Compassion Inc.

In honor of Earth Day, every company that could pulled out their sustainability banner.

A long-standing environmental organization with environmental bona fides is Green America. Through their Green Business Network, they certify companies that are committed to social and environmental responsibility believing that “Business can change the world.” They also product Green Festivals, and I attended their expo at the Javits Center in New York yesterday. It was heartening to see various sized businesses and some truly wonderful product ideas. My favorite was from a company called Artterro. They produce eco-friendly art projects for kids. The box itself becomes the frame for saving the child’s artwork. If you’ve ever bought a craft kit for a child and cringed as I have at the amount of plastic they contain, this is a much welcome relief.

Another Earth Day event: the launch of Groupon Grassroots. This is similar to the work of donorchoose.org, which in this case allows individuals to donate small amounts of money to local schools. It is crowdsourcing to fund raise. Unlike donorschoose, the Groupon site broadens the charities being served beyond education.

My issue with Groupon is in the languaging of this. If you look at the picture, its says “Buy”. It doesn’t say donate . As I write in Compassion, Inc. as charity moves further and further into the world of consumerism it has serious social consequences–too many to outline here but issues I will be addressing over time.

I am glad to see that Groupon is doing something to generate funding for local organizations–truly. However, they should not have simply rejiggered the existing website template. Someone needs to re-think this so that the site fits the underlying social intention.

Two articles in the New York Times this weekend highlight the idea of Social Innovation: “Hiring the Blind, While Making a Green Statement” and “Rethinking Recycling” (online it is titled: “Companies Pick Up Used Packaging, and Recycling’s Cost”)

SustainU produces clothing for colleges and universities using all-recycled materials. T-shirts and such are produced in a factory that is close to where the fabric is produced in order to cut down on energy costs, and the company’s workforce is made up of blind or visually impaired workers. In sum, the company is environmentally and socially conscious while producing a high quality product.

Alternatively, larger companies are rethinking the way that packaging is recycled. As municipalities are overwhelmed with payrolls they can’t meet and roads they can’t afford to fix, recycling has fallen down the list of priorities. In addition, consumers are demanding responsible recycling from product producers. In response, according to the Times:

A growing number of large food and beverage companies in the United States are assuming the costs of recycling their packaging after consumers are finished with it, a responsibility long imposed on packaged goods companies in Europe and more recently in parts of Asia, Latin America and Canada.

This isn’t just because of a sense of community commitment; it’s because it has become cheaper to produce an aluminum can from recycled materials than it is to do from scratch. The same will also soon be true for plastic bottles–an extremely important issue as they are a petroleum-based product. (Companies have also found a way to recycle yogurt cups and turn them into usable consumer products like toothbrushes.) And, companies may be trying to take their fortunes into their own hands before localities more strictly regulate recycling, as has already been done in states like Maine. Whether for cost savings or otherwise, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that this is better for profits and the planet.

These ideas are part emblematic of Social innovation, which I define in Compassion, Inc:

Social Innovation represents a philosophical shift in corporate do-gooding. It is an integrated web of corporate responsibility, sustainability, strategic philanthropy, cause marketing and advocacy that is underscored by a holistic approach that embeds “doing good” into a corporation’s DNA.

The fundamental difference between this and Corporate Social Responsibility or cause-related marketing is that Social Innovation is NOT about reporting to the world what you are doing, or about advertising a product and using charity to help sell more of them. Rather, social innovation is about doing good and getting caught at it. (Granted, a major article in the New York Times is hardly getting caught, but the companies mentioned here were doing good work long before the reporters ever showed up.) It is about looking at how you do business and re-configuring processes to be authentic, customizable, transparent and sustainable–both from an environmental standpoint, but also for the long-term growth of the business.

This is the kind of “good works” that companies should be moving toward, not simply slapping a charitable logo on a product.

Amid Adele’s landslide and the accolades for Whitney Houston, you might have missed the commercial for Chipotle Mexican Grill that aired during last night’s Grammy Awards.

As noted in the New York Times, the longform ad started as a short film shown first online and then in movie theaters. It is Chipotle’s first national advertising and while it sells the company and its food, it also asks viewers to download the music from the commercial (Willie Nelson singing “The Scientist”). Proceeds from the song will go to the Chipotle Cultivation Foundation, an organization that promotes sustainable farming.

I often write about companies that get cause marketing and CSR wrong. Chipotle is a company that gets it right. They are a flag bearer for social innovation–fully integrating the principles of their company into how they do business. Social innovation, unlike cause marketing and CSR, is a corporate strategy whereby companies are authentic, customizable, transparent and sustainable. Chipotle does all of these things.

For example and as evidenced by this marketing, the company is committed to sustainable farming. They have worked with local farmers to help them be able to increase their production in order to be a supplier to Chipotle. They have been successful in finding and cultivating suppliers so that most of the meat the company uses in their food is sustainable. But, not all of it. Does the company hide this fact? No, they practically scream it. You can go online and find where sustainable meats are available–and, more important for many folks, where they are not. (For more on Chipotle, I have an extensive case study on the company in Compassion, Inc.)

While I don’t as a rule like the idea of using the consumer marketplace as a way to generate charitable donations, in this case I make an exception. First, because the company is not asking you to buy their product (it’s not a burrito generating the funding), and second, because the campaign so fundamentally fits with the personality of the company while serving a bigger purpose.