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Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts

Patagonia Presents the World Premiere of “DamNation”

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Patagonia recently announced that it is presenting the world premiere of DamNation at the SXSW. This film explores the sea change in our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers.

Dam removal has moved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Where obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. DamNation's majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

A special panel at the world premiere of the film on March 10 at SXSW will feature Patagonia Founder/Owner Yvon Chouinard; DamNation director Travis Rummel; Joy Howard, Vice President of Marketing for Patagonia; and, Jeremy Boxer, Creative Director of Vimeo. The panel will be moderated by esteemed indie film journalist and digital innovator Eugene Hernandez, Director of Digital Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Chouinard states, “I'm proud to have been involved. Time and again, I've witnessed how removing an unnecessary dam is the responsible and, eventually, celebrated choice. Ben, Matt and Travis show us why, and they've made a beautiful film.”

DamNation is set for U.S. theatrical release in New York and select markets in April/May, coupled with a nine-city tour of regional film premieres, and followed by a tour to all Patagonia stores nationwide on May 29. The film will be available for pre-buy on the DamNation website through Vimeo On Demand in March, and will be released on Vimeo, along with iTunes and a number of other digital platforms in June.

DamNation is produced by Patagonia in association with a Stoecker Ecological & Felt Soul Media Production and is set for theatrical release in select cities beginning in April.

DamNation, 87 min, U.S., 2014. Directed by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel. Produced by Matt Stoecker and Travis Rummel. Editor: Ben Knight. Director of Photography: Ben Knight. Director of Underwater Photography: Matt Stoecker. Associate Producer: Beda Calhoun. Executive Producer: Yvon Chouinard. Featuring: David James Duncan, David Montgomery, Elmer Crow, Rebecca Miles Jim Waddell, Floyd Dominy, Katie Lee, Lee Spencer and Mikal Jakubal.

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Patagonia: A Model of Responsible Retail

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Being a responsible consumer entails spending money in ways that attempt to minimize adverse impacts on people, the environment and society. But what is a responsible retailer? There are several good examples of companies who tirelessly advocate responsible consumerism, but none is better than outdoor apparel company Patagonia.

Patagonia has long been a champion of responsible retail. They ask consumers to consider the environmental impacts of their purchases. Rather than encourage people to buy more stuff, Patagonia has run adds asking people to buy what they really need.

In 2011 Patagonia launched the Common Threads Partnership to reduce the environmental footprint. Now Patagonia is encouraging people to extend the lives of their old items by repairing them rather than buying new. To make this point, Patagonia has partnered with iFixit to offer tutorials on how to repair Patagonia items and fix basic things like a broken zipper or loose stitching on a jacket.

Patagonia and iFixit is running free sewing and repair clinics in the retailer’s stores on Black Friday as part of a campaign called "Buy Less, Repair More." Patagonia is also showing Worn Wear a documentary about customers, the lives they lived, and how their purchases have endured.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video - Yvon Chouinard Founder of Patagonia and 1% for the Planet

Video - Yvon Chouinard Founder of Patagonia and 1% for the Planet
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Patagonia May be the World's Most Responsible Company

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Patagonia, is in a league of their own. For almost three decades the outdoor apparel and gear company has been a champion of environmental stewardship and social responsibility. The are leaders in reporting transparency, responsible marketing, employee engagement, consumer education and helping environmentally oriented start-ups.

Patagonia is a member of 1% for the Planet and they are a Certified Benefit Corporation.

Being a Benefit Corporation (B Corporation) they are legally required to:

1) Have a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on society and the environment.
2) Redefine fiduciary duty to require consideration of the interests of workers, community and the environment.
3) Publicly report annually on its overall social and environmental performance using a comprehensive, credible, independent, and transparent third party standard.'

Patagonia's involvement with 1% for the Planet is another way that they advocate for the environment and give back to the wider community. The goal at 1% is to empower everyone to drive major pro-social initiatives. For almost a decade they have been helping businesses to be engines of positive environmental change. They support, food, wildlife, water, climate, environmental education, land stewardship and environmental human health.

Patagonia is about far more than sustainable clothing and food, they market their products more responsibly than almost any other company in the world. They are committed to lowering consumption levels, to illustrate the point a couple of years ago the company took out a full page ad in the New York Times on the biggest retail sales day of the year, “Black Friday.” The advertisement pictured its R2 Jacket beneath a caption reading: "Don’t Buy This Jacket.”

Now the company is taking their advocacy to the next level by promoting a campaign called "responsible economy"  which is aimed at shaping policy and influencing businesses in addition to reaching consumers. This campaign is looking to explore what a sustainable economy of the future will look like. It asks important questions about the future of growth while acknowledging finite limits.

In addition to reducing unnecessary consumption they are  very involved with ensuring that their products do not end up in landfills. Through its Common Threads Initiative, Patagonia encourages consumers to buy and sell its clothing through a storefront on Ebay. They also encourage customers to sign a pledge agreeing to responsible product stewardship.

Patagonia's employees are also very much involved in the company's sustainability efforts. As part of the Footprint Chronicles, Patagonia employees travel the world tracking products from design to distribution center scrutinizing all aspects the company's product and supply chain. This is not only for Patagonia employees it is also serves to educate consumers. 

The owner of Patagonia is Yvon Chouinard, he recently traveled to Cleveland to receive the Inamori Ethics Prize from Case Western Reserve University’s Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence. The prize is awarded to people who have demonstrated exemplary ethical leadership, and whose actions and influence have created the potential for improving the condition of humankind.

Chouinard, is a hero in the sustainability community he is a global leader in corporate social and environmental responsibility. Chouinard’s was influenced by America’s naturalists John Muir, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The elimination of toxins at Patagonia illustrates the reason why so many sustainable business leaders venerate Chouinard. When he found out that formaldehyde in his clothing was giving his employees headaches, he radically altered his supply chain eliminating the toxin altogether.

Eliminating pesticide laden industrially grown cotton, was no small feat as he was hard pressed to find an organic alternative. Rather than give up, he leveraged his company to help create an organic cotton farming industry.

Mr. Chouinard is an inspiration to so many people in and out of the business community because he is doing more than being responsible, he is trying to change the way business is done. He is the embodiment of ethics and leadership that values people and the planet.

Earlier this year Patagonia launched a $20 million dollar internal venture fund to invest in environmentally responsible startups focused on clothing, food, water, energy and waste. As Chouinard stated, it is "about positive benefit to the environment.” The equity investments, partnerships, and joint ventures are focused on using business to help solve the environmental crisis.

To add to Patagonia's long list of sustainability initiatives, the company announced that it will use 100 percent traceable down across its entire collection of down-insulated products starting in the Fall 2014 season.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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PLANTERS Presents 'The Sustainability Journey: African Cashew Farmers' (Video)

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Unilever Sustainability Journey: Go Big or Go Home

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Unilever's efforts are extraordinary if for no other reason than the sheer scale of its sustainability ambitions. By 2020, the company, with annual revenues exceeding $63 billion, plans to cut its massive environmental footprint in half through its Sustainable Living Plan.

Big efforts get noticed as is evidenced by the fact that Unilever won top honors at the 2011 International Green Awards in London. Unilever was named the Grand Prix award winner because it has "the greatest capacity to change the way society and business is perceived, supported by factual evidence of systemic change."

Unilever's vision behind its Sustainable Living Plan rests on the belief that business must prepare itself for a future in which resources will become more constrained and carry a higher cost.

"We are preparing ourselves for that future. We're also trying to develop products and services which will allow our consumers to adapt to a very different world," Gavin Neath, Unilever's senior vice president of sustainability, said in an interview. "People talk a lot about things like climate change adaptation. In a real sense, part of what we're doing in the Sustainable Living Plan is about climate change adaptation."

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Bluehorse Associates Sustainability Journey: Doing It for the Money

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Bluehorse is a pioneer in the sustainability metrics field and they understand how bottom line concerns are driving sustainability. They specialize in delivering ground-breaking tools that provide decision makers with clear, usable information for their business and products.

Bottom line benefits are the driving force behind the adoption of sustainability. As Sara Pax President of Bluehorse Associates noted, it is 'not about tree-hugging': Sustainability is simply good for business. According to Pax, companies should be concerned about their environmental sustainability - but it has more to do with ensuring profitability than it does with saving the planet.

Bluehorse Associates is the maker of a tool for measuring environmental sustainability for the food industry called Carbonostics , which Pax claims can give food and beverage companies tangible information about which measures make most sense for business, as well as for the environment.

Carmel McQuaid, Climate Change Manager, Marks & Spencer said, "Carbonostics is a truly innovative and pragmatic tool which will enable better decision making and help the food industry continue progress towards healthy, profitable and sustainable products.”

Consumer engagement should not be a top priority for companies, Pax said, as only a very small percentage of consumers change their purchasing decisions based on any environmental work that a company has undertaken.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Berg Engineering Consultants Ltd. Sustainability Journey: Be Proactive

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Green is also growing in the building sector. As reported in the Daily Herald Business Ledger, The green market was 2 percent of nonresidential construction starts in 2005; 12 percent in 2008; and grew to 28-35 percent in 2010. By 2015, an estimated 40-48 percent of new nonresidential construction will be green. Experts say green building will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 million into the U.S. economy over the next four years.

By 2015, the green share of the largest nonresidential retrofit and renovation activity will more than triple, growing to 25-33 percent of the activity by value — a $14-18 billion opportunity in major construction projects alone, industry experts say.

When Brian Berg Sr. established Berg Engineering Consultants Ltd. (BEC) There was no green market and there was no LEED certification. However when he set up shop in the midst of the 70s energy crisis, he paid heed to prevailing conditions and positioned himself to be ahead of the curve in energy-efficient designs.

Now his firm has won numerous energy awards using energy efficient design in a huge and growing market.

“Dad had to invent energy efficient design,” explains Brian Berg Jr. “Today it’s not so much a process, but education — staying on top of innovations, showing clients how spending a little more for a more energy efficient building envelope is a smart investment.”

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Aramark Sustainability Journey: Training a Workforce

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Securing qualified employees is amongst Aramark's key sustainability initiatives. Aramark has launched an Environmental Internship Program designed to meet a growing need for employees who have a practical understanding of environmental initiatives plus fundamental business knowledge.

The program provides young professionals with corporate experience and creates an awareness of the role environmental stewardship can play in all jobs. Aramark is a world leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world.

“Environmental practices can be incorporated into virtually any job, and through the Aramark Environmental Internship Program we can help develop employees who make the connection between the work that they do, and its impact on the environment and on our business,” said Rick Martella, Aramark Vice President, Business Affairs. “Embedding these internships in key roles across the company will provide environmental knowledge and skills that are not confined to a single position or type of job, and can be easily shared.”

Another example of Aramark's sustainability efforts takes the form of a re-usable container program they launched in 2009. Aramark Higher Education, a world leader in providing professional services to more than 600 colleges and universities throughout North America introduced the Green Thread™ ‘to go’ container program at many of the campuses it serves, diverting more than two million disposables from landfills during the 2009-2010 school year. The re-usable ‘to go’ food container were designed for use at the campus dining hall.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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PPR Home's Sustainability Journey: Innovative Metrics Shed Light on Supply Chains

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PPR Home is the parent company of some of the world's biggest luxury and sporting brands, including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and PUMA, are embarking on one of the world's most ambitious green accounting programs. PPR Home has announced that it will adopt a group environmental profit and loss statement (EP&L) by 2015.

This new approach to accounting will help to monitor and manage greenhouse gas emissions, water use, pollution, and land use change. According to PUMA executive chairman, Jochen Zeitz EP&Ls are superior to conventional sustainability reports.

"As the manager of a business, all you need to look at now is one page and you know what you need to do because it tells you exactly where you need to attack in order to get rid of your footprint," Zeitz said. "But once you visualise and measure, you can actually manage the impact. Whereas before the visualisation was so hypothetical that it didn't lead to concrete day-to-day decisions."

The EP&L provide a more transparent view of the supply chain. PUMA's E P&L revealed that 94 percent of its environmental impact was created in the supply chain, which has encouraged the company to find alternative materials to reduce that impact. As a consequence of the EP&L, Zeitz said that the company was looking into requiring firms to measure and report their environmental impact when PUMA is selecting suppliers in future.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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GM Sustainability Journey: Death and Resurrection

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The old General Motors (GM) died three years ago but like a phoenix from the ashes it has been reborn. GM declared bankruptcy in 2009 but in 2011 the company once again laid claim to being the world's largest automaker. GM said that it sold 9.025 million vehicles in 2011 putting it ahead of Volkswagen which had sales of 8.015 million in 2011.

GM was the victim of its poor strategic decisions, not the least of which was its failure to engage sustainability. As Paul Ingrassia describe it in the Wall Street Journal, GM made "decades of dumb decisions."

In the past environmentalists have quite rightly criticized GM for producing gas-guzzling behemoths like the Hummer. GM also filed a lawsuit against California's regulation of carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The company has also been a longstanding opponent of government-mandated fuel-efficiency regulations. Perhaps most seriously, GM is alleged to have "killed" the electric car.

The new GM has gotten rid of much of the old and introduced revolutionary new products. The company succeeded in selling its Hummer brand and it launched new vehicles like the award winning Chevy Volt. Although it has encountered some problems and is not selling as well as some had hoped, the Volt is an industry leading extended range electric vehicle.

A book by sustainability guru Joel Makower chronicled GM's conversation with the environmental community. It revealed that GM was beginning to respond to sustainability issues even before its demise. In late 2006, GM leaders briefed a group of environmentalists about the Volt, even before it unveiled the car to the press. Although it ended up being "too little too late," GM reached out to the major environmental groups to describe its vision and plans, field questions, and listen to concerns. According to Makower, who was involved in these talks, Big Auto and Big Green began to come together "as colleagues with shared goals."

However, slowly GM was moving in the right direction prior to filing for bankruptcy. For example in 2008, the company made a commitment to ensure that half of its manufacturing plants were landfill-free. But these efforts were inadequate and GM was forced to file for bankruptcy.

In 2009 when GM filed its bankruptcy petition, Beth Lowery sent an email to her network of environmental leaders and other stakeholders, offering an optimistic perspective of what the filing meant for the car company's future:

"The New GM will focus on reinventing not just ourselves, but transportation systems around the world. An essential starting point is vehicle electrification...we will continue to work with partners to develop the infrastructure necessary to support advanced technologies."

Makower added, "skeptics may deride the taxpayer-funded New GM as "Government Motors," I still have high hopes that in the coming years, it actually could stand for Greener Mobility."

It turnes out that Lowery and Makeower were both right. The new GM is doing much more than just manufacturing a range of greener vehicles. In addition to 12 vehicles that get a minimum of 30 miles per gallon, GM is aggressively pursuing a number of sustainability initiatives. Between the years 2005 and 2010, GM reduced it energy use by more than 30 percent and its carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by 30 percent.

GM is also greening its facilities. The company now uses 30 megawatts of solar energy in seven facilities and plans to double that amount by 2015. GM also uses energy efficient lighting and HVAC systems. One of its facilities in Lansing, Michigan has even received LEED Gold Certification. Half of all global manufacturing facilities are just about waste free.

GM reuses and recycles more of its manufacturing waste than any other automaker. GM preserves natural resources as well as enhance the natural habitats that surround all facilities. The company has more certifications from the Wildlife Habitat Council than any other manufacturer from North America and 15 different habitat programs going on around the world.

A total of 30 GM Plants have met the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Challenge for Industry. These facilities were able to avoid the production of more than 775,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide passes and saved over $50 million in energy costs.
GM also partnered with the US Department of Energy to create the EcoCAR Challenge competition which challenges 16 different universities in North America and asks them to find a way to reduce the overall environmental impact of vehicles.

GM is also home to the the biggest rooftop solar panel array in the world. The roof of GM car factory in Zaragoza, Spain is made up of 85,000 lightweight panels that cover approximately two million square feet. The company plans to install solar panels at an additional 11 plants throughout the European Continent.

Other sustainability efforts include:

Investing in renewable energy
Funding a new EV company
Researching breakthroughs that reduce emissionsResearching greener fuel manufacturingWorking cooperatively for fuel improvements

GM is also striking up new partnerships and collaborations that serve its sustainability agenda. These efforts include:

Collaborating with Sunlogics P.L.C. to make solar powered charging stationsCollaborating with LG to Develop EVsCollaborating with BMW

The Obama Administration deserves credit for having the foresight to see the advantages of investing $82 billion in the auto industry bailout. It has been a long and difficult fall from grace, but GM is now reaping the benefits of sustainability.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Kodak Sustainability Journey: Fear of Corporate Death as a Catalyst for Change

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Eastman Kodak Co. is a good example of a striving to survive with the help of sustainability. Companies relate to sustainability in different ways, but whether they are trying to maintain the position of their brand or trying to resurrect themselves from the dead, engaging sustainability is a competitive necessity and ultimately a matter of survival.

Ahead of government regulation and even popular demand, corporate sustainability is now weaving its way into strategic business decisions that are influencing everything from manufacturing processes to marketing communications.

As explained in a Sustainable Brands article, “Companies increasingly recognize that a proactive stance on sustainability is becoming a competitive necessity in attracting investors, employment talent and supply chain partners, as well as customers.”

Every company deals with a unique set of circumstances. But whether a company is leading or faltering, engaging sustainability is a way to maintain a strong market position or as in the case of Kodak, a way to resurrect a dying brand.

To help direct its sustainability journey Kodak hired a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) in 2010.

Companies that proactively engage sustainability are rewarded while companies that ignore sustainability are punished. This holds true for Eastman Kodak, which is being forced to reinvent itself by the changing marketplace. The company is radically changing its product offerings and its culture of complacency as a matter of survival.

As reviewed in a Triple Pundit article, Kodak is already teetering on the brink, to raise capital they are close to selling off some of their lucrative patents, and they have one year to submit a reorganization plan to bankruptcy court.

Kodak is fighting for its life. To help its chances of survival the company is replacing its 70 year old logo. In an effort to break with the past, Kodak's new corporate logo strives to communicate a cutting-edge, 21st century innovator.

Sustainability is a defining part of business in the 21st century and with that in mind the 120-year-old film company is rebirthing itself as a digital imaging company.

Through its partnership with Natcore Technologies, Kodak is also investing in inexpensive patented thin-film solar technology, specifically flexible solar cells, through, a New Jersey-based startup. The solar cells cost as little as half as much as traditional thin film solar cells to manufacture.

These are bold move for Kodak, but it will need to make similar strong committments to sustainability if it is to regain its foothold.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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HP and Dell Sustainability Journeys: The Choice Between Manufacturing and Recycling

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HP and Dell are each taking different approaches to sustainability. One is emphasizing removing toxic compounds from manufacturing the other is focused on recycling through take back programs.

HP is better than Dell at removing toxic compounds from their designs. They have reduced PVC and BFRs have completely phased out beryllium and other compounds.

However, Dell is working with the EPA on the National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship. The Dell and the EPA are promoting the use of certified recyclers for electronic waste. The goal of the Strategy is to “encourage electronics manufacturers to expand their product take-back programs, and use certified recyclers as a minimum standard in those programs.”

Both HP and Dell have good competing sustainability strategies, but the marketplace of the not too distant future will not tolerate an either or approach.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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