel and I swear, sucked up every available airwave. Although the hotel had wifi access, we sure couldn't get logged on. So much for trying to live blog the event...

We were also thrilled to meet Canadian author and activist, Maude Barlow, who is the head of the Council of Canadians. She was there in support of the new film FLOW: For Love of Water. Maude also has a new book out called Blue Covenant. I had no idea that Arizona is already OUT of water and she forecasts that California will be tapped out in 5 years. (Arizona imports it from other states.)

Meeting Maude and seeing the work that she's doing was truly inspirational. I hope to interview her for In Women We Trust.

My take away from the whole thing? I felt like Jody Foster in her role in Contact. She made contact, but the rest of society wasn't quite ready to hear the message. Sustainable thinking is in it's baby step stage. One of the camera men asked me after an interview "What's Sustainable mean"? After all the work that women like Maude and Diane have done over their lifetime and all the work that Forbo and Olympic have done to make their products eco-friendly, we're still a very long way off from being a Sustainable society. Hopefully, with the right kind of star power, the message will reach the masses, faster. Meanwhile... keep on blogging! 

When OC meets DC at the Sundance Film Festival

Next week I get to meet my blogging buddy for the first time. We're hosting the Green Pavilion at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

This is me, Mary Hunt (left), at my organic best when I'm NOT staring at a computer screen. Last spring I met Diane (right) in the blogosphere. She and I were both writing for Boomer Girl - well - she more than me. I was impressed with her credentials on green issues and her great idea of bringing 1 million women together to dedicate ourselves to swapping out $1000 of brown buying habits for $1000 of green buying habits on Big Green Purse.

While Diane was finishing her Big Green Purse book, I've been working on educating bloggers on Sustainable Standards. She focuses on the power of the purse and I focus on the power of the post.

We've only met on email or the phone, but through our posts and chats we know each other well. It turns out that besides our mindset, we also have our college days in common, she at the University of Michigan and me at Eastern Michigan University, 6 miles to the east. We both started out in the sciences, but she stayed with them and I left to join the marketing world. Today, I'm going back to green and she's swaying more towards marketing.

It's fitting that we meet for the first time at Sundance which is renowned for bringing new thoughts and actions into the world. For a long time, we both have felt like we were the only ones who said, women+green issues = business climate change. Now others are coming on board.   

The Green Pavilion is an invitation only, educational event for the stars and reporters to learn about REAL sustainable products - products like FSC reclaimed furnishings from Groovy Stuff, SMaRT Certified Sustainable Marmoleum Flooring, Green Seal Olympic Paint. We'll be live blogging the event, who we see, which stars are really carrying the Sustainable life forward... The entertainment writers may be on strike, but we aren't. See you soon, Diane!

2008 what's OUT and what's IN, in Business Climate Change

It’s out with the old and in with the new time.

OUT                IN

Green                        Sustainable

Greenwash                Authentic Marketing

Overlook Standards Quantified Sustainable Standards

Fossil Fuels               Renewable Energy

No Accountability      Product Life Cycle Assessments      

Federal Regulation   Free Market Self-Regulation

Internal Audits           Third Party Audits

There's another big trend that seems to be skipping by the news writers - yes, we may be buying less because of being cash strapped, but we also buying less because green sites like here, here and here are all saying "buy green (now sustainable) or buy nothing." All of which affects the economy and that's what scares policy makers and investors because currently, we don't have enough sustainable items. Let's put it another way, if Wal Mart stores had nothing but products that were as sustainable as an organic apple, what do you think would happen to their stock?

In the past when our economy goes south, other global markets (all 180 of them) balanced it out and the investors kept on chugging along. In 2008, that spread-the-risk investment strategy is at risk as ALL markets are affected by the treat of Climate Change. So what can you do to stop a market melt down on top of an Arctic cap meltdown? Do something to protect the market.

That something is provide proof of sustainability - proof that your sustainable product IS as organic as an organic apple.

Mindy Lubber, the president of Ceres put it this way:

“…corporate concern about sustainable business practices, once taken seriously by a handful of prescient companies, is hitting both Wall Street and Main Street. Clearly, some corporations joining the movement to go green are doing so because they see a market trend and don't want to miss the wave. Others see a public relations opportunity, while still others have leadership who genuinely see corporate responsibility and sustainability as integral to the corporate strategy.”

Accountability for corporate actions is taking hold. You can expect to see more announcements coming out of the EPA in January. Mindy goes on to say...

“Indeed, hundreds of companies have spent billions of dollars to understand and reduce their impacts on biodiversity, water quality, energy use, and climate risks...

Investors, too, are helping to shift the tide towards greater corporate transparency and accountability on a variety of sustainability challenges. It would have been inconceivable 15 years ago that in 2007, 55 of the nation's largest institutional investors representing $4 trillion in assets, would become part of Ceres' Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), scrutinizing how the companies they invest in are managing the financial risks and opportunities of climate change. Climate change is the mother of all sustainability issues and will have an impact on every economic sector, whether from new regulations, physical impacts or growing demand for climate-friendly technologies. Thus, climate risk is embedded in every business and investment portfolio, which is why more Wall Street analysts are beginning to factor corporate response to climate risk into their evaluations of the companies they cover.

That last part cuts to the chase… corporations and investors are all looking at the bottom line. Mindy concludes that, “Sustainability reporting must become as routine as corporate financial reporting… and sustainability strategies must become more than an adjunct or afterthought, or relegated to the PR department. They must become an integral part of every major company's core mission and strategic plan. Fundamentally, environmental and social issues are business issues.”

Read her full commentary here.

This is a momentous change in the way we are doing business and every citizen needs to be aware of it's impact as much as corporate and investment insiders. Our everyday lives, our retirement lives and the life of this planet is dependent on that understanding.

If money makes the world go around, I’m very hopeful for 2008, as money starts going around in a more sustainable way thanks to Sustainable Standards and those who support them. Climate Change may still not be "real" to many, but this economic climate change can't be ignored, not if you have a business or are investing for your retirement.