Inspirational artist Prince Ea, Founder of Make SMART Cool and the brain behind the viral “Dear Future Generations: Sorry” video (https://lohasfilm.de/hHT4), then shared his perspective on the power of content. Notwithstanding the standing ovation he received from the audience prior to his talk – only the second standing ovation in SB’s plenary history – Prince Ea’s heartfelt presentation urged brand leaders to use creativity and emotion to reach people from all walks of life to do good. “I believe that what comes from the heart reaches the heart. When it comes from the heart, people will be drawn to the brand,” he said.
SB ’15 San Diego’s final day plenaries centered on what many would describe as the Holy Grail of sustainability engagement: reaching people’s hearts and minds to drive sustainable change. MC’d by Annie Longsworth, founder and CEO of The Siren Agency, the day’s speakers explored topics as varied and interconnected as employee and consumer engagement, stakeholder partnerships and activist visual art.
Eduardo Srur, visual artist and author of Manual for Urban Intervention, closed the day’s plenary with an inspiring talk on what art can do for sustainability. Showing examples of his art displayed on the public streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil – such as public mazes made of recycled trash and bikes suspended above congested street traffic – he shared how art can bring attention to humans’ impact on the environment and can be a vehicle to develop cultural capital for brands that want to make the public think differently. “Art is a powerful communications tool with the public,” he said.
Whether it’s through viral videos, public art, product labels or more, opportunities and strategies for effectively crafting and telling your sustainability story have never been more diverse, nor more important.
Sustainability is about Growth and Innovation
While all the insights, impressions and feelings are still alive, I’d like to share my highlights from Sustainable Brands 2015 in San Diego. The conference ended yesterday, it was the biggest and best event in their long history.
All attendees, speakers, staff members, etc. deserve the highest praise. Its very hard to choose personal highlights – but here are some of them: .) Sustainable Brands 2015 Innovation Open
More than 100 startups entered this year’s competition and I had the great honor to be one of the judges in the panel. We voted based on creativity, team quality, and economic scalability. Target was the overall sponsor, and had the privilege to give their own award.
Growth and Innovation
The winners are:
Stuffstr – winner ‘Target Award’
Stuffstr is a member of the circular economy RE100 and a retailer-branded app that helps retail customers maximize the lifetime value of everything they buy.
As a B-corp, Stuffstr has the promise to fundamentally change the way we purchase and deal with stored items in our garage. https://www.stuffstr.com
LanzaTech – ‘Peoples Choice Winner’ and ‘SB’15 Innovation Open Winner‘
Your next transatlantic flight might be fueled by the smokestack waste of a steel mill. LanzaTech’s patented technology recycles carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions, and pushes the gas through a patented reactor, converting it into ethanol. Similar like making beer through a fermentation process. In this case organisms are ‘eating’ the carbon monoxide/dioxide and convert it into ethanol. https://www.lanzatech.com
While not winning awards, these start-ups had my attention as well:
MeterHero, a Web-based utility monitoring tool, is looking to encourage people to conserve water and energy through cash rebates sponsored by businesses with sustainability goals. I signed up a couple of days ago, and received already a cash bonus in my email that I shared with my kids for taking shorter showers. I see that as a great future marketing tool to engage with existing customers as well as acquire new customers. I signed up a couple of days ago, and received already a cash bonus in my email that I shared with my kids for taking shorter showers. I see that as a great future marketing tool to engage with existing customers as well as acquire new customers. Try it !
Bitty Foods – delivers high protein foods powered by cricket flour. We need to feed 9 billion people in the very near future, and just the biomass of ants alone far outweighs the biomass of humans on this planet. We know the environmental damage caused by current meat production for our protein diet. Lets switch to crickets, ants and bugs. Because the samples I tasted at the conference were the best cookies I ever had in my life.
