Outline• Introduce Ourselves – prior lives outside of sustainability• Why do companies do sustainability?

– Brainstorm– Hierarchy of bubbles– Walmart vs. Interface vs. Patagonia

• What does it take to be a truly sustainable company– Journey toward sustainability – is it even possible– Design Flaw– Laws of Ecology / Business Survival– Biomimicry

• Marketing as behavior change– Where is sustainability marketing today?– Defining greenwashing: 7 sins– Exercise: ad review– Exercise: Coke vs. Sodastream vs. Honest Tea vs. Vitamin Water– Where is sustainability marketing going?

• Authenticity – “what is your evil?”• SEEC

Wal-Mart’s Progress

4 Laws of Ecology: Design Principles

1) Everything is connected to everything else - humans and other species are connected/dependent on a number of other species.

2) Everything must go somewhere - no matter what you do, and no matter what you use, it has to go somewhere.

3) Nature knows best - Like it says, nature knows best. As much as you think it might help a place by repainting it, you are submitting the fumes into the air and into your lungs. Why not put siding on it?

4) There is no such thing as a free lunch - Everything you do, must have a reason behind it. For example, a class pizza party. In order to win the party, you have to fill out a survey, and submit it back to your teacher. This law basically means you have to do something in order to get something in return.

“System Conditions” for sustainability as design constraints

The Four System Conditions... . . . Reworded as The Four Principles of Sustainability

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing: To become a sustainable society we must...

1. concentrations of substances extracted from the earth's crust

1. eliminate our contribution to the progressive buildup of substances extracted from the Earth's crust (for example, heavy metals and fossil fuels)

2. concentrations of substances produced by society

2. eliminate our contribution to the progressive buildup of chemicals and compounds produced by society (for example, dioxins, PCBs, and DDT )

3. degradation by physical means

3. eliminate our contribution to the progressive physical degradation and destruction of nature and natural processes (for example, over harvesting forests and paving over critical wildlife habitat); and

4. and, in that society, people are not subject to conditions that systemically undermine their capacity to meet their needs

4. eliminate our contribution to conditions that undermine people’s capacity to meet their basic human needs (for example, unsafe working conditions and not enough pay to live on).

Taken from the Natural Step, www.thenaturalstep.org

Nature's 10 Simple Rules for Business Survival (Werbach 2009)

1. Diversify across generations.2. Adapt to the changing environment -- and specialize.3. Celebrate transparency. 4. Plan and execute systematically, not compartmentally. 5. Form groups and protect the young. 6. Integrate metrics. 7. Improve with each cycle. 8. Right-size regularly, rather than downsize occasionally. 9. Foster longevity, not immediate gratification. 10. Waste nothing, recycle everything, and borrow little

Biomimicry

Biomimicry: Energy Efficiency and Rotor Design

Fans and other rotational devices are a major part of the human built environment, and a major component of our total energy usage. Although we've been building such devices since at least 100 B.C., we've never built them like Nature does until now. Naturally flowing fluids, gases, and heat follow a common geometric pattern that differs in shape from conventional human-made rotors. Nature moves water and air using a logarithmic or exponentially growing spiral, as commonly seen in seashells. PAX Scientific Inc. applied this fundamental geometry in fans, mixers, propellers, turbines and pumps. Depending on application, the resulting designs reduce energy usage by a staggering 10-85% over conventional rotors, and noise by up to 75%.

Sun Chips

Growing 7-Up

GE Plant a Bulb

Greenwashing• Green-wash (green’wash’, -wôsh’) – verb: the act of misleading consumers

regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off2. Sin of No Proof3. Sin of Vagueness4. Sin of Irrelevance5. Sin of Fibbing6. Sin of Lesser of Two Evils7. Sin of Worshipping False Labels

From: Terrachoice, Scot Case

Buckets for the Cure