Tag Archives: sustainable

Sostenibilità: la mia verità

DESITA, eco tourism, ECOFFEE, ecology, Ita, My Journal, social responsibility, sostenibilità, sustainability, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Si, la verità. Nient’altro che la verità. Perlomeno la mia, ovvio.

2006_Sustainability_Conf_logo

L’idea mi venne in mente lo scorso gennaio, quando alle prese con la presentazione per il mio intervento al TEDxBocconi, ho dovuto ripercorrere a ritroso più di 3 lunghi anni. Al TED, avrei dovuto parlare delle mie esperienze professionali in relazione con la sostenibilità, partendo dal progetto di ECOFFEE. Chi ha parlato in pubblico, senza essere un oratore e chi ha domestichezza con le presentazioni in Power Point, sa benissimo quanto sia difficile riassumere e racchiudere più di 3 anni di esperienze in 15 minuti e 15 slides a disposizione. Se poi, come detto nel post relativo, oltre all’emozione, ci si mette anche l’influenza …

Comunque, l’idea maturata nel tempo, è quella di scrivere per benino le mie esperienze, i progetti, le persone e le aziende incontrate e tutto quello che mi è accaduto nel bene e nel male, fino a questi giorni. In poche parole, esplicitare al massimo il mio intervento al TED, raccontando aneddoti e dettagli. Si, come detto, nel bene e nel male.

Perchè? Perchè la sostenibilità, quella vera, non è quella che si pensa o quella che si legge sui giornali o su internet. Non è quella che vi propinano le aziende dagli slogan tutti “green oriented” o i manager dai titoli inventati e posticci. Probabilmente non sarà nemmeno quella che vi racconterò io. Starà a voi giudicare, ma vi assicuro che scoprirete cose interessanti.

Quindi? Se avrete pazienza e voglia di leggere il mio punto di vista, prossimamente pubblicherò “svariati capitoli” sulle mie esperienze personali e la sostenibilità. Spero di riuscire ad essere abbastanza costante, perchè fino a febbraio ho già l’agenda abbastanza fitta di impegni importanti e viaggi all’estero e soprattutto, spero vi interessi.

Un ultima premessa: il mio blog è impostato sia per l’italiano che per l’inglese, a seconda di cosa voglio pubblicare e del pubblico a cui mi rivolgo. I post sulla sostenibilità saranno in italiano. Capirete da soli il perchè.

Buona lettura.

“How to make everyday a sustainable one”

DESITA, ECOFFEE, Eng, foodservice, franchising, My Journal, retail, sustainability, , , , , , , , , , , ,

TEDxBocconiU – ReThink: ReInvent the world around you!

2013-02-23 11.19.21First of all, I wish to thank all TEDxBocconiU team for the great event organised and in particular a BIG thanks to Ivana Istochka and Eraldo Cavalli.

I have been one of the 14 selected speakers of TEDxBocconiU and had the pleasure to connect with very interesting and inspiring people from all over the world.

That day I was very sick with temperature and a big cold; even the adrenaline was soft due the very bad feeling. What a bad luck. Invited to that special and prestigious stage and not be able to be at 100%. Trust me, I couldn’t slept the night before. Nightmares.

It was February and Milano was freezing while expecting the snow but thanks to the good marketing actions, lot of people came to the event.

In my speech I’ve tried to summarize three years of activities related to sustainability: the ECOFFEE project, couple of case histories on my daily business, the Progetto ParCO2 project and the Eco Mindful Message Attached t-shirts project. It has been very hard to squeeze everything in about 15 minutes.

Hope you will enjoy the video and the speech in terms of contents and the related meaning. 

And some nice photos.

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Ixsir it means Elixir: in vino veritas

ECOFFEE, Eng, foodservice, sustainability, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I am writing from Beirut, the very active and beautiful Lebanese capital.  I’m here to visit the Horeca Exhibition, to meet with some potential clients and to attend to BIFEX where I’ve been invited as speaker.

Today I wish to share with you a great experience I had last Sunday in the suggestive country side. I had the pleasure to visit a wonderful vineyard and winery.

“The vision behind the wines IXSIR is to reveal the best local Lebanese sometimes forgotten for generations. Created by friends sharing a common passion for wine and Lebanon IXSIR is the culmination of their dream. They managed to develop fine wines that will be forever associated with the land of their ancestors. The wines IXSIR combine a rich variety of grapes grown on land carefully selected to symbolize the diversity of Lebanon. Batroun, north to Jezzine, south through the Bekaa Valley to the east, the vineyards chosen include everything the country has to offer. Winemaking and aging in cellars are above which rests the mansion. Located on the hills of Batroun, this bastion of regional heritage dates from the 17th century and overlooks a modern vineyard whose heart is sustainability priorities. It combines all the resources of the earth to give birth to wines that reveal the secrets”.

Trust me, the wine has a great taste but what surprised me the most is that this winery was selected by the CNN as one of the greenest building in the world; and what a building.

Well, I believe in this case images talks more than words, therefore, please enjoy:

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H&M in the quicksand – A very short pop-up story

When H&M unexpectedly opened a new store on the beach of Riccione (Rimini – Italy) I thought this was a smart marketing action. Then I started wondering if this could work.   Of course the store would have benefited from massive visibility, but was this enough?

The great adventure of the pop-up store only lasted one week. It seems that those in charge of developing the concept did not have all relevant licenses.

The Italian Guardia di Finanza sealed off the area and confiscated property.           Someone thinks H&M violated some provisions, while others state inspections were too severe. It seems evident to me that someone chose to turn a blind eye in order to authorize the opening of this beautiful pop-up store on the beach. 

I think that if some licenses were missing works could not have been authorized.  And I’m also convinced that if inspections were too severe the shop couldn’t have been inaugurated.

Do you want to know my opinion? I don’t care who is right or wrong, nor which business activities were damaged the most. What really infuriates me is that in order to place the new pop-up store several square metres of “dunes” were destroyed, thus damaging an enchanting protected area gathering fine sand and lush vegetation.

Just for another shop! And I’m saying this in a conflict of interest. This behaviour is really not acceptable, especially because H&M has always been involved in sustainability and conscious collection campaigns, we also spoke about.

I think everyone involved in this matter should deeply reflect on it. Don’t you think so?

Chinese consumers are willing to pay for sustainability

We have already talked about China as one of the fastest growing markets in terms of customer awareness towards sustainability: Chinese do appreciate and search for sustainability.

A study released on April 18th by global advertising and international marketing firm Ogilvy & Mather answer to the question that our customers usually ask: “Do consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products?”. The study shows that the answer is “Yes, Chinese consumers are willing to pay a small premium for environmentally friendly products”, but they place responsibility to fix China’s environmental woes on the government.

Convenience is the main factor driving shopping decisions for more than half of the 1,300 Chinese consumers across China, but 71 percent said they would pay up to 10 percent more or higher for some “green” products.

“Within about a 15 percent price band, if two items have comparable brand image, people will go for the sustainable option,” Kunal Sinha, the lead author of the study and head of the company’s sustainability practice in China, told Reuters.

“But if you were going to sell it purely on its sustainability credentials, it wouldn’t fly,” he said, referring to the range of green products and sustainable behaviors covered in the study, from toiletries to food and vacations.

Shoppers were willing to open their wallets the widest for sustainably produced milk, at premiums of 17 to 20 percent, the study said, an indication of how severely scandals involving tainted milk have damaged China’s dairy industry.

The study noted large gaps between the sustainable behavior Chinese consumers profess to and their actual consumption habits, a trend that also exists in developed markets such as the United States.

One measure of their optimism: more than 90 percent of those surveyed said they thought the sustainability movement was growing. But fewer than a fourth or respondents said they felt empowered to solve environmental problems on their own, and instead looked to the government to fix the country’s environmental woes.

Chinese consumers have long been hesitant to loosen their purse strings, more so than consumers in other countries at a similar stage of development. But domestic consumption is picking up quickly and many analysts think it has reached a turning point.

That means Chinese consumers’ buying power may be out-pacing their green ethos. The survey said the concept of sustainable living is not yet mainstream, with respondents saying those leading the movement in China are seen as idealists.

Joel Backaler, a director at the consulting firm Frontier Strategy Group who blogs on Chinese consumption trends, says mainstream Chinese consumers are focused on aspirational purchases in the short to medium-term and will not begin focusing on green and sustainable consumption for years.

“The vast majority of China’s middle class are for the first time learning how to spend and join the consumption phenomenon that their counterparts in the U.S. and Western Europe have long enjoyed,” he told Reuters in an email. (Source: Reuters)

Greenburgers guide: Greenopia

EVOS, Le Pain Quotidien and Pizza Fusion received the highest marks of any fast food restaurants in the latest ratings issued by Greenopia.
 
The three chains each received four green leafs, meaning they met at least 90% of the criteria across five categories: green building design, supply chain, recycling/take-back programs, stock and sustainability reporting.
 
Greenopia said EVOS is the “greenest burger chain in the US.” The company sells a variety of organic and fair trade products; incorporates green building design into its locations; uses recycled-content items; and purchases wind credits to offset its energy footprint.
 
Bakery and sandwich shop Le Pain Quotidien uses organic and local ingredients; incorporates green building design; composts food waste; and uses its spent food oil for biodiesel.
 
Pizza Fusion “tackled an incredible amount of green projects for a food chain” Greenopia said. All of its projects are LEED certified; their pizza is made with organic ingredients and delivered by hybrid delivery vehicles; employees wear organic cotton uniforms; and they have a take back incentive for their used pizza boxes.
 
Further down in the rankings Chipotle and Starbucks received three leafs, and McDonald’s improved to two leafs this year. With more than 32,000 stores worldwide other major chains should look to McDonald’s to see how to properly begin to incorporate green initiatives, Greenopia said.
 
Below is the full description of the company’s efforts and shortcomings, as cited by Greenopia:
 
Green Efforts:
McDonald’s has begun to incorporate some green elements into its culture. McDonald’s has 2 green stores, with more on the way. In fact, McDonald’s has been one of the more aggressive chains in incorporating green building designs into its locations. McDonald’s uses some recycled content in their packaging and has a comprehensive waste diversion program. It also only gets its beef from responsible sources (especially in regard to rainforest degradation) and has taken steps to green its seafood and coffee sourcing. Finally, McDonald’s has begun analyzing and scoring its supply chain to search for environmental efficiencies (as well as conducting audits) and publishes one of the better sustainability reports in the industry.
 
Green Issues:
In the green spectrum, McDonald’s is at least light green in every category. What we have listed above is good, but there is still room for improvement. For starters it would be nice to see natural and/or organic products offered and some more widespread and consistent green building design elements as well as some renewable energy sourcing. McDonald’s deserves to be applauded for what it has done (especially when compared with other major burger chains) and we hope to see improved commitment as time goes on.

Retail, web 2.0 and sustainability:an analysis

A recent Zumer and Sustainable Life Media research is helping medium to small size retailers to better understand what is the connection among sustainability, consumers and web 2.0 tools.

The survey analizes the behaviour of 50 of the biggest companies leader in sustainability, at a worlwide level. Names such as Chevron, McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Campbell’s Soup, Microsoft, Toyota, Starbucks appear in the list of the companies whose online conduct on the three top social media, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube was analyzed for six weeks between December 2010 and January 2011.

We have found three key points that can be summerized as follows:

1. Authenticity: sustainability must permeate the whole company and must involve the company’s stakeholders so that ensure an authentic online communication, a more effective management of external reputation and brand perception. This is perfectly in line with the Cone research we have posted a while ago: consumers DO PUNISH not authentic communication about sustainability.

2. Sustainability helps acquiring new market share: almost three quarters of the professional interviewed stated that sustainability-themed social media are the channels to be in in order to get the attention of new market segment and reinforce the company’s position in the more traditional ones

3.Mix platforms to get the best results: although Facebook is still the most favourite platform among the big 50 companies in the survey, with investments rising in 2011 too. Tweeting about sustainability is becoming very common too -investments will double by 2015, as well as are CSR dedicated company’s websites, while YouTube actions are still fragmented. Blogging about sustainability might be a very powerful tool, not yet fully implemented by companies (1-2% of total blog posts).

Starbucks Launches 10th Global Responsibility Report

On April 18, 2011 Starbucks Coffee Company has announced the launch of its tenth annual Global Responsibility Report, which outlines fiscal 2010 performance in ethical sourcing, environmental stewardship and community involvement. The interactive report is now available online at www.starbuck.com/2010report

“Our ten years of reporting demonstrates not only commitment to global responsibility, but also to transparency in our business practices,” said Vivek Varma, Starbucks executive vice president of Public Affairs.

The report shows that Starbucks has made significant strides towards the bold goals it set in 2008. In particular, Starbucks exceeded its goals in the following areas:

  • Renewable Energy: Starbucks reached its goal to purchase renewable energy equivalent to half of the electricity used in its North American company-owned stores, by purchasing 58% in 2010; and has been named by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the fourth-largest purchaser of renewable energy in the U.S. The company is raising its sights with a new goal to make 100% of the electricity used in global company-owned stores renewable energy equivalent by 2015.
  • Youth Action Grants: Starbucks exceeded its 2015 community goal to engage 50,000 young people in community activities by engaging more than 53,600 in 2010.

“Starbucks has made significant and meaningful improvements in key areas, and recognizes the need for greater innovation, customer engagement, and policy leadership,” said Ben Packard, Starbucks vice president of Global Responsibility. “We will continue to set new performance standards, reach our ambitious goals and sharpen our focus on areas of greatest impact in communities and the environment.”

In 2010 Starbucks demonstrated progress toward reaching its long term coffee purchasing goals, bringing the company closer to achieving its long-term goal of purchasing 100 percent responsibly grown and ethically traded coffee by 2015.

The company made advances in three key areas:

  • Coffee Purchasing: Increased purchases of coffee sourced under C.A.F.E. Practices from 81% to 84% in 2010.
  • Farmer Support: Provided $14.6 million to organizations that make loans to coffee farmers, nearing its goal of $20 million by 2015.
  • Forest Carbon Programs: Expanded pilots in coffee-growing communities in Chiapas, Mexico and Sumatra, Indonesia through Starbucks partnership with Conservation International to demonstrate how coffee farmers can adapt to and be a solution to addressing climate change while increasing their incomes.

Starbucks also made meaningful improvements in 2010 toward reaching its goals related to renewable energy purchases, recycling, water conservation, and green building. Starbucks is currently on track to reach goals in a number of key areas including:

  • Recyclable Cup Solution: Making progress to develop comprehensive recycling solutions for its paper and plastic cups by 2012 by testing recyclability of cups in a New York pilot.
  • Water Conservation: Reduced water consumption by 21.6% over 2008 levels, nearing the goal 25% reduction.
  • LEED® Certified Stores: Completed pilot phase for the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Volume Certification pilot program. It is the company’s goal to build all new, company-owned stores to achieve LEED® certification beginning in December 2010.

Although much progress has been made, the company still faces challenges in progress against some goals, and is working to achieve them:

  • Community Service: Starbucks partners and customer around the world contributed more than 191,000 hours of community service in 2010. Although this is well short of the company’s 2015 goal of generating one million hours, Starbucks has put new structures in place to improve in 2011, and is dedicating April as a global month of community service in celebration of the company’s 40th anniversary.
  • Front-of-Store Recycling: Starbucks continues to support local market testing and implementation to accelerate future front-of-store recycling.
  • Reusable Cups: Although Starbucks served 6.4 million more beverages in reusable cups in 2010 than 2009, there is a need for considerable innovation and customer engagement to reach the 2015 goal of 25% of beverages made in reusable cups. Starbucks is working to increase awareness by offering a free cup of brewed coffee or tea at participating Starbucks in the U.S. and Canada to customers who bring in a reusable tumbler on Earth Day 2011.
  • Energy Conservation: Starbucks did not achieve its goal to reduce energy consumption by 25% in company-owned stores by 2010. The company is now planning to achieve this goal for 25% energy reduction in 2015. (Source: Businesswire)

Mark’s and Spencer opens greenest store ever

On March 1st, 2010 Marks & Spencer announced a programme to be the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015 launching 80 major new commitments under M&S’ eco and ethical plan, Plan A.

Plan A, started on 2007, had already proven its efficacy achieving these great results in 2009/2010:
• Cost savings of around £50m for M&S;
• New products and services, including 250,000 customers from M&S Energy;
• Cut CO2 emissions by 40,000t;
• Recycled 2 million used garments via Oxfam;
• Reduced 10,000 tonnes of packaging;
• Diverted 20,000 tonnes of waste from landfill;
• Saved 387 million food carrier bags;
• Used 1,500 tonnes of recycled polyester (equivalent to 37 million bottles);
• Saved 100 million litres of water;
• Recycled or re-used over 130 million clothing hangers;
• £15m for charities.

Yesterday, April 18th 2011, Marks & Spencer achieved a new great result opening the retailer’s “greenest-ever” store at Ecclesall Road in Sheffield.

The store is the first of a number of new ‘Sustainable Learning’ stores, that are part of M&S’ drive to become the world’s most sustainable major retailer by 2015.

The new 12,400 sq ft Simply Food store, built from scratch on a former brownfield site, incorporates a host of sustainable design and construction features, including an LED screen giving real-time public transport information, electric car charging points and a green living wall to attract wildlife.

All the bricks used in the build have also been reclaimed from a local mill.

Marc Bolland said:

“We’re delighted to be opening M&S’ greenest-ever store, providing customers with top quality M&S food and drink products in such a convenient location.”

The store is “firmly on course” to achieve a BREEAM rating of Excellent, making it one of the most sustainable retail outlets in the UK.

Its carbon emissions will be 23% lower and energy usage 30% lower than a traditional similarly sized store.

Innovative features include:

  • LED lighting, which is 25% more efficient than standard lighting, is used throughout the store, a first in the UK.
  • Sun pipes bring natural lighting onto the shop floor;
  • 100% of the timber used is FSC certified, a UK first;
  • All the bricks have been reclaimed from an old local mill;
  • Water costs will be reduced by up to 40%, compared with a traditional similarly sized store, by using harvested rainwater;
  • Capturing heat expelled from the store’s refrigeration units to help heat the store;
  • A living green roof of sedum plants and green living wall have created wildlife habitats, as well as insulating the store;
  • Bird boxes have been placed around the perimeter wall of the site;
  • In total, 62 different species of plants have been planted on or around the store;
  • Polished concrete floors have removed the need for floor covering;
  • 100% of the construction waste has been recycled.

All employees at the store have also been fully trained to understand its environmental features and will be encouraged to share this information with customers. (Source: The Food and Drink innovation Network)