Filter For Good

This past February, I had the honor of introducing a panel for the Grammy’s (The Recording Academy) and Waste Management on the topic of the “Greening of the Music Industry”. One of my more recent Fast Company posts highlights part of this event and the themes discussed. As I previously introduced Drew McGowan of Brita, I spoke about his role with the company’s sponsorships of concerts and music tours. A simple google of “Filter for Good” and you will see dozens of examples of how the brand has interacted with some of the best music performers of our day–Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, Willy Nelson Cheryl Crow and Lady Antebellum among them. A few weeks back, I was able to track down Drew and speak with him in further details about the company’s involvement with filtered water trends and education–specifically the company’s interest in moving the next generation away from single-use plastic bottled and toward a continued filtered water practice. What better place to do this than at a music concert or campus event.

If you have paid any attention to environmental or corporate social responsibility news over the past few years, you will know that bottled, tap and filtered water industries have all played a part in the delicate dance of producer responsibility, distribution and marketing in this country. In my conversation with McGowan it was clear that Brita wants to fill a market need for a water consumer who prefers the taste of filtered over tap and perhaps the lower environmental footprint of filtered over bottled. The are no grand and sweeping claims than demonize tap water or try to convince consumers that they are poisoning themselves every time they brush their teeth. The war here (if there is one) is on the vast amounts of consumer packaging in the form of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) that ends up in U.S. landfills or perhaps worse, our rivers and streams, each year. Recently, I met with Dr. Marcus Erikson, marine biologist, and learned more about the 5 ocean gyres of floating plastic around our globe. Talk about an ecological crisis. This topic deserves more attention, but I”ll leave that to he bloggers over at E Magazine or Mother Jones.

So, sticking to the corporate responsibility topic, what’s so great about Brita’s campaign? As referenced above, it partners with college campuses and concert tours which reach the youth market to influence all kinds of sustainable behavior change. The rise of the green music tour allows for more socially and environmentally responsible clothing, food, and concert promotion to influence a rising generation of decision makers. The best example is Brita’s “hydration stations.” These stations allow concert goers to refill their reusable water bottles with filtered water on site. When traveling for concerts and events, these station are portable trailors. Back home, businesses can now install these stations into their facilities to help provide clean filtered water to employees, customers and other guests. Raising awareness of the next generation of American consumers and giving them the tools to make better environmental decisions is the way we will bring about compounded positive change.

There is no doubt that recycling plastic bottles is still very important global initiative and we all want to encourage as everyone along the bottled water life cycle to get those bottles out of the trash and into recycling, so companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle Waters North American can push forward with a stronger closed looped process for PET recycling. I love the vision of a bottle back to bottle world. But remember that it still takes an amazing amount of energy and resources (in the form of coal, petroleum, water and human capital) to produce bottled water in the first place–let alone collect, transport, sort and recycle those PET bottles once we are done drinking from them. And today, only 25% of the PET bottles out there are making it back to recycling. That means the other 75% go to waste. With Brita product solutions, at the end of the concert or any other special event, we reduce the vast volumes of bottles to be collected and sorted as part of the clean up. Let time, less waste.

The future of concert memorabilia will now include a Tour Branded refillable water bottle. And the next trend will be a reusable bottled with a Brita filter included on the lid? This year, Brita launched the all-new Brita Bottle featuring a filter inside allowing consumers to enjoy Brita-filtered water anywhere, anytime. The reusable bottle is BPA-free, dishwasher-safe and recyclable, but I plan on keeping mine for a while.

Yesterday, as I walked into my chiropractor’s office, he announced to me that he is no longer using the bottled watered provided to him by the gym where his office resides. Instead had made an investment in this latest technology from Brita. He is doing his part to reduce his impact, even if it is just in the gym where he works. But he is also influencing others. His small business is working to change behavior of his customers by exposing them to a new way to thinking about hydration while working out. I think I will be the next in line to carry my Brita Bottle in for my next work out.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Join Lewis Perkins and Karen Solomon (Opportunity Green) as they present a panel to discuss the greening of the music industry for the Grammys to include Waste Management, Sony & Universal’s music/ electronics divisions, Clorox Music Touring Sponsorships, Music Industry Veteran Kevin Lyman & Rohan Marley from the House of Marley. The conversation with be an in-depth discussion on how the industry has embraced sustainability through key innovations and partnerships – and what’s next. For more information on the event, contact lewis@lewisperkins.com. Event: Friday, February 11, 2011 – The Conga Room, The Conga Room, L.A. Live, Los Angeles, CA.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Reposted fro Fastcompany.com
BY FC EXPERT BLOGGER LEWIS PERKINS
This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert’s views alone.

As a consultant, speaker and blogger on corporate social and environmental sustainability, I am often asked about the embedded or hidden costs of “going green.” While many companies are manufacturing products made from plant or corn based polymers, others are quick to point out that the corn industry may use as much – if not more – petroleum in the process of growing, watering, harvesting and shipping the corn as they would if petroleum based plastics were used in the first place. There are other perceived hypocrisies, such as electric cars which run off a coal burning grid or Compact Florescent Light bulbs (CFL) and solar panels which are manufactured without environmental regulations in China or other countries on the other side of the planet.

In response, I am reminded of the Voltaire quote oftentimes used around environmentalism, “don’t make better the enemy of the good.” Is it too easy right now to become gridlocked on decision makes because we are worried about what move is the best? Most companies are undergoing the process of determining the life cycle analysis (LCA) of the products they manufacture and the services they provide – so they can actually attach a unit of energy or water to a specific product or service. If a true LCA is conducted, they will look at the entire life of the product right back to where they sourced the raws materials for production. In this case, you would include all aspects of impact. In doing so, we can reveal the best solutions, such as corn over petroleum, CFL’s from china over incandescent light bulbs running on a coal burning grid – or my personal favorite – should I dry my hands with the hand dryer (using electricity) or the paper towel (using paper from trees and creating waste which could go to landfill)?

My opinion is that we continue to shift to more environmentally friendly business practices and push forward to gather all of the information on environmental footprint. Full disclosure from manufacturers will eventually reveal the best possible answer. In the meantime, my concern is that if we do not begin to change our behaviors and reduce our impact with what we can do, we will be “throwing the baby out with the bath water.” Progress and innovation comes from moving forward. Sometimes those decisions are not the best ultimate answers, but they move us forward. Without moving into action, we having nothing to learn from. Even our mistakes are part of the process. As long as we push companies to continue mapping their footprint – including the entire supply chain – we will ultimately move the needle forward much faster than if we sit still out of fear of making the wrong decision. What do you think?

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert’s views alone.

Over the past few years, I have been watching the role of women increase at the global level. Corporate initiatives such as that of Cisco, Nike, and The Cola Cola Company have embraced the position of women not only within the corporation, but also within the communities they operate. Micro-lending is done predominantly to women with the knowledge that bringing women into the world economy is the predominant ingredient in developing a community, if not a nation. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, said in 2005–”soon we saw that money going to women brought much more benefit to the family than money going to the men. So we changed our policy and gave a high priority to women. As a result, now 96% of our four million borrowers in Grameen Bank are women.” Corporations such as Whole Foods Market have followed this model with the mission of the Whole Planet Foundation which provides micro-loans to women in global communities where they source products for their stores.

I mention The Coca Cola company above as last month the company announced at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting that it was “committed to boosting economic opportunities for some 5 million women entrepreneurs in its business system by 2020,” according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle (9/21). “In Africa, Coca-Cola wants to grow its ‘micro distribution centers,’ an independent network of entrepreneurs who distribute Coke’s beverage products to retailers, often by bicycle or pushcart.”

Last Fall, I wrote a Fast Company article (or post) on Bonnie Nixon, Former Director of Environmental Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship. HP–Interview With A Corporate Green Hero. In the process of interviewing Bonnie, I was very aware of a set of skills she brought to the table in mitigating issues with the corporation’s stakeholders in all parts of of the world. That skill-set includes having empathy and understanding for the humans behind the issues. It also includes having a “worldview” perspective that grasps the connectivity of each person to the greater operation of the organization. That greater operation oftentimes includes “the greater good” as companies serve to solve social and environmental issues through the nature of their relationships. Traditionally, women tend to embody the concept of oneness and connectivity as it related to this corporate “greater good.”

Last year, I was inspired to create a blog (or more of a project) which addresses the global nature of women within social and environmental solutions. This project, called Women Are Saving The World Now has led me to interview many corporate women, from Anisa Telwar (president of Anisa International–a company that manufactures cosmetic tools in China) to Hital Muraj (a leader for Cisco in Kenya who manages the company’s relationship in Africa with CGI). In all of these interviews, I see similar traits of empathy and connectivity.

I am writing about this issue today as I believe we are just beginning to see the shift in balance as more women step into a position of leadership within corporations, not out of equality but out of necessity. I don’t mean to say that women have the corner on “heart,” as men certainly posses the ability to lead with heart, but it is women who are more readily able to comprehend the complete balance of the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit–and to put the balance of all three ahead of the profit component alone. To me, this understanding is beyond “doing the right thing” and is more about creating corporations which will survive and even thrive in the current world economic condition. After all, isn’t the true definition of the word “sustain” to hold, carry, nurture, nourish and grow. And, hasn’t this always been the great strength of our women?

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Lewis Perkins was invited by the White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair, Nancy Sutley, to create and lead two panels to inspire audiences at the 2010 GreenGov Symposium.

Panel 1: “Public/Private Partnerships: Engaging the Community” will be held on Tuesday, October 5th from 1:45 to 3:15

Panelists: Kevin Green (Clean Air Campaign), Bonnie Nixon (former Director of Sustainability, Hewlett Packard), Chris Mills (Department of Homeland Security, St. Elizabeths Program Manager), Lewis Perkins (New House LLC)

Panel 2: “Igniting Inspiration: Communication and Organizational Culture” will be held on, Oct. 6 from 1:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. in Lisner Auditorium. Lisner Auditorium is located at 730 21st St., NW.

Panelists: John Marshall Roberts (Worldview Learning), Mohammad Asfour (Founder, JGBC), Lewis Perkins (New House LLC)

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

SWITCH Spotlight on Design

Join us as Lewis shares trends and insights on design and innovation today pertaining to “green” ‘products. In a time of increased need for creative and innovative leadership in all aspects of living especially with how we design and package our products – we learn that beauty and performance are not casualties of smart environmental design, but rather complements to its increasing success and integration into mainstream lifestyle.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Sustainability Strategist Lewis Perkins discusses his most important post-recession trend: Partnerships for sustainability.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

BY FC EXPERT BLOGGER LEWIS PERKINS

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert’s views alone.

****************

In recent months, I find my messages on sustainability to be shifting. That shift is really more of a focus as I have grown in my understanding of a greater issue we face today which makes conservation and environmentalism more relevant to the average American. And this shift is more than a trend or even a mega-trend. It is a movement. A conscious uncovering of a truth which corporations and businesses big and small are beginning to comprehend as a further retooling of all we make and all we do in the world today.

William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their 2002 manifesto Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things strengthened a now popular dialogue on the need for green chemistry. This is an understanding that while technology and innovation on the planet has been remarkable, if not sheer genius, over the past 60 years since the second World War. However, we have forgotten a very important stakeholder in the name of development and the quest to make the human life easier and more convenient. That stakeholder is humanity. Yes, as sustainability champions we speak about the environment and the planet quite often. And ultimately environmentalist believe that we, humans, are a subset of nature, not a the other way around. However, for the sake of this audience, I will move us aside from the conversation of conscious capitalism as a means to save the earth and move to something much I hope is more relevant to the hearts of the readers. Conscious Capitalism as a means to save mankind.

Now, as a blogger for Fast Company Magazine, perhaps I would want to keep those pie in the sky aspirations of global salvation to myself, however, I believe more and more of the American public, let alone our global family, is silently pondering the future of our species, so why not go there. The “Cultural Creatives”, for those of you who read Paul Ray and Sherrie Ruth Anderson’s 2002 novel of the same name, are the millions of growing Americans (and a fellow International body) who believe there is something pivotal about this particular time in our course. Many fear we could look back on these last 60 years and the period in which we began to poison ourselves with toxic chemicals which caused epidemic increases in cancer, ADHD, allergies, autism and obesity (among many other health concerns). Chemical Body Burden studies conducted by the Environmental Working Group, have revealed that we all carry a low level of chemicals in our body from the moment we are created in our mother’s womb to the present. These chemicals have increased over time so that a child born today is exposed to a myriad of toxins – far greater than our grandmothers.

Now the good news. There is a revolution occurring – the return of consumer insight to the health and wellness of our personal care products which is leading our corporations to reformulate products. This move is away from the creation of products with toxic chemicals and toward a more mindful development of our chemistry.

This “mindful” chemistry is not only green for the earth, it is also conscious of it’s short and long term effects on humans and other animals. It took the proverbial canary for us to realize the toxins in the coal mine. Today as our marine life and amphibians are disappearing, we now know that the chemicals we produce and pump into our cosmetic and personal care product industry are ending up in our water supply and continuing a vicious cycle of toxic exposure. Remember, the ocean denies no river. Dead zones in our oceans miles wide can be directly drawn back to the chemicals leaching into our water systems.

With all of this knowledge in mind, I recently had the benefit of meeting with the CEO of Burt’s Bees, John Replogle and the Vice President of Research and Development, Celeste Lutrario. I am very encouraged to know that companies such at Burt’s Bees not only understand the responsibility they have to produce safe products, but they also embrace their role as a leader in this movement. The great news is it is not just Burt’s Bees, but hundreds of companies which are awakening in the development of better products to meet the health needs of consumers.

In my conversation with Celeste Lutrario, I learned a bit more about some of the chemicals we have all been hearing about in mainstream media today. Celeste spent 20 years in the traditional cosmetic industry where she formulated synthetic skin care and cosmetic products. When she joined Burt’s Bees five years ago, she was anxious to study the benefits of natural products on the skin. She was aware that there were ingredients in use in the US that were banned in other countries due to concern with toxicity. It was a natural move to Burt’s Bees in her role in R&D as she develops products with this mindful chemistry I mentioned before.

Three chemicals Lutrario gave me some insight into are phthalates, parabens and oxybenzone. Phthalates for example, allow products in formulations to become more flexible, squeezable, harden more readily and have a longer shelf life. In and of themselves, these qualities are beneficial to the product use and for the companies’ profitability. However, they are widely overused and the damages which are being caused by such products may be having an effect on our health since some phthalates are suspected carcinogens in humans. They have been banned in other parts of the world.

A second chemical is paraben, a preservative used against mold and bacteria which is inexpensive to use. However, there has been much controversy over their use since studies suggest they can have health effects such as endocrine disruption. Other preservatives such as DMDM Hydantoin, can produce formaldehyde when they break down in a product. High levels of formaldehyde can be dangerous in humans, and studies have shown it to be a suspected carcinogen. The EWG.org Skin Deep database is an excellent source for information about which products producing formaldehyde. Burt’s Bees products are paraben and formaldehyde free. All preservatives they use are approved by the Natural Products Association.

Finally, I learned from Celeste Lutrario about oxybenzone, the active ingredient in products boasting SPF levels. The CDC conducted a study and found that 97% of the participants tested positive for oxybenzone in their urine. We are also finding high levels of this chemical in our water table and it is causing issues with fish reproduction. So, that means the sunscreens we are using are causing a high level of oxybenzone in our earth, water and fish. The problem? In preliminary scientific studies Oxybenzone is showing endocrine disruption characteristics as well as photo-allergenicity. Meaning, if exposed to light, Oxybenzone may be producing free-radicals. So the very ingredient we use to protect us from the harmful rays of the sun, could actually be contributing to free radical damage and possibly skin cancer.

There is so much more I could write on with this topic and I am not here to scare you but rather to help educate. If each of us could go to the Environmental Working Group website and look at the skin deep database, we could learn more about which chemicals we are exposing to our bodies and family on a daily basis. I suggest you take one product out of your bathroom a week, look at the ingredients on the label and educate yourself on the safety of the chemicals being used. It could save your life or that of your children. www.ewg.org and http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com. And their report on safe sunscreens this season is a MUST for all you beach and pool goers.

And other thing you can be doing it to support your congress men and women regarding the Safe Chemical Act (which reforms the current Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced the Safe Chemicals Act 2010, which is intended to enhance the federal regulation of chemicals. Is was previously called the Kids Safe Chemical Act, but we really are addressing all humans, and other species, not just our kids.

And perhaps more than a few of you are reading this entry from work where it might encourage you to carry some of this knowledge into your job and the decisions we make every day in the workplace which can influence and effect the products and services we put out into the world.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Lewis Perkins, Chuck Leavell, Rose Lane Leavell, Laura Turner Seydel

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post