by Cecilia Lu,
Founder and Co-owner of Kiwano Marketing.
July 13, 2010 - In
today's competitive market, companies that incorporate social and
green policies can leave a lasting impression on the consumer.
As Sofia Ribeiro
pointed out in her post Using Community Involvement as Part of
Your Green Marketing and CSR Strategy, a
Cone Inc. survey revealed that 83% of people will trust a company
more if it is socially/environmentally responsible. With this in
mind, how do companies go about communicating their best
initiatives?
Recently,Perry
Goldschein took the podium at Sustainable Brands
2010 to talk about the seven best
practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR). As the founding
partner of SDialogue
LLC, a strategic sustainability
communications firm, Perry provided insights on how to engage your
consumers and stakeholders. Follow this recap with CSR's Seven Best
Practices to learn how to put your organization's best social and
environmental practices in the spotlight:
1) Set Measurable Goals: Return on investment
has always been a difficult thing to measure. In order to
accomplish this in your CSR policy, Goldschein
suggests implementing small changes close to home, such as
improving employee policies that decrease turnover and improve
recruitment. Simple steps, like minimizing waste and resource use
are changes that can be developed into a memorable story about how
sustainability efforts support your company's overall corporate
strategy. [See Employee Engagement Part
I-3]
2) Stakeholder Engagement: - Leaving their
stakeholders out of the loop is one of the top mistakes companies
make when trying to jump on the green/socially responsible
bandwagon. In order for your company to articulate its values,
missions, strategy, and implementation in the creation of your CSR
plan, it is important for everyone to be on the same page.
Stakeholders can help by partaking in the regulatory approvals
process, improving relationships proactively, or solving CSR
roadblocks and potential crises. Include your stakeholders from the
start of the consultation process and sidestep moving forward with
developments in which they would otherwise have little influence
over or information about. [See Six Tactics for Selling Your
Sustainability Strategy to Stakeholders]
3) Sustainability Issues Mapping: - This
approach uses interactive maps to help prioritize and narrow down
key issues, saving your company time and money during the initial
research stage. For instance, Sir Geoffrey Chandler, founder and
chair of Amnesty International
UK, praises sustainability issues
mapping as "a most stimulating approach. It brings together things
which ought to go together, but too frequently don't."
4) Sustainability Management Systems (SMS): -
Develop a framework to ensure that environmental, social, and
economic concerns are considered in tandem throughout your
organization's decision-making processes. Start by identifying and
prioritizing sustainability aspects and impacts. Take it one step
further by looking at legal requirements related to these impacts
and evaluate your company's current compliance. Collaborating with
an environmental consultant can help during this process. Next,
outline your company's goals and objectives. Finally, educate and
train your employees on using the SMS, and also periodically run
audits to ensure that it's carried out in the most effective manner
possible.
5) Lifecycle Assessment: - Product design is
critical. Gone are the days where the immediate product the only
thing that matters, without any given thought to its afterlife. A
cradle-to-cradle
approach exhibits your company's
creativity and innovation and can, consequently, improve your
bottom line. Whether it's re-using your product or designing it in
a manner that will keep it out of the landfill, build customer
rapport and brand loyalty by taking the pressure off the disposal
process for your products. [See The Business Case for Life Cycle
Assessment]
6) Sustainability/CSR Reporting: -CSR reporting
has increased in popularity over the past few years, due to
increasing government regulations as well as self-regulation by
forward-thinking companies. It's important that your consumer base
has easy access to your latest and greatest efforts, in a way that
doesn't minimize what you're doing. A simple and
environmentally-friendly way to do this is to post your CSR reports
on your website, in an easy to download PDF file or other
accessible format. This is another area to ask for feedback from
your number one fans: your stakeholders. [See How Sustainability Reporting Can
Help To Improve Your Bottomline]
7) Sustainability Branding: - Transparency is
key in sustainability branding. For example, Clorox Green Works,
when endorsed by the Sierra Club, was able to capture 42%
of the market share in their first year! The market for
natural cleaning products has since increased, paving the way for
smaller brands like Seventh Generation and Method to reach to a
broader customer base. [See Don't Cut CSR Spending: Reallocate
to Build Your Brand]
However, be careful to avoid greenwashing and implement the
entire CSR seven best practices I've described above. McDonald's
made this mistake when it attempted to change the background of its
logo from red to green in order to appeal to European customers.
McDonald's quick leap to the final CSR step was implemented while
still relying on a variety of unsustainable practices and
suppliers. Transparency builds trust, while greenwashing
will alienate your consumer base. [See The 3 Basic Steps To Create Trust
Through Corporate Social Responsibility ]and
[See Authenticity is The Key to
Rebuilding Trust]
Incorporating social responsibility hand-in-hand with
sustainable practices will ensure that your company remains
competitive in today's consumer-savvy market. Don't wait to get the
word out on how your organization is doing its part!
This article was originally published in the
GreenEconomyPost on July 6th, 2010 and is reprinted here with the
kind permission of the author.