With the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) now less than two years away, Dakar 2026 presented its latest progress report to the 144th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session.
The National Geographic Society recently approved more than $4 million for 111 grants, further strengthening the 21CF partner’s commitment to investing in science, exploration, conservation, storytelling, education, and technology. These awards complete the annual grants cycle, with over 600 grants totaling nearly $12 million awarded in 2017 to help address the planet’s most critical issues in fighting for a healthier, more sustainable future for all.
We support the recent Noble Research Institute announcement. To date, General Mills has invested almost $3 million to support soil health research and practices. Together with The Nature Conservancy, Soil Health Partnership, Soil Health Institute and other industry leaders, we are striving to implement practices on more than 50 percent of U.S. farmland.
GRI’s new Benchmarking Service helps you to understand how your reporting compares to what your peers are doing in your industry, country and region, and is a useful tool to showcase the ROI of sustainability reporting.
Aligning the capital markets more directly with the urgent needs we face as a society to halt environmental destruction and reverse decades of worsening inequality must be our priority for 2018. Alignment needs to occur at every level, across the global markets. Despite the tremendous efforts behind the Paris Climate Accord, formalization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and a long history of other efforts to change the course of climate change and inequality, we are not making nearly the progress needed. The 1,700 signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, which represent $70 trillion of assets and a wave of press about environmental, social and governance-oriented investing, have not gotten us on track.
Delivering on brand relevance also requires welcoming more and different voices to the table, using our collective wisdom to solve problems together and rallying consumers and employees to take action with us as brands. When net trust in global corporations is less than zero, it is understandable that brands may feel overwhelmed and afraid to go it alone. That is why thoughtful partnerships can empower brands to tackle meaningful issues without feeling like they are straining credibility or speaking out of turn.
More than ever before, consumers want brands to put a stake in the ground. It is not simply about reacting to today’s news cycle, but rather knowing where you stand and standing strong when issues arise.
As traditional corporate philanthropy efforts have ceased to capture the love and loyalty of consumers, it is time to rethink old models of CSR and consider how your brand’s purpose can translate to more meaningful and culturally relevant efforts that excite and engage consumers.
The new opportunity for brands is not only marketing incremental product benefits, but embodying a higher purpose that serves your consumers’ aspirations for a good life by directly addressing the barriers to it.
As capitalism shifts to unite profits and purpose, most brands know how to design a great product or a reliable service. Yet many struggle when their company’s deeper mission has become muddy or even irrelevant. Brand purpose lives at the intersection of a company’s authentic reason for being and the unmet human needs that it can uniquely fulfill in the marketplace and the world. Revealing this harmonic is the key to defining your north star.
To stay relevant in a world of limited resources and mounting concerns, brands cannot simply show up and sell more stuff. Like never before, consumers expect brands to make their lives better. Doing so means understanding consumers’ struggles, needs and aspirations and addressing the issues that matter to them in meaningful ways.
A fundamental design principle in divided times is to start with empathy and listen to what people are feeling and what they desire for their lives. Empathy is fundamentally about respect. When was the last time you truly listened? When people feel ignored, or when their basic human needs are not being met, it is time for brands to start listening.
Last week, Aflac Chief Brand and Communications Officer Catherine Blades, and Reputation Institution Chief Research Officer Stephen Hahn Griffiths, discussed the findings of Aflac’s 2017 Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility with 31 television and radio stations across the country. This annual, scientific survey collects the thoughts and expectations of 1,000 consumers and investors regarding business ethics and responsibility.
Subaru works to reduce waste, safeguard resources for future generations, and preserve natural spaces – making real, meaningful commitments to these...
Cascale organizes and participates in a series of events, leveraging its position as a global convener of close to half the sector to bring together...
