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This article is sponsored by P&G

As shoppers continue to gravitate toward more sustainable products, consumer goods companies are challenged to develop new innovations that answer the call — and to hone the ways in which they communicate with consumers about what makes a product sustainable. 

While interest in sustainable product alternatives is on the rise across the board, studies show consumers are beginning to tire of generic “green” marketing and instead look for particular product attributes that align with their values and help them live more sustainable lives without sacrificing the need for the product to deliver quality performance. 

Life cycle assessments, or LCAs, can be a valuable tool for consumer companies as they look to respond to consumers’ sustainability expectations. A tried and tested exercise that has been around since the 1990s, LCAs are used to assess the environmental impact of a product at every stage of its life — from raw materials sourcing through processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal. 

“A life cycle assessment is a science-based approach that gives companies a holistic way to examine the total environmental impact of all these steps in the process — and the relative impact of each step,” said Terry Hare, senior director of research development for Procter & Gamble’s Dish Care. 

Given the booming interest in product sustainability, consumer goods companies are finding new value in LCAs to not only analyze how their products impact the planet and identify ways to cut that impact down to size with product innovation, but also how to best share these opportunities to reduce impact with its consumers. 

P&G leverages a carbon emissions-based LCA to evaluate its products. With dish soaps and detergents like Dawn and Cascade, P&G’s LCA found that up to 80 percent or more of the carbon emissions associated with dish care products like Dawn and Cascade come from the consumer use phase. But that doesn’t mean the company has no role in reducing those impacts. By better understanding consumer behavior, the company can design products that promote more sustainable habits, while also identifying ways to reduce its share of total product footprint, Hare said. 

Leveraging LCAs to solve problems for consumers (and the environment) 

“We are seeing consumers continuing more and more to want to do the right thing when it comes to sustainability and make smart choices when it comes to caring for the planet,” Hare told us. “We’re also seeing a general frustration in figuring out what that right thing is.”

For example, studies show that washing dishes by hand with the faucet running has the greatest environmental impact in terms of wasted water and energy, but many Americans still leave the tap running as they go through this daily chore on autopilot. It’s certainly understandable — most of us have enough going on — but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that each of us can save up to 10 gallons of water per load of dishes, and enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 18 hours, simply by shutting off the tap. 

Consumer goods companies have a role to play in promoting better habits like these through product design and innovation, Hare said. For example, P&G has designed a new Dawn dish care product (Dawn Powerwash Dish Spray) with the explicit goal of cutting water and energy use on the consumer side, including a spray-activated sudsing soap that essentially eliminates the need for water until it’s time to rinse a load of dishes. “We inherently built that in from the beginning of the design,” Hare explained. 

At the same time, if a company like P&G plans to promote a product as enabling a more sustainable lifestyle, it must also do its part to make sure the other parts of that product’s life cycle — from materials to manufacturing and packaging — also have less impact when compared to other options on the store shelf.  

For its part, P&G reports that it increased the use of recycled plastic in product packaging by 32 percent during the last fiscal year and purchased 98 percent renewable energy for all company-owned facilities, among other efforts to boost sustainability in manufacturing. 

“Follow where the science takes you” 

As more companies in the consumer goods segment and other sectors look to leverage LCAs to improve product sustainability, Hare advises business leaders to “go into these types of assessments with an open mind and be ready to follow where the science takes you.” 

“You may discover that a space that you were putting a lot of your resources, time, and energy into may be a small piece of the pie”,” she explained. “So be open to shifting your mindset and going after things that maybe were counterintuitive to you at the start. If the science is telling you ‘this is where you can have an impact,’ be willing to explore that and explore what's possible.” 

This article is sponsored by P&G

Image courtesy of P&G

Pride Month is a time for LGBTQ people to celebrate how far the community has come, while it’s also a sobering reminder of how much lies ahead until everyone is treated equally. This year’s Pride comes at an inflection point, as old tropes such as “grooming” are once again coming into public discourse and politicians deflect responsibility and accountability by striving to legislate away transgender people’s rights.

Once slow to embrace the human rights of their LGBTQ employees, more companies are seeing Pride Month as a branding opportunity, evident in the rainbow-clad corporate logos we see every June. But there’s a problem with the showcasing of LGBTQ-themed events and proclamations of “allyship,” and it’s not only due to crossing the line into “rainbow-washing,” as independent journalist Judd Legum recently pointed out. 

Legum and his small team dug into a rabbit hole of corporate donations to politicians and political candidates who promote legislation that erodes LGBTQ rights. The 25 companies Legum's team at Popular Information analyzed together have donated more than $13 million to anti-LGBTQ political leaders since early 2021. The roster reads like a who’s-who of America’s top brands, with the three such largest donors being Charter Communications, AT&T and GM.

All of these companies have received high, even perfect scores, from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the most powerful and active LGBTQ human rights activist group in the U.S. So, what’s going on? The HRC has long done good work, “but HRC's methodology excludes political donations, enabling corporations to craft a pro-LGBTQ image while bankrolling politicians that are undermining LGBTQ rights,” Legum noted in his Popular Information newsletter on Thursday.

Editor's note: Be sure to subscribe to our Brands Taking Stands newsletter, which comes out every Wednesday.

Ever since Bill Clinton’s presidential administration, the U.S. business community — which had long leaned overly Republican — has donated to “both sides” of the political divide for a simple reason: Corporations need to cultivate allies no matter who is in power. 

But there’s a problem: The “both sides” argument is hard to defend when elected officials are aggressively doing what they can to not only chip away but hack away at some people's fundamental rights.

In the wake of Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law and similar moves by state legislatures across the U.S. — not to mention the radicalization of the Supreme Court — we’re facing a time when the only force with the resources to stand up for LGBTQ rights is the business community. People shouldn’t count on companies to follow through, though, as the fallout after when Disney put itself through in Florida doesn’t bode well. Some anecdotal evidence suggests that more companies could retreat from sticking up for their LGBTQ employees, as noted in this recent LinkedIn blog.

Fortunately, Pride Month is also a reminder that LGBTQ workers can make their feelings and opinions known with their feet. As this writer concludes:

“…just remember that you have two choices: stay where you are and fight like hell to change things from within your company, or update your resume and begin looking for a new work community. Considering the number of openings that exist right now in most fields, you will have a new and much more accepting “home” deserving of your talent, your passion and your loyalty in no time whatsoever. Never forget that you matter and you have a great deal to offer to any company fortunate enough to hire you.”

And one way to “fight like hell” before, during and after Pride Month is to challenge a company’s lobbying spend.

Image credit: Leon Kaye

Netflix may have seen the epic series Schitt’s Creek drift away to Hulu in the latest round of the streaming giant wars, but the entertainment leader is gaining in its drive on climate action.

That’s according to Emma Stewart, who leads sustainability efforts at Netflix. “We’ve put our company on a carbon diet in line with climate science,” she said earlier today at a sustainability conference in Washington, D.C.

The streaming giant’s commitments range from its ongoing work to protect and restore carbon sinks to a huge lineup of series and documentaries focused on sustainability. On the latter point, the company says at least 160 million households around the world have watched content centered around climate-related challenges. Such work is critical for a company of Netflix’s scope, especially if its filming locations, such as the U.K.’s Hearn Bay (where the final scenes of the streaming service’s Heartstopper was filmed), will continue to thrive and mitigate future climate change risks.

So how does Netflix stay on task? Stewart described the company’s framework as “OED” — three overarching pillars in which the company optimizes, electrifies and decarbonizes its operations.

You may be saying, in the words of Schitt’s Creek’s David Rose, “I don’t know what that means.” Well, optimize is the low-hanging fruit, as in energy efficiency and ensuring operations across Netflix’s operations run smarter and nimbler. Electrification can apply to how the company’s production sets operate, such as eschewing diesel generators on set and moving crews via electric vehicles instead of gasoline-powered ones. What can’t be optimized or electrified, Stewart added, needs to be decarbonized, as in investments in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF); the company recently co-founded the Sustainability Aviation Buyers Alliance in a the drive to expand access to SAF.

Other companies within industries vastly different from Netflix also need to embark upon a similar high-level approach as they seek to make their companies more responsible, more sustainable and more responsive to the demands of their stakeholders. Take Dupont Water Solutions (DWS), which shared the stage with Netflix’s Stewart. DWS’ has two massive pillars it’s aware of day-to-day: water and energy. “In our business, we wrestle between energy and water every day," said Alan Chan, a vice president and general manager at DWS. “On one hand, we enable our shareholders and stakeholders by optimizing water, and doing so by not consuming more energy. And we believe that water and greenhouse gas emissions have always been closely linked; you cannot separate the two.”

Worldwide, 40 percent of all generated electricity goes into water treatment, whether it’s purifying water for drinking or processing wastewater, Chan said.

Moving on to how food and beverage companies can become part of the global drive toward climate action, PepsiCo’s chief sustainability officer, Jim Andrew, noted how his team is contributing to the company’s evolution. The three pillars within this segment of PepsiCo’s strategy are regenerative agriculture, sustainable packaging and investments in renewables, said Andrew.

Such focus is crucial, explained Andrew: “We’re actually an even bigger food company – 55 percent food, in fact.”

Steward, Chen and Andrew helped kick off The Economist's second annual Sustainability Week U.S., the lineup of which includes many global brands, officials from the Joe Biden administration and elected leaders from across the United States.

Image credit: Claire Smith/Unsplash
 

The path to financial advancement is being blocked for 22 percent of Americans. Unbanked or underbanked, many are in financial services deserts and left behind by a system that makes wealth largely unattainable for so many.   

Corporate leaders often talk about their commitments to creating an equitable society, and when things like racial inequity and disparate COVID recovery are on the front pages, donations are pledged and resources committed. But too few take advantage of this simple approach to long-term significant impact — depositing cash where it can work for the communities that need it most. 

Community Development Credit Unions (CDCUs) and Certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) provide underserved communities with safe, accessible tools to manage and improve their finances. In the last five years, CDFI members have grown 16 percent to 14.5 million, many of whom would’ve otherwise likely been unbanked or underbanked, with limited, if any, access to credit. But branches are closing, and this is where corporate deposits can help.  

Companies with money to deposit can compound the societal benefits of these credit unions while taking advantage of competitive rates, asset preservation and quick ratio management. 

In communities where CDCUs are at work, fewer consumers turn to predatory lenders, more underrepresented minorities are able to start businesses and families who would otherwise be locked out of traditional mortgages are able to purchase homes. These credit unions specialize in providing fair loans, bank accounts, and financial education and credit counseling for low income and underserved populations. They offer a level of financial choice and potential upward mobility where it didn’t exist before.

But CDCUs and CDFIs aren’t generally flush with cash. In fact, they’re often driven to join forces in order to scale operations and offer full services to their member base. These mergers and consolidations mean those that remain have better tech and more holistic services, but some communities lose their branches. There were 571 minority deposit institutions in 2017, for example, and 518 in 2021. 

To continue and grow their impactful work, CDCUs need a steady source of below rate capital, like deposits. Those deposits pay off, many times over. 

For each dollar invested, CDFIs are able to leverage as much as $12 of additional private capital. For example, Self-Help, a CDFI headquartered in North Carolina with 72 branches and over 180,000 members, can raise an additional $7 of deposits for every dollar. So a recent NerdWallet deposit of $2 million has a $16 million impact that can be delivered directly to credit union members in the community. The Financial Equality Project asks other companies to make similar investments. The alternative, depositing business liquidity in big banks, simply doesn’t have this impact — not even close. 

An estimated 22 percent of Americans are either unbanked or underbanked, according to The Federal Reserve, and the CFPB estimates some 26 million are credit invisible. People of color are disproportionately represented in these groups. They are caught in a financial services desert, without access to credit like traditional loans or even a bank account to protect their earnings from some of the effects of inflation. They’re more likely to turn to high interest loans with exorbitant fees when an unexpected expense comes up or prices rise beyond the scope of their paycheck, and they’re less likely to ever own a home or be able to afford retirement.

The work that has been done to combat financial inequity is notable, but shouldn’t conceal the work that remains. Those of us with the power to decide where a company keeps its money have an obligation to put it where it can do the most good. This doesn’t come at a cost. No one loses in this scenario.

Interested in having your voice heard on 3p? Contact us at editorial@3BLMedia.com and pitch your idea for a guest article to us.

Image credit: Unsplash

Circularity is the powerful climate solution that big cities are ignoring. 

There’s no getting around the fact that urban hubs are major contributors to climate change, and the problem is getting worse: In 2020, cities were responsible for about 72 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, up from 62 percent in 2015.

It’s also equally clear that the current approaches alone can’t reverse the damage we’re doing to the planet. 

We should all be encouraged that London has introduced fees on high-polluting vehicles in its city center, Paris has outlawed diesel cars and New York has enacted Local Law 97 to regulate emissions from buildings. But these steps only address direct greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and transportation.

There’s more to creating and maintaining a more sustainable and resilient city than reducing emissions from direct emissions sources like heating, cooling and vehicles. In an interconnected global economy, it’s (over)consumption that’s driving emissions higher and higher worldwide. Research shows that we need to reduce indirect emissions from consumption in cities by as much as 50 percent by 2030 to have any hope of staying below the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius established in the Paris Agreement.

This means city leaders must embrace circularity.
 
So what is circularity, and how can it help? Very simply, a “circular city” is one that eliminates waste and keeps materials in use for long periods of time through smart design, reuse and repair. 

Circularity is an antidote to waste and planned obsolescence. Cheap, disposable goods and wasted food cycle through our cities and quickly end up in landfills. New York City, for example, produces over 14 millions tons of trash every year, and about 75 percent of it is sent to landfills in central New York State, Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina. Landfills, which are also major drivers of climate change, are disproportionately located near low-income communities. 

In addition to reducing waste and emissions, a truly circular city also brings social and economic benefits by increasing access to high quality goods, building community resilience, benefiting local businesses and creating local jobs.
 
And as we’ve seen with the Circular Campus initiative I’ve spearheaded at Barnard College, taking action to fix overconsumption is possible.  

Here’s how we can pull policy levers to scale up this approach to the city level: 

Accurately measure and report on indirect emissions from consumption. Too many cities focus solely on direct emissions, which isn’t enough.

Make repair and reuse services tax exempt. Every thrift store, repair shop, dry cleaner that provides alterations, and hardware store that repairs lamps is part of the circular economy. These businesses should be incentivized to continue offering and expanding upon their sustainable practices.

Restructure waste collection. Pay-as-you-throw waste collection – when combined with incentives for reuse in construction – will help individuals and businesses send fewer large items to landfills and reduce waste overall.

Make composting mandatory. Providing tax breaks for buildings and organizations that recycle and compost will reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfills.

Support circular businesses. Funding innovative circularity start-ups will help them build the reverse logistics systems needed to refine circularity initiatives that will benefit everyone. Once all the kinks have been worked out, city governments can put these systems into effect all across the country.

Circularity is a powerful tool in the fight against climate change, waste and inequity, but we’re not using it to the extent we should be: Data released in 2021, for example, show that only about 8.6 percent of the global economy is “circular.” The World Resources Institute calculates that by “doubling global circularity in the next 10 years, global greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 39 percent by 2032.” 

Big cities, though, are the perfect place to develop and scale circular systems, and when it comes down to it, circularity is a refreshingly simple ideology: It requires us to produce and buy only what we need, take good care of our things and repurpose them when they’re no longer of use. This ancient practice is already a familiar, but too often informal, part of our daily lives. From neighborhood swaps to compost sites to public libraries to building retrofits and preservation, circularity is all around us. Our job is to recognize, resource and scale this powerful, common sense approach to living.

Embracing this basic idea will allow our big cities to thrive in harmony with the planet.

Interested in having your voice heard on 3p? Contact us at editorial@3BLMedia.com and pitch your idea for a guest article to us.

Image credit: Pixabay
 

Can you remember a more expensive time to fill up at the pump? Me neither. Gasoline and diesel prices are hitting record highs in countries around the world. Why is it so expensive? It’s the war in Ukraine. It’s the sanctions on Russia. It’s Joe Biden’s environmental regulations.

Well, hold on a minute. A recent report from InfluenceMap shows how the oil and gas sector in the U.S. is using the war in Ukraine and high energy prices to promote this messaging and push for expansion of fossil fuel production.

There are a multitude of factors that go into the price of oil and placing the blame for soaring prices on Russia and Biden is missing more than half the story, but that’s the narrative that the fossil fuel industry is running with.

What does the report claim?

On February 24, 2022, Russia officially invaded Ukraine. In the tension build-up prior to the invasion, and in the succeeding months since the invasion, InfluenceMap has recorded a massive spike in the lobbying efforts of the oil and gas sector in the United States.

Between January 26 and April 1, the American Petroleum Institute (API) — one of the most prominent oil and gas lobby groups — ran 761 ads under its ‘Energy Citizens’ banner. Designed to appear like a grassroots organization representing ordinary citizens, the group is controlled by the API and promotes the interests of the American oil and gas sector.

By comparison, in the final three months of 2021, prior to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Energy Citizens group published just 67 ads.

The three central messages being pushed by the lobby group are that: 1) Biden’s climate policies have caused a decrease in the supply of oil and gas, causing high prices; 2) the way to stabilize gas prices and increase energy security is to increase the supply of American oil and gas; and 3) liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a clean, low-carbon source of energy that will help achieve emissions reduction goals.

The fossil fuel sector scored a major win with its campaign in March when federal energy regulator, FERC, pulled back its policy that would require an environmental assessment of existing natural gas pipelines.

InfluenceMap and AFP Fact Check have found the group’s messaging campaign to be “misleading.”

How are the lobbyists’ messages on Russia, Biden misleading?

The case for the oil and gas lobby rests on the fact that the high energy prices are caused by a combination of the Russia-Ukraine conflict (including resulting sanctions) and environmental regulations imposed by the Biden Administration. Biden’s policies are being touted as an obstacle to increasing production of oil and gas because it has increased the cost of drilling – costs that are being passed on to the consumer at the pump.

But this isn’t the whole story. WTRG Economics President James Williams provides some insight into the current price hike. 
In early 2020, “we had COVID, which depressed oil prices because it depressed demand. The rule of thumb is that oil needs to be at $40 a barrel to break even, so you don't get much drilling until you get to $60," said Williams, speaking to AFP Fact Check.

The COVID-19 pandemic drove down demand for fossil fuels; travel was halted, businesses were forced to close, and more employees were working from home than ever before. The lessened demand sent the price of oil down. Oil prices even went negative in April 2020. 

The shockingly low prices meant it wasn’t profitable for companies to drill for more oil. The halt in drilling led to a shortage in supply. Now, demand for oil has largely returned to normal levels. High demand and short supply have contributed to a spike in oil prices.

Economists add that Biden’s climate policies will likely have an impact on future oil prices, but they are not short-term price drivers.

Yes, the Ukraine crisis, the sanctions on oil and gas from Russia, and climate regulations have an impact on the price of oil, but they are not as immediately impactful as the lobbyists would lead you to believe. 

New crisis, same tricks

This isn’t the first time that the fossil fuel industry has taken advantage of a crisis to push for more favorable policies.
Not long ago, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that provided leverage for the industry. An InfluenceMap report from April 2020 tracks how the fossil fuel lobby took advantage of the pandemic to lobby for deregulation of their industry.

Profiting from a crisis is nothing new, nor is it isolated to the fossil fuel industry. Acclaimed author and Climate Justice Professor, Naomi Klein, has written extensively about this phenomenon called “disaster capitalism.” It’s corporate nature to make profits wherever possible, even amidst a crisis. The oil lobbyists just happen to be really, really good at it.

Image credit: Mathias Reding via Pexels
 

United in their belief that a strong economy requires a strong democracy, a coalition of business leaders and organizations recently announced the Business & Democracy Initiative (B&DI), a partnership with the goal to protect election integrity in the United States and rebuild trust in democratic institutions. 

The Business & Democracy Initiative’s founding partners include the Leadership Now Project, the Black Economic Alliance and Public Private Strategies. 

“Business leaders across the country are concerned about the health of our democracy. They understand that our economic dynamism depends on a capable and accountable government,” Daniella Ballou-Aares, CEO of the Leadership Now Project, said in a public statement. “The Business & Democracy Initiative will provide business leaders with the knowledge and platform to lead on the issues—from preventing election crises to expanding civic engagement—and secure a strong economy for the next generation.”

Polling by Morning Consult on behalf of the B&DI indicates the business community wants to be active in protecting democracy in the U.S. and that consumers will support them. The overwhelming majority of business leaders (96 percent) say the existence of a well-functioning democracy is important to a strong economy. Eighty percent of business leaders think businesses should act to protect democracy and to ensure safe and fair elections.

Just over half of business leaders (51 percent) say their businesses are more likely than they were five years ago to encourage employees to take a stance or speak out in support of democracy, or to take a public stance as a business. Sixty-four percent of consumers say that businesses with a public commitment to democracy shows those businesses care about their customers, employees, and has the “right values.”

The business community is well positioned with the public to defend democracy and election integrity, said Ballou-Aares, because businesses are trusted more than government and media. Edelman’s Trust Barometer for 2022 reveals the global level of trust in government and media dropped during the past year, she said, whereas businesses are the most trusted institutions (61 percent), for a second consecutive year. 

Respondents to the Edelman survey believe the corporate community can and should do more to address societal issues, said Ballou-Aares. Business leaders, she said, need clear guidance on how to address complex, often controversial, issues to ensure they are aligned with their corporate values and are acting in their stakeholders’ best interests. 

Businesses and business leaders are accountable to their customers and their employees to represent principles, not political parties, Ballou-Aares told 3p. Those principles, she said, must align with the “most basic values in our country—the rule of law and a participatory democracy,” and the B&DI coalition stands firmly behind those principles.
The coalition encourages business leaders to use their platforms to make public statements supportive of U.S. election integrity by providing employees, customers and other stakeholders with the facts and figures to mitigate misinformation, she said. 

Citing research by Freedom House, Ballou-Aares noted that 45 of the top 50 global companies operate in a democracy.

“China may have a strong economy, but at what price? There are multiple contemporary examples of populist and authoritarian governments undermining business in countries like Brazil, Hungary, Turkey and China,” said Ballou-Aares. “In the U.S., corporations are increasingly threatened with targeted, punitive regulations when they publicly disagree with political leaders in states like Florida, Georgia and Texas.”

The business community needs to stand together against such retaliatory measures, she said, because “now is not the time to remain silent.” 

Ballou-Aares told 3p the Business & Democracy Initiative will not endorse any candidates for office and instead will focus on mobilizing business leaders “committed to protecting elections and rebuilding trust in democratic institutions.” 

“We seek to engage stakeholders across all levels of business to advocate for reforms that address the threat to our democracy,” said Ballou-Aares. “As the health and stability of American democracy continue to be under serious threat, the business community is a critical voice in the fight to preserve our free, open and democratic system.”

Image credit: Leon Kaye

While advertisers are increasingly aware of the need for campaigns that represent the diversity of the human experience, a poll by the Unstereotype Alliance highlights the fears that many senior marketers in the U.K. have about getting representation right. Recognizing that advertisers have a responsibility to accurately portray all people without perpetuating stereotypes is a step in the right direction. In order to do so, people from the communities that are being represented must be included in the creative process. However, in order for inclusive marketing — especially diverse ads — to really mean anything, it is imperative that the companies behind the advertisements diversify their staffing as well: and at the c-suite level in particular.

The Unstereotype Alliance was organized by UN Women, an arm of the United Nations devoted to gender equality, in order to collaborate with the advertising industry and promote and empower positive change through marketing. Its poll of more than 100 top marketers in the U.K., as reported in AdWeek, shows overwhelming support for diversity in advertising. In fact, 70 percent of respondents planned to increase the level of inclusion and placement of diverse ads in their promotional material over the next year. The problem? Sixty-four percent name “getting it wrong” as their biggest concern. 

There is good reason for that concern considering that 36 percent of those surveyed admitted a lack of diversity among creative talent in their organizations and among brands, according to a recent report breakdown in The Drum. Furthermore, 47 percent agreed that they didn’t know enough about diverse communities while 44 percent stated that they did not have enough experience portraying them.

Simone Pennant, founder and director of the TV Collective, spoke about the importance of this self-awareness on “How to Achieve Authentic Representation," a part of the Unstereotype Alliance’s “Conversations for Change” series, which aims to help guide advertisers as they promote diversity and inclusion in their work. “There is an arrogance to assume that you know everything and that your team can all look the same and be the same and assume that they know about different communities.”

How brands choose to proceed in such conditions will determine how their marketing strategies come across and whether or not they are successfully inclusive. Homogenous marketing teams risk creating something through diverse ads that is at best inauthentic and at worst tokenistic. Pennant continued: “If you don’t think there’s enough Black women directors and you’re in a position to hire them, then hire them. If you’re casting and you think there’s not enough people of disabilities, hire them or cast them. So take full responsibility in creating the kind of change that you want to see.”

The experts featured on the Unstereotype Alliance’s series agree that inclusive marketing can be a force for real change in the world. Melda Simon, the U.K. Lead for the organization, explained that just as advertising can be harmful and promote negative stereotypes, it also has the power to break those stereotypes down and replace them with understanding and positive representation instead.

In order to do so, representation by means of diverse ads is just as important behind the scenes as it is in the final copy. “Diversity is pretty meaningless if it’s only the screen,” Colette Philip, founder of Brand by Me, said on “The Power of Cultural Nuance," another video in the “Conversations for Change” series. “We’re still seeing the same closed groups of people holding power and making all the decisions.”

So, while advertisers have a responsibility to accurately portray the full diversity of humanity on screen, brands also have the responsibility to diversify their talent and executive leadership. Insensitive marketing, on the other hand, risks pushing people away — not just from the brand’s products, but as an employer as well — further exacerbating a brand’s lack of diversity. 

Image credit: Chris Murray via Unsplash

Merger and acquisition (M&A) dealings in 2021 reached a staggering $2.4 trillion - something not seen since 2015. While 2022 may not experience that level of activity, M&As are nonetheless expected to be substantial. As these transactions increase, the organizations involved will face new risk mitigation challenges as investors are increasingly growing more concerned about the potential impacts of climate-related risks to businesses. 
 
Taking a closer look at sector drivers for the second half of 2022, commercial space acquisitions are going to continue at a relatively strong pace, especially as many organizations adhere to a hybrid working model and no longer need, or want, to carry the cost of large offices. In addition, as global economic unrest and significant supply chain constraints continue, many businesses are suffering. For many, profitability is dropping beyond the point of survival, and building owners could be looking to cash out while they still have equity left in their organization. As construction costs surge and housing prices remain at near-record highs, there is an opportunity to refurbish or retrofit a company’s existing property to meet the shift from large commercial or industrial space to smaller, more flexible commercial space or residential space designed for the hybrid worker.
 
As organizations navigate a landscape where potential deals can be affected by global economic headwinds and a rising interest rate environment, they must also consider the need to update and prepare their risk models and mitigation procedures to include greater risk profiling in environmental due diligence. However, meeting these new risk demands is going to be a heavy lift for many companies but, at the same time, is not something to be ignored in this new deal environment. 
 
Hidden environmental risks can bruise your organization’s reputation and the bottom line 
 
The last thing any organization wants is to acquire another business or property that has a tarnished compliance history or is handcuffed with unnecessary or overly restricted permits. From an environmental compliance perspective, organizations must now include risk factors for current and future operating conditions of the potential acquisition. This is imperative to ensure that all parties involved are adhering to required regulations and permitted with the capacity to allow for expansion of production. 
 
A prime example of this can be seen in construction and development. Changes from commercial or industrial use to residential development can trigger more stringent environmental cleanup standards. If any redevelopment work is going to be done to an acquired building or piece of land, it is important to understand if contamination may be present in any of the areas that might be disturbed by the work. In many instances, these areas may not have been previously investigated because they were under existing infrastructure and inaccessible in the past but may be exposed when demolition or new construction begins. A key part of environmental due diligence is a better understanding of any sort of contamination and how it can be remediated correctly and efficiently with the future use of the property top of mind. 
 
Improper environmental due diligence could put a black eye on the acquiring organization, and the lack of operational flexibility due to permit limits could reduce profit margins on the investment. However, as organizations re-evaluate their due diligence processes, they need to take a closer look at their risk models to ensure they meet any new risk mitigation challenges. 
 
Updating environmental risk models for the new deal environment 
 
Given our collective experience of the past couple of years and an overall increased focus on sustainability initiatives, the risk models and strategies from pre-2020, which focused primarily on adverse impacts to property or operational compliance, may no longer be sufficient for future transaction evaluations. As organizations ramp up their M&A activity, it is important to make sure risk models are updated and ready to be deployed. 
 
Issues like environmental impacts, supply chain instability, community acceptance, permit transference or termination and surprises related to operational health and safety liabilities could all have an impact and become expensive to manage down the road if not incorporated into models from the start. Depending upon the parameters of the transaction and how liabilities may or may not transfer with the assets, organizations will often find that the business costs associated with these risks may far outweigh the cost of initial due diligence. 
 
However, many businesses limit their due diligence to simple Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), which do not provide the full picture needed to do a thorough evaluation. The importance of considerations not covered by the Phase I ESA process is becoming even more critical with the recent changes in how sustainability initiatives must be documented and reported and the shifting focus of most global brands. By shifting focus and risk models beyond Phase I ESA, organizations can aim to further protect the interests of both parties involved in the transaction 
 
Ultimately, wading through historical data in the due diligence process requires a large commitment upfront. There are a wide range of documents and data to analyze, and organizations should partner with a third-party that understands a buyer’s strategic goals, then manages, organizes, and interprets the data to best meet a buyer’s objectives – and fully realizes and articulate the risks associated with the investment.

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Image credit: Pavel Danilyuk via Unsplash

It’s hard to know what to say after mass shootings rock a nation. But just a day after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, diversity, equity and inclusion consultant Kim Crowder put in words exactly what businesses need to hear.

“This week, many of our team members are hurting. They are also in fear of what could happen to them, those they love, and their fellow coworkers,” Crowder’s newsletter began. “Today, we wake up and go to work as if nothing happened, or at least we try to,” she wrote after recounting the horrific events that transpired at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde — leading to a combined total of 31 people killed and many others injured. 

The world may be trying to get on with its scheduled programming, but Crowder said businesses should take more than a moment of silence in the coming weeks to evaluate how they are handling the safety and wellbeing of their employees, especially those belonging to protected classes.

Instead of going back to normal, can’t we continue to a new normal? 

Depending on how you count, as Al Jazeera reports, the United States experienced between six and 818 mass shootings in 2021. The number rockets to 818 incidents when you include any shooting where four or more people were injured, including the shooter. The counts of both the Gun Violence Archive and Mass Shooting Tracker reach to the hundreds.

We can’t continue with business as usual, Crowder said in a recent conversation with TriplePundit. “I think at this point, we can all agree enough is enough,” she said. Crowder herself, when walking around her local grocery store these days said she wonders whether someone could barge in and decide that she, a Black woman, doesn’t belong. The shooting at Tops isn’t the only incident of targeted racial violence the U.S. has seen in recent years. 

What businesses can do right now to protect employees

Clearly, the U.S. has some large-scale changes it needs to make to safeguard its residents. Among the first steps businesses can take, Crowder said, is to speak up about government policies toward mass shootings, collaborate with other business leaders, redirect political spending and lobbying, and even create a think tank to more closely study the issue, if needed. 

“We saw this happen in 2020, where New York City business owners wrote a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio about those experiencing homelessness in New York City, particularly during COVID,” Crowder said. “And they came together and wrote a letter. And so this can happen; it has happened.”

Business leaders can activate “their collective access to power,” she added.

Mass shootings and additional tragedies don’t have to feel personal for a company to act, Crowder insisted. "[If] your team members are in some way impacted, then it should be a priority for you,” she said. And while political movement can take some time, office safety policies can be enacted immediately. “You’d be surprised how many companies do not have these policies already in place,” Crowder said. 

Protecting employees by putting safety measures in place

In her newsletter, Crowder wrote: “Workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion are more than focusing on internal practices. It is about identifying and supporting what is dire and essential to team members and the communities we serve.” 

So many of the mass shootings we hear about occur in workplaces. Employees have gotten ready in the morning to travel to work and do their job, whether it’s stocking shelves or teaching a class. Some workplaces may not yet have the safety measures needed for threatening situations. In those cases, Crowder recommends the services of a workplace safety consultant. After all, a business can’t simply implement one safety policy to cover all cases and all employees. Some employees may work in an office and others in a warehouse. Certain employees may be targeted for one reason or another. A consultant can create nuanced plans that respond specifically to employee needs. “The more our workplaces can start thinking about that, the better,” Crowder said. 

One example of a safety-related skill a consultant may teach employees relates to intercepting subtle threats, Crowder noted. Employees may be taught to create a distraction away from the commotion, like dropping a jar. That distraction can diffuse a situation that may have otherwise escalated.

Be sensitive to your employees after mass shootings and any tragedy

Crowder said she was happy to hear that her young niece had the day off from school after the Uvalde shooting. She added that employees need that same sort of sensitivity, too. Maybe an office will cancel all meetings for the rest of the week so team members can breathe or provide employees the option of taking a day off, Crowder said. 

Yes, ensuring your employees feel cared for does pay off. According to the Harvard Business Review, employee attrition attributed to mental health factors was already high in the U.S. in 2019, but has since risen. Taking actions for the safety and wellbeing of employees can also help a nation heal and truly build back stronger after tragedy.

Image credit: Nelly Antoniadou via Unsplash