In the world of business media, there are rankings and ratings and lists galore. Carreen just wrote about one.

Marc Gunther at GreennBiz.com now tells us that Underwriters Laboratories, an non-profit organization that helps set standards and provides certifications, in partnership with Greener World Media (publisher of GreenBiz), is taking on the difficult task of creating and launching a sustainability rating system.

I’m excited to see what the ratings and standards look like. Because Gunther is absolutely spot on: “This is a big deal because it could help bring credibility and clarity to the very crowded and confused business of sustainability ratings, rankings and eco-labels.”

For many sustainability or green ratings and rankings, the methodologies are always a little shaky. They seem easily gamed through voluntary reporting, they allow for omission of key elements of sustainability, and the results never seem to really stack up. It never seems “right” when an oil company tops a list of “green” companies. As such, it undermines the business value of sustainability when it seems you can get the credit without doing the hard, long work. A widely accepted, credible and comprehensive point system will begin to force out the posturing and the true leaders on sustainability will rise to the top.

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Yesterday marked the opening of one of the most historic conferences in modern history – COP-15, the Copenhagen Climate Change Convention.  One hundred and ninety-two nations are in attendance – the largest total of nations ever attending any meeting in the world.  And it looks increasingly likely – what with President Obama’s schedule change to allow him to attend during the final negotiations, and top leadership from China and India promising to be there – that a global agreement on limiting carbon will emerge.

Norway’s Environment Minister had a particularly trenchant quote this morning:  The negotiations at COP-15, he said, “are the most difficult talks ever embarked upon by humanity.”   Whoa.

If the talks fail and no agreement emerges, the problem won’t go away, however – it will just make the delay in dealing with worldwide CO2 emissions and the actions needed to reduce them more painful in the long term.  The inevitable conclusion?  Climate change is real – the science is pretty unanimous at this point — and global efforts to mitigate the problem will eventually be implemented.

So this juncture in the world’s history, like most big watershed moments, will undoubtedly have a particularly powerful impact on the reputations of organizations all over the planet.

That’s why we are urging our clients, green and light green and any other color, to put their reputational stake in the ground around climate.  It is the one overarching litmus test of environmental responsibility, because it encompasses every green topic and subject.  Climate change is the first truly global environmental crisis humanity has had to deal with collectively, which means that companies and NGOs who are first to the conversation will reap the reputational rewards in the minds of their publics.  And since young people the world over increasingly self-identify as environmentally-minded, CSR and green programs have become mandatory for future-minded organizations,

Just a few examples:  The centerpiece of COP-15, in the middle of the lake in front of the Tycho Brahe Observatory in the center of Copenhagen, is a remarkable debut art installation called Carbon Cubes.  Designed to show us all, for the first time, what the volume of a metric ton of invisible carbon looks like, the Cube is 27 feet on each side, about the size of a three-story house.  The Cube represents what each person in the Western world emits: a ton of carbon every 2-3 weeks.  Google and YouTube, along with Millennium Arts and a host of other organizations including the United Nations and MWW, have supported the building of the Cube, with the goal of touring it around the world to illustrate the magnitude of the problem – and to represent, in real-time video projected on the Cube – some of the solutions.  This massive symbol of all of our human contributions to climate change makes such a tremendous impact because it’s a stark representation of the task in front of all of us.

Another remarkable exhibit is blooming in Copenhagen, too — Ghost Forest is a huge, haunting installation by artist Angela Palmer that raises public awareness of the connections between deforestation and climate change.  Originally exhibited in Trafalgar Square in London and underwritten by Deutsche Bank, the installation features ten massive rainforest tree stumps taken from a regulated, commercially logged tropical rainforest in Ghana.  These huge stumps, arranged in a circle and looking like the felled giants they truly are, have a potent presence.  Once alive and creating oxygen for the entire world to breathe, they now lie mutely and even accusingly on their sides, the true expression of the term deadwood.

When you see the Carbon Cube or the Ghost Forest at COP-15 or in another venue eventually, you will not forget them – they are both remarkably potent symbols of climate change and what our world is doing, or not doing, about it.  And of course you and everyone else who sees them will indelibly remember the forward-looking, smart sponsors of these exhibits, too.

David Langness can be reached at dlangness@mww.com.

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It’s a common refrain now for reputation managers to say that good corporate responsibility programs need to be authentic, not an egregiously overt marketing play, and make Good Business Sense. This is the stuff – when smartly communicated – of strong and enduring reputations.

Further than that, good CR demands a holistic view of the community – local, national, or global – in which a company operates.

So it’s nice when a company proves that notion. A story in Fortune about Best Buy, written by respected corporate citizenship and sustainability reporter Marc Gunther, explores how the retailer is turning itself into a leader in corporate responsibility. Not just because it’s a feel-good activity, but because it makes strategic sense.

Two salient passages from the story simply explain Best Buy’s push into sustainability and CR:

• “Employees wanted to know what Best Buy was doing to become more environmentally sustainable. Some customers — not most, but enough to matter — said they preferred to do business with retailers that cared about their community.”

• “Best Buy, as a result, has decided that being a good corporate citizen makes business sense.”

The article goes on to detail all that Best Buy is doing – making investments in responsible companies, organizing employee networks for growth and opportunity, offering electronic take-backs in stores and auditing foreign factories for carbon emission and fair labor practices. They are considering all audiences, internal and external.

What seems, as written, to be such strong commitment makes me think a little about the evolution of corporate responsibility. With CR, the business imperative seems to be evolving not so much incrementally but in big waves.

Allow an abridged and unscientific history:

For a while, “strategic philanthropy” was the totality of social commitment. Companies should simply write checks to charities and that is enough. Plus, giving out those oversized novelty checks made for good photo opps (and still do).

But in the early part of this decade, there was an overwhelming push to “be green.” Any claim about being green, no matter how specious, was endorsed by an excited media happy to cover a new business trend, only creating more companies that wanted to bask in glowing media attention.

Then, the inevitable backlash. The media began demanding proof that the claims were more than hollow marketing brochures (some of which were likely not even printed on recycled paper) designed to dupe the consumer. “Greenwashing” was the battle cry and companies were exposed left and right for distorting the truth.

But that greenwashing hunt seems to be dying down. Companies – some, not all – got smarter about what they should and should not claim, and are realizing there is pressure to be more than “green” though environmental responsibility is still a critical part of the mix.

Companies that want to be better citizens – now existing in an era of extreme suspicion in the wake of stunning scandals and staggering greed – are focusing on fair labor practices, commitment to employees, increased support in local communities, and more transparency with consumers and other stakeholders.

There are those that say it isn’t up to corporations to solve societal problems; that by focusing on simply making money and creating jobs they are fulfilling their responsibility. And to an extent I agree. But that mindset doesn’t build a sterling reputation or earn the trust of the public.

Mike Sacks can be reached at msacks@mww.com.

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Pleased to see the following news from our CEO, Michael Kempner:

MWW Group: CarbonFree for Three Years Running

I am very pleased to report that MWW Group is once again CarbonFree through our partnership with Carbonfund.org, a leader in carbon reduction and offset solutions. For the past three years, MWW Group has offset the total carbon emissions of its operations, roughly 4,600 metric tons of C02 (2009 certificate below) for that three-year period. That’s an amazing amount, particularly for an organization of our size. It represents more than 10 million pounds of C02, the emissions equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil or taking 850 cars off the road for a year. And while the entire MWW Group team can take pride in this accomplishment, we’re by no means finished.

As an organization we believe that without a well-trained workforce, the promise of clean energy is unattainable. Therefore in 2009 and beyond, MWW Group will extend its partnership with Carbonfund.org and support specific, verifiable renewable energy projects that create the infrastructure and skills necessary to drive a global, clean energy economy and further reduce carbon emissions. This year MWW Group will support the Iowa Lakes Wind Energy and Turbine Program, an initiative of Iowa Lakes Community College responding to the growing demand for skilled technicians who can install, maintain, and service modern wind turbines. Information on the program can be found here x men origins download download dragonball evolution dvd .

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MWW Group remains firmly committed to doing our part to protect and preserve the environment. We challenge our peers in the industry, as well as our clients and partners, to join with us in this important work, or to adopt your own programs to help bring about a clean energy economy.

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I was asked recently if recessionary pressures were killing social responsibility initiatives at companies struggling to hit their quarterly numbers, and by default triggering the demise of socially-responsible investing.  I don’t believe so.

Companies realize that past statements of corporate commitment would come back to haunt them, and the respect of employees, customers and others would be erodede, if they ran from their stated responsibility initiatives when money got tight.  And, so long as social responsibility is alive and well in the private sector and environmental issues continue to get top billing in the national dialogue, socially-responsible investment opportunties should continue to flourish.

As Brian Baskin’s wrote in today’s Wall Street Journal, social responsibility is still attractive to investors:

Investors, it seems, still have a proclivity toward good.   So notes Ingrid Saukaitis Dyott, co-manager of Neuberger Berman Socially Responsive Fund (symbol: NBSRX), who says that the economic downturn hasn’t hurt interest in socially responsible investing.

The Socially Responsive Fund is still seeing investor inflows despite the global economic downturn, Ms. Dyott says. Hard times can bring out the best in investors and companies, she said, noting that funds didn’t yield to pressure after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when some called for screens blocking investment in weapons companies to be dropped.

“At that time more than ever clients committed to our values,” Ms. Dyott says. “A horrific event doesn’t mean people re-evaluate their values.” 

The fund’s focus has worked well this year. While the fund is up 0.1% as of Thursday, in comparison the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is down 5.2%.”

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In late-2007 I participated on a panel at E&Y’s annual clean tech conference.  As it closed we made predictions on the future of “green” as a marketing concept and business driver.  My prediction was that “green” will fade from vogue and be replaced by the broader platform of “sustainability.”

Yes, environmental responsibility is vital, but so too is social and economic responsibility.  A reduced carbon footprint doesn’t absolve corporations that avail themselves of child labor or deceive investors.  And, from a marketing perspective, “green” is limiting whereas “sustainability” delivers scale by binding together good works across the corporation.  As the regulatory environment evolves and standards are established, “green” will lose its effectiveness in the marketplace.

Clearly, I didn’t spark a revolution with my pearls of wisdom.  There wasn’t a mad rush to de-green advertising and marketing campaigns…at least not that I noticed.  Was nobody listening?  Could I have been wrong?  Perhaps if “sustainability” looked better on T-shirts…

This morning I was pleased to see an Environmental Leader editorial by John Rooks, president of THE SOAP Group, called More on the Color of Sustainability.  Rooks and Adam Werbach, Global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, have a running debate on the value of colors to social movements – think the Green Party or the Orange Revolution – and where we go from “green.”  Rooks wrote:

When Adam writes that we need to move beyond Green, he is right. But moving it to Blue is only a temporary fix – a branding and design project, an opportunity to differentiate it for a while; an academic exercise for branding geeks like me.

The beneficial business movement does need to shake free of Green – yes.  Shaking into a new color is one possible strategy. But dropping the concept of color altogether and making sustainability ubiquitous – therefore invisible – might be even cooler.

Movements are hegemonic forces of swelling ground and visceral rally cries and the color assumes the cause (not the other way). And they can all be derailed through propaganda.  So, Ok, I give, I give.  Make it Blue.  I really don’t care what color it is.  But as long as it is painted veneer, it can be counterfeited.  Get ready for a new trend of bluewashing.

Seems to me that companies thinking now about what they’ll do after the “green” revolution…and then taking an active role in shaping the vocabulary of the next revolution – sustainability…will be the winners in the long run.

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