FabianPattberg.com

Video: Enabling people to lead a better life – The example of ‘Dancing Bears’ in India

Fabian — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:50:59 +0000

Today’s post is a video from TED about enabling individuals top lead a better life and the cruel practice of ‘Dancing Bears’ in India.

These two subjects seem to be very different from each other but once you will have watched the video below you will see that if you want to solve a problem such as the cruel practice of the ‘Dancing Bears’ in India you need to enable the person earning a living from this practice to lead a different life and not just penalizing them for animal cruelty.

Kartick Satyanarayan describes how he and his organization changed the lifes of bear handlers by giving them an opportunity and not a jail sentence.

Sustainability blogging at its best

Fabian — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:21:53 +0000

Blogging on Sustainability topics is not as easy as it might sound. I am calling myself a blogger but I can honestly say that writing high quality blog posts is an art by itself.

Todays post is another recommended website c ategory post about one person that really knows how to write excellent Sustainability related blog posts and more. His name is Paul Smith and run the blog called the “GreenSmith Consulting Blog”.

Paul has been around in the Sustainability blogging field for a long time and in my opinion is one of the most interest and engaging bloggers in the Sustainability field at the moment. Next to his own blog Paul writes for Triple Pundit and the Elephant Journal blogs on a weekly basis.

This is how Paul describes his blog:
“The GreenSmith Consulting blog is an exploration of the best of what’s happening in sustainable business, and what’s to come. Startups of note are frequently featured, as are tools and technology to make doing the important work you do, be done more easily. Guest contributors have taken on a variety of subjects, from greenwashing to localization.”

Next to being a great writer Paul is also a really nice guy (which is a very nice combination).

So why not visit his blog today or connect with him via some other channels. Here are some to choose from:

Paul on Twitter: http://twitter.com/greensmith
Paul on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PaulArthurSmith
Paul on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/presidiomba

Good intentions – Bad execution

Fabian — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:01:29 +0000

Greenbanking – sounds somehow strange doesn’t it? The French bank Credit Agricole has embarked on a media campaign to promote its self proclaimed ‘responsible and ethical” banking practices. This in itself is nothing new and particularly shocking. The big question is whether the Credit Agricole stakeholders will actually believe this in the current “Do not trust banks” business climate?

This is how Credit Agricole are going about this campaign to convince its stakeholders.

This website: Credit Agricole – GreenBanking It is a nice website with a good design but not much content. And this point about the lack of content leads me to my main criticism of how to communicate with their stakeholders. The video.
The video: The video below is intended to convince us of their good intentions

This is my take on this campaign
This campaign has a good intention as far as I can see but there is a big BUT here. Why would you use this kind of video to communicate this? The video is all ‘doom and gloom’ and really does not portray any message. And please, Sean Connery of all people is supposed to reassure me of Credit Agricole’s good intentions? Come on…..
The criticism Credit Agricole is now facing from what I have read here on BusinessGreen is they are being accused of green-washing. And from what I have seen today so far I can only concur. This looks like green-washing and not much more. I am sorry Credit Agricole but this does not convince me of your competencies at all. Nowadays there are much better ways of communicating your good intentions. Social media for a start…….

The 3bl TV CSR Web Video Channel – A new challenge for me

Fabian — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:40:43 +0000

Some of you may have noticed by now that I have now started to use video messages or short clips within posts or as the main message for the post. Today this whole video challenge has even got more exciting. 3blMedia has launched 3bl TV. 3bl TV is a Web Video Channel that will feature regular video segments produced by Christine Arena, Chris Jarvis, and myself.

This is an exciting new challenge for me and I am really looking forward working with 3blMedia, Christine Arena and Chris Jarvis on this together. We will bring you weekly videos about some of the latest news, discussions and other interesting items such as interviews and event coverage from around the world all related to Sustainability and CSR.

This is the launch video. And yes I am featured as well so please be gentle with your criticism!

If you would like to know more about this please also fell free to visit the press release website here: 3bl TV announcement

A big challenge: Being a Sustainability / CSR professional at Shell

Fabian — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:21:27 +0000

Imagine you are working for Shell in the Sustainability / CSR department and you really want to make a difference by showing that Shell is a responsible company. Todays post is about the challenges someone working at Shell might face. This is all from the viewpoint of a normal Shell stakeholder such as myself. I have also included a video response with some additional aspects to consider.

The Sustainability / CSR professional working at Shell as far as we can tell is facing the following situation at the moment:

Worsening reputation: Shells reputation with regards to Sustainability / CSR is not good. After being seen as leaders some years ago they are now being perceived as just putting a lot of money in their communication

Lack of Sustainability / CSR innovation: Over the last few years Shell have not really convinced on the content and implementation side through innovation at all. This might be the consequence of not being leaders anymore combined with a lack of aspiration for bringing their reporting and best practice onto the next level. But where has this enthusiasm for innovation gone?

Perceived indifferent corporate culture: From what we can see outside as a stakeholder is that the corporate context and culture itself at Shell does not fully go hand in hand with their Sustainability / CSR messaging. I have no prove of that obviously but from we can interpret from press releases, other communications and article about Shell this seems to be the case. Here are three examples which just show how conflicting Shells messaging is at the moment:

So what should or can this employee do to change things for the better?

I believe that these following points are some aspects the Sustainability / CSR professionals at Shell need to consider to kick start their Sustainability / CSR innovation process again:

Stop shouting so loud about what you do. More PR does not mean that you are being perceived better in the long run. Less is more for Shell at the moment in my opinion.
Only communicate when you have something to say. This might be an obvious point but there is nothing more damaging when you have message and this message is being perceived as green-washing.
Spend at least 80% of your time now lobbying the senior management to increase the importance of your department and for you to get more leverage for future policy influencing.

I have also prepared a short video response on what I think Shell could do better:

Shell has been one of the innovators in the Sustainability / CSR field in the past and they can be again. Others like Centrica, Timberland and Intel have taken that position now. What happened to the Shell we saw several years ago?

As always please let me know what you think and whether you agree or disagree.

Important for Sustainability and CSR: Keep It Simple

Fabian — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:57:14 +0000

Life can be complicated sometimes. We all know that. Especially if you work in the Sustainability / CSR sector trying to convince other people of the purpose and the good of Sustainability / CSR can be very complicated and challenging at times.

Todays post has one straightforward message:

Keep It Simple.

I have found this to be so important especially when you work in the Sustainability / CSR field. In order to properly communicate your point of view or argument you need to keep it simple. This will help you to reach the other person much easier and not overwhelm them with the message you are trying to convey.

How do I mean that?
Well if you overcomplicate topics or try to tackle to many issues or tasks all at once your results will show it – in a negative way. Not only from the communications but also from a business results point of view. You might be the one in a million professional that can do that now (at least you think you do) but this is is impossible to keep up all the time. We all have our limits and keeping it simple might just help to make your business life as a Sustainability / CSR professional more effective and at the same time more enjoyable.

This is a really basic way of working. But think about it. What is the argument for making it more complicated? There is none in my opinion.

So why not use time this Monday to take a look at where you can make your work in the Sustainability / CSR field or any other field of work simpler but at the same time more organized and effective. I bet you will find at least one area of work where you are overcomplicating matters.

This is your task then: Make it simpler and therefore more manageable.

Picture Credit: Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha

Frozen in Time: The Quality of Company Blogs

Fabian — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:01:15 +0000

I have been doing some research into company blogs recently and thought this might be an interesting topic for a post as well. I started with the top 10 biggest global companies from Fortune magazine but some are not included in this list as they simply did not have a blog ( which is a real shame). You will see some smaller company blogs included as well. This is to mix it up a little and show what a company blogs could do for your business, if done well.

The only order I applied is that I distinguished between 1) Blogs I liked, 2) Blogs I was not sure about and 3) Blogs that need some work. Here they are:

Some of the blogs I like:

A blog that comes across as quite personal. http://jnjbtw.com This is so important for the pharmaceutical sector. Well done Johnson and Johnson.
Intel not only has one but many more. http://blogs.intel.com This best practice is a benchmark for everyone.
A nice example with nice visuals as you would expect from Kodak http://1000words.kodak.com
Simple but effective. It says all it needs to say about the social networking news site Digg.com http://about.digg.com/blog/company
A smaller company but also very good. The HomeGoods blog gives you a warm trustworthy feeling. http://openhouse.homegoods.com (I am not good at decorating and average at house work but I like the personality of the blog)

Blogs I am not sure about:

Microsoft has many different platforms on how to engage with its stakeholders buts where is the central place to go too? Shouldn’t it be here: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/default.mspx Microsoft is doing a lot right but where is the big corporate blog? Have I missed it?
The Shell blog is not bad but too cluttered in my opinion. http://royaldutchshellplc.com/wp-wall-guestbook But it has the same problem as Microsoft. Where is the big company wide blog?
The Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com I would expect more. But this depends on the eye of the beholder if simplicity is most important or if this is all you need in a corporate blog. I was not sure either way.
A very good idea from ING to have the URL INGBlogs.com http://www.ingblogs.com/mycupofcha but why not do this properly and use it better and bring the whole group here? And not just Asia/Pacific?
Toyotas approach is strange. Newsroom and blog together? Not so sure about that: http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/our-point-of-view.aspx
Good layout but would need more interactivity features. The GE Global Research blog. http://ge.geglobalresearch.com/blog

Blogs that need some work:

WalMart: I could not find a proper blog but what are they doing here? No post since December? http://checkoutblog.com Not good.
I could not find a proper blog for Chevron either. Only a old one here: http://www.chevron.com/wpc/blog Would you think it is time for a simple blog Chevron?

All in all is the overview not complete of course but what is clear is that corporate blogs still need a lot of work. But more importantly do they need committed individuals that take care of it and involve as many people as possible in order to get as many different viewpoints represented as they can. Then a corporate blog really becomes useful for its stakeholders in my opinion.

So come on companies across the globe, you can do better!

Picture Credit: CarbonNYC

Takeover of Cadbury by Kraft: The sector loses one of its leaders

Fabian — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:56:11 +0000

Today it was announced that Kraft will take over Cadbury. Here are some of the links to the the story:

What this means for the Sustainability / CSR sector?
This is not good news for Sustainability/CSR as we will lose one of the most forward thinking companies in this field and brands like Green and Black’s http://www.cadbury.com/ourbrands/featurebrands/Pages/GreenandBlacks2.aspx and others that shine through their responsible business practice will be swallowed by a global giant that only has not really shown itself as an equally responsible business.

This is my video response to the news today:

I will start recording video responses to interesting breaking news as well as events from now on. Please let me know what you think about this format and obviously about your view of the Cadbury takeover by Kraft.

More personal than professional – My Posterous Blog and Flickr Photostream

Fabian — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:41:45 +0000

You might have noticed that there are not many personal pictures or personal lifestream items on my blog anymore.

Because this blog has now become so popular and more people then I ever expected are interested in what I have to say about Sustainability I decided to now post my pictures, other personal topics and everything else that did not fit on this blog on my Posterous Blog with this URL: http://fabian.posterous.com

So if you are interested in some more personal topics by me while not writing blog entries here on my blog please visit my Posterous Blog. http://fabian.posterous.com or visit my Flickr Photostream if you are interested in my snaps: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fpattberg

Have a good end of the week everyone.

Fabian

A blog with a mission: Helping SMEs to be more sustainable

Fabian — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:29:07 +0000

This weeks recommended website is David Connors blog called: David Coethica’s blog. This is the URL: http://davidcoethica.wordpress.com

I first got came across David while looking for people interested in Sustainability and CSR on Twitter back in the spring of 2009. Since then I have had countless moments where his updates on Twitter and posts on his blog lead me to find some great information on Sustainability and CSR. When he is not on Twitter and writing blog entries David runs a company called Coethica.

But lets give David the chance to describe his blog and what the intention is:
“After spending years engrossed in the formal world of CSR I began to notice something was blatantly missing from the room – smaller businesses. Whilst the corporate world was beginning to take the agenda much more seriously there appeared to be a defeatist attitude that small & medium enterprises (SMEs) were too small, too many and working too hard just to survive.

The blog was set up after I was pushed into writing about Coethica’s journey to help SMEs by a local marketing company to raise our profile as the experts we had become. The main objective is to fight for CSR as a essential business ethos regardless of the size or nature of a business.

In addition to being able to post my own interpretation of wider CSR topics, I want to encourage mainstream entrepreneurs to listen by presenting ‘not-so-Corporate’ Social Responsibility as an exciting opportunity to gain a competitive advantage whilst at the same time benefiting many important environmental & social issues.

2010 will see even more smaller business focused content with case studies, tips, opinion, news and of course the occasional sport related post to remind me of my previous life in football!”

Some of his recent posts include:

So if you are looking for great content on Sustainability and CSR you need to subscribe to Davids Blog: http://davidcoethica.wordpress.com

Here are some other places where to find David on the web:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidcoethica
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/coethica