What ‘Show Us Your Bra’ Really Reveals

In the land of business start-ups, a common success story looks like this:  entrepreneur comes up with amazing new idea.  Entrepreneur cobbles a start-up business around said idea.  Idea spreads like wildfire.  Entrepreneur sells business to huge, well-established company.

What might this model look like from the non-profit perspective?

A small non-profit organization called The Breast Form Fund may be able to give us some insight.

The Situation
When you own a lingerie store, you see all types of women, including women living with breast cancer and trying to maintain their sense of beauty and self-assurance after surgery.  In Judith Fine’s experience, prostheses and post-mastectomy bras do wonders for these women.

For many years, Judith and her store, Gazebo, relied on a fund from the American Cancer Society to help un- and under-insured women obtain these products.  When the fund went away, Judith made a decision to replace as much of the funding as she could.  A percentage of Gazebo’s sales went into a new fund that spun off into a separate non-profit organization, The Breast Form Fund. Judith stepped in as the Executive Director.

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Jump Start 2011 with Business Sustainability Planning Now

The concepts of social responsibility, business sustainability and living a sustainable lifestyle have been around for a long time.  However, these conversations have traditionally been between a smaller set of social and business practitioners.  Today, we are all exploring sustainability as an engrained part of our lives.  We hear about  going green on the radio, in  newspapers, websites, blogs and while we each have a different version of what going green means to us and our businesses, how to qualify its meaning.  As the year is quickly drawing to a close, many are asking how to plan for sustainability in 2011.  

 Within our sustainability consulting practice, we find that integrating sustainability concepts into core business functions makes companies more nimble in a fast-changing world.  It also makes a business’s brands more attractive to consumers and its executive management more respected by employees, regulators and the financial markets. In short, the drivers for improved business sustainability equate to improved performance and cost savings.  

Why not capitalize on the competitive advantage now and jump start your 2011 planning with the following sustainable business strategies?  By integrating sustainability concepts into the business, you are positively impacting the environment and generating bright business ideas for the year ahead. 
 

• Office Energy Consumption – Evaluate the average energy use per square foot of office space and implementing best practices to reduce: energy consumption studies, efficiency practices, equipment modifications, etc.
• Employee Commuting – Offer employees incentives to ride public transportation or participate in car/van pooling.  Consider a bike commuting program.
• Employee Telecommuting – Reduced office space and transportation as a potential win-win-win practice for businesses, employees, and the environment.
• Sustainable Design – Consider materials selection, energy consumption, manufacturing, product use and operation, and final disposition, early in the product development process.
• Water Conservation – Manage water entering the company and look for opportunities to reuse water.
• Management Systems  – Raise eco awareness and company commitment through established sustainability policies, standards, metrics, and self audits.
• Environmental Philanthropy – Beyond just corporate volunteering efforts provide access to technology, engineering support, information and research that benefits the local community and the environment.
• Packaging – Focus on using as little packaging material as needed and making packaging as recyclable as possible.
• Pollution Prevention – Keep attention on both source control and waste reduction
• Recycling and Waste Reduction – Anywhere there is a trash can, there should be a recycling bin.
• Resource Conservation – Consider material and energy consumption across the entire value chain…reduce, reuse, recycle.
• Printing Less – Paper makes up about 35% of a typical company’s total waste stream
• Go Digital – Reduce paper use and get contracts and documents signed more quickly by using electronic signatures.
• Sustainable Partnering – A key aspect of business sustainability is making sure that you manage your supply chain and partner with companies with similar values.
• Sustainable Education and Development – There is always more you can do to make your business more sustainable.  Encourage education and innovation within the organization.

 
Through observation and working with clients, we have come to learn that the sustainable leaders of today are anticipating and taking proactive steps to address change in the business world.  At Taiga Company, our sustainability consulting encourages clients to create a competitive advantage by building sustainability concepts and continuous improvement directly into the company’s business model.

Partnering to Build Your Brand

I recently experienced a missed brand-building opportunity at Staples when I tried to salvage some files from a defunct computer. What happened was a great example of how companies need to make their social contributions clear and actively partner with their customers for even greater impact.

I took an IBM desktop circa 1997 (!) with a frozen hard drive and forgotten passwords to the Tech Services Desk at my local Staples, where I had a GREAT customer experience – the staff was thorough and the job got done quickly for a reasonable price. I would definitely go back and this transaction helped evolve how I thought about the Staples brand (solutions provider for my life vs. seller of pens and paper).

The missed brand-building opportunity came when the tech offered to recycle my computer. Terrific – computers should definitely not end up in landfills. Just one catch: It would cost me $10. I experienced a moment of consumer confusion – it wasn’t clear if Staples was making money off me, breaking even or picking up part of the tab. I ended up walking out with my old IBM, feeling skeptical about Staples’ green effort and figuring I could find a way to junk it responsibly that wouldn’t cost me $10. This ambivalence was cemented when I discovered my town has a program where I could recycle my computer for free (Staples’ website explains that a “recycling fee is charged to cover handling, transport, product disassembly and recycling”).

I applaud Staples’ effort to reduce the environmental impact of technology obsolescence. But here’s the miss: Staples had a chance to cement my loyalty by wrapping a successful, well-executed business transaction in a successful corporate responsibility experience. They missed an opportunity to partner with me to fulfill broader responsibilities vs. simply charging for a service. My good opinion of Staples might have been solidified if they had followed up the offer to recycle with an overture to partner – and put some skin in the game by offering to help me defray the cost of recycling somehow, either through cash, in-store credit, or even a coupon for future use back in their store.

Lesson learned: At a time when consumer expectations are higher than ever, and more and more brands are linking themselves to social causes, it is critical for companies to be fully transparent about the contribution they are making and to approach their customers as genuine partners.

 

- Craig Bida, Executive Vice President

via coneinc.com