So, let my lastest HuffingtonPost piece serve as a call to action.  Will your alma mater jump in to start helping future generations of business leaders see through a more sustainable lens?  Here’s hoping, and here’s an excerpt:

What would happen if more people, not just the usual (privileged) suspects, had access to the theory, concepts and best practices that could help them become the sustainability change agents or leaders in their respective workplaces? If the finest of sustainable business and corporate social responsibility-related courses were offered free through these new online ventures, students could more easily gain new tools and perspective, and begin to re-shape the way their employers deal with today’s natural resource and social responsibility challenges.

First published in The HuffingtonPost, November 18, 2011.

Quick.  What do you think of when you hear the term “cause marketing”?  If I were to venture a guess, I’d say your mind went right to the color pink and breast cancer.  (It has been only a few weeks since the pink month of October, after all).  While that is just one of many worthy causes, there are plenty of others that also address our world’s significant and continually emerging social and environmental issues.  And smart businesses should be hot on the trail, supporting the causes that most fit their corporate missions and partnering with non-profits.

That said, what if there were one cause that could potentially influence long-term disease diagnoses, decrease carbon emissions, produce calmer, more fit individuals and bring people back to a more local perspective in their daily lives (among other things)? What if that same cause had so many angles to it that many companies and non-profits could partner to support it at the same time, with each still reaping the related benefits along the way?  If you read my last piece, you may have guessed where I’m heading: all these things point to the biking\cycling movement.  The Clif Bar & Company’s CLIF BAR 2 Mile Challenge (2MC) program is a shining example of cause marketing around just that.

Admittedly, it was my own recent return to urban living and the wonders  of getting around by bike (speed! convenience!) that prompted me to take note of 2MC, and I’m glad I did.  Launched in 2007, 2MC continues to encourage people to consider riding their bike for trips that are two miles or less from their homes.  It is about inspiring the average person, not the lycra-suited racer, to think about biking a few of their various weekly trips.  Measured in that way, the 2MC site currently notes that some 65,000 car trips were avoided this year by people choosing to ride their bikes instead of driving their cars, which translates to more than 430,000 pounds of CO2 being saved by those bike trips. (See their “get the facts” video for more information).

So, how does all of this connect with non-profit partners?  Well, 2MC participants are encouraged to register on the site, join a “team” (aligned with one of three non-profit partners in the walk/bike arena) and log their miles as a way to accumulate points. Clif Bar & Company (Clif Bar) is committed to supporting bike advocacy at the grass roots level, and while the various organizations they fund may rotate year to year, their plan is to always give a total of $100,000 annually. The whole program, including the blog, Twitter feed and Facebook page, is run like a lean and mean pedaling machine, with one person, Ryan Mayo, at the handlebars.  His charge is to keep people motivated about biking more, and cheer on each additional mile entered into the database.

I could go on and on, because I see so many good things in this mix.  But, I also got the take of expert Megan Strand, the Director of Communications for the Cause Marketing Form.  She considers 2MC a very innovative mash-up between a message-focused campaign (promoting an overall message — in this case a “fight global warming” one) and a digital voting contest (with pre-selected charities). But, it is this point of Strand’s that seems to mean most for how other businesses and nonprofits could effectively partner in the future: “What I like most about it is that it’s asking consumers to participate in a meaningful way TO the cause (e.g. by getting on their bikes) instead of just casting an online vote.”

Key to this entire endeavor is that Clif Bar sees 2MC as a long-term commitment and journey, with no predetermined, final endpoint.  Instead, they researched and developed the program very carefully, but then moved forward knowing it probably wasn’t perfect.  Mayo and his Clif Bar support team trusted that it would organically refine over time — and it has — integrating the voices, experiences and inputs of participants. After all, as Mayo noted, Clif Bar was “practically born on a bike,” and the fun, freedom and climate change message of the 2 Mile Challenge is very much in line with corporate values. Though it began in pre-digital form with a traveling van, the effort is now mainly online.  Still, where 2MC goes from here could take on many shapes.

Of course, there are reasons biking might not work for all people, and there are plenty of circumstances where none but the most extreme cyclists would bike more than four or five months a year.  And, of course, hauling kids to and fro by bike has many complications.  As well, it would be easy for a 2MC participant to enter miles they didn’t ride. I hear you, naysayers!

However, the point of this program, and my writing about it, is not to preach about biking versus all other modes of transportation, or to make it a political issue.  The point is to get a few more people, every week, to give it a go.  Then, some of those people may be inspired to sign on to the idea of the 2 Mile Challenge (whether they actually log on and enter miles or not).  Those people could then be inclined to talk about what they are doing, and so influence neighbors or friends to consider doing it themselves for their next quick errand … and so on.

Each new enthusiast, no matter the clothes they wear or the type of bike they ride, becomes an ambassador.  Each car trip avoided means that much less carbon goes into the atmosphere, and the biking movement overall raises awareness of how fitness might work its way into a person’s daily life. Given how many societal and environmental ills there are to worry about today, it’s exciting to think that the creative collaboration exemplified by Clif Bar’s 2 Mile Challenge program could inspire attitude adjustments that might just lead to longer term behavioral shifts. The ways in which businesses and non-profits could partner to address similar issues are infinite.  And, while biking isn’t the only social cause of this kind, the 2 Mile Challenge certainly makes an inspiring mind and body-moving case study.

Photo by Robert J. Pennington, courtesy RhizomeImages.com

Originally published in The Huffington Post, September 13, 2011

What if your thought leadership got you very little recognition today but contributed to an incredibly significant cultural shift that made a positive difference for generations to come? It is an interesting question at a time when business leadership should be poised to jumpstart the sustainability movement, but could a preference for “show” keep the desperately needed “shift” from happening?

A Businessrespect.net article about Upward Spiral, the Howard Schultz/Starbucks effort to stand against partisan divisions in Congress, explores this topic. The writer makes the point that the well-intentioned, Schultz-spearheaded campaign may be too quickly looking like a campaign for Schultz himself, and that could make the greater cause less successful.

To quote the article:

Entirely pragmatically — quiet influence is far more powerful. It means that once people have been influenced, ways can be found for them to rationalise the shift to their supporters by claiming authorship of their new position. It means that things can change, because the authors of change don’t feel they have to get the credit.

Therein lies the lesson: no matter how worthwhile the cause, businesses must be careful about the way the message is crafted and communicated, and be clear on whether their intention is a true perspective shift or a quick show in the public eye. Especially for the sustainable business evolution, the goal is for innovative thinking to be taken seriously and to inspire and empower others to continue working together for the change.

The legacy of Ray C. Anderson, founder of Interface Inc., presents a good example of the shift approach. Only recently passed away, this “radical industrialist” and sustainability pioneer first changed his own ways and then inspired other business leaders and large corporations to do the same. Though Anderson did get media recognition and gain a name for his crucial role in the business sustainability cause later in his own process, that attention was the result of the many steps he took and the steady influence he wielded all along the way.

What does this mean for sustainability thought leadership overall? Can slow, steady and relatively under-the-radar steps toward perspective shift win the race, or do we need Twitter-worthy cover stories and press conferences held by big-name business leaders to reach mass sustainability influence? At this moment in time, I believe we need to focus on the shift over the show.

Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, is another example of someone who, like Anderson, has made a huge difference in the broader sustainable business shift. Though his name is very familiar within the climbing/outdoor industry and to those closely watching the development of the sustainable economy, Chouinard’s less recognized work in helping develop cooperative business exchanges will likely matter more in the long run. Take the Organic Exchange as one example. Now called the Textile Exchange, Patagonia and Chouinard helped found this group in 2001, and its membership today includes big-name brands and retailers, as well as supply chain companies, reflecting a quiet shift of the entire organic cotton industry toward more sustainable manufacturing processes.

Additionally, I’ve recently learned of some other exciting, industry-shifting work being done in a slow, steady and under-the-radar way. Consider either the Sustainable Endowment Institute or the Green Sports Alliance, and you will be amazed by the thought leadership and “greening” strides that have been made in just the past five years. In the case of these particular nonprofits, the participating individuals are not getting the glory of media coverage and fame, but they are instead collaborating and forming innovative partnerships for the longer-term goals of sustainability in their fields. With the help of organizations like these, college campuses and sports stadium operations are now focusing on more sustainably constructed buildings, more energy-efficient facilities and grander recycling goals. When one campus can claim a better Green Report Card grade, another steps up. When one baseball team cites 80-percent recycling rates in their MLB Green Track report , the competitive spirit drives other teams to follow.

Ray Anderson took the quiet “shift” approach to sustainable business change, and Yvon Chouinard and these two organizations are now doing the same. Their work has the potential to influence masses of people and make history, if not today’s news. So what if the individuals within any of these new, sustainability-focused collaborations don’t get the credit? The point is that their collective contributions will have an impact beyond what any 15 seconds of fame could ever offer.

What if a sustainability-minded person is in the in-group, and a less convinced citizen/consumer is in the out-group? (Think fanatic bike commuter versus long-time car commuter.) It can seem that ne’er the twain shall meet. What could they possibly have in common?

***

So begins my latest HuffingtonPost piece on what may seem a geeky/academic topic (“social categorization”), but could help us better communicate sustainability messages if we paid attention.

Each of us knows what it’s like to be in the “in-group” at times and in the “out-group” at others (think grade school dodge ball, for starters), and we know which feels better.  Making sustainability less polarizing and more unifying (even if we, as communications experts, have to hide the action’s or message’s connection with sustainability or “green-ness”) is the ultimate challenge.

I could go on and on.  But, for now, I’ll leave it in the words of my latest contribution to HuffingtonPost. It might get you thinking a bit.

Here’s an excerpt:

When we realize our cultural impulse is dead wrong, and that gender differences may in fact be more a matter of socialization, we win. According to Kimmel, “Biology provides the raw materials, whereas society and history provide the context, the instruction manual, that we follow to construct our identities.” With regard to sustainability, take note of that word “context.” It will be from an ability to see the text, or linear perspective, as well as the context, or more holistic view, that leaders as people and as organizations will advance and thrive.

***

2011 could be a VERY good year…

One thing that is pretty human, in fact, is the way people may be doing some fairly “green” things, but simply not have realized or called it that. For example, a lot of people learned bag or container re-using behavior NOT from twenty-first century green consumer trends, but from their frugal grandmothers. My question is: if people realize how what they are doing already actually fits a sustainability definition (no matter how small the step) could they then be inspired to increase their interest and engagement with sustainability overall? Would knowing there was a” green” fiber in their body help people want to use/grow it?

I wrote about this in my latest HuffingtonPost piece. Here’s an excerpt:

Eco-consciousness is rapidly becoming the new normal. It turns out that a lot of responsible parents and corporations are to some degree “doing” sustainability without realizing it. Smart thinking and responsible decision-making just happen to cast a warm green glow.

If you’ve seen this play out in your own life or in your company’s sustainability pursuits, I’d love to hear about it.

My latest HuffingtonPost piece reflects the coalescing of my consulting and master’s program work toward a new research focus.  How can we take what we know about how women think to both develop better sustainable organizations and to better serve consumers supporting those organizations?  As always, my intention is not to say that women are the greatest and the only gender to combine systems thinking with empathy.  Rather, the fact that women are good at a kind of thinking so important in sustainable business is a clue to the bigger picture.  If your organization is reviewing and developing its sustainability efforts, this clue should help you source those best suited for your team: systems thinkers that embrace and reflect an empathic perspective on life.

An excerpt from my piece:

Women have generations of practice using and developing their empathic skills. When you combine that with solid business smarts, you get a sustainability powerhouse. It’s probably safe to say that without empathy, no business leader — male or female — would come to believe in the “triple bottom line” or the “people, planet and profit” mission. It’s the empathy extra that brings people and planet anywhere near the profit.

For those of you working in or with already well-functioning sustainability efforts, let me know if the empathic systems thinker is well represented, and how/where you’ve put that sort of mind to work.

My latest HuffingtonPost piece considers extreme business culture pendulum swings and where things might soon settle – the sweet spot.  That’s where women and men, and traditional and sustainable businesses, get beyond extreme differences toward a more collaborative and productive place.

Here’s an excerpt:

Sustainability has a bad rap with some, for being overly emotional and other-focused. But instead, in a more sustainability-focused business, efficiency, quality and innovation are still “king.”  There’s just unimaginable added value to boot. In other words, sustainable business is not necessarily something new, it’s just the highest standard.

My recent experience at Sustainable Brands 2010 (SB2010) reflected the settling to center pendulum effect.  That event had the likes of Ford and Coca Cola sharing their sustainability-oriented developments.  Let’s remember that a few years ago that would have sounded like a dream.  To be clear, no one is saying that the big, traditional brands are fully into their likely very long sustainable journeys. However, these beginnings do reflect the pendulum heading toward center.  Alternatively, the many smaller, less “known” companies at SB2010, like H2O (boxed water) and Nature’s Path, are also doing amazing good by making sustainable steps more accessible to consumers. Such brands are by no means out in some sort of green la-la land (i.e. at an extreme pendulum swing).  Rather, they’ve figured out how to do business with the big boys, and are even teaching them a few things along the way.

Back to Rosin’s article, and one of her points: “A white-collar economy values raw intellectual horsepower, which men and women have in equal amounts. It also requires communication skills and social intelligence, areas in which women, according to many studies, have a slight edge.” Similarly, I’d argue that both conventional and sustainable businesses have the core business part down, but the sustainable enterprises likely have an edge in understanding, and serving, the social side.  That’s the “people and planet” part.

I shared my thoughts on President Obama’s comments first in a VPR commentary (you can read or listen), and then posted the text on HuffingtonPost.  Here’s a clip:

Whether we like to admit it or not, as the privileged citizens many of us are, we choose where we live and how our on- and off-line social communities are built.  It’s easy to think that racism, age-ism or sexism doesn’t have much to do with our own lives. But not engaging with the idea of the other can lead to long-term misunderstandings and crossed human connections.

Consider the systemic premise of sustainability.  All things are interconnected systems.  All decisions affect other decisions.  What you do today actually does affect the lives of people you will never know generations from now.  Oh, yeah…

Operating only in our small personal and business worlds hinders a truly holistic perspective and stunts our own growth as productive citizens.  My own professional challenge is a good example.  I study and interpret how consumers engage with sustainability.  What draws them in, how will they stay interested in sustainability?

***

You can’ t really begin to understand why people engage with sustainability unless you first understand where they are coming from – left or right, blue state or red, privileged or disadvantaged background, to name a few possibilities. This is certainly true of marketing, in general, but with sustainability the stakes are that much higher.  To get to a more holistically functioning world and economy, we’ve got to think and act more holistically ourselves. Seeing through a new lens can help.

A lot of people don’t relate to or put up with patriarchy in their daily lives.  Many consumers/citizens are also trying to live personal lives and work for companies that focus a bit more on sustainability.  So, what are brands doing about it?

My latest HuffingtonPost contribution compares the findings in a new Catalyst report on how to engage men with gender initiatives to what I see as a difficulty in engaging conventional business thinkers with sustainability.  In the piece, I cover a few of the points of myth/reality in both of those cases.

Here’s my conclusion:

The point is not to polarize the conventional and sustainable business mindsets away from one another. That gets us nowhere. Instead, the point is for all of today’s business thinkers to innovate as they always have, but to do so within exciting new parameters that serve planet, people and profits.

Just like the marketing to women advice I often give: shut up about it, but do it! If the term “sustainability” makes business decision-makers uncomfortable, don’t mention it. Just embrace the inevitable, commit to integrating sustainable development in to your business, and join today’s wise and innovative business pioneers.