Have you met TED?

For anyone who’s not been introduced, TED is a website dedicated to ‘ideas worth sharing’. I love it. It’s full of interesting, informative videos from experts on all sorts of subjects and they’re not allowed to be more than 20 minutes long. The videos are filmed at TED’s live events, and there are all sorts of other ways they encourage idea sharing and learning (I had the pleasure of working on the TED Studies module ‘Understanding Happiness‘ and look forward to the rest of the TED Studies series).

One of TED’s new features is a playlist function, grouping together videos by subject matter, or inviting people to curate lists (Bill Gates, Bono, Bjork and Bobak Ferdowsi to name just a few. You might know the last one better as “NASA mohawk guy”). While I wait for my invitation, I’ve decided to post my own little CSR playlist on here.

I’m going to start with another new function, TED Ed, and a lesson called ‘Re-thinking progress: The Circular Economy‘. There are some big subjects covered at a high level, including design, manufacture and private ownership; I think it’s a wonderful, simple introduction to the circular economy concept. The key theme is taking inspiration from nature, which also feature in the next clip I’ve chosen.

Arthur Potts Dawson – ‘A vision for sustainable restaurants’ is a very practical talk, as Arthur shares the steps he’s taken in his own restaurants and when setting up a sustainable supermarket. So many people just talk about the need to take action, it’s great to hear about what someone’s specifically been doing.

Moving from a small organisation to the big ones, my third choice is Jason Clay – ‘How big brands can save biodiversity’. There are so many stakeholders involved in sustainability that actually making a global impact can seem impossible, especially if we’re relying only on discerning consumers as the impetus for change. Clay believes that the nature of our organisational structures means the tipping point could be reached by getting 100 key players on board. His roundtables get these big businesses to interact with NGOs, scientists and suppliers, until they reach a point where they’re influencing their entire industries. 

This supply side approach would mean we’d have no choice but to buy ethically, and while that would certainly make shopping much easier, we’re not there yet. By behaving as responsible consumers we do have the potential to speed this process up from the other direction too. Tim Leberecht (‘3 ways to usefully lose control of your brand’) and John Gerzema (‘The post crisis consumer’), talk about how this is already playing out and driving change in organisational behaviour. Both discuss the benefits, indeed necessity, of corporate transparency and authenticity. Of course if your organisation’s closet is going to be transparent, you better make sure you don’t have any skeletons in there -attempting to curb the spread of bad press on social media is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.

A lot of my selections so far have focused on environmental issues, but CSR also covers the responsibility companies have to their employees, which is why I’ve included Auret van Heerden’s – ‘Making global labor fair’.

I’m going to finish off with a selection that sums up why we need to be doing all this, Alex Steffen – ‘The Route to a Sustainable Future’. Steffen says of our current trajectory “on the one hand we have the unthinkable; on the other hand way we have the unimaginable”. He goes on to outline the kind of game changing ideas that will help create the vision and action we need to create a third option. TED is full of talks on bright new ideas, but  I’ve chosen this one because Steffen pulls together some nice examples which makes the challenge sound exciting, rather than insurmountable.

I know there are plenty more very worthy speakers that could have made this list, if you have any favourites do share them below.

Magic carpets – CSR at Interface

I’m slightly wary about talking about carpet tile manufacturers Interface, as they’re so frequently cited in CSR literature (they took away the ‘Most Sustainable Large Organisation‘ and the Grand Prix prize at the International Green Awards 2012). But seeing as I’m currently living in the Alps I couldn’t resist sharing their goal of scaling Mount Sustainability.

I was struck by Interface’s story not only because they are a company who have really put sustainability at the very heart of their business, but because they did so quite suddenly after 21 years in business. It started in 1994, when founder Ray Anderson had an epiphany. As a result the company underwent an entire business model change, with the aim of becoming the first fully sustainable organisation. This goal is called Mission Zero, and they’re looking to operate with zero negative impact by 2020. How much is enough is an important question for CSR teams but at Interface their are no half measures, they’re taking this as far as it will go. They don’t just want to reduce their waste, but create a closed-loop system that eliminates waste entirely.

Recognising that this will be no small feat, Interface have christened their challenge ‘Mount Sustainability’, which is then broken down into seven fronts to be scaled.

Getting everyone on board
As I said in my last post, an inspired chief executive is one of the most valuable assets any CSR programme could have, but it doesn’t guarantee success. At Interface they’ve obviously managed to embed these values throughout the company culture, so that sustainability is at the heart of every decision they make. There are incentives for employees to contribute and accountability throughout their management system – with personal performance objectives linked to Mission Zero. Development opportunities include the FastForward to 2020 training opportunities, to help everyone get on board.

Success
Interface are well on their way to achieving their goal, and there are all sorts of impressive environmental statistics to browse through on their website. There’s also a long list of external recognition, and not just from awards bodies. I want to avoid too much jargon and/or acronyms in this blog, but I’m going to make an exception to mention their EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) based on their LCA (life cycle analysis), developed by GUT (Gemeinschaft Umweltfreundlicher Teppichboden) and verified by the IBU (Institute for Built Environment) – in for a penny, in for a pound! Interface have worked in partnership with GUT to develop industry guidelines, but are saved from a conflict of interest by IBU, who provide independent verification. As for LCA, they have a really useful guide to the process which isn’t just for those in the carpet industry.

Which brings me on nicely to my final note, that Interface are keen on sharing their approach – and really against organisations that claim to be green but aren’t (to the point of sounding almost aggresive – or perhaps that’s just me?). Either way, the information is still useful, check out their Just The Facts download and there’s more on their Cut The Fluff blog. And if you want to hear about everything from the horse’s mouth, you can apply to attend the 2degrees webinar at 10am (GMT) this Friday. Ramon Arratia, Sustainability Director at Interface, will be talking to 2degrees’ editor, Tom Idle.

Doing it right – Patagonia

This blog was partially inspired by an article in Yodel magazine, which listed some examples of socially responsible ski or mountain companies. Of those they listed, Patagonia is probably the best known, and their mission statement is ‘Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.’

Most large organisations now have at least a token CSR section; in Patagonia’s case their environmental commitment is given more priority than their products! The site includes environmental essays on all sorts of subjects and these home-grown and guest pieces are actually much more interesting than the word ‘essay’ implies. There are also more detailed sections on some of their main priorities, here’s a little glimpse into what you’ll find:

The Footprint Chronicles
This initiative “examines Patagonia’s life and habits as a company. The goal is to use transparency about our supply chain to help us reduce our adverse social and environmental impacts – and on an industrial scale.”. The interactive map is really interesting, and its honesty was refreshing. In some cases they admitted that there were practices they were uncomfortable with, (even if they fell within legal guidelines), and detailed steps they’d taken to improve working conditions.

Our Common Waters
This is a two-year campaign to explore issues of water scarcity – how to meet human water needs without threatening the environment now and in the future. Again there’s a lot of  honesty here, they use a lot of water to create their products, in fact they’re still figuring out exactly how much, as well as how to reduce it.

Common Threads Initiative
The Common Threads Initiative encourages us all to reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and reimagine; it invites customers to pledge their commitment  and explains how Patagonia plan to help at their end. As part of the pledge they actively ask their customers to buy fewer of their products. For me it’s this message that really takes them above and beyond when it comes to CSR. The implication that they’re willing to commit to their values even if it means taking a hit on their profits makes this, and all their other messages, sound truly authentic.

Now, it’s early days for this blog – so perhaps I’m a little naive at this stage – but I’ve been really impressed by Patagonia. As I set off in search of more CSR success stories, the bar has been set pretty high.