One third of consumers combine a materialistic orientation with an aspiration to purchase sustainable goods. Style and social status are key motivators for this segment called ‘Aspirationals’.

No, we are not talking about the ‘Advocates’ formerly known as’Treehuggers’ which represent 14% of consumers. Advocates are driven by responsibility and guilt, actively search for products with social or environmental benefits and are prepared to pay more for sustainable alternatives.

To Aspirationalist, shopping is not associated with guilt – at all. ‘Shopping contributes to happiness’. Aspirationalist love to try new things, want to look good and are very much concerned about their social status.

These are among the results of the ‘Regeneration Roadmap’ study by BBMP, GlobeScan and SustainAbility, based on an online survey among over 6000 consumers in Bresil, India, China, Germany, United Kingdom and Unites Sates.

In fact, Aspirationals represent the ‘persuadable’ middle segment. Consumer goods companies should be carefully studying the needs and drivers of this group. Aspirationalists are always on the outlook for sustainable alternatives, and would buy products if this would connect them with their community of peers with shared values.

How to recognize the Aspirationalists? They can be found amongst all age groups, with a significant higher share of households with kids. In China even one in two consumers can be counted among this group. A handicap: Consumers will not automatically find products and brands that are conceived with a reduced environmental or positive social impact. Above average, this group trusts advice of friends and peers.

The challenge for companies will be to convince this well-connected group about the sustainability benefits of products despite their lack of trust in green claims or labels. Companies should consider social branding initiatives that make consumers connect with communities of peers, trust the social or environmental benefits and become – what’s in a name – advocates of sustainable brands.

The opportunity lies in the aspirations people have: sustainability connected with social status, style and a feeling of community. Companies not only should concentrate on developing green and socially responsible products, but create cóol products with great performance and sustainable benefits that people can be proud off.

In other words: Forget about the Treehuggers. Convince the Aspirationals.

Sources:

http://theregenerationroadmap.com/about-the-project/

http://www.sustainability.com/news/the-regeneration-roadmap-launches-consumer-survey

http://globescan.com/

2012 was a great year.
2013 can only get better.

From Conversation to Co-creation.
From Buying Less to Sharing More.
From Diversity to Inclusion.
From Minimizing Impact to Circular Thinking.
From Contacting to Connecting.
From GDP to Well-Being.
From Treehuggers to Aspirationalists.
From Responsibility to Innovation.
From Doing Less Harm to Doing Good.
From Transparency to Trust.

I wish you a healthy and inspirational 2013.

Jacobine Das Gupta.
twitter: @thegreentake

‘Corporations build better societies if they have balanced boards’. Kellie McElhaney found that companies with one or more women on their boards are significantly more likely to have improved sustainability practices. “This is not a women’s or men’s issue, it’s a collective and business opportunity,” says McElhaney who is also faculty director, Center for Responsible Business at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

McElhaney of UC Berkeley Haas School of Business recently published a paper that identifies the relationships beween female coproate directors and corporate sustainability.  The study, “Women Create A Sustainable Future,” is co-authored by Sanaz Mobasseri, PhD candidate, Berkeley-Haas Management of Organizations Group, and sponsored by KPMG and Women Corporate Directors (WCD). MSCI Inc. provided the dataset of Fortune 1500 companies and their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, which they have been measuring since 1992.

To measure corporate performance, the authors reviewed each organization’s ESG performance. Environmental criteria include steps to improve energy efficiency of operations, to measure and reduce carbon emissions, the reduction of packaging, and investment in renewable power generation. Examples of social factors include health care access for underserved populations in developing market supply chains, strong employment benefits and performance incentives, products with improved health or nutritional benefits, and products and services to communities with limited or no access to financial products. Finally, governance is defined as avoiding corruption and bribery, clean accounting, and a high level of disclosure and transparency about business practices.

‘The sweet spot is three’. Companies with at least three female board members had a better ESG performance but we’re talking about very few companies who meet this threshold–just three of the 1,500 we studied: Kimberly-Clark, General Motors, and Walmart,” says McElhaney. McElhaney interviewed several female directors to learn more about their personal experiences on a board.

Source: http://responsiblebusiness.haas.berkeley.edu/Women_Create_Sustainable_Value_FINAL_10_2012.pdf

In France, sustainability (développement durable’) has a strong social connotation. The principles of the French revolution, ‘Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité’, are still visible in today’s society. People believe that rights of individuals, employees and families should be defended at all times. You can recognize this social connotation of sustainability in the approach of Orange and of La Poste.

The Swedes are known to be very close to nature. For many Swedes, sustainability is more connected to environmental aspects. You can read more about this in the case study about best practices of Ericsson.

Not only national connotations may differ. Differences in business culture impact the way how sustainable strategies can be implemented in a successfull way.

In France, the society is organised in a strongly hierarchical way. Important decisions are taken at top level. This allows a swift implementation of new strategies. Decisions are taken early in the process and handed top-down through the hierarchy, as is done for example at Danone.

In Northern European countries, important decisions are often being made after intensive consultation rounds. These consultatations are being used to gather ideas but notably to make sure that all participants agree on the specific decision. A disadvantage is that this process may be time consuming.

What can we learn from the above?

First: Never assume that your understanding of sustainability is being shared by everyone across Europe - let alone people in the Americas, in Asia or Africa. When you are developing a multinational sustainability strategy, make sure you understand the regional connotations and include them as much as possible.

Second: Be aware of differences in business culture. Your sustainability implementation plan will need to be challenged by local experts. You will probably need to adapt it to the local business culture and decision making process in order to be successfull.

Globalisation improves a mutual understanding between people in different countries. Also national business cultures may change. French organizations slowly get less hierarchical. Generation Y employees get in direct contact with company boards as the case study of the Veolia Environnement illustrates. Globalisation however needs time to develop. At date, the differences in connotations, historical legacy and business culture are still very important.

Develop global, but adapt to local conditions: Test your global strategy with regional experts, and complete your strategy with regional implementation tactics, for instance in cooperation with national governments and local NGO partners, as DSM, Philips and Nokia show.

——————-
More about Best Practices of European Sustainability Leaders in: ‘Your customers want your products to be green’.

All disciplines will be affected. Employees will need to be involved and trained in new areas that are logical extentions of their current activities, but with a sustainability focus:

• Marketeers will be inspired by the new market dynamics related to environmental and social issues. All marketeers will learn about what works and what won’t in Green Marketing.
• Innovators will be challenged to develop new products that create user benefits ánd create a positive social change, with reduced ecological impact
• Sales reps will be trained to identify customer sustainability expectations and convince them of the advantages of new business models.
• Purchasing will intensify at one hand the sustainable supplier criteria and audits, and at the other hand the cooperation with suppliers to search for sustainable sourcing solutions.
• Controllers will be asked to track progress against social and environmental parameters in addition to the traditional financial indicators.
• Human Resources have already discovered the power of Sustainability as a means to attract and retain employees. They will be encouraged to develop engagement plans and bonus plans that include sustainability performance indicators.

All functions will be affected. Yet a small group at headquarters will need to stay in place. This central sustainability team will be there to overview and align the companies sustainability activities, share best practices, set the companies KPIs, benchmark and track market developments and update the sustainability strategy accordingly.

More information on sustainability developments and best practices in my book ‘Your customers want your products to be green’. The book contains insights based on interviews with 19 senior sustainability & CSR managers of European frontrunners. Let me know what you think about it!

This week I have presented my new book on the Dutch radio in the Business News Radio program ‘BNR Duurzaam’.

Presentator Mark Beekhuis, Jos Cozijnsen and I exchanged about sustainability news and strategies, employee engagement, cultural differences and the new book.

For those who understand Dutch find hereby the link to the radio emission: http://www.bnr.nl/programma/bnrduurzaam/555237-1201/bnr-duurzaam-14-januari-uw-klant-houdt-van-groen

I am proud to announce my new book:

‘Your customers want your products to be green’

During the last few years I have had the chance to interact with senior managers of European sustainability frontrunners.

‘Your customers want your products to be green’ contains Best Practices of Sustainability Frontrunners such as Ericsson, Shell, Rabobank, DSM, Philips, Danone and Veolia Environnement completed with freshly printed business recommendations.

Create societal impact and develop new business opportunities. More information on The Green Take website here. Enjoy and be inspired!

I wish you a happy and healthy 2012!

The CSR School has been developed by the Erasmus School of Accounting & Assurance (ESAA) of the Dutch Erasmus University. The Summer School targeted at CSR professionals on middle and senior management level.

CSR insights will be presented by experts from around Europe. Among the speakers will be Karen Maas PHD of the Erasmus University, Prof. dr. Jan Peter Balkenende, Jvan Gaffuri of SAM (Sustainability Asset Management AG), Piet Sprengers of the ASN Bank, Alex van der Zwart of Concernz Consulting, and Jacobine Das Gupta of The Green Take.

For more information contact Ms. Henny Lammerschop at Lammerschop(at)ese.eur.nl. or look at http://www.esaa.nl/fileadmin/ASSETS/esaa/brochures/Autumn_School_Brochure.pdf

More information (French and English)

http://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/consultation-publique-securite-alimentaire-nutrition-FAO-13154.php4

http://km.fao.org/fsn/cfs/cfs-e-consultation/fr/?no_cache=1

To 30% of the SMEs it are exactly these changing customer expectations that have brought them to set stronger CSR objectives for the coming years.

75% of the SMEs believes that independant CSR information is essential to live up CSR ambitions and 25% of the SMEs is actively searching for support, information, trainings and tools to define their CSR strategy.

These are conclusions of a recent study (‘MVO-ambities in het MKB’) of the market research agency EIM,  that has have interviewed 1663 SMEs. SMEs are defined as companies between 2 and 250 employees.

Source : http://www.mvonederland.nl/content/publicaties/rapportage-eim-onderzoek-naar-mvo-ambities-in-het-mkb  (in Dutch)