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What is a brand? Branding is a key contributor to corporate value, yet there is no agreed upon definitions of a “brand.” Most of us have a vague understanding that it is something more than just a company’s logo or advertising campaign, but we lack a consistent way of putting some guidelines around the concept. A brand is primarily measured perceptually. So, one way to frame a brand is that it is both everything we know (or think we know) about a company and a collection of a company’s people, ideas and conduct.

Brand plays a significant role in creating value for investors.

However you define a brand, it is essentially a subset of a larger tranche of value known as intangible assets. If one subtracts book value from market value, one soon finds that intangibles often represent more than 85 percent of corporate value. This astonishing percentage has risen from an estimated 17 percent in 1975, as estimated by Ocean Tomo, a financial research firm. Meanwhile, brand value forms a significant portion of intangibles which in turn makes up somewhere between 14 and 21 percent of the market value of the S&P 500. So, it is well worth considering a brand's value when investing. 

Strong brands deliver for investors.

Marketers build and protect brands, resulting in an “economic halo" that enables a brand to recover from an economic downturn more quickly. Companies with strong brands are also less volatile than their competitors. This is a significant advantage for investors seeking to avoid risk.

Not so coincidentally, strong brands also tend to have high environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores. In this way, strong brands offer investors a great way to align their values with their investments.

How is a brand’s contribution and impact measured without industrywide standards?

While intangible assets don’t “sit on the books,” academics and researchers have been tracking changes in brand strength in one way or another for decades. Beginning in the late 1980s, many marketing consultancies created baseline performance measures to track important brand metrics for new clients. The idea was to demonstrate the value that marketing delivered to a business by measuring and evaluating brand strength. 

One of the earliest consultancies to collect data on corporate brands was CoreBrand Analytics. Currently they track a base of 500 companies identifying powerful brands by quantifying three key aspects of brand perception. Their proprietary methodology annually surveys 10,000 respondents, all of whom are experts or senior business leaders. Respondents rank a brand on favorability measures such as: reputation, investment potential and strength of the management team.

Why do strong brands have good ESG scores?

Strong environmental, social and governance scores lend credibility when brand building, which is good news for investors because interest in ESG is at an all-time high. While there is no single standardized ESG scoring method, many research firms have filled the gap to provide investors with ways of understanding which companies are outperforming their benchmarks while remaining committed to ESG representation. 

Brands need to be good corporate citizens. Customers and investors expect environmental responsibility, fair treatment of employees, and highly ethical behavior from management—and ESG scores are a leading indicator that helps ensure those outcomes.

Over the last five years, the undervalued strong brands in Brandometry’s EQM Brand Value Index demonstrated an average ESG score of 68, as scored by Sustainalytics, compared to 52 for the S&P 500 as a whole. This year 37 out of the 50 top performing brands in the index scored above the median on ESG measures—including HP, which has a perfect 100 ESG score, and Microsoft with a 96.

The bottom line

Although brand strength and ESG scores lack standardized methods of measurement, they are indeed measurable and are important indicators of a company’s strength. By taking these metrics into account, investors may be well-positioned to better evaluate companies going forward, especially as intangible assets continue to play an outsized role in corporate valuations. 

Image credits: Sam Valadi and Craig via Flickr

Holiday shopping can be tough when you have people and the planet on your mind. Sure, you want to add some cheer to your loved ones' season, but not with yet another mass-produced trinket that's destined for the landfill. Skip the big-box stores and fast-fashion retailers (let's be honest, your friends will secretly hate most of that stuff anyway), and opt for one of these ethical and sustainable gifts that align with your values. 

To save you some time sifting through the ever-growing—and often greenwashed—roster of "eco-products," we rounded up this collection of useful, durable and sustainable gifts for everyone on your list. Holiday shopping = done.

Related: 12 Ways To Buy Used This Holiday Season

For the traveler: Cotopaxi Luzon Del Día backpack

Outdoor label Cotopaxi launched in 2013 as a public benefit corporation and certified B Corp. (Those two things are actually not the same—if you're curious, we have answers.) The company prides itself on ethical production, from materials sourcing to fair labor.

As part of Cotopaxi's (Re)Purpose Collection, the Del Día pack is made from fabric left over after other companies' production runs. Sewers at the brand's factory in the Philippines have creative control over the final look, meaning no two bags are the same. At 18 liters in size, this one works as well as a carry-on as it does for a hike.  

Price: $55

For the outdoor enthusiast: National Park Pass

The big kahuna of sustainable gifts, this one is a no-brainer for your favorite outdoor-lover (or the friends who insist they "have just about enough stuff, thank you"). A single pass grants unlimited access to more than 2,000 U.S. National Parks and recreation areas for a full year, valid for the pass holder and up to three guests. 

Price: $80

For the beauty lover: Beautycounter Glow Getters Trio

Cult favorite Beautycounter is the real deal when it comes to clean beauty at scale. This certified B Corp maintains a “Never List” of more than 1,500 banned ingredients and makes its ingredient selection process available online. The brand is also a strong advocate for clean beauty at the policy level, holding more than 1,000 meetings with U.S. lawmakers to advocate for product safety legislation since 2013. 

Beautycounter receives top marks from the likes of Glamour and Allure—and, most likely, your favorite Instagram influencer—so it's sure to pass muster with even the pickiest skincare snobs. This kit includes a facial cream, overnight resurfacing peel and cream highlighter for a glow that keeps on going. 

Price: $71

For the host and hostess: LifeStraw Home

Studies show that an increasing number of people reach for bottled water because they don't trust the water coming out of their taps. Whether their skepticism is warranted or not, it seems to be backfiring, as research indicates regular consumption of bottled water means regular consumption of microplastics that could be harmful to our health. 

I wouldn't necessarily share these unpleasant findings with the hosts of your next holiday party, but the gift of clean water is always a good idea. Launched earlier this year—to much fanfare, thanks to its minimal design that's oh-so-2019—LifeStraw Home bills itself as the only filtering pitcher that protects against bacteria, parasites and microplastics, as well as chemicals and heavy metals like lead and mercury.

As always with LifeStraw products, every purchase pays it forward—providing drinking water for a child for an entire year. And hey, it's pretty, so there's that, too.

Price: $40

For the foodie: Homeboy Industries gift package

If you usually gift food this time of year, consider swapping your typical go-tos for these gift packages with a side of social consciousness. Operating under the motto "jobs not jails," Homeboy Industries offers employment, education, and other services to former gang members after they are released from prison.

Having served well over 100,000 people in its home city of Los Angeles since 1986, it now powers the Global Homeboy Network of more than 400 organizations committed to giving formerly incarcerated people a second chance.  

Homeboy's selection of gift packages include coffee, snacks, preserves and baked goods, and all proceeds support its re-entry programs. 

Price: Starting at $25

For the sweet tooth: Brownie boxes from Greyston Bakery

If sweets are your standby, take a second look at Greyston Bakery. As the supplier for Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors like Half Baked, Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Justice Remix'd, the folks at Greyston know brownies.

This social enterprise also pioneered open hiring back in 1987. Having built its team without interviews, job applications or background checks, Greyston is now primarily staffed by people with criminal justice histories, as well as those experiencing homelessness, substance abuse issues or, for whatever reason, have trouble finding steady work.

As Joseph Kenner, vice president of programs and partnerships for Greyston Bakery, said at the 3BL Forum earlier this year: "We don't hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people." 

Price: Starting at $25

For the techie: Pela biodegradable phone case

More than 1 billion plastic phone cases are sold every year, according to Pela, and many are ultimately discarded by retailers after the next phone release renders them obsolete. To stem the tide of plastic phone cases entering our waste stream, Pela developed what it calls the first 100 percent compostable case. 

Made from a patented biopolymer, the cases are designed to biodegrade even in a home compost pile. This is actually pretty unique, as many products marketed as "biodegradable" or "compostable" will only break down in industrial digesters, which are still unavailable in most cities. To sweeten the deal, these things come in every stye and color imaginable—even limited edition runs that commemorate environmental causes—so there's something for everyone. 

Price: Starting at $20

For the audiophile: LSTN Satellite wireless speaker

LSTN's stylish collection of headphones, earbuds and speakers don't mess around on sound quality—and they give back with every purchase. Proceeds from the sale of LSTN products help give hearing aids to people in need, in partnership with the Starkey Hearing Foundation. LSTN has distributed more than 30,000 hearing aids over the past five years and teamed up with other brands like Delta Airlines to maximize its impact. 

Price: $50

For the spa-goer: Lush Build Your Own Gift

Lush is well known as a clean beauty and skincare brand that thrives on social and environmental campaigns—and this company walks the walk. Its build-your-own-gift feature lets you customize your present with a bath bomb, soap and face mask, all available in packaging-free options and tied up in a reusable wrap.

Pro tip: Our friends at Lush say you can't go wrong with the Golden Pear Soap, Yog Nog Naked Body Conditioner and Polar Bear Plunge Bubble Bar for the skincare-lover on your list.

Price: Starting at $17

For the clean freak: Blueland Clean Essentials

Okay, so concentrate products are nothing new. But judging by the warm reception this upstart brand has received on social media, its sleek designs may be enough to inspire even the uninitiated to give it a try. 

The Clean Essentials includes three cleaning bottles, one hand soap bottle and four concentrate tablets (for hand soap and glass, multi-surface and bathroom cleaners). After receiving the kit, your tidy friends will get $2 refills of these nontoxic concentrates for life. 

Price: $38

For the sustainability pro: Stasher Bundle

Another social media hit of 2019, this certified B Corp sells stylish and durable alternatives to zip-top plastic bags. The Bundle kit includes one snack bag, two sandwich bags and one half-gallon bag, all of which are BPA-free and safe for cooking, freezing and storing. 

Price: $50

For everyone: Kiva Card

Skip the standard gift card for something that means much more. Founded in 2005, Kiva disburses micro-loans that allow people to pay school tuition, start or grow a business, or access needed health care.

Loaners can choose their borrowers, and they receive regular updates on how their money is being put to work. When borrowers repay the loan, it can be given to someone else—and the virtuous cycle continues from there. Over the past 15 years, nearly $1.4 billion in micro-loans have been disbursed on the Kiva platform, with a more than 96 percent repayment rate. 

Price: Starting at $25  

Image credits: Kira auf der Heide and Kari Shea via Unsplash; Cotopaxi; Holly Mandarich/Unsplash; Beautycounter; LifeStraw; Homeboy Industries; Greyston Bakery; Lush; Pella/PR Newswire; LSTN; Blueland; Stasher; Kiva

Every school day when the end-of-lunch bell rings and students return to class, a little something often gets left behind: food waste. Maybe their tray was over-filled, maybe they weren’t hungry, maybe they didn’t have enough time to finish everything. What’s left on their trays may be inedible scraps like banana peels, but some is likely edible food. Whatever the reason, this food ends up in the trash, to the tune of up to 530,000 tons each school year in the U.S. alone.

Food is our most precious gift and comes with a tremendous environmental, economic and social cost. Agriculture’s expanding footprint is the single largest driver of habitat and biodiversity loss. The global food system uses 70 percent of our fresh water and creates greenhouse gas emissions both during production and when food becomes waste and is landfilled. And all of this while more than 16 million children in America face hunger.

These numbers come from World Wildlife Fund’s Food Waste Warrior project, a first-of-its-kind combination educational program and plate waste analysis in U.S. school cafeterias.

With support from the Kroger Co. Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 4, we collected data in 46 schools across nine cities: Atlanta, Boulder, Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, Nashville, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle.

We found that each of the schools produced on average 39.2 pounds of food waste per student per year. For milk—a product that we singled out because of its nutritional value, environmental footprint and prevalence on the lunch menu—we found that an average of around 19.4 cartons per student per year are either getting spilled down the drain or tossed messily into the trash.

Starting to test a common methodology around gathering data on cafeteria plate waste was one of the key objectives of this program. We taught students and staff to run audits and consistently examine their waste streams to track progress and reduce—and we talked about the connections between food, what goes to waste and the environment. 

The project didn’t formally test interventions specifically designed to curb waste. Still, something incredible happened. 

Through education, awareness-raising, measurement and informal interventions, food waste in participating elementary schools dropped by an average of 14.5 percent over the timeline of the audits, about four to six weeks. Milk waste across participating schools dropped around 12 percent.

In the end, the top three elementary school performers reduced total food waste per student by a whopping 53 percent from first to last audit. If we could cut food waste this much in schools nationwide, it could mean huge benefits for the environment, the students and the schools.

Reducing total wasted food by just 3 percent, the average we saw from all participating schools, could add up to the equivalent of taking 12,400 passenger vehicles off the road for one year. If schools nationally reduced just milk waste by the average 12.4 percent we saw in our study, we could potentially save $17 million in lunchroom costs.

These savings could be reinvested back into food service programs to improve nutrition while also establishing the cafeteria as a real-world learning environment. Looking forward, there are several things school districts can do to realize—or even expand on—this opportunity.

Solutions range from focusing on a prevention-first model; consistent measuring; staffing up or utilizing volunteers and PTA/PTO investments to take on conservation or natural resource management responsibilities; implementing food rescue programs to help recapture and distribute safe, surplus food to students in need; and at the very least keeping food out of landfills. Schools could be the institutions making landfill diversion happen at scale immediately across the U.S. and discussing the connections between composting and healthy soils. Food should never be allowed to go to landfills.

While not all solutions will work for all schools, just about everyone can find some ways to reduce their waste. The most important thing schools can do is educate and empower their students. Seeing firsthand how much food is wasted and understanding the connection food has to nature and wildlife, students may willingly change their behavior, and then with any luck, they become lifelong food waste warriors.

For the sake of the planet, we can’t continue wasting 30 to 40 percent of all food we produce. And a new generation that appreciates the true value of food—and doesn’t view food as a disposable commodity—is an imperative for our future. 

A version of this story was previously published in the 3BL Media newsroom.

Image credit: Flickr/U.S. Department of Agriculture

Knowledge is power, and any company pursuing more sustainable business practices needs to know the impact of its products at every stage—from raw materials to reuse, recycling or disposal. Fortunately, there is a proven, powerful technique for the gathering and presentation of impact information: the life cycle assessment (LCA).

Like a carbon footprint report on steroids, LCAs include data on any environmental footprint you can imagine—water, deforestation, pollution, you name it. By identifying hotspots in the supply chain, LCAs point out where environmental impacts are high. And counter to popular belief, most of these hotspots are also cost drivers—meaning steps to reduce impact are also steps to reduce costs. 

Enterprises of all sizes can leverage this cradle-to-grave accounting to weigh the benefits and trade-offs of alternative materials, design for sustainability, modify production processes, and make other improvements in their supply chain and operations. 

Like any research-oriented process, LCAs require care and attention to uncover previously hidden data from sources inside and outside your company. Even if you've done a life cycle assessment before, there's always room for improvement. These seven factors—compiled after almost two decades of conducting this type of analysis for hundreds of organizations—can help make your next LCA as efficient, effective and, above all, as easy as possible. 

Save time and effort by identifying the questions you really need to answer in your life cycle assessment.

When you undertake a life cycle assessment, you’ll analyze one or more supply chains—and each can be incredibly complex. Narrowing your scope to focus on specific questions allows you to identify which aspects of the life cycle need high-accuracy modeling and which can be assessed in more general terms. This saves a great deal of time and may make the difference between completing a study or not. 


Make interactions easier with a customized data collection workbook.

Most LCA data comes from colleagues whose primary expertise centers on things other than the life cycle assessment. As designers, engineers, distributors or managers, they typically don’t think like LCA practitioners. Everyone will have their own metrics, and their functional units are likely to be things like “minutes [or months] of operation,” “measurement above or below threshold,” or “number of workers required.”

Projects go much more smoothly when data collection workbooks reflect these differing perspectives. It simplifies the work and doesn’t force people to learn a new vocabulary. In many cases, you can speed things up even more by using a flow diagram rather than a workbook. These approaches improve the chances of getting the right data in a reasonable time frame—and the chances of winning colleagues’ cooperation next time.

Document what you’re modeling.

It’s all too easy, in the heat of a project, to rely on your memory and skip the sometimes-tedious process of recording how you arrived at a value or data choice. But this is inherently self-limiting.

You may know exactly what you did today, and why, but what about your co-worker who comes to help out next week? Next year, when you have to update the study, will you remember all the nuances? Clear documentation is an investment of time that pays off as an accelerator in the long run, boosting the chances for effective collaboration and long-term value from your study.


Keep (and share) a log of your assumptions.

A list of your assumptions provides a quick way to convey your starting point to colleagues, partners and decision-makers, among other groups. Looping them in can help them spot inconsistencies or confirm that you’re on the right track. It’s also a way of tapping into their knowledge of areas that could change. Early feedback ensures a solid study and reduces the risk of late-in-the-game surprises on all sides.


Be consistent in your data and methods.

We all strive to meet high standards, but there is no perfect life cycle inventory (LCI) data, no perfect LCA tool, no perfect allocation method, and no perfect impact-assessment method. To get maximum insight, avoid mixing and matching any of these, because you won’t know if the impact differences you’re reporting are due to a true difference in the life cycle or to flawed interactions.

Moreover, using a consistent set of data and methods over time makes you a more effective analyst by giving you a deep grasp of the set's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the types of trends you can expect to see with different types of projects.

Be open to different perspectives.

Yes, I just said you should be consistent. But sometimes different data, tools and methods can provide different insights—and new learning. If you’re feeling stuck or uncertain, don’t be afraid to test a different assessment method or look at different inventory. If you don’t learn anything, leave it out of your report. But if you do, the insights you get could make a real difference. Just be sure to apply the method consistently and document your process, as noted above. 


Don’t work in a silo.

LCA work requires intensive research and diligent attention to detail. As a result, many LCA practitioners are most at ease when working alone. It’s almost a necessary personality trait. But mistakes are easy to make when you’re handling the quantities of data needed for even a simple study. It’s also easy to get deep into the weeds and miss the big picture.

Protect yourself and the overall effort by getting someone to check your data entry. Share your impact assessment with a big-picture thinker to get a different perspective. And if parts of your study involve technologies that are foreign to you, seek out an expert who can answer questions, even basic ones. You will almost certainly save time and reduce the risk of everyone’s worst-case situation: that your study doesn’t really show what you think it does.

Image credit: Jonathan Francisca/Unsplash, Prateek Katyal/Pexels, fauxels/Pexels

When President Donald Trump announced plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement in 2017, advocates feared the worst. But by then, the bottom-line benefits of decarbonization were already coming into focus. Scores of leading U.S. businesses were already firmly in the decarbonization corner, along with multiple cities, states, academic institutions and civic entities. 

A new report from the U.S. climate action organization America’s Pledge shows how harnessing that collective willpower can accelerate decarbonization, even if the federal government maintains no formal commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Honoring the Paris Agreement on climate change (or not)

To start with the bad news first, the new report—entitled Accelerating America’s Pledge on Climate Change—makes it clear that the lack of a strong national climate policy will continue to have a significant, negative impact on the nation’s ability to accelerate decarbonization.

The report found that the election of “climate-forward candidates” from the president on down could result in an almost 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, compared to a 2005 baseline.

In contrast, a coalition-based or “bottom-up” approach without a fully engaged federal policy over the same time period would result in a 37 percent drop in GHGs. That's no small feat—in fact it aligns with the nation's Paris Agreement commitment of a 26 to 28 percent reduction by 2025. But on its own, it's not enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, as called for in the Agreement. 

Climate leadership matters, at every level

Considering that 2020 is an election year, a pause for context is required. The America’s Pledge organization was co-launched in 2017 by former California Gov. Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The latter's nonprofit, Bloomberg Philanthropies, provided additional funding for the new report last spring. 

In this context, some could say the report now functions as supporting material (and free publicity) for Bloomberg’s newly announced campaign for U.S. president.

Nonetheless, it provides corporate leaders with a powerful blueprint for accelerating action on climate change. Researchers from the University of Maryland, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the World Resources Institute and CDP analyzed the real-world decarbonization leadership of U.S. states, cities and businesses. Using this data, they calculated the impact of those commitments if incorporated into national policy.

In addition to halving greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 years, adding local experience to national policy could build the platform for a net-zero carbon emissions economy in the U.S. as early as 2050, the researchers found.

And now, for the good (clean tech) news

If that sounds overly ambitious, perhaps so. However, the America’s Pledge organization tracks the progress of its existing roster of states, cities and businesses honoring the Paris Agreement, and it has found that decarbonization is occurring faster than anticipated.

However, it would be a mistake to attribute the momentum solely to political or collective willpower. An equally important factor consists of the technology and systems that enable rapid decarbonization.

Wind and solar power, electric vehicles, high-efficiency lighting, and other clean technologies were barely on the horizon 10 years ago, and now they are in or near the mainstream. With that in mind, the researchers emphasize “high-impact” decarbonization pathways that are already in hand. 

Their 10-year strategy includes accelerating the transition to clean electricity and other clean fuels, decarbonizing the transportation and building sectors, and leveraging carbon storage in forests, farms and coastal wetlands.

Notably, the plan does not account for carbon capture at coal power plants, probably because there will be none. The 2030 scenario envisions no coal power, 60 percent renewable electricity or more, all-electric construction for new buildings, and electric vehicles accounting for two-thirds of all new car sales. 

There does not appear to be much room for new natural gas in electricity generation, either: “New analysis also indicates that clean energy portfolios of wind, solar and storage coupled with demand-side management cost less than 90 percent of the proposed gas-fired power plants across the country,” reads page 22 of the report. “These plants, if built, would put customers, shareholders and society at risk for stranded costs.”

U.S. businesses are already voting for decarbonizaton with their checkbooks by aggressively pursuing new opportunities to acquire renewable energy and upgrade to more efficient systems. Combining that bottom-line motivation with political willpower is the next logical step for accelerating action on climate change, regardless of who occupies the Oval Office next.

Image credits: Karsten Würth/Unsplash

Many companies looking to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change are in a bind. They want to transition to net-zero carbon emissions, but it's often unclear how to reach that goal. 

The water, energy and hygiene solutions firm Ecolab is the latest to commit to a net-zero trajectory—pledging to halve emissions by 2030 and zero them out by mid-century, while signing on to the U.N. Global Compact’s Business Ambition for 1.5⁰C campaign. 

Though executives admit they don't know how they'll get there, they're following a roadmap that could work for anyone: Put one foot ahead of the other, and the rest will follow.

Corporate net-zero targets: Planning without a plan

Ecolab’s business model is based on innovation and invention in the fields of science and engineering, so the company has an advantage in terms of diving in to seek solutions to a problem rather than trying to account for every twist and turn in the net-zero journey ahead of time.

“We don’t yet have all the answers as to how we’ll get to net-zero carbon emissions, but business needs to come together and create forward momentum. That’s why Ecolab is committing to 1.5°C,” Douglas M. Baker, Jr., chairman and CEO of Ecolab, said in a press statement released on Monday. “Climate change demands urgent action, and it’s absolutely critical that we accelerate our efforts to mitigate its impact.”

That may sound intimidating, but the Ecolab solution begins with the now-familiar field of renewable electricity. That step is already grounded in mainstream technology and marketplace solutions—and the results can be immediate and spectacular.

In Monday’s announcement, Ecolab pledged to transition to renewable energy for 100 percent of its global operations. The company already meets 99.4 percent of the electricity needs for its European operations with renewables. In addition, Ecolab’s new wind farm in North America will come online in 2020, enabling the company to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity in that market as well.

Next steps for action on climate change

With energy needs met in Europe and North America, Ecolab has established a strong pace out of the starting block. 

The rest of the net-zero transition will be a much tougher nut to crack. As a global firm with customers in over 150 countries, Ecolab still has a long way to go for 100 percent renewable electricity across its entire operations. Renewable energy for heating, cooling and other operations also need to be tackled.

Nevertheless, the company has sketched out a plan that leverages existing technology for powerful results. That includes ramping up energy efficiency at its plants, offices and other buildings globally while introducing electric vehicles into its fleets.

Ecolab also plans to work with its supply chain—which is perhaps the most intimidating factor when companies plan for climate action, because it deals with elements outside of a direct control. Here, overly detailed pre-planning could stall out progress rather than helping to accelerate it. A carefully thought out trial-and-error approach may yield more impressive results in the long term, so it will be interesting to see how Ecolab approaches the supply chain space.

Ramping up climate action in the energy-water nexus

Ecolab calls water the “missing link” in the climate change conversation. “You can’t tackle climate effectively if you don’t tackle water at the same time," Emilio Tenuta, VP of corporate sustainability for Ecolab, told TriplePundit. "Water use has an impact on climate change, and climate change has an impact on our water resources. In fact, water scarcity is the first impact of climate change that many communities and companies will experience.”

A quick look at Ecolab's activities in 2018 illustrates why its executives feel water needs to be an equal component in the climate action conversation: Ecolab estimates that its customers conserved 188 billion gallons of water in 2018 alone. They also saved 19 trillion BTUs of energy, equivalent to 1.1 million tons in avoided greenhouse gas emissions. All of these efforts, Tenuta insists, are intrinsically linked.

“As companies make commitments to become more sustainable in terms of GHG emissions, they should also factor in their water use," he told 3p. "It requires a lot of energy to pump, heat, cool and treat water. This energy use, which some estimate to be up to 13 percent of U.S. electricity use, has a significant impact on GHG emissions. By using less water, a company can reduce energy use and lower greenhouse gas emissions.”

Water conservation: Where to begin?

There is much low-hanging fruit to pluck in the field of water conservation. Companies can start with the basics, such as installing water-saving fixtures and training staff in water-conserving practices, and there's ample room for more improvement from there. 

One good example is a recent Ecolab project at JW Mariott Singapore South Beach. The hotel is known for luxury and sustainability, having won several awards for environmental design and operating efficiency. In 2017, Ecolab outfitted it with a new monitoring system to increase energy and water efficiency during dishwashing.

The new system addressed every aspect of the dishwashing operation, including a light-footprint detergent package that reduced plastic by 96 percent compared to conventional packaging. Considering the hotel washes more than 5,000 dishes each day, it's a single upgrade that carries long-lasting impact. 

Science-based climate action is catching on

Companies on the lookout for guidance on climate action can join the 9,500 firms that are already collaborating on energy and water management through the U.N. Global Compact and Business Ambition for 1.5°C.

Business Ambition launched last summer with a commitment to science-based emission targets that support the global push to cap temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius. As of this month, 75 CEOs in 26 countries have committed to science-based targets through the campaign. And that number is expected to increase as recruitment continues during the COP25 climate talks in Madrid this week.

In regards to climate ambition overall, it’s worth noting that Ecolab is headquartered in the U.S., in St. Paul, Minnesota. Even without a strong U.S. climate policy to support its efforts, the company has already had an outsized impact on the global decarbonization effort, and it seems that the best is yet to come. 

Image credit: Nitin Sharma/Unsplash

The majority of people in the U.S. now agree that human activity is influencing climate change, according to a recent poll conducted by the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Further, those viewing climate change as a “crisis” has leapt from 23 percent to 38 percent in the past five years.

These findings are in line with several other recent surveys (here and here for just two examples). It is likely no coincidence that minds began to change during a time period peppered with extreme weather events, such as five major hurricanes, successive extremely hot years, wildfires and riparian flooding. Local television meteorologists have also become more inclined to cite climate change as a contributing factor to extreme weather events in recent years.

While the fact that 79 percent of American adults polled said that humans are contributing to climate change is good news, that leaves nearly a fifth of respondents who believe they are not. Another recent poll, by YouGov and the Cambridge Globalism Project, found that 13 percent of Americans believe human activity is not at all responsible for climate change, coming in third of the 23 nations polled behind Saudi Arabia (16 percent) and Indonesia (18 percent).

Some experts attribute findings like these to a concerted campaign of misinformation by fossil fuel companies and backers, but it is cause for alarm for many that the current administration in Washington seems intent on rolling back any and all advances the country has made to take action on climate change.

The Washington Post/Kaiser poll also found that many Americans are not clear about the details of climate science—for example, citing plastic bottles and bags (43 percent) or the sun getting hotter (37 percent) as major contributors to climate change. Several experts, however, told the Washington Post it is not necessary for people to know the details as long as they understand the seriousness and the actions everyone can take. 

And there are signs for optimism. The annual U.N. climate talks (COP25) are underway in Madrid, and while U.S. federal officials are thin on the ground, a growing coalition of businesses and local and regional governments are stepping in to fill the void.

Case in point: America's Pledge—a coalition founded shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change—represents 68 percent of U.S. economic output and over half of U.S. emissions. The group's membership of businesses, cities and states aim to slash emissions by 37 to 49 percent below 2005 levels by 2030—and they are well on their way, according to a progress report released this week.

Transportation (29 percent) and electricity generation (28 percent) represent the largest contributors to manmade climate change. And companies across these sectors are making changes to reduce their emissions. For example, electric vehicle technology has exploded in recent years, and it does not look like it will slow down anytime soon. Volkswagen recently announced new initiatives as part of its effort to pivot toward zero-emission technologies, and IAG recently became the first airline group in the world to set a net-zero carbon target. Business and labor leaders, along with cities across the country, are following suit with their own aggressive climate action plans. 

It is easy to get caught up in the latest poll and see only the dire state of 19 percent of the U.S. population in denial about climate science. But it is worth taking a moment longer to see the majority who not only believe we are contributing to climate change, but are part of the effort that will address it.

Image credit: William Bossen/Unsplash

Super Bowl-worthy video games and eye-controlled TV remotes were just some of the ways companies used technology to increase accessibility in 2019. Here are three stories of brands making significant strides in disability inclusion, thanks to state-of-the-art technological advances. 

1. Comcast makes channel surfing, customer service more accessible

Comcast released two new accessibility features for its Xfinity subscribers this year. In June, the cable company debuted X1 Eye Control (pictured above), a Web-based remote that allows customers to access all the features of a traditional Xfinity TV remote through their existing eye gaze or Sip-and-Puff communication systems. (These assistive technology systems are often used by people with neuromuscular disorders or spinal injuries.) The remote was named one of Time’s 100 Best Inventions of 2019, because “for many, it will be the first time they’ve had the power to change the channel.”

On December 3, International Day of Disabled Persons, Comcast introduced ASL Now, a customer support service that communicates with American Sign Language (ASL) through video chats. Customers can call and get answers to questions regarding billing, Internet and more. This is the first such service in the cable industry. 

2. Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad highlights adaptive Xbox controller

Microsoft’s Super Bowl spot follows a boy named Owen as he plays video games with his friends thanks to the Xbox adaptive controller. Like Owen, the other young people featured in the commercial also happen to have limb differences or mobility issues that can make gaming difficult. The Xbox adaptive controller is compatible with a range of joysticks, switches, wheelchair mounts and other accessories to help. 

“No matter how your body is or how fast you are, you can play. It’s a really good thing to have in this world,” Owen says in the commercial.

The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, which ranks Super Bowl ads each year, gave Microsoft’s ad an A “because of its distinctiveness and emotional depth. The message was about how Microsoft is developing tools to help everyone win, such as a gaming device that helps people with disabilities play with more ease.” 

3. Project #ShowUs brings diversity to stock photos

Women have traditionally been depicted in stock photos as young, thin, white and able-bodied. Search results for “career woman” or “empowered woman” often include a variety of stereotypes—none of them flattering. 

To address this disparity, Getty Images partnered with Dove and creative agency Girlgaze to launch Project #ShowUs. 

According to the project’s website, #ShowUs is a library of more than 5,000 photographs “devoted to shattering beauty stereotypes by showing female-identifying and non-binary individuals as they are, not as others believe they should be.” Thirty-nine countries and 116 photographers—all identifying as female or non-binary—are represented in the collection, which highlights subjects of different ages, races, professions, body types, religions, gender identities and physical abilities. 

#ShowUs is not Getty’s first collaboration for increased diversity in its stock photo offerings. In 2018, Getty joined with Oath and the National Disability Leadership Alliance to create the Disability Collection, a series of stock images highlighting people with disabilities carrying out everyday tasks like shopping, raising families or playing sports. Photographers with disabilities were involved throughout the development of the photo collection. After all, while 15 percent of people have a disability, only 2 percent of stock photos include representation of disabilities.

Image credits: Comcast (press use only)

Behind the scenes of many corporate sustainability commitments are improved chemical processes that reduce environmental impact, also called green chemistry. So, what is green chemistry, and why does it matter to business? 

Essentially, green chemistry refers to creating alternatives to potentially hazardous substances and redesigning chemical processes in a way that reduces waste and improves resource efficiency. 

In the U.S.,  the American Chemical Society—which codified the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry in the 1990s—advocates for the field on a bottom-line basis: “We can do all of this and still maintain economic growth and opportunities while providing affordable products and services to a growing world population.”

The green chemistry conundrum

That’s all well and good, but it does not account for consumer behavior.

In some respects, global brands are victims of their own success. Once attached to a brand, loyal consumers are reluctant to change, and brands become wary of changing the product formulas that those customers know and love. 

Jeffrey Whitford, head of corporate responsibility and branding for the research and biotech company MilliporeSigma, described the challenge last week in an interview with TriplePundit.

“The impetus for change is quite low because why are you going to mess around with something that works, and switch to something that may or may not work,” he explained. “Even scientists struggle to talk about this.”

Some consumers may be reluctant to try less toxic products, such as personal care and household cleansers, due to a perception that they are not as effective as the conventional products they are meant to replace, Whitford noted. Others who use greener products exhibit something he called the “green deficit,” in which they overuse the product in an effort to make sure it performs effectively.

“At the end of the day, science is driving the formulations of the products we use on a daily basis," Whitford said. "The challenge is: Can we help raise awareness so people can understand what green chemistry can do to reduce hazards and toxicity? That’s the tipping point we’re at today.”

Consumer awareness is key

Many consumers are already familiar with green chemistry in the form of bio-based personal care and household products. Consumer awareness in that area can transfer to other sectors, helping to create a broader demand for products based on green chemistry, Whitford explained. 

One good example is in agriculture, where consumers are beginning to demand fresh produce and processed foods that eliminate or minimize the use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers. But the challenge of building awareness becomes more difficult when the field of impact extends to new areas of consumer consciousness.

“Among the things you wouldn’t think about, leather processing is a good example. Chromium is used for tanning the leather for that comfy leather sofa,” Whitford explained.

There are significant environmental and public health impacts associated with chromium tanning, including water and soil contamination, as well as worker risks from mishandling chromium metal. And these impacts tend to fall on the most vulnerable communities globally, Whitford said. In addition, health researchers have accumulated evidence of allergic reactions in consumers exposed to chromium-tanned leather.

Still, consumer awareness of these issues remains low. Although ATP Atelier and several other leading brands are marketing vegetable-tanned accessories under the description “metal-free” leather, consumers don’t necessarily realize that refers to the tanning process.  

Public knowledge of the chemicals used to produce clothing that is wrinkle-free, stain resistant or waterproof is similarly minimal. And apparel is far from the only mainstream consumer segment where manufacturing processes like these fly under the radar. 

Green chemistry and transparency

The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry offer a framework for identifying more sustainable and less toxic chemical processes, but they don't detail how to measure performance. 

Released in 2017, MilliporeSigma’s DOZN is a quantitative scoring tool for companies seeking to measure their alignment with those 12 principles. By condensing multiple variables into a single score between zero and 100, researchers, scientists and manufacturers can easily see the impact of alternative products. 

Launched in May, the second iteration of the platform, dubbed DOZN 2.0, allows comparisons between entire chemical processes, rather than only assessing a single product, Whitford wrote in a blog post earlier this year. 

The thought process is that by making complex metrics more understandable, companies will become more willing to change up their formulas. And, importantly, they'll have more information to share with customers, paving the way for brand differentiation around green chemistry. 

“The piece we’re trying to add is more transparency in data,” Whitford told us. “Awareness is huge. Awareness brings questions, questions bring action, and action brings quantification.”

Image credits: Alex Kondratiev and Louis Reed via Unsplash