Sustainability & Greening

Balancing Profit and Purpose at Whole Foods: Red Fish Blue Fish

September 24, 2010

Jessi Schoner, a researcher at University of Minnesota’s eWorkPlace and a reader, sent me an interesting article about Whole Food’s efforts to nudge customers towards more sustainable choices of seafood. Whole Foods … is launching the first in-store color-coded sustainable seafood rating program this week. … The system relies on three colors–green (“best choice”), yellow [...]

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Is your organization flourishing or withering?

September 22, 2010

Organizations are organic things — they are born, they die, they suffer and they thrive. But very few organizations flourish. Organizations that flourish are rare creatures. We find them where business goals are tied to larger purpose, where larger purpose is linked to community needs, and where individuals’ authentic selves are nourished by and engaged [...]

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Implicit Complicity and “Negative Spillover”: Reputation Damage from BP’s Oil Spill Crisis

June 30, 2010

What do birds, beaches, and Chevron have in common? They have been “tarred by the same gush” of “negative spillover” from BP’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. In one of the weirder cases of a collision between literal and figurative language, the “negative spillover” of BPs Deepwater Horizon crisis is soiling not only birds and beaches, but [...]

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BP’s Bravest Brandividual: What could be motivating Darryl Willis?

June 22, 2010

If you’ve been paying attention to BP’s “Making it right” newspaper advertising, or if you’ve seen BP’s recent television advertising, you’ve seen BP’s new Brandividual Darryl Willis. Aside from Tony Hayward, BP’s walking PR disaster CEO, Darryl Willis is the only person with a name shown by BPs own advertisements as being in charge of [...]

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BP’s Beyond Petroleum: Hypocrisy, or caught in the act of learning?

June 17, 2010

Some people actually believe(d) that BP was making an authentic effort to move “Beyond Petroleum”. I was quite surprised to discover this early in June, in conversation with an organizational change consultant who specializes is sustainability change. This consultant explained that, in contrast to other energy companies that he had worked with, BP was making [...]

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Authentic CSR: Should Dawn publicize its involvement in Oiled Bird Rescue?

June 10, 2010

Procter & Gamble and its Dawn Dishwashing Liquid are the targets of criticism and cynicism for their efforts to help the International Bird Rescue Research Center save birds who have been wounded by BP’s Oil Spill. While I’m quick to criticize any organization that promotes its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts when all they care [...]

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Could BP have avoided the Gulf Oil Spill if it had more Women Executives?

May 26, 2010

How much has the paucity of women executives at BP and the overall gender imbalance in BP’s managerial ranks contributed to the Gulf Oil Spill? I’m betting that had there been more women in the executive ranks at British Petroleum, more women (especially from inside the Company) on BP’s Board of Directors, and more women [...]

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Organic Discount or Competency Penalty? The real reason organic wines sell for less

March 9, 2010

Stereotypes about non-profit and for-profit firms explain why organic wine can’t command higher prices. Today’s Freakonomics column picks up on UCLA research reported earlier this week by Matt McDermot at Treehugger.com. The researchers, Magali Delmas and Laura E. Grant, demonstrated that organic wine cannot command as high a price as conventional (non-organic) wine. This despite [...]

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Wal-Mart Knocks Off the Girl Scouts

August 3, 2009

(Welcome MacLeans Readers… Please join the conversation! ) Just when you think your opinion about Wal-mart might be changing… Just when you think that maybe, just maybe, Wal-mart was learning to be a better citizen… Wal-mart turns around and does something really … despicable. It’s not discriminating against women, strong-arming suppliers, polluting neighborhoods or racing [...]

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Where is my Values-Driven Landscaper?

April 19, 2009

I don’t get it. My “Tree Guy”, the fellow who sprays professionally applies pesticides to my hemlock hedge to prevent wooly adelgids from sucking the life out of them, came by to make sure we were renewing our contract with him. Some of his customers are switching to less expensive, less professional solutions, and others [...]

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