5 Takeaways from Sustainable Brands 2017 Detroit
The three-day conference in late May provided exposure to eye-opening research, useful tools, and great presentations – all centered on sustainability. Here are five takeaways among many, all with links to follow-up information or tools.
Rolland was the official paper sponsor of SB’17 Detroit and the conference guide was printed on Rolland Enviro Satin – a truly sustainable product.
1) Leaders who are best at integrating sustainability into business strategy
A pre-release of the 2017 Sustainability Leaders Survey by GlobeScan and SustainAbility in partnership with Sustainable Brands presented highlights collected from a worldwide panel of some 1,000 sustainability experts. Among the findings, recognition leadership is dominated by companies seen as the gold standard for integrating sustainability into business strategy, with Unilever on top followed by Patagonia. Other notables include Interface, M&S, Tesla, IKEA, Natura, Nike, GE and BASF.
2) New, free workbook can help you make the business case for sustainability
Sustainability author and speaker Bob Willard, a one-time IBM executive, presented the newly released SUSTAINABILITY ROI WORKBOOK , a fill-in-the blanks Excel workbook that helps sustainability champions make the business case for sustainability initiatives. It is free and open source.
3) Using biomimicry – ideas and solutions from nature – in sustainability initiatives
Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems modelled on biological entities and processes. In brief, generating ideas and solutions from nature. Nicole Hagerman Miller and Dr. Dayna Baumeister from Biomimicry 3.8 led a workshop using a new toolkit that helps organizations incorporate the principles of biomimicry when designing sustainability initiatives.
4) Critical – but unnoticeable – sustainability data is now available
Planet Labs is using real-time data visualizations, space-mapping and satellites to track the small, incremental and virtually unnoticeable changes happening every day that ultimately create big impacts on the planet. The platform has transformational potential for advancing ecosystem and climate monitoring.
5) The host city is on a sustainable roll, and showing leadership
Detroit is on a mission to become the most sustainable city in North America. And it is taking action, recently opening its first streetcar line – the QLine – in 50 years, and launching a new bike-sharing network, MOGO. It also has the world’s largest LED street lighting system.
