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A new report from the market research giant J.D. Power indicates that U.S. utilities are seeking new avenues for growth in an era of flat energy demand, renewable energy and new energy technologies. The challenges are many, but the solutions offer businesses and other ratepayers new opportunities to participate in the low carbon economy of the future.

Less room for 20th century fuels in a 21st century world

Utilities are on the front lines of the battle between fossil fuels and the simple march of time.

Up until the end of the 20th century, America's vast coal, oil and natural gas resources powered it into a position of global leadership.

With almost one-fifth of the 21st century already peeling off into history, energy technology has sprinted into a future characterized by wind and solar resources, energy storage, smart grid technology and small scale, distributed electricity generation.

Energy efficiency is also an important part of the picture. Energy efficiency covers a vast array of advanced technology, from building elements, lighting and consumer appliances to industrial and manufacturing processes.

Combined with distributed wind and solar resources, an upward swing in energy efficiency leads to economic growth without a consequent increase in demand for electricity from the grid.

The result is a perfect storm of irrelevancy for the nation's aging stock of fossil fuel power plants and distribution networks.

That's especially clear in the case of coal, where the economics favor natural gas and renewable energy as an alternative to upgrading old power plants.

Natural gas power plants are also beginning to fade into the background as the cost of wind and solar continues to drop. A corollary to that trend is the expense involved in reducing risk for older gas distribution and storage facilities, as illustrated by recent large-scale disasters in California and Massachusetts.

In addition, new grid management tools are also making it possible to integrate more wind and solar while minimizing the expense of energy storage facilities. Despite President Trump's pro-coal rhetoric, the US Department of Energy is pressing forward with a major grid modernization initiative that anticipates more wind and solar, and less fossil fuels.

Fine tuning electricity rates

As the name of the new report indicates, J.D. Power has sorted through all of these variables from the perspective of utilities and customer satisfaction.

As the report discusses, the utility sector is facing flattening demand along with "a volatile regulatory environment, digital transformation, and a spate of recent safety lapses" among other challenges.

The data-driven report, titled "2019 Utilities Industry Outlook," identifies several emerging solutions.

One major development impacting ratepayers is the adoption of new time-of-use rate schedules. These schedules are a more fine-tuned version of the peak demand rates that utilities charge to commercial customers.

J.D. Power advises that utilities following the time-of-use pathway should pursue it in a holistic way:

...We have found that when pricing options are forced on electric utility customers, they respond with significantly lower customer satisfaction scores. However, when these programs are implemented as part of a broader environmental initiative, complete with proactive communications and price guarantee for one year, satisfaction can actually improve.

Under 20th century energy technology, time-of-use schedules would be more stick than carrot. With the current crop of distributed renewable energy, energy storage and smart controls, ratepayers now have more tools to help shift their loads and avoid higher charges.

Showcasing new energy technologies

Another significant finding is the high level of awareness about solar power, indicating that distributed renewable energy is firmly in the mainstream:

...Ultimately, we’re seeing that 43 percent of electric utility customers nationally are considering solar power, with the highest concentration of them located in Hawaii, Vermont, New Mexico, Oregon, and California.

The report finds that cost is the biggest obstacle among customers not considering solar. That barrier is beginning to fall away with the advent of new financial instruments and blockchain-enabled software. In particular, businesses should be on the lookout for new opportunities to trade or sell their rooftop solar kilowatt-hours.

The J.D. Power report also notes several other opportunities that utilities are beginning to offer.

One relates to flat demand. In order to create new revenue streams, some utilities are beginning to promote appliance sales with rebate offers, along with delivery and service contracts. Utilities are beginning to engage with connected devices and digital transactions, too. That could provide businesses with a cost-effective pathway for upgrading appliances and fixtures.

The community engagement area also provides new opportunities to showcase renewable energy technologies. J.D. Power notes increasing evidence that community engagement is a strong driver of customer satisfaction for utilities, with energy efficiency initiatives among the stronger elements.

Another technology-related finding of interest to commercial ratepayers is the electric vehicle market. In this area, J.D. Power suggests that utilities are behind the curve:

Surprisingly, despite the obvious push into products and services designed to spark new revenue streams, electric utilities have so far not been particularly aggressive in their embrace of electric vehicles (EVs) as a potential source of new demand.

That's another opportunity for ratepayers. Electric vehicles are, in effect, mobile energy storage devices. Businesses that electrify their fleet vehicles have an opportunity to reduce their exposure to high time-of-use rates. EVs can be charged at night when rates are low, and they can be used as an extra source of electricity during high-rate hours.

Riding high on renewable energy

As for safety and aging infrastructure issues, that's where things get complicated. The new report underscores that the electrical grid can be implicated in wildfires and other disasters, renewable energy or not. The intensification of climate impacts -- especially drought-related impacts -- is leading to an increase in risk, requiring stepped-up investment in new equipment and hazard mitigation.

All in all, though, the main takeaway is a good outlook for businesses that are looking for new opportunities to raise their green profile and achieve bottom line benefits in 2019.

These issues and more will probably play a feature role during J.D. Power's upcoming Utility Client Conference in February, so stay tuned for more.

Photo: Solar panel installation, Oregon Department of Transportation/Flickr.

The Mexican multinational building materials company CEMEX says it is doing its part to contribute to the United Nations 2030 agenda by aligning its business model with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Since 1998, CEMEX has been providing consulting and affordable building materials to low-income families across Latin America through its forward-thinking housing program, Patrimonio Hoy (PH). To date, the company has helped 600,000 families — roughly 2.7 million people — build their own affordable, practical housing.

Since the U.N. developed the SDGs in 2015, CEMEX has aligned PH with SDG 1 (No Poverty) in hopes of improving quality of life for low-income families and communities around the world. CEMEX has also been able to address SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals) as a result of its deployment of PH.

“Our main focus at Cemex is always our stakeholders, client community and employees,” said Henning Alts, PH’s head of marketing who spoke during the fourth edition of the 3BL Media webinar series “Aligning Business With the Global Goals." “Through these main stakeholders, we are searching for a process and a concept of co-creation where we obviously want to listen to our stakeholders, minimize the impacts [of cement production], and we are also always looking for value creation and well-being.”

CEMEX’s PH strategy, Alts explained, is centered around four key steps: a saving-credit system with fixed pricing; weekly payment plans without any specific requirements; technical assistance and consulting for the building process; and comprehensive delivery and storage of building materials.

As a result, the company says this process creates a “win-win situation” by providing sound, affordable housing for low-income families in marginalized urban communities while also offering a viable business strategy.

“We are an inclusive business, which means that we have developed a market-based solution for housing needs of low-income families,” Alts said. “We are trying to improve the quality of life through better housing conditions, and this also leads to an empowerment of these people.”

For CEMEX, it is critical to evaluate the impact of programs like PH in order to determine progress towards the SDGs, Alts explained.

To quantify its impact, the Mexican cement giant has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA), which was established in 2008 at the United Nations to help member companies measure and manage their impacts in the “inclusive business ecosystem,” explained BCtA impact special Rabayl Mirza.

Following a three-year study of 21 companies across five sectors, the BCtA was able to identify and better understand the priorities of companies like CEMEX in the impact reporting process.

“Measurement is at the heart of the Business Call to Action as there can be no work towards the SDGs without demonstrating impact,” explained Mirza, who spoke alongside Alts during the October 17 3BL Media webinar. “For the last three years, our modus operandi has been to work one-on-one with our member companies to help them understand, prove and improve their impact.”

As companies like CEMEX look to continue their positive impact on the global community by prioritizing “high social return,” companies need to implement comprehensive reporting in order to make their impact known.

“We have an impact on communities, on these people, but this needs to be documented and communicated,” Alts said. “It doesn’t help us if we are doing good things but we [do not have data and documentation to show it].”

Image credit: CEMEX

Even if you haven’t heard of perchlorate, chances are that you probably have eaten it. Perchlorate is a chemical used in plastic packaging and food handling equipment for dry food like cereal, flour, and spices to reduce the buildup of static charges.

Unfortunately, it’s a well-known endocrine-disruptor that can migrate from packaging into our food. Perchlorate impairs the thyroid’s ability to make a hormone which is essential to brain development and therefore can harm the developing brain of a fetus or infant. It is particularly concerning that pregnant women and children are likely eating food contaminated with the chemical.

A 2016 study from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed that our food is pervasively contaminated with perchlorate. And packaging isn’t the only source of this contamination. The chemical can also get into food from the degradation of hypochlorite bleach (used as a disinfectant in processing) and from contaminated water.

Steps for companies to take to reduce perchlorate

EDF is working to make food safer for all by urging corporate leaders to improve the safety of food additives and pushing policymakers to modernize the regulatory system. Through our Behind the Label initiative, we are committed to providing resources to make it easier for companies to lead on safer additives.

 

Knowing the clear risks associated with perchlorate in food, how can businesses take steps to reduce levels of the chemical in their products? EDF has identified the following key opportunities:

• Avoid packaging or food handling equipment containing perchlorate. Periodically test raw materials for the chemical.


• Improve bleach management. Limiting the degradation of bleach will reduce perchlorate formation and make it a more effective disinfectant.


• Ensure water used in products meets California’s 1 part per billion guidance for perchlorate in water.

New materials provide critical insight into achieving safer food

Consumers are increasingly concerned with chemicals in food, and they are demanding safer options of food manufacturers. Corporate leaders want to answer the call.

 

That’s why EDF has developed resources for businesses and consumers on perchlorate:

• Check out our new video explaining the basics on perchlorate in food;


• Explore the EDF+Business Behind The Label resources to see more information about how businesses can reduce perchlorate levels in their products;


• And learn more about the health impacts and what we’re doing to ban perchlorate in food.

We also encourage companies to communicate progress on reducing chemicals of concern like perchlorate to their consumers. By demonstrating a commitment to offer safer food, companies can build trust with consumers, mitigate risk and exercise sustainability leadership in the marketplace.

 

Get more of the details through our Behind the Label initiative, and stay tuned for more resources on safer food additives.

Blog by EDF+Business originally published at 3BL Media.

You could say ESG investing came of age in 2018, and it’s about time.

Forty years ago the Institute for Community Economics, led by Robert Swann in Cambridge, Massachusetts, launched the first investment fund with positive criteria. Until that time investment screens used negative criteria– no alcohol or tobacco stocks, for instance. 

Today, sustainable investment has evolved from negative exclusion to positive inclusion. Now, 90 percent of institutional investors globally believe ESG (environmental, social and governance) integrated portfolios are likely to perform as well or better than non-ESG integrated portfolios, and 72 percent are evaluating ESG factors to make investment decisions.

They owe a debt to the pioneers. The group led by Swann in the late 1970s crafted a set of criteria that still informs social investment funds today, according to Susan Witt, Executive Director of the Schumacher Center for New Economics.

The board of directors of the Community Investment Fund (CIFund) included, among other early ESG investment luminaries, Robert Zevin, who went on to found the first equity fund with social criteria; George Pillsbury of the Haymarket People’s Fund; Rochelle Korman of the Ms. Foundation for Women; and Wayne Silby, who later founded the Calvert Social Investment Fund.

A movement was born

As Witt explains, the CIFund closed after a year and a half without achieving capitalization, but it had raised the question: “Do you know what your money is doing tonight?” It was a question, she said, that institutional investors could no longer ignore. Early partners of the CIFund, Amy Domini and Hazel Henderson, were exploring their own avenues for socially responsible investment so there was no denying that a movement had been born.

Today socially responsible investment has evolved to impact investment, described by the Global Impact Investing Network as “an exciting and rapidly growing industry powered by investors who are determined to generate social and environmental impact as well as financial returns.”

A legacy lives on

The legacy of the Community Investment Fund was clearly evident in 2018. As TriplePundit reported in October, a quarter of U.S. investors now say that an ESG integrated portfolio will outperform a non-ESG portfolio, five times the number who agreed in 2017.

That same month, investors and associated organizations representing more than $5 trillion in assets under management petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require mandatory ESG disclosure.

In 2018, the old guard was quickly being replaced with new investors: more women investors, particularly millennials, with younger generations driving the fast growth of the “green bond” market and the field of sustainable finance in general, as TriplePundit reported.

The trend was confirmed by Swell Investing’s study concluding that the vast majority of Generation Z and millennial investors are engaged in socially responsible or impact investments, or plan to invest this way in the future.

And in December,  at the global climate negotiations in Poland, a record 415 investors managing $32 trillion issued the 2018 Global Investor Statement to Governments on Climate Change calling for the phase out thermal coal, a price on carbon emissions and an end to fossil-fuel subsidies.

Continued momentum for socially conscious funds

The momentum continues. Barron’s third annual performance ranking of the most sustainable, ESG-oriented funds in Morningstar’s database found that securities investors who gravitated toward sustainable companies beat the broad market in 2018, just as they did in 2016 and 2017.

And according to Bloomberg’s report of the top 10 socially conscious funds, those funds that bet on companies that perform better on environmental, social or good-governance criteria are one of the fastest-growing asset classes in the U.S. More than 140 ESG funds have launched globally this year, with overall U.S. assets in the space growing to nearly $12 trillion—more than a quarter of all U.S. assets under management.

SDGs are the next investment frontier

Some 38 percent of Fortune 500 companies have publicly announced their alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as TriplePundit has reported.

Given that ESG investing and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) both focus on integrating sustainability with business strategy, a big prediction for 2019 is that the link between ESG and SDGs is going to be the big push in SRI this year.

For example, Jeff Gitterman of Gitterman Wealth Management said at the 2018 ESG Investing Conference at the UN that the next frontier of ESG investing could be a real focus on “SDG-related companies.”  

Linking ESG investment to SDG goals to drive financial support for companies taking positions on social issues is an exciting development in the unfolding brands taking stands story, says TriplePundit’s Editorial Director John Howell. 

One of the biggest answers to “what’s next” in ESG investing will be coming soon, as Howell notes in this week’s Brands Taking Stands newsletter, in the form of BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink’s annual letter investors, which will be issued this month.

Last year’s letter calling for the 4,000 companies in which his firm invests to address their social purpose was described as “a watershed moment on Wall Street, one that raises all sorts of questions about the very nature of capitalism.” Fink’s forthcoming 2019 letter is expected to expand upon last year’s benchmark statement.

Image credit: Pixabay

Every fall, first-year students in Bard’s MBA in Sustainability find themselves in a “sustainability consulting boot camp.”  The two-semester course, called NYCLab, is a globally unique program where students work in small teams solving sustainability challenges for real world businesses.

Clients have included big companies like Jet Blue, Clif Bar, Siemens, Nasdaq, Con Edison, UBS and Unilever, but also start-ups and large non-profits. The projects range across the map, from operations to finance, and marketing to employee engagement.

The course is taught, and the projects are all closely overseen by Laura Gitman, the Chief Operating Officer of the biggest and oldest sustainability consulting firm in the world, BSR. Under Gitman’s careful guidance, and despite the fact that the teams have limited consulting experience going in, client satisfaction since the start of the program has been fantastic. Gitman says that “the students learn the process of consulting in real-time, from scoping a project and conducting research through presenting the final recommendations in person to the client. After a 9 month project, they have covered all the basics."

The real point here is this: there is no magic to sustainability consulting. With strong mentoring, first year MBA students, with their skills and sustainability understanding, and with the passion to solve challenging environmental and social problems, can provide a real value add to companies. So what is this business called sustainability consulting? And what skills are needed to get a job doing it?

Professional Sustainability Consulting

Just twenty years ago, business sustainability was a radical new idea, introduced to the world by pioneers like Hunter Lovins, Amory Lovins, and Paul Hawken through books like Natural Capitalism. Since then, the core idea—that solving environmental and social problems through intelligent, often radical redesign could be central to profitable business strategy—has become accepted as mainstream.  Even more recently, social and environmental “purpose” has been widely championed by many CEO’s, including BlackRock’s Larry Fink, as critical to business success.

 

Given this new corporate focus, how do managers actually “manage for mission,” and embed sustainability into the core of business strategy? This is a real challenge, as most of today’s business leaders—from mid-level to the C-suite—were trained in traditional MBA, single-bottom line thinking: to maximize the share-price of the company stock.

The managerial response to demands from CEO’s of large corporations has been to create dedicated teams of sustainability professionals. These folks are tasked both with identifying and implementing profitable sustainability opportunities, and spreading sustainability thinking across the organization.  These professionals often need help with putting into place best practices, and so turn to sustainability consultants. At the same time, companies that don’t yet have professionals on staff also work with consultants to begin to bring a focus on environmental or social mission into their businesses.

Hunter Lovins, now a Professor at Bard’s MBA, says that incremental measures are no longer sufficient in a time of global crisis. She notes that “outside consultants legitimize the work of internal staff, and can make the case for radical innovation. They can push a company to take steps that may be unpopular but that make solid business sense, and that address the fundamental roots of environmental and social challenges.”

What it Looks Like on the Ground

In terms of implementation, sustainability consulting is closely related to the more generic practice of management consulting.  Some Bard graduates work in traditional consulting firms and bring a sustainability lens to bear on their projects. Others work in companies that are explicitly focused on sustainability consulting. Even there, in the day-to-day, the work brings to bear much of the standard tool-box employed by management consultants in other fields.

 

The classic sustainability consulting job focuses on reducing environmental impact: carbon emissions, fresh water consumption, toxic pollution. These tend to be operations focused, with the intent of reducing both waste and cost. But as sustainability thinking has matured, there is an increasing recognition that sustainability advantage can be gained from all parts of the business: by sparking innovation; increasing employee engagement and productivity; creating better accounting controls; lowering the cost of finance; attracting and retaining consumer loyalty; lowering supply chain risk; and reducing legal exposure. Lovins calls these diverse advantages of sustainability implementation the “integrated bottom line”.

Advice for Job Seekers in Sustainability Consulting

What are employers looking for in entry-level consultants? March, Souza and Green offer these thoughts:

• My bosses are looking for confidence, curiosity, and structured thinking. Can you be trusted to interact with clients on Day 1, ask good questions, and be able to support a team?


• The ability to manage multiple projects is foundational to the consulting experience.


• Facilitation skills are also important because consultants are often leading diverse teams through workshops around a particular issue or change management processes.


• Ability to learn. Ability to synthesize large amounts of information quickly and effectively. Ability to translate complex ideas and topics into simple language. Excellent time-management and communications skills. Collaborative and professional (especially with clients) mindset.

The group also offered advice for folks who have been out of school for a year of a few years who would like to get into the field:

• It is helpful to have tangible evidence that you have played a consulting role before. Some evidence of your willingness to get your hands dirty and being able to speak about that as a learning experience goes a long way.


• Take some time to figure out what interests you beyond your main job/source of income. Identify multiple subject areas/topics/industries about which you will commit to do continuous learning. Try to do some “free,” discrete projects that’ll help boost your knowledge and credibility in such areas.


• Present ideas to potential clients - what you could do for them - rather than asking them what they need. If you are trying to build skills, take on pro-bono projects or offer to work pro-bono until you build up your skill sets. If you can't afford pro-bono, think about how your current skill set can be transferable to a sustainability- or ESG-oriented field. For example, if you were in marketing, how can you offer marketing skills to an environmental organization or offer to ghostwrite a blog with a consultancy to become more familiar with topic and people who work in the field.


• Research topics that you are interested in and blog, tweet, and post about them. Follow experts and firms that you admire and want to work with.

The Experience Advantage

Just as important as the coursework, however, are the many ways in which the Bard MBA provides hands-on consulting opportunities for students. Real world experiences are critical to apply the tools learned in the courses, gain experience and build student resumes.

• NYC Lab: No other MBA program in the world offers a year-long course in sustainability consulting. And full-time Bard students all go through the experience in their first year. This opportunity immerses students in the business and skill sets of consulting early, setting them up to gain additional exposure in their final program years.

• Consulting Capstone: Bard students all complete a two-semester, independently mentored capstone. Consulting-focused students use the opportunity to gain additional real world experience, typically under the guidance of Professor Lovins. Skuldt, mentioned above, used the year to work with half a dozen fashion brands on circular economy strategies. As part of a consulting job for OuterKnown, she and her MBA team-mates produced this terrific strategic landscape analysis for the industry.

• EDF Climate Corps: In between NYCLab in the first year, and Capstone in the second, a number of Bard MBA students win competitive fellowships to work with EDF’s Climate Corps. This prestigious sustainability consulting opportunity features a week-long bootcamp, and places students for summer-long positions with companies (like Dunkin Donuts) or large non-profits (like NYC’s Riverside Community Center).

• Case Competitions: Bard students compete in (and win) national case competitions. These are great opportunities to take on challenging, strategic consulting questions. For example, the Bard team last year responded to Patagonia’s challenge: how could the company be carbon neutral by 2025? Bard placed second, and the team was flown out to company HQ in Ventura to share their ideas with Patagonia’s top management (and go surfing).

Bard’s location in NYC, home to many sustainability consulting firms, provides a final advantage. Bard’s faculty are also mostly sustainability practitioners themselves, several with their own consulting firms. Students are exposed to a constant flow of guest lectures working in and around consulting, and in fact, many of the students gain additional experience working with MBA faculty on their own projects.

 

At the end of the day, finding work as a sustainability consultant requires (1) learning both sustainability knowledge and best-practice management consulting skills, while also (2) gaining real world experience putting that knowledge to work. It can be a fascinating road leading to a meaningful career, each year helping dozens of companies and non-profit organizations along their sustainability journeys.

A longer version of this article, with examples of students who have ventured into sustainability consulting, is on the Bard Graduate Programs in Sustainability program site. 

Image credit: Pexels

I have worked within the environment, health and safety (EHS) field for more than 20 years, and in that time, I’ve seen some dramatic changes in how companies manage their programs, and data. But nothing compares to the technological innovations that are now upon us.

For a long time, the use of technology to manage EHS programs focused on software systems. Now, with what I refer to as ‘Revolution 4.0’, there is less of a focus on EHS software and more of an emphasis on the surrounding ecosystem of the internet of things (IoT’s), such as smart sensors, drones, heptic devices, virtual reality, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Recently, the MIT Technology Review published an article titled “A calm before the AI productivity storm” on January 2. It noted that despite many new advances in technology the productivity curve in companies has actually been stagnant. They describe what is called a ‘J-Curve’, an accepted path that most new technologies follow before becoming mainstream. First productivity falls, then it rises. The experts say that right now AI is at the curve of the J, and about to take off. Once it does, there will be a new revolution in productivity.

When it comes to AI and ML, in particular, the EHS industry is ripe for disruption. AI uses ML to develop an algorithm to help computers identify new patterns in data and solve problems. Once trained, the machine is able to handle unfamiliar tasks and find solutions in seconds versus days or weeks.

In an industry that is always looking to do more with less, AI can help companies do their day-to-day jobs more efficiently and consistently, such as reading complex legal documents for EHS compliance requirements or permits. This frees up EHS managers to focus on high value work, not repetitive, low-value work. This alone promises to fundamentally change the skills required to manage these tasks within companies, if not the profession itself. The impact could be profound.

A second way AI is being applied is by EHS software companies who are leveraging it to help customers mine their own data. Insofar as EHS Software systems have mountains of historical data, software companies are now developing new business analytics tools to mine this ‘Big Data’ for insights that have never been revealed before.  One EHS Compliance Software company, for example, has a system that helps safety managers prevent incidents before they occur. With the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning the system helps users interpret data and provide focused metrics. I have seen this system live, and the impact on the audience was notable.

The opportunities these advances present are amazing, but success with using them will ultimately depend on how well they are built, implemented and aligned with a company’s business goals. Unfortunately, there is no one approach that fits all, but industry leaders will be trading best practices and exploring these new tools shortly, at NAEM’s Software, Data Management and Technology Showcase in March of this year in New Orleans. I hope you’ll join my industry peers as we cut through the hype and explore how the digitization craze and the IoT’s are changing our industry.

Margery Moore is a widely respected expert with 20 years of experience in EHS (environment, health and safety) compliance management. Her accomplishments include the creation of multiple software products that continue to yield millions in annual sales, along with the development of long-lasting strategic partnerships with the largest players in the industry. She has extensive experience working with both public and private sector clients in North America and around the world including many of the Fortune 1000. She is currently the CEO of Moore & Gasperecz Global Inc.

Image credit: Hitesh Choudhary/Unsplash

Sailors in the U.S. Navy face serious financial and career consequences if they’re caught driving under the influence. A chief who’s served 14 years, whose rank is reduced to first class due to a DUI, could lose $527 a week in base pay alone¹. Yet long-standing messages about alcohol abuse weren’t resonating, given an entrenched drinking culture.

When employees in the Navy Alcohol Abuse Prevention (NAAP) office sought a fresh approach, they turned to Booz Allen. The result was the “Keep What You’ve Earned” campaign, which reached roughly three-quarters of all sailors and contributed to a 51 percent decrease in driving under the influence and a 67 percent increase in friends or coworkers finding a safe ride home.

A program for sailors, by sailors

Booz Allen used social marketing—the science of behavior change—to guide their process. Social marketing experts started by asking sailors questions such as:

• What does responsible drinking mean to you?


• What motivates you?


• What barriers do you face that can prevent responsible action?


• What support or tools would be helpful to reducing those barriers?


• What are your preferred methods of communication?

Messaging focused on abstinence or later-in-life risks to the liver or heart failed to resonate. Instead, sailors responded most strongly to the potential impact on their paycheck, ability to reenlist or pursue a certain area of specialization. This drove the campaign’s central message to “Keep What You’ve Earned.”

 

“Through this human-centered approach, sailors helped shape the program,” said Booz Allen Senior Associate Kristina Cook.

“This is by far the most realistic campaign to date,” said LT Erin Thorpe, Drug and Alcohol Program Advisor, Navy Recruiting Command. “It’s a positive message to keep what you’ve earned, rather than scare tactics.”

Straightforward resources, digitally delivered

To get the campaign’s message out to sailors, Booz Allen developed a comprehensive communication plan featuring interactive content and digital outreach, such as video PSAs with sailor on-the-street interviews.

One particular tool, the “Pier Pressure” mobile app, provides games, access to ride-share services, and an anonymous self-check to gauge drinking behavior at sailors’ fingertips. Sailors have used the app more than 40,000 times.

“Through continued user testing and focus groups, we were able to refine messaging and the mobile app experience,” Cook said. “We also gained insights for thinking differently about potential solutions.”

Booz Allen is now helping the Department of Defense revamp its substance abuse programs, testing what resonates with soldiers, marines, and airmen.

Learn more about the Keep What You’ve Earned campaign and social marketing at Booz Allen.

Previously posted on 3BL Media news.

Ethical purchasing in the UK is estimated to have reached £83.3bn ($105.5bn, €92.2bn) a year. 

         The figures reveal a “remarkable increase” between 2016 and last year in a range of the 27 retail sectors covered by a research report from Ethical Consumer, an independent, non-profit, multi-stakeholder co-operative based in Manchester. 

         One prime area was the ethical food and drink market, whose value leapt by 16.3 per cent last year, representing its biggest increase since 2012. 

         Various trends contributed to this rise. For example, two thirds of the research respondents said that in the past year environmental and animal welfare principles determined their dietary decisions. One result was that sustainable fish sales surged by 30 per cent. 

         The increase in the value of the ethical clothing market was put at 19.9 per cent. Within that sector purchases of second-hand clothing were said to have risen 22.5 per cent. It appears significant that customers gave environmental reasons for their choice. 

         However, green energy was the area with the greatest growth. The researchers recorded an “astonishing” 56.3 per cent increase. 

         Across all the sectors, studied separately by the international market research group YouGov, more than a quarter of respondents said they had avoided buying and using certain products and services because they compromised the environment, 65 per cent more than during the previous year.  

         Interestingly, a high proportion of customers making these ethical choices were younger people. Altogether 34 per cent were aged 18 to 24, and 29 per cent were in the 25-34 bracket. 

         An accompanying trend found by Ethical Consumer was a 14.5 per cent rise in sales of vegetarian goods. Of the respondents, 11 per cent said they were vegetarian and three per cent vegan, respective increases of 52 and 153 per cent. 

          Rob Harrison, the director of Ethical Consumer, said: “There’s a growing awareness of the impact that our personal choices at the shops has on the environment. 

“It’s no coincidence that we’ve seen such sharp increases in sales of ethical products and services. 

         “Over the last two years communities across the UK have experienced first-hand the terrible impact of changing weather patterns, as well as witnessing devastation across the globe. 

         “Environmentally conscious consumers concerned about climate change are now choosing to use green energy, opting for suppliers that can guarantee they will be accessing power from renewable sources – whilst the exposure of the harm caused by micro-plastics entering our oceans has highlighted to people the problems caused by fast fashion and single-use plastics, with everything from carrier bags, straws and coffee cups widely regarded as damaging. 

         “This is a huge moment and we should encourage more consideration of the impact of what we use and how to ensure we can live more sustainably.” 

         Cathryn Higgs, the Co-op group’s head of food policy, said: “It is clear that ethics not only matters but is driving a shift in consumer spending, from a thirst for Fairtrade wine, which reported a rise in sales of almost one third, to jackfruit products, which are predicted to soar in popularity among vegans and meat-eaters alike as awareness of this lesser known meat substituting fruit grows.” 

         On a less reassuring note the Ethical Consumer report regrets that changes in taxation and government subsidies have caused a collapse in sales of solar panels and energy-efficient cars. 

         Harrison urges action to reverse the decline to protect the environment: “These big-ticket items like cars and solar panels clearly still need the support of government to help consumers who want to play their part in a more sustainable way of life in the UK.” 

 

It’s been nearly 25 years since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated that all food and beverage packaging carry the Nutrition Facts panel. These labels, now found on over 700,000 products, provide the consumer with information like serving sizes, calories per serving, ingredients and nutritional content.

The original idea was to help people make informed choices about the types and amounts of food they eat, especially for those with particular dietary needs who want to avoid foods high in things like saturated fat, sugar, sodium or cholesterol.

According to the latest research from the FDA, 77 percent of all U.S. adults say they use the Nutrition Facts label always, most of the time, or at least some of the time to learn about the contents of a product. But does this information help reduce the incidence of diet-related chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes? If you ask health experts this question or review the available research, you’ll get a range of answers from yes to maybe to definitely not.

Most experts agree, though, that the labels could be improved from their original format. Consequently, in May 2016, the FDA released a proposal to update the labels to enhance their usefulness and to reflect the latest nutritional research.

For a start, the “Serving Size” section of the label will be changed to more accurately reflect the actual portions consumed by the typical American. This was a big area of confusion for consumers, according to Julie Culp, a manager at General Mills in the North America Labeling and Regulatory Compliance group. The new labels “will be based on the latest dietary intake research that demonstrates what common or average consumption actually looks like,” she noted.

For example, a 20-ounce soft drink will now be labeled as a single serving because most people will consume this amount in one sitting. At the same time, the nutrition facts will change to align with this larger serving size amount.

The new labels will no longer list the amounts of Vitamin A and C in the product, because the latest research shows that most Americans are not deficient in these nutrients. Instead, the amount of Vitamin D and potassium will be listed, two nutrients where many Americans diets are deficient.

The new labels will also reflect the latest research on the link between sugar and disease—particularly obesity—by showing the amount of “added sugars” in a food product, which are defined as “caloric sweeteners with no nutritional value.” This change reflects the U.S. Dietary Guidelines’ recommendation to eat no more than 10 percent of total calories from added sugars. This works out to about 50 grams of added sugar per day for someone on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Food manufacturers with annual sales exceeding $10 million have until January 2020 to update their packaging with the new labels, while the deadline for smaller manufacturers falls a year later. Many have already rolled out the new labels on their packaging.

While debates will continue over how to improve food labeling, there is general agreement that the labels are a good thing for consumers. As John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, once said, “People have a right to know what is in their food.”

This effort to increase transparency is less clear cut when it comes to disclosing some ingredients, such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Consumers overwhelming support (89 percent) mandatory labels on genetically modified foods. This prompted states like Vermont to pass laws requiring GMO labeling and other states to consider such legislation. At the national level, in July 2016, President Barack Obama signed into a law the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS), which directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a national standard for disclosing when a food product contains "bioengineered" ingredients. The USDA issued its final rule for these standards on December 21, 2018.

The NBFDS represents the first mandatory standard for such labels at the national level and will preempt regulations already passed at the state level. Again, large food producers will have until January 2020 to comply, while smaller producers will have until January 2021.

Read the available commentary, and practically none of the consumer groups are happy with the NBFDS standard. In fact, it has been dubbed the DARK Act for “Denying Americans the Right to Know,” which strikes a blow for food transparency. Jeffrey Smith, executive director at the Institute for Responsible Technology, calls the new national standard “a blatant attempt to help food companies hide the GMO content from concerned consumers.”

While many companies in the food industry have resisted mandatory labeling, others have taken a more proactive approach by voluntarily disclosing which of their products are GMO-free. The leading voluntary labeling standard is offered by the Non-GMO Project, an advocacy group that provides a widely-used verification process for determining GMO content.

To comply with the new national NBFDS standard, companies that have already verified their products through credible schemes like the Non-GMO Project will not be required to provide additional verification. General Mills, for example, has several of its brands enrolled in the Non-GMO Project.

The bottom line is that regardless of where one stands on the safety of bioengineered foods and other ingredients, consumers should at least be able to make informed decisions about their food and know their options.

Clearly, consumers do have a right to know what is in (or not in) their foods. However, the debates on the best way of achieving this transparency will likely continue for some time.

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The partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government is well into its third week, with few signs of resolution in sight. More than 800,000 federal workers are caught in the middle—some furloughed without pay and others about to miss their first paycheck since before the holiday season.

The resulting impacts stretch across all corners of society and the economy. With trash and custodial services suspended, press reports suggest worsening conditions at America’s national parks. The National Science Foundation stopped reviewing grant proposals. The Interior Department isn’t accepting new Freedom of Information Act requests. And the Small Business Administration halted its loans to small businesses.

Here’s one more to add to the list—and it’s pretty horrifying: With hundreds of investigators on unpaid leave, the Food and Drug Administration has suspended routine inspections of U.S. food-processing facilities, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The FDA regulates around 80 percent of the American food supply, including all processed foods. The agency typically conducts around 160 facility inspections each week, where investigators look for things like unsanitary conditions, food borne disease contamination and pest problems, the Post reported.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he hopes to have some inspectors back on the job next week to visit facilities considered “high-risk”—think: Those processing soft cheeses, seafood and fresh vegetables. “We are doing what we can to mitigate any risk to consumers through the shutdown,” he told the Post.

Regular inspections will continue at meat, poultry and egg producers, which fall under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the FDA will continue its foreign food inspections. But considering the recent E. coli outbreak, which sickened 62 people, was linked to romaine lettuce from American producers, the fact that domestic inspections are stalled is unsettling, to say the least.

High-risk facilities comprise roughly a third of the FDA's domestic inspections, Gottlieb further explained in a Twitter thread on Wednesday, as cited by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. These locations either process sensitive ingredients or were recently involved in a recall—and we saw plenty of those in 2018, including McDonald's salads, Del Monte vegetable trays and Kellogg's cereal.

After canceling more than 50 high-risk inspections, Gottlieb began looking for ways to bring about a tenth of the inspection force back to work. "I think it’s the right thing to do for public safety,” he told NBC News.

In the meantime, inspection dates continue to pass—potentially endangering consumers and "[putting] our food supply at risk," said Sarah Sorscher, deputy director of regulatory affairs for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. “Regular inspections, which help stop food borne illness before people get sick, are vital,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

FDA employees also expressed concern about the risk to public health. Geneve Parks, a furloughed FDA chemist, estimates that only five people are working in the agency's chemistry division during the shutdown. "It's terrifying," she told CNN. "What if there's an outbreak? What would the agency do if something happened and they don't have the staff to handle it?"

These fears are not unfounded by any stretch—food borne illnesses sicken 48 million people in the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 130,000 people are hospitalized, and 3,000 die.

"There is a very concerted effort to stand up critical functions and to focus on our consumer protection mission, in many cases relying on excepted employees not being paid," Gottlieb told CNN.

Yes, investigators who return to work to look for listeria in your ice cream will do so without pay—leaving them unable to collect unemployment insurance or pick up a second job. With base salaries starting at around $30,000 a year, many inspectors live paycheck to paycheck, Gottlieb said, and the shutdown may last longer than their savings accounts allow.

This is already the second-longest shutdown in modern political history, CNN reported this week, and signs indicate it will continue. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump stormed out of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, calling their talks about ending the shutdown “a waste of time,” according to multiple news outlets including CNBC.

Image credit: Pixabay