Yahoo Green Icon Contest Winner

This week Yahoo announced the winner of its Green Icon Contest. The icon will be used throughout the Yahoo network to highlight environmental issues. The contest has been won by Leah Dickey who submitted the icon below and has chosen Green Street Project as the recipient for the $20,000 prize fund.


This blog is supported by Scamper - The pioneers in Sustainable Brand Strategy

Sustainable Brands 07

This week is Sustainable Brands 07, the international conference on business sustainability. It's taking place in New Orleans from 26-28 September and many multinational brands will be in attendance. Visit http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/events/sustainablebrands07 for more information.

This blog is supported by Scamper - The pioneers in Sustainable Brand Strategy

Sad passing of ethical business leader

We all at Scamper are deeply saddened by the death of Anita Roddick on the 10th September 2007.

In her lifetime, Anita got involved in campaigning for environmental and social issues, and founded Children On The Edge, a charitable organisation that helped the children in Eastern European countries and Asia.

She is best known as a founder of the ethical and environmentally friendly beauty products brand The Body Shop, which played a leading role in bringing awareness of environmental and social issues to main stream consumers. The company was one of the first to prohibit the use of ingredients tested on animals and one of the first to promote Fair Trade with third world countries.

She has left a message for the Friends of the Earth's 'The Big Ask' march calling for a strong climate law.

This blog is supported by Scamper - The pioneers in Sustainable Brand Strategy

Kensington Whole Foods Market

Yesterday we visited the Whole Foods Market in Kensington, and were delighted to find such an excellent example of a sustainable brand experience.

If you've never visited the Whole Foods Market then we'd recommend it. As soon as you enter the store you are faced with a beautifully presented array of local food, organic food, natural food, traditional food and health foods, as well as other ethical and eco-friendly products such as cosmetics. The whole shopping experience creates an impression that the goods are selected and supplied with great care and are all of the highest quality.


This isn't a typical health food shop or deli, but a full scale supermarket combining the best of modern supermarkets with the quality and experience that you might hope to find in traditional markets and local stores. Its certainly not the place where everyone can do their weekly shop, but it has tapped into a clearly thriving market for affluent city dwellers wanting something healthy and natural in their busy lives, and for whom such fine foods and ingredients complement their fashionable lifestyles.

This blog is supported by Scamper - The pioneers in Sustainable Brand Strategy

Not exactly 100% sustainable

This week the 100% Design exhibition is on in London, and this year is themed around sustainability. It's an interesting show for anyone involved in interiors or the built environment, and there is clearly an emphasis on sustainability in some of the exhibits and seminars.

However, what's worrying is the amount of companies making unsubstantiated claims about their environmental credentials. We asked almost every exhibitor we visited whether their products were environmentally friendly or sustainable. All but one answered yes and gave us what was in most cases a fairly plausible sounding justification. Its concerning because for the majority of people who are not actively engaged in issues of sustainability, it would be extremely hard to distinguish between the genuine and more dubious claims. In the long run this could severely damage consumer trust in environmentally friendly product claims.

Its also making life harder for those companies offering genuine environmental benefits to stand out and attract the customers attention. Long gone are the days of simply stating that products are green or eco-friendly. Producers of environmentally friendly products are going to need to become much more sophisticated in the way they communicate their story to the customer if they are to achieve the competitive advantage that they deserve.

This blog is supported by Scamper - The pioneers in Sustainable Brand Strategy

Join the Big Ask march!

Add your voice to thousands of others calling for strong law on climate change

The website (Big Ask) is made user friendly which is an added advantage. If a member signing up for big ask is camera shy, he can send out a letter to the MP and complete his pledge. The short videos are interesting, backed up by celebrities.

The brand 'The Big Ask' displays a clear intention of calling for help for brining a stronger law on climate change. The brand is well presented and creates the impact needed for the strong cause.

This blog is supported by Scamper - The pioneers in Sustainable Brand Strategy

Farm Bill Food Battle

Free Range Studios have created an excellent video to support the campaign for a fairer US farm bill.



This blog is supported by Scamper - The pioneers in Sustainable Brand Strategy