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16
DIRECTIONS16
Each year,Directions takes an in-depth look at an area of sustainability
and communications.This time,we’re delving into the quite sizeable
gap that still exists between business and society.It’s not the void
that interests us so much as the question of how it can be shrunk.
How do we move from just minding the gap to actually mending the gap?
INTOTHEGAP
Inside,we hear from experts and practitioners on how business
and society can be brought closer together,what the obstacles are,
and what the priorities should be in the months and years ahead.
EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTORS
ROBIN NUTTALL
Co-author of ‘Connect: How companies
succeed by engaging radically with
society’ and Partner
McKinsey  Company
PETER ZOLLINGER
Head of Impact Research
Globalance Bank
LAURA PALMEIRO
Sustainability Integration Director
Danone
JAN-WILLEM VOSMEER
Corporate Social Responsibility
Manager
HEINEKEN
SOFIE SCHOP
Senior Project Manager,
Communications
Sustainable Apparel Coalition
ALEXANDRA PALT
Chief Sustainability Officer
L’Oréal
DR. RENÉ BUHOLZER
Managing Director, Global Head
Sustainability  Head Public Policy
Credit Suisse
RICHARD KARMEL
London Managing Partner
Mazars UK
SALTERBAXTER CONTRIBUTORS
•	NIGEL SALTER
	CEO
•	OLIVIA SPRINKEL
	 Head of Salterbaxter North America
•	ROISIN GREENE
	 Account Director
•	CAROLINE CARSON
	Consultant
•	 KATHLEEN ENRIGHT
	 Director Consultancy  Communications
•	HUW MAGGS
	 Strategy Director
•	KRISTINA JOSS
	 Senior Consultant
•	ARABELLA BAKKER
	 Director Consultancy  Communications
1
Amazing progress has been made
on the sustainability front.
•	 Most businesses now have detailed
sustainability targets and strategies.
According to a recent study by
Accenture, 87% of CEOs say that
sustainability is central to their
planning and strategies.
•	 Reporting and disclosure are
now pretty much standard practice
– there may even be too much.
•	 Sustainability is starting to be part
of the way that products and services
are innovated and marketed. And the
challenge of longer-term thinking and
a reinvention of the role of capitalism
is being championed by the likes of
McKinsey, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley
and Inclusive Capitalism. We even
have a major agreement from Paris
on climate to build on and the UN
Sustainable Development Goals
as a platform for global actions.
So the plus column is looking pretty
good. Is the job done?
Well, no. From looking at 2015 and 2016
we see that in many ways things haven’t
changed at all.
VW’s share price dropped by over
20% at one point due to the quite
astonishing emissions scandal.
And the Panama Papers scandal
proved that the issues of taxation
and transparency are fundamental
to rebuilding the trust in business
and finance – and that there is still
a very long way to go.
It seems as if a lot of the work that has
been done to date has been focused
on ‘minding the gap’ – making sure
business does less harm, protecting
reputation, managing risk. But as most
of us know, the big opportunities for
business are not achieved when it
just minds the gap. They emerge when
business and brands actively seek
to mend the gap. John Browne and
Robin Nuttall describe this as ‘radical
engagement with society’ and Robin
talks more about this in our first article.
So this year in Directions (number 16!),
we decided to take a step back and
assess some of the gaps that still
need to be bridged. Don’t get us wrong,
we celebrate and applaud the great
progress being made in many ways.
But our passion is in showing business
the commercial opportunity it can
gain if it goes beyond ‘housekeeping
sustainability’ and truly seeks to connect
with society’s challenges in order to
secure and drive long-term success.
There are gaps in policy, gaps in
innovation, the value-action gap, gaps
between ambition and reality, gaps
in knowledge and understanding,
gaps in finance, gaps in science.
We see them all as opportunities for
business to succeed rather than simply
as problems. We’ve chosen a few
that we think capture the heart of
the debate. We know there are plenty
more we could cover too – there
are gaps in our gaps! We’d love to
hear your views on these.
BUTASMOSTOFUSKNOW,
THEBIGOPPORTUNITIES
FORBUSINESSARENOT
ACHIEVEDWHENITJUST
MINDSTHEGAP.THEY
EMERGEWHENBUSINESS
ANDBRANDSACTIVELY
SEEKTOMENDTHEGAP.
CONTENTS
02Connecting the gaps
The engagement gap
06Profit and purpose
The integration gap
10Eye to eye
The behaviour gap
14Consumer trust in brands
The information gap
18Speaking the
same language
The marketing gap
22The investment gap
How the financial
sector can step up
26Say_Do/Practice_Preach
The implementation gap
30Handle with care
The human rights gap
34Conclusion
02
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
03
THEENGAGEMENTGAP:
HOWBUSINESSCANSTEPUP
01 	Take a hard look at the gaps
between the business and
its stakeholders.
02 	Be prepared to redraw the
lines of connection. This isn’t
just about CSR strategy,
it’s about the company’s
forward direction.
03 	Get the whole organisation
behind a more connected
mindset – it will pay off.
The public’s distrust of big business
is nothing new. As far back as 97 BCE,
for example, legal codes in Han Dynasty
China considered ‘merchants; former
merchants; sons of merchants; and
grandsons of merchants’ certain
kinds of criminals. But the cost of
such unpopularity is much higher for
businesses today than it ever has been.
New technology and the public appetite
for novelty can subject companies to
relentless transparency. Missteps may
trigger an availability cascade, with
the media feeding its 24-hour news
cycle with unverified and oversimplified
information that the public embraces.
In a matter of days or even hours,
perceptions gain traction, and a
corporation’s good standing, which
may have taken years to build up,
could be irreparably damaged.
But there’s also opportunity here.
While conducting research for ‘Connect:
How Companies Succeed by Engaging
Radically With Society,’ which I
co-authored with former BPCEO LordJohn
Browne and Polaroid Swing Co-Founder
Tommy Stadlen, we discovered that
about 30% of corporate earnings is at
stake in a company’s relationship with
external stakeholders. What’s more,
businesses that connect effectively
with society can see a shareholder
value boost of more than 20% over
a single decade relative to peers.
The bottom line is clear: if you can
capture this opportunity, you can grow
in a way that your competitors cannot.
04
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
01Map your world
It may sound obvious, but it is absolutely
critical to understand the trends that
are shaping your context and to quantify
the value at stake. Doing so effectively
means considering your goals in relation
to those of your stakeholders while
bearing in mind the resources and
influence each of you brings.
02Define your contribution
In ‘Connect’, we explain that knowing
where your company can actually
make an impact, versus where it can
only be a spectator, is vital to set your
engagement priorities. For every topic,
firms should choose which combination
of the ‘3 Cs’ of engagement strategy
– contest; concede and lead; and
collaborate – is most appropriate.
THE ‘FOUR TENETS’ OF
RADICAL ENGAGEMENT
In ‘Connect’, we argue that conventional
corporate social responsibility (CSR)
efforts are inadequate for establishing
and maintaining dynamic relationships
with these complex stakeholders.
I would characterise typical CSR
initiatives as box checking, an activity
that’s disconnected from the company’s
core commercial activity.
What businesses need instead is to
identify and pursue their social purpose
with the same rigour as they identify
and pursue their commercial purpose.
And that major shift in mindset needs
to begin at the top of the organisation
by adopting the following four tenets.
WHO TO ENGAGE
Businesses need to develop strong
connections with several stakeholders,
including employees, governments and
regulators, the environment, and NGOs.
Employees both reflect and create
their employers’ brands. In addition,
employee morale greatly influences
financial performance. One London
Business School researcher, for
instance, found that companies listed
among the ‘100 Best Companies to Work
for in America’ between 1984 and 2009
generated 2% per annum share price
uplift versus their competitors.
Governments and regulators, meanwhile,
wield the greatest power of all over
business, and they require companies
to perform a unique and challenging
balancing act. “Ignore government
and its influence will eventually catch
you off guard,” we write in ‘Connect,’
“commandeer it and you risk a backlash
from society further down the line.”
Lord Browne in 1997 became the first
Big Oil chief executive to publicly
recognise the link between man-made
carbon emissions and global warming.
He believes the environment may be big
business’s most complex stakeholder.
The rise of technology and NGOs have
essentially given a new and powerful voice
to environmental concerns. Business
leaders should place their organisations
at the centre of transformative solutions
that make the low-carbon world an
attractive destination.
05
03Apply world-class management –
embed deeply within the business line
“The management of the connection
between business and society is rarely
done as professionally as other parts
of the business,” we write in ‘Connect’.
In order to radically engage society,
organisations should subject these efforts
to the same four core management tools
that they deploy in their commercial
efforts:creating capability;organising
to win;establishing processes;and
measuring outcomes.
04Engage radically
Finally, businesses must fully embrace
openness and transparency. As we write
in the book: “To earn trust and credibility,
the private sector should engage the
external world on the front foot, building
lasting relationships which are based
on regular, authentic negotiation rather
than public-relations propaganda,
brinkmanship or passive silence.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The future of public engagement
will be shaped by three main trends:
the rise of artificial intelligence;
the shift of the world’s economic centre
toward emerging economies; and
the emergence of a wealthier, better-
educated, and more empowered global
class than we have yet seen. This new
generation could be the most lucrative
in history for businesses. It will certainly
be the most challenging.
But we need not greet these disruptions
grimly. With the right guidance, the most
progressive businesses stand to gain
huge ground against their competitors.
Gaining support for these efforts will
require structured thinking around their
potential upsides and downsides as
well as a concerted move from the back
foot to the front foot in the way the
organisation engages with society.
AND,ASWEPOINTOUT
IN‘CONNECT’,THERE’S
PERHAPSNOBETTER
TIMETOINITIATETHOSE
EFFORTSTHANRIGHTNOW.
“Companies have never been
more accountable for the positive
contribution they make to people’s
lives,” we write. “The connected firms
of the future will push the boundaries
of human possibilities in their quest to
contribute. They will not fracture their
bonds with society.”
06
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
Olivia Sprinkel: How important do
you think it is for a business like
Danone to have a clear purpose?
Laura Palmeiro: It’s extremely important.
At Danone, our mission shows us our
direction as a company. Like many
Danone employees, I find our mission
to be very inspiring. It doesn’t say
anything about profitability. Of course,
profitability is necessary to remunerate
our shareholders and also to reinvest
in the future. But making money is not
a purpose in itself.
The purpose of the company is to deliver
our mission of achieving health through
food – and to do it in a sustainable way
while benefiting the largest number
of people. We aren’t just targeting a
niche market or a specific social class.
We want to reach as many people
as possible with our brands.
For a long time, customers and the
wider society have been distrustful
of big businesses. The reasons for
this are mainly historical, and there
is a widespread perception that
corporations are usually there just
to make money. There have also been
ethical issues, a misalignment between
economic, social and environmental
interests. In the past, most businesses
didn’t address stakeholders’ interests,
but only their own, and normally only
in a financial sense.
As we know, lots of companies
have started to move towards a
more comprehensive understanding
of their responsibilities – to include
shareholders, society and the planet.
But there is still a misunderstanding
and misalignment between business
and society. This is something that
will only change through greater
PROFITANDTHEINTEGRATIONGAP
Danone has succeeded like few other big companies
in putting sustainability at the heart of everything
it does. Salterbaxter’s Olivia Sprinkel caught up
with Laura Palmeiro, Danone’s Sustainability
Integration Director, to find out how they’re
bridging the integration gap.
THEINTEGRATIONGAP:
HOWDANONEISSTEPPINGUP
01 	Everything Danone does
is guided by a clear mission
and purpose.
02 	Group leadership have
provided essential support
for integration – including
a group-wide manifesto
and new integrated report.
03 	There has also been a big push
to engage employees at all levels,
as well as suppliers and society.
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
WHENWE’REABLETOBUILD
STRONGECOSYSTEMS,
EVERYONEBENEFITS.
0707
transparency. The only way to fill
the trust gap is to become more
transparent with external parties,
to invite them in to give their opinions,
to co-construct solutions together.
To become more porous. Maybe
even to bring outside parties into
the governance of the company.
OS Can you give some examples
of how Danone is collaborating
with external parties?
LP We are strong believers in
co-creation. It’s one of the guiding
principles behind the different funds
that we have set up. One of them is
Danone Communities, where we are
working to solve nutritional problems
in different parts of the world.
Then there is the Ecosystem Fund,
where we are working with not-for-profit
partners to create jobs and reinforce our
local economic and social environments,
or ecosystems. Together, we provide
training and financial support for
Danone business partners, to help them
develop their businesses in a better way.
compliance, governance, quality
control, human rights, diversity and
inclusion through to measurement of
our carbon footprint, reduction of
environmental impact, sugar reduction,
adaption to nutritional needs.
There are four pillars to the Danone Way:
For each of the pillars there are
different topics; for example, Better
World (the environmental pillar) includes
water, climate change, agriculture and
plastic. Then within each of the topics
are specific practices and policies, and
targets to achieve in the near future.
Each of our country business units
does an annual Danone Way self-
assessment. Then external audits
are carried out to verify the process
and the data. These audits reinforce
the credibility of the whole process.
They do this at the same time as
reporting their financial situations.
We then carry out external audits
of at least 20% of the business.
We first launched the Danone Way
in 2001, initially with two or three
Danone group companies, and now
it covers 98% of our total turnover.
We update the Danone Way every year
to reflect our newest commitments.
For example, some of our milk suppliers
are very small farmers. We help them
learn about optimal methods for
cattle feeding, how they can increase
their yield, how to improve the cows’
lives and reduce health problems –
all of which increases the quality of
the milk they produce. It’s a win-win
situation – the farmer gets assurance
that more of their milk will get to market,
which means they make more money
to support their families, and we are
assured good quality milk. When we’re
able to build strong ecosystems,
everyone benefits.
OS How is Danone going about
the task of integrating sustainability
throughout the business?
LP The backbone of our sustainability
approach is the Danone Way – a process
that is now completely embedded in the
day-to-day functioning of the company.
It touches every area of the business:
PURPOSE
THEREAREFOURPILLARS
TOTHEDANONEWAY:
01
UNIQUEBUSINESSAPPROACH
02
BETTERHEALTH
03
BETTERLIVES
04
BETTERWORLD
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
OS Who is responsible for implementing
the Danone Way in your businesses, and
how does this relate to the company’s
other sustainability activities?
LP Each business has a Danone Way
co-ordinator. Sometimes it’s the
environmental manager, sometimes
an HR person. It depends on the
configuration of the business unit.
The Danone Way is only one of our tools,
but it is the only one that is transversal,
touching all of the various sustainability
topics, and which enables us to see
the overall progress. Each topic is then
managed by topic owners. For example,
our latest climate policy came out
at the end of 2015 and is applied by
our worldwide community of carbon
masters, co-ordinated centrally, who
have their own way of communicating,
setting targets and delivering against
plans. There are similar experts
working in other social, nutrition
and environmental topics.
OS You also have a manifesto
at Danone. Can you tell us a little
about that?
LP The manifesto is our mission in
action. It is what we stand for, what
the mission concretely means and
what we commit to do. It represents our
convictions as a company. Importantly,
all Danone employees have a role in
implementing the manifesto. We recently
held our second Manifesto Day, where
we connected 100,000 Danoners
simultaneously, through Webex.
The CEO gave an address and we shared
progress and examples of the manifesto
in action, including screening some
short films that had been made about
how the manifesto has come to life in
our subsidiaries. Colleagues all over
the world were tweeting and we enjoyed
being all together, whether in offices
or in plants. Everyone could see the
presentations in their own languages.
It’s a big thing to do, and a technical
challenge. But it is very inspiring,
having the whole organisation together
like that. It gives a sense of unity.
OS You’ve also been working with
the B Corp community. Are you
looking to become a B Corp?
LP We’ve signed an agreement last
year with B Lab, the organisation behind
B Corps. The Danone Way approach has
existed for a long time and is embedded
in our culture, including our ways of
thinking and doing business. Our CEO
met people from B Lab and realised that
the Danone Way is essentially like an
internal B Corp assessment. Much
like the existing B Corp-certified
companies, we believe that we are not
only responsible to shareholders but
also to civil society and all our various
stakeholders. In both cases, it’s about
creating dialogue with society and
using business as a force for good.
This led to the question: ‘Why couldn’t
we become a B Corp?’ As we started to
look into it, we saw that the existing
B Corp assessment was really aimed at
medium to small scale businesses and
would therefore be extremely difficult
for us to answer. We realised that if
we supported the idea and wanted
to become a B Corp, we would have to
find a way for big companies to respect
the same topics and logic that B Corp
companies do now, but with an
assessment process that’s adapted to
fit the challenges of collecting detailed
information across a big multinational.
So we set out to try to certify at least
10 Danone subsidiaries in order to
0909
THEMOSTIMPORTANT
THINGISTOHAVEFULL
SUPPORTFROMTOP
MANAGEMENT.
understand the challenges. One of
them, Danone Spain, has been recently
certified and another one will most
probably be certified before the end
of the year.
We’re using what we’ve learned from this
process to help develop a questionnaire
for big companies as part of a working
committee that was formed. Other
members include big accounting firms
and financial institutions as well as
companies such as Unilever and Natura.
OS Danone recently published its first
integrated report. Can you describe
how that came about?
LP Danone has always had sustainability
embedded in its culture, but our way
of applying this has become more
structured in the last few years.
We started formalising it with the
Danone Way and by setting up the
funds. And our latest steps are our
manifesto and the integrated report.
I think you need to have an integrated
strategy to have an integrated report
– and we’ve had an integrated strategy
for many years. So it was only natural
for us to embark on this project. But we
needed to have the right organisation
in place to make it happen. It has taken
us a few years, but we finally published
our first integrated report this year.
In my view a perfect integrated
report doesn’t exist so far. There is
no unanimous agreement on what
an integrated report should look
like, and there can be very different
interpretations. But I think we are going
in the right direction by having a first
version of an integrated report. We have
already heard from stakeholders that
they think it is a good tool. It gives all
kinds of stakeholders – NGOs, unions,
suppliers, rating agencies – more
information on how our management
is actually making decisions, as well
as the role of sustainability within
our strategy, and this should help
a lot in closing the transparency gap.
OS What advice would you give
to other companies on how to
successfully integrate sustainability
into the business?
OS A final question. Are you optimistic
that the gap between business and
society can be closed?
LP I’m very optimistic, partly because
society is becoming more challenging
than it used to be. The work that
NGOs and civil society are doing is
extremely important. People have
more information now, not to mention
more means to exchange and share
information, and this is a good thing
in itself. It is a helpful challenge for big
corporations, as it pushes them towards
transparency and giving explanations.
Companies are going to have little choice
but to start integrating dialogue into
their normal working processes. Younger
generations are much more challenging
to businesses than the generations that
came before. They’re pushing businesses
to keep evolving – through what they
choose to buy, what they choose to share
on the internet, where they choose to
work. Millennials will help to make sure
that we keep working to close the gap.
So, yes, there are good reasons to
be optimistic.
LP The most important thing is to have
full support from top management.
Without that, it can be extremely difficult
to put an integrated strategy into action.
This is a condition for success.
Once you have their approval, you
should try and involve everybody in
all operations. This is important for
the buy-in of the project. Integrated
sustainability will only really work if
it is embedded throughout. It doesn’t
work if it’s present in some divisions
but not in others. And you need to be
collaborating and co-creating solutions
across the whole organisation.
10
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
THEBEHAVIOURGAP
More companies than
ever before have clear
values and ambitious
sustainability goals,
but these are often a poor
predictor of real employee
behaviour. Salterbaxter’s
Roisin Greene looks at
how business can bridge
the difficult gap between
what employees say they
believe – and what they
actually do.
Increasingly, people throughout
business and society recognise the
importance of acting responsibly.
But this does not always stop us
from making poor decisions, and then
repeating the cycle. Why is it that our
explicitly held sustainable values do
so little to predict what we actually do?
What’s true for individuals is also
true for organisations. Even the best
and clearest trickle-down strategies,
processes, values and targets have
their limits. It’s basic human nature to
avoid loss, overvalue our own inputs
and sometimes veer away from what we
intended to do. This is why influencing
employee behaviour is not only the next
important step in many companies’
evolution as responsible organisations
– for many, it’s also one of the toughest
challenges they face.
To put it bluntly, your company will
never be truly sustainable unless all of
your employees adopt truly sustainable
behaviours. And for all the reasons just
mentioned, this can be a big ask.
KEY OBSTACLES:
HABIT AND BIAS
It’s easy to assume that a lack of
information is the main issue when
people fail to act in their – and also
society’s – best interests. But that’s
not the whole truth. Education alone
is almost never enough.
We should stop wasting resources
trying to de-bias employee mindsets
with greenwashing and instead start
to de-bias our organisational processes.
The decision to give in to temptation
and revert to old habits is a moment
laced with many nuances. Employee
engagement campaigns are designed
with the best of intentions to raise
sustainability awareness and influence
behaviour. Which is why it’s such a
shame that so many are formulaic,
rooted in unrealistic assumptions
about human behaviour and often lack
in-built measurement of effectiveness.
TO
11
Organisations need to design new
structures, strategies and processes
to help bridge the gap between people’s
explicitly sustainable values and their
implicitly unsustainable actions.
Let’s look at three key areas where it
is possible for almost any organisation
to make systematic improvements to
help their people make better decisions,
achieve sustainability targets and
ultimately build a better society.
01. REMOVING
UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
Increasing employee diversity is
a key pillar in many organisations’
sustainability plans, but this does
not automatically mean the people
in charge of hiring are making more
diverse or gender-neutral recruitment
decisions. To the contrary, many
companies continue to overlook the
best candidates in favour of the familiar.
Why? More often than not this comes
down to unconscious bias.
Harvard professor Iris Bohnet’s
research has shown that the traditional,
unstructured interview process is a poor
predictor of on-the-job performance.
Yet this approach continues to be used
by most companies. Typically hiring
managers are free to use the interview
to explore details that they think are
important, and this leaves the whole
process open to their personal bias.
One of the key issues at play here is
overconfidence – the belief (perhaps
entirely unconscious) that you are
right and that your experience and
expertise is better than that of others.
And many hiring managers are simply
more likely, by default, to hire someone
who is similar to them (same gender,
background, education or hobbies).
Unconscious biases can affect
employee decisions across the
full range of companies’ sustainability
aspirations. One of the best ways
to combat this is by implementing
smarter processes that reduce the
effect of individual biases and help
employees to make smarter, more
responsible decisions.
THEBEHAVIOURGAP:
HOWCOMPANIESCANSTEPUP
01 	Adopt new frameworks and
tools to help employees make
better decisions.
02 	Create a great employer brand
to reinforce positive behaviours.
03 	Boost ‘psychological safety’
to help employees adapt and
speak with an authentic voice.
O
12
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
Such improvements do not have to be
complicated. In the case of fair hiring,
simply removing names, gender and
image cues from the hiring process
can be enough to neutralise managers’
personal biases.
Google has gone a step further and
completely redesigned its recruitment
process to remove unconscious bias.
How? By structuring the content of
their interviews using data. Before
interviews, the company’s people-
analytics departments crunch data and
identify which interview questions are
more highly correlated with on-the-job
success and weigh them accordingly.
02. INFUSING YOUR
BRAND WITH PURPOSE
Employees seek out jobs and
organisations that align with their
values and give them a sense of genuine
purpose. This is especially true among
the youngest generation of jobseekers.
In a recent Deloitte survey, millennials
said they believed businesses were
behaving with increasing responsibility
– though most felt that businesses
continue to focus too much on their
own agendas.
If an employee’s personal values are
not in line with those of the company
they work for, they are extremely
unlikely to be willing or motivated to
change their behaviour in support of the
company’s goals. Ultimately millennials
say that they want companies to focus
more on people, products, and purpose
– and less on profits.
Organisations need to develop a strong
employer brand that supports a
culture in which employees’ work
lives and personal values are aligned.
A powerful employer brand ties all
of the organisation’s activities together
– leading with purpose and permeating
into everything your employees do
and how they do it.
For sustainability activities to be
mainstreamed throughout a business,
they need to be internalised by all
employees and become a norm.
When a well-meaning company
creates ‘green teams’ to take on the
sustainability activation, employees
who are not part of these teams
can end up deferring responsibilities
– essentially outsourcing ownership
of their individual sustainable
behaviours. By contrast, some
companies are using small ‘nudges’
throughout the organisation to change
behaviour incrementally and create
new norms. Each time these companies
teach employees how to talk about
the company purpose or sustainability
initiatives in their day-to-day interactions
with customers or suppliers, they are
also reinforcing these behaviours within
the internal culture.
Merck has created an employer brand
that is very effective in positioning the
company values (‘improve life, achieve
scientific excellence, operate with the
highest standards of integrity, expand
access to our products and employ
a diverse workforce that values
collaboration’) at the heart of every
activity. So Merck’s Open Innovation
Centre is designed using their own IP
products; they use their expertise in
drug and delivery systems to create new
partnerships which deliver malaria and
AIDS treatment more effectively; and
they transfer what they have learned
in delivering clean water to laboratories
to supply water to communities in
developing countries. The employer
brand ties all of these initiatives
together and communicates them
consistently throughout the
organisation, showing how they
all contribute to a single purpose.
WESHOULDSTOP
WASTINGRESOURCES
TRYINGTODE-BIAS
EMPLOYEEMINDSETS
WITHGREENWASHING
ANDINSTEADSTART
TODE-BIASOUR
ORGANISATIONAL
PROCESSES.
13
03. THE IMPORTANCE OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
Now that sustainability issues are
firmly on the table, organisations need
to create teams and work environments
that support positive behaviours,
each of which in turn will support the
company’s sustainability strategy.
There is an increasing body of research
suggesting that ‘psychological safety’
is by far the most important trait to
develop high-performing teams. This is
the belief that you will not be punished
for speaking up with ideas, questions,
concerns or mistakes. Without this sense
of safety, employees focus on impression
management and self-protection for
fear of appearing ignorant, incompetent,
intrusive or negative. Such fears
are very common in the modern work
environment, which leads to workplace
silence and ultimately a decrease in
learning and innovation, both of which
are essential in moving towards a more
sustainable organisation. In comparison,
teams where members feel safer are
more likely to admit mistakes, to partner
and to take on new roles.
How do we move away from an
environment where being wrong is
avoided like the plague, where blame
is more important than gratitude and
where outlying views are ignored?
Again, Google is a notable innovator.
The company has found that
psychological safety is the most
important factor in its efforts to create
high-performing teams. Topping a list
that also includes dependability,
structure and clarity, meaning and
impact of work. To help its teams improve
and to monitor that improvement, Google
has created a tool called the gTeams
exercise. It’s now been over a year
since the launch, and the findings are
revealing. Google teams that adopted
a new group norm, such as starting
meetings by sharing a risk taken
in the previous week, have improved
psychological safety by 6% and structure
and clarity by 10%. Feedback from
teams has suggested that having
a framework to talk about these
dynamics was the most impactful
part of the experience.
DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY
In order to win in an increasingly
uncertain environment, companies
need to do things differently. A final
word of caution: when organisations
try to optimise everything, it’s sometimes
easy to forget that success is often
built on human experiences. Ultimately,
it’s how our people and our teams
work together that brings about the
innovation and change.
PSYCHOLOGICALSAFETY
STARTSATTHETOP
According to Harvard professor
Amy Edmondson, there are
three key steps to building
psychological safety in
any organisation. Leaders
who want to create
an internal culture
of responsibility
should take note.
01Frame problems as
opportunities to learn
For the vast majority
of us, workplace
uncertainty, complexity
and interdependency
are constants.
Create a team
dynamic where
each member feels
comfortable to
ask for clarification
or help and
where they
feel their
input matters.
02Acknowledge your
own fallibility
Leaders should demonstrate
a tolerance for failure by
acknowledging that they are
not always perfect and share
insights into how they learned
frompastmistakes.Thiscreates
a safe space to speak up and
encourages team members
to voice their opinions.
03Model curiosity by
asking a lot of questions
This creates a need for team
members to answer the
question being asked and
have their voices heard.
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
C O N S U M E R
I N B R A N D S
THEINFORMATIONGAP
Giving consumers more
information about the
sustainability of products
is great in principle. But it
won’t automatically foster
more informed buying
decisions. Salterbaxter’s
Caroline Carson reviews
the gaps in consumer
transparency and she
talks to Sustainable
Apparel Coalition’s Sofie
Schop about how they’re
supporting brands to
reach consumers at scale.
15
Consumer trust in brands and
companies is a volatile commodity.
With each emerging corporate scandal
or ethics issue, public trust in big
companies erodes, sometimes purely
by association.
Yet when governments or industry
bodies sit down to hash out better
standards for corporate accountability,
it is almost always other stakeholders
– such as investors, NGOs, employees,
suppliers and partners – whose
concerns and needs dominate the
discussion, not the general public.
As a result, many businesses do not
think of consumers as a main audience
for their corporate sustainability
programmes and reporting. More often
than not, consumer engagement is
seen as the preserve of the marketing
teams, with little to do with corporate
communications.
The net effect is that consumer
engagement on sustainability has
lagged well behind initiatives aimed
at other audiences. As a result, a lot
remains unknown in this space.
What do consumers want and need in
order to be able to make more informed
purchasing decisions? And is anyone
prepared to reveal the good, the bad
and the potentially ugly when it comes
to their products?
THE CASE FOR GREATER
TRANSPARENCY
For companies, these are increasingly
urgent questions. In our always-on,
social media saturated culture it is
becoming ever more difficult for brands
to conceal or ignore any unpleasant
truths that may be lurking behind
their glossy advertising campaigns.
If companies don’t tell, someone else
eventually will. The trusted companies
will be the ones that are willing to
reveal all.
But there is a much bigger idea at play
here as well, a very simple idea really,
but one that could be a game-changer:
if a critical mass of companies manage
to be fully transparent about the
environmental and social impacts
of their products, their action could
set in motion a huge wave of consumer
behaviour change.
As more brands provide consumers
with this kind of information, consumers
will become more aware of the
environmental and social issues and
so begin to seek out this information
from other brands, which in turn will
need to provide a similar level of
information if they want to compete.
With time, this will bring tangible
change, because brands with a poor
record on social and environmental
issues will be exposed and have little
choice but to put their houses in order.
WELL-INFORMED
CONSUMERSCANCREATE
THEDEMANDFORBETTER
BRANDPERFORMANCEON
SUSTAINABILITYCRITERIA
JUSTASTHEYCURRENTLY
DRIVETHEDEMANDFOR
BETTERPRICINGAND
QUALITYOFPRODUCTS.
TWO ROADBLOCKS:
CREDIBILITY AND
COMPARABILITY
There are some big practical
obstacles. One is the sheer challenge
in establishing credibility around
these sensitive topics, given that so
many consumers no longer trust big
companies to tell them the truth.
A recent study, by TNS for The European
Commission found that only about half
of European consumers trust
companies’ claims about environmental
performance.
Also in that study, 58% said they think
product labels do not provide enough
information, and 48% said existing
labels are unclear.
So there appears to be a clear
opportunity here for corporate
innovators to build trust – and with it
brand loyalty – by providing consumers
more and radically clearer product
information.
But will consumers believe what these
companies say, even if what they’re
saying is clear? Probably not without
some form of external verification. And
unless it’s easy for consumers to
compare different companies’ claims,
the information won’t carry much
meaning. For that to be possible,
companies will need to collaborate
across sectors in unprecedented ways.
THEINFORMATIONGAP:
HOWTHEAPPARELSECTOR
ISSTEPPINGUP
01 	The Sustainable Apparel
Coalition is developing
guidelines to help its
member companies
be more transparent.
02 	Competing footwear
brands are sharing data
and insights to find out
how best to provide this
information.
03 	Initial insights suggest that
simplicity, comparability
and credibility of the
information is key.
16
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
50%
TRYING TRANSPARENCY
ON FOR SIZE
One industry that has made impressive
strides towards consumer transparency
is the apparel sector, thanks in no small
part to the work of the Sustainable
Apparel Coalition (SAC). The SAC’s
members are a who’s who of leading
apparel, footwear and home textiles
companies, and they’re all being
encouraged to make comparable
sustainability information for their
products and brands publicly
available by 2020.
The SAC has developed a roadmap
to help members do this. But the big
question remains: how should all this
new information be displayed? What
does genuine transparency look like
in practice, and how much information
is too much?
IS STANDARDISED
LABELLING THE
ANSWER?
As part of the pilot project, Salterbaxter
has been working with the SAC to design
and test a label that can meaningfully
communicate product-level performance
information directly on the shoe, plus
a range of supporting communications
that consumers can turn to if they want
more detail.
This is about giving shoppers the critical
information they need, clearly presented
and at exactly the right point in the
buying process when it can help them
decide whether to purchase or not.
The main challenge is how to distil all
of the environmental issues from the
full life cycle of a shoe into one easy-
to-understand label with one
performance score.
A few months into the pilot, we’re
already starting to unwrap some
useful insights. We’ve found that
once consumers understand what the
initiative is about, many of them are
receptive and think the new labelling
will have a positive effect. But it is
also becoming clear that third-party
accreditation and/or verification of the
standard will be important to build trust.
THEMAINCHALLENGEIS
HOWTODISTILALLOFTHE
ISSUESFROMTHEFULLLIFE
CYCLEOFASHOEINTOONE
EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND
LABELWITHONE
PERFORMANCESCORE.
OFEUROPEANCONSUMERS
SAYTHEYTRUSTCOMPANIES’
CLAIMSONENVIRONMENTAL
PERFORMANCE.
THE OTHER SIDE
TO TRANSPARENCY
For behaviour-change potential,
labels carry a particular power to
help consumers make quick, informed
decisions. But that power depends
almost entirely on how much the
consumer already knows about the
underlying issues at the moment they
pick up the product.
Traffic-light labelling schemes on food
are a good example. They work because
shoppers have learned, thanks to
long-running campaigns and education
initiatives, the significance of calories,
fat, fibre and salt. Also because
regulation (in most countries at least)
ensures this information is displayed
consistently across brands and
products, making it easy for consumers
to compare one product to another.
In the case of sustainability impacts,
some topics – such as labour issues
– are already widely recognised thanks
to the amount of publicity they’ve had,
but many other issues, from waste and
toxicity to energy efficiency and the
supply chain – are much less known
and understood.
So while it will be important for
companies to improve the quality
and comparability of the data that
companies present during the path
to purchase, it is just as important to
explain to consumers why they should
care about these issues, by connecting
them with how they experience the
product. Only then will the information
be truly transparent.
There are no off-the-rack solutions,
but the SAC’s pilot project has shown
that there’s certainly willingness from
leading brands to be proactive in doing
what is needed to bridge the information
gap. And once the big brands start doing
it, surely more will follow suit.
To explore this, the SAC has been
convening a group of member brands
in an EU pilot project called the Product
Environmental Footprint (PEF). This is a
truly groundbreaking initiative, because
it has major competing footwear makers
– including HM, Inditex, Nike and
adidas – sharing product sustainability
information freely with each other,
to find the best way of sharing this
information with consumers.
17
SS We aim to enable and encourage our
members, which are brands, retailers,
facilities and affiliates, to become fully
transparent by 2020. In order to reach
consumers at scale we create tools
and provide support to our members,
instead of reaching out to consumers
directly. We also engage and partner
with peers and key stakeholders like
consumer associations and NGOs to
start the public dialogue.
CC Is the idea that the Higg Index1
will become a certification standard?
SS No. We’re developing tools that
allow members to voluntarily share
Higg Index performance information
in a comparable way. What this will look
like is something we are testing out
by talking with consumers and other
relevant stakeholders and peers.
CC How has leading the EU initiative
– the PEF footwear pilot – influenced
the roadmap so far?
SS It’s a huge influence. The footwear
pilot will be an important resource of
information. The outcomes will provide
hugely valuable insights into consumer
perceptions. The information we are
gathering through this collaboration
with the European Commission will be
shared publicly and integrated into
our broader transparency work.
CC It’s impressive how open
and honest the brands are able
to be on the PEF project.
SS Oh definitely. This is the way we
at the SAC operate and I’m very proud
of how it works. Everyone who commits
to this project is really that open and
willing to share. SAC is a coalition,
so it is the members themselves who
co-create the tools. Sharing insights
is the way to create tools that will be
useful and beneficial to everyone.
CC What do you think transparency
will mean for brands’ performance?
SS Ultimately, the whole point is to
accelerate improvement. Sharing
performance information is a crucial
first step. Comparability to other scores
or performance over time will add
essential meaning to the data.
QA
WITHSOFIESCHOP,
SENIORPROJECTMANAGER,
COMMUNICATIONS,ATTHE
SUSTAINABLEAPPAREL
COALITION
Caroline Carson: Transparency is one
of the key pillars of the SAC’s 2020
vision and strategy. How has this been
received by your member brands?
Sofie Schop: Transparency –
particularly consumer understanding
and perception – is indeed an important
part of our 2020 vision and one of the
main reasons for members to join. By
measuring sustainability performance,
the industry can address inefficiencies,
resolve damaging practices, and
achieve the environmental and social
transparency that consumers are
starting to demand.
CC Where is the demand for
consumer transparency coming
from? The consumers themselves?
Or is it brands, regulators or
NGOs who are driving the change?
SS The demand comes from all of these
stakeholders. This is why we work on
creating one common language for the
industry. We want consumers to speak
this language, and we have invited
stakeholders like brands, governmental
institutions, NGOs and academics to
create the language together.
CC There are two sides to
transparency: brands making it
available and consumers engaging
with it. The roadmap obviously starts
with the former, but what plans
are in place to build interest and
demand for greater transparency
in the apparel sector?1	The Higg Index is a suite of self-assessment
tools that enables brands, retailers and
suppliers to measure their environmental,
social and labour impacts.
SPEAKING
LANGUAGETHESAME
THEMARKETINGGAP
Too often in companies,
the sustainability and
marketing functions
fail to understand what
the other is saying.
But profitability and
purpose increasingly
mean the same thing,
says Salterbaxter’s
Kathleen Enright.
Jan-Willem Vosmeer
shares how they work
together at HEINEKEN.
Companies will only be able to drive
the change the world so urgently needs
if they can rally all their stakeholders
– including their customers – behind
the sustainability agenda. Yet in many
companies the sustainability and
marketing functions barely talk to each
other. When they do, it can seem as if
they’re speaking different languages.
We often witness the effects of this
intra-organisational gap.On the one hand,
we see chief sustainability officers
(CSOs) struggling to translate their
sustainability strategies through the
brands and into consumer engagement;
on the other, we see chief marketing
officers (CMOs) struggling to leverage
sustainability to bring meaning and
value to brands. Does it have to be
this way? Absolutely not. Having a
sustainability strategy is part of the
minimum license to operate, so it is
hardly irrelevant to the work of the
marketing department. And marketers
have a key role at the heart of the
sustainability agenda as well. After all,
they are the ones who will manoeuvre
the difficult shift from corporate to
consumer communications, getting
sustainability out of the boardroom
and into the living room.
There is no one-size-fits-all model for
resolving this issue. Each company has
different drivers for sustainability and will
need to structure itself accordingly, but
there is one common factor for success:
that marketing and sustainability need to
work closer together.
GETTING THE STRATEGY
AND STRUCTURE RIGHT
In a sense, the business of sustainability
is the management of a new type of
knowledge. It doesn’t sit with one
person. And it requires new ways of
working and making decisions that sit
with the many, not with the few.
MARKETINGAND
SUSTAINABILITYCAN
BESEENASTWOSIDES
OFTHESAMECOIN.
Working together with different, often
new, partners takes time. All parties
need to go through a learning curve,
develop a shared language and be
able to trust each other.
Collective ownership
A few companies have stepped ahead
of the curve in terms of spreading
ownership of sustainability out across
the whole organisation – so that it can
drive innovation,generate employee pride
and create new market opportunities.
For example, Nestlé has made the
decision not to have a CSO so that the
sustainability strategy is not an isolated
concern but rather is shared throughout
the business.
Finding where to start
This is not an overnight process. Clearly
it won’t be possible to suddenly have
every part of your company’s DNA
come to the forefront in support of the
sustainability strategy. Finding the right
place to start is key, and this means
choosing the right issues at the right
time, delivered through the right brands
and with the right partners.
It’s important to make these decisions
with a collaborative mindset; that is,
aligning the sustainability and marketing
agendas with the heart and purpose
of the business. This is the only way
to ensure the challenges – including
the big sustainability issues – can be
meaningfully addressed.
THEMARKETINGGAP:
HOWCSOs ANDCMOs CANSTEPUP
01 	Choose strategic goals that
align both the CSO and
CMO agenda with a clear
brand purpose.
02 	Find a common language,
possibly going so far as to
coin a new term alongside
‘sustainability’.
03 	Ask different questions
and get new answers –
look to the new ‘aspirational
consumers’ for ideas.
FORABRANDTOBE
CREDIBLEANDAUTHENTIC,
ITSPURPOSEHASTOBE
ROOTEDINAGREATER
SOCIETALNEED.
20
SPEAKING THE
SAME LANGUAGE
Marketing and sustainability can be
seen as two sides of the same coin. And
when we look closely at those two sides
and the language associated with each,
we can see that CMOs and CSOs are
often concerned about the same things.
It’s just that when they talk about what
guides them, they aren’t using quite
the same terms. ‘You say pot-ah-to,
I say pot-ay-to…’
CMO says today, CSO says tomorrow
We regularly meet CSOs who say they
are finding it difficult to get through
to a particular marketer who manages
a brand that is doing very well on an
existing strategy, which has them easily
delivering their targets and unlocking
commercial rewards. Telling such a
marketer that they need to change,
because we think consumers need to be
more responsible, is an understandably
tough conversation to have.
CMO says digital, CSO says transparency
When CMOs talk about ‘digital’ and
CSOs talk about ‘transparency’, are
they actually saying the same thing?
Transparency has not only allowed
businesses to show consumers the ‘good’
things they are up to, but has increasingly
allowed the consumer to scrutinise the
life cycle of the products they buy in to.
Social media has been a catalyst for
transparency and has allowed consumers
and stakeholders to respond in the blink
of an eye to an issue they feel is important
enough to shout about.
Together, social media and transparency
have created a connection and a
conversation between stakeholders,
consumers, investors and businesses.
Find your own interpretation
To many people, the term ‘sustainability’
really means very little. It’s too broad,
too generic, and yet contradictorily, also
too narrow; a lot of people understand
it to be mainly about environmental
impact. In some areas of modern
business, sustainability is increasingly
associated with creating added value,
while in the marketing world it is still
associated with austerity and sacrifice.
So, do we need a new word? I would
argue that each company needs to find
their own word or phrase to express
their ambitions and the value they
bring to the sustainability landscape.
Language is appropriation. The more a
term is owned and understood, the more
it will become part of corporate culture.
There are already some notable
examples of this. Sony speaks of
‘Futurescapes’, Unilever speaks of
‘Sustainable Living’, PepsiCo speaks
of ‘Performance with Purpose’.
WHAT A BRAND IS FOR
In recent years, pressure from activists
and governments has pushed many
businesses to set more ambitious
targets. An increasing number of
businesses are building sustainability
plans into their core strategies, with
a joined-up structure that stretches
across geographies, business functions,
products and revenue models.
From a consumer perspective, market
saturation and mass media have shifted
us into the ‘Era of Emotion’. People’s
internal motivations have changed.
‘YOUSAYPOT-AH-TO,
ISAYPOT-AY-TO…’
Our access to endless information
and socialisation has given new life
to age-old questions. ‘Why am I here?
What impact do I want to have on the
people around me?’
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
Too often, what’s missing is the middle
ground. And the truth is that sustainability
and marketing both need short-term and
long-term wins. Sustainability needs to
be identifying the quick wins that will
drive longer-term momentum, while
marketing needs to remember that the
role of marketing is brand guardianship,
which has to be delivered over a long
period of time.
21
THEVIEWFROM
HEINEKEN
JAN-WILLEMVOSMEER,CSRMANAGER,
SHARESHOWSUSTAINABILITYAND
MARKETINGAREMEETINGAROUND
THETABLE.
“It just makes sense to do it given that
millennials – a key segment for our
business – expect brands not only
to be about lifestyles but also to
contribute to solutions for the
complex problems facing society.
We very much believe that HEINEKEN’s
brands can be gamechangers on
topics like climate change, anti
drink-driving or nature conservation,
and for that to be possible we needed
our sustainability and marketing
people to work more closely together.
Our focus on responsible consumption
of alcohol is an example of this in
practice – a public conversation
driven by our sustainability strategy,
on a topic that our whole organisation
is passionate about. Beer brings
people together, but we think it’s
important to make the point that
misuse of alcohol is not cool. Through
Heineken, our flagship brand, we’re
trying to make drinking in moderation
aspirational. So we’ve launched
global campaigns like ‘Dance More,
Drink Slow’ and more recently ‘When
You Drive, Never Drink’ (as part of
our Formula 1 sponsorship) which
are about repositioning moderate
drinking as something that can
be cool. It may seem strange for
a beverage company to tell its
consumers to drink less. But we see
it as an opportunity both for society
and for our business. And we’re
providing a growing number of low-
and no-alcohol brands and a range of
serve sizes to give people who want
to drink moderately, more options,
while still having a good time.”
Authentic brand purpose
Brand purpose sits at the heart of
all this. The leading businesses and
brands of the future will investigate
and reimagine purpose and value.
But brand purpose, done incorrectly,
also has the potential to be the next
wave of greenwashing. Consumers have
fast realised this and are rejecting what
they perceive as ‘counterfeit’ brand
purpose – a pure marketing activity
with no greater societal benefit.
To unlock the rewards of brand purpose,
it has to be an authentic brand purpose
– one that is rooted in and supported by
the company’s sustainability strategy.
It needs to be about doing, not just
saying. It needs to set commitments
and deliver proof of promise through
action and measurement.
Change the brief
What is standing in the way of marketers
understanding the sustainability
agenda and vice versa? We know
that the language often used is
confusing and misleading for both
parties, but what it actually comes
down to are the questions being asked
upfront – the brief.
The data couldn’t be clearer. Advocates
will never be more than 20% of the
consuming public. But that’s okay
because there’s a new kid in town,
one who cares about style, shopping
and status, as well as doing right
by the planet.
GlobeScan have named this high-velocity
demographic ‘aspirational consumers’
and their emergence is significant for
many reasons, but mainly because
they are the largest consumer segment
globally (39% of the population) and the
first to unite materialism, sustainability,
and cultural influence. In short, they are
the most critical audience to reach and
engage if we want to drive sustainable
behaviour change at scale.
Aspirationals want something to believe
in and they want brands to stand for
something bigger than a product or
service. Give them an inspiring ethos.
Bring a strong point of view. Back it up.
And that’s where the glitch is. They
need proof of promise, which is to
say credibility. And marketers need
their sustainability colleagues to
help deliver this.
If we change the brief to ask different
questions, surely we would get
different answers?
For decades, the green movement has
been chasing the wrong ball: if only we
could cultivate so-called ‘advocates’
(pejoratively dubbed ‘tree-huggers’)
then we could scale the market for
sustainable goods and tip the business
paradigm toward more conscious
capitalism. It’s time to admit that
this was wishful thinking.
For a brand to be credible and authentic,
its purpose – the ‘why’, its reason to
exist – has to be rooted in a greater
societal need. Purpose has to be about
more than just selling more stuff.
Sustainability provides the framework
and the proof points to do this. It has
become the new proxy for brand trust.
THE
INVESTMENT
GAP
22
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
Sustainable development
will never happen on the
scale that’s needed without an
unprecedented injection of cash.
Salterbaxter’s Huw Maggs and
Kristina Joss note there are plenty of
reasons to be hopeful that change is
on the way. They talk to Credit Suisse’s
Dr. René Buholzer and Peter Zollinger
from Globalance Bank about how the
financial sector can step up to the task.
HOWTHEINVESTMENT
GAPCANBEBRIDGED
01 	More CEOs and CFOs need to
articulate a sustainable business
vision compelling enough to
capture investors’ attention.
02 	We all need to start thinking
of our biggest societal
challenges as opportunities
for economic growth.
03 	Today’s policy and research
initiatives are not enough
on their own, but could
point the way towards
systematic change.
LARGE-SCALE
INVESTORSHAVE
THREEMAJORLEVERS
THEYCANUSETOADVANCE
SUSTAINABILITY–IFTHEY
CHOOSETO.
23
THEVIEWFROM
CREDITSUISSE
DR.RENÉBUHOLZER,GLOBALHEADOF
SUSTAINABILITYANDHEADOFPUBLICPOLICY
Despite the need to significantly
scale action, there is a growing cohort
of financial institutions who are taking
steps. One example is Credit Suisse.
We spoke with Dr. René Buholzer
to understand why and how the
bank is scaling its sustainable
investment activities.
“Our sustainable investment focus at
Credit Suisse has steadily evolved over
time. This is not a new undertaking for
us – we have been providing financial
services to support education, nature
conservation, gender equality and
many other issues for a long time.
But we have reached something of
a tipping point recently, thanks in
part to the influence of big global
initiatives such as the SDGs and
the UN’s Climate Summit.
Globally, we are focusing on client
segments where there is a clear
need for better access to sustainable
investment. Market research has
shown that millennials are twice as
likely to invest in opportunities with
positive environmental or social
impacts. So if we want to attract
or retain this client base we clearly
need to cater for their investment
beliefs with an appropriate offering
of products and services.
The priority has to be integrating
sustainability values into the overall
investment process, which is
conceptually and organisationally
much harder than just creating an
asset class.
Looking ahead, we see an
unprecedented opportunity
to connect with our client and
stakeholder communities through
sustainable investment. And we
think it is very important to keep the
dialogue going, both internally and
with our clients, around why we are
embedding sustainability into our
core business decisions and
investment strategies – and why
this is so valuable for Credit Suisse,
our clients, and for society.”
23
We all know the significance of 2°C.
But there is another number that could
turn out to be just as consequential
for the future wellbeing of the planet:
$12 trillion.
That’s the amount of renewable energy
investment that Ceres and Bloomberg
estimate will be needed over 25 years
in order to prevent global temperatures
from bursting past a certain dangerous
climate-change threshold.
By their projections, we’re currently on
course to see only $5.2 trillion invested
– less than half of what’s needed.
And that’s just one example. To achieve
the UN’s Sustainable Development
Goals (the SDGs), something like 2.5%
of global GDP needs to be invested in
public and private initiatives every year.
Is it happening today? Not by a mile.
How can large-scale investors be
convinced to move substantial
capital into sustainable development
opportunities? And why do so many
investors seem so uninterested in
making this happen?
THE KEYS
INVESTORS HOLD
Before we look more closely at the
reasons for the investment gap,
it’s important to note just how much
financial power the investment banks,
mutual funds and other large-scale
investors actually hold.
Together, these organisations exert
tremendous influence on global
investment flows and stock market
movements.Theypoolhugesumsofcapital
on behalf of asset owners. And they
have the crucial role of allocating
capital to businesses based on their
expectations of future performance.
These investors have three major levers
they can use to advance sustainability
in the financial sector – if they choose to.
01
They can advance the financial markets
from within – by pushing for the markets
to factor environmental, social and
governance issues into company
valuations.
02
They can ‘crowd in’ private investment,
making use of financial innovations
(new products, services, portfolios,
investment strategies and structures)
to make sure clients’ capital is directed
towards environmentally and socially
focused investments.
03
They can exercise their shareholder
rights of active ownership to directly
influence companies’ business,
management and strategy.
24
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
GAPS AND
OPPORTUNITIES
While we are observing signs of a more
systematic approach on the part of
leading investors, there are many gaps
that still need to be addressed across
the financial system before sustainable
investment can be scaled up to the
extent that the world needs. Here’s
a quick look at five of the key gaps
– which can also be seen as key
opportunity areas, where change can
take hold. And possibly already is.
01The capacity gap
Todays’ financial and social situation
is unprecedented. There’s no way that
established business models can offer
all the knowledge, skills and processes
that are needed to address the new
challenges. Most investors simply
don’t have the organisational capacity
to take this on. Not yet, anyway.
Since 2013, Morgan Stanley’s Institute
for Sustainable Investing has been
working to advance market-based
solutions to economic, social and
environmental challenges – in part
by training and developing the
next generation of sustainable
investing leaders.
02The metrics gap
Most of the metrics that are commonly
used by financial and sustainability
professionals are incompatible. This
leaves investors with a lot of work to
do in order to translate ESG metrics
into tangible investment decisions.
The Task Force on Climate-related
Financial Disclosures is working to develop
a new metric standard, which would
make it easier for investors and other
stakeholders to compare companies’
climate-related risks.The task force
has some significant clout behind it,
it was set up at the request of the G20
and is chaired by Michael Bloomberg.
“Good climate-related disclosure
standards exist. While some firms
disclose using these standards as
guidance, most don’t include them
in their financial filings. That’s what
is unique about the Task Force on
Climate-related Financial Disclosures
– while we are building off existing
efforts, the recommendations
we’re developing are specifically
for inclusion in financial filings.
We want to help institutionalise
consideration of climate-related
financial issues at the board and
senior management level – and
within the financial community.”
Taskforce member and Global Head
of Sustainable Business and Finance
at Bloomberg, Curtis Ravenel
03The communication gap
Communication is a critical part of the
sustainability agenda, but very few
companies have so far hit on a narrative
that’s clear and compelling enough for
mainstream investors to take note.
Even companies’ own investor relations
teams often don’t see the point.
There are already some notable
exceptions, though. At ABB, the
Swedish-Swiss power and automation
technologies company, senior leaders
have made it clear that sustainability
is core to everything the company
does, including financial relationships.
Investor relations plays a key role in
making sure ABB investors understand
and are up-to-date on things like value
creation and sustainable revenue and
profit generation.
04The policy gap
The policy framework is skewed towards
conventional investments. Big shifts
in the rules and incentives governing
financial markets are needed, both
nationally and internationally, to
encourage more investors to choose
sustainable investing instead.
The UNEP’s Inquiry into the Design of a
Sustainable Financial System is doing
its bit to try and speed up the transition
to a green economy through policy.
The goal is to find best practice financial
market policies and regulatory
innovations that can make a sustainable
financial system a reality faster.
05The leadership gap
Significant progress is never possible
without leadership, and the investment
situation is no different. Where are
the outspoken leaders whose foresight
and moral responsibility can inspire
a definitive shift towards sustainable
investing?
Recently there have been a few
glimmers of this type of leadership
within the financial sector itself.
At the Bank of England, Mark Carney
has advocated for tougher corporate
disclosure standards to help investors
gauge climate change risks. And Larry
Fink at BlackRock wrote to SP500
CEOs imploring them to focus on
long-term value creation.
These are, so far, the exception.
But there’s every reason to believe
that a much more significant shift
on the investment gap should be
possible within another few years.
Better conversations happening
at higher levels could create a
positive feedback loop and a
decisive momentum.
The question is: who will step up to
really lead this process and define
what comes next? Will the new leaders
emerge from the finance industry,
the investment community or the
policy world? Whoever they are,
a significant opportunity awaits.
25
FLIPPINGTHE
SCRIPTCOULDBRING
SUSTAINABLEINVESTING
INTOTHEMAINSTREAM
CONVERSATION.
QAWITHPETERZOLLINGER,
HEADIMPACTRESEARCH
ATGLOBALANCEBANK
Huw Maggs: What do you think are the
big gaps at the moment between the
sustainability agenda and mainstream
finance? Is this about communication,
metrics or leadership?
Peter Zollinger: I would say that there
is actually a bigger gap at play here, and
it’s one that if bridged has the potential
to address many of the underlying
challenges you refer to. It’s the gulf that
exists today between the mainstream
discussion on the macroeconomy by
politicians, economists, investors and
others, and the narrative around global
sustainable development challenges.
Apart from a few isolated examples,
these two conversations rarely connect
– and they need to.
HM How can the two sides of this
discussion become more integrated
in their thinking?
PZ There’s an opportunity to flip the
sustainable development conversation
on its head. Instead of asking how
economies and markets need to change
in order to align with big environmental
and social challenges, we should
really be asking how in solving these
big challenges we can support wider
economic growth.
Now is a great time to have that kind
of conversation. There’s a real window
of opportunity. We have a global
economy that’s not doing well. People
are desperately looking for investment
opportunities that bring some level of
return in a zero interest environment,
without excessive risk. Federal reserves
and national banks are pumping money
into the market with little to no success.
At the same time we have this other
world opening up around the climate
change conversation, the Sustainable
Development Goals and the UN’s
Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable
Financial System. Put these two things
together, and the timing couldn’t be
better for major change.
HM When you talk about flipping
the conversation, what does that
look like in practice?
PZ I think it can happen in many
different ways. It’s really about asking
the right questions. So for example:
how can climate change solutions play
a role in addressing slowing growth
in China? How can the SDGs provide
a lens of opportunity for growth and job
creation in Europe? How could monetary
policy support sustainable development
challenges in ways that get economies
going again? It’s not necessarily
about having all the answers to these
questions, it’s about getting these
sorts of questions into the mainstream
conversation.
Flipping the script at this level could
bring sustainable investing into the
mainstream conversation at a lot of
different levels. By starting at the top,
we could see a knock-on effect as these
conversations make their way into
boardrooms, investment mandates
and everyday exchanges between
investment banks and their biggest
clients. Then we might start to see
all sorts of other gaps closing as well.
26
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
THEIMPLEMENTATIONGAP
Lots of businesses have a plan for a more
sustainable future. The hard part is making
it real. Alexandra Palt, Chief Sustainability
Officer at L’Oréal, talks to Salterbaxter’s
Nigel Salter about going beyond the big ideas
and headlines to drive business transformation
through its sustainability programme,
Sharing Beauty With All.
THEIMPLEMENTATIONGAP:
HOWL’ORÉALISSTEPPINGUP
01 	Approaching sustainability
as an opportunity to transform
the business, with full support
of the CEO.
02 	Making it inspirational for
employees and quickly
rolling out practical tools.
03 	Focusing on the ‘little wins’
that add up to big change.
27
Nigel Salter: Tell me a bit about the
early days after the launch of Sharing
Beauty With All and how you built
the focus on the way it should be
implemented.
Alexandra Palt: Well, to be honest,
our biggest fear in working through all
the processes and targets of the new
commitments was always that it
might get seen as just a sustainability
framework that is nice to have, but not
central to the main business strategy.
So we were quite obsessive about
ensuring that senior management
focused on what this would mean in
practical terms and how it would change
the business. We knew that our mission
was to get this into the bloodstream
and not to be something alongside
the business.
NS So how was it all received and
how did you achieve what you were
aiming for?
AP It’s essential to find a way to work
in the same direction as the company
culture and to work from the inside as
otherwise you create too many barriers.
It all becomes a process of culture
change but you achieve more change
by working with the grain of the culture
than against it. So we went through a
series of steps that were key to moving
from awareness to action. I think
it’s true to say that we didn’t have
these specific steps planned out in
sequence at the time and they were
running all alongside each other at
different moments.
STEP01The first step was really all about building
awareness within our management
and our brands. We helped them to
understand the changes taking place
in consumer demands and patterns,
the facts about resource constraints
and long-term risks, and also the
opportunities that brands have to use
this agenda in ways that support and
drive the brand proposition and sales.
This is the sort of information that
they work with every day, so we needed
to make sure we provided insights
that helped and supported rather
than more challenges and problems.
STEP02Step two was in two parts. We knew
that we needed to have a beautiful
branded programme that people within
L’Oréal would look at and, to a degree,
fall in love with and see as aspirational.
This was the power of the Sharing Beauty
With All idea and also the look of the way
it was all presented. This was actually
crucial to winning the hearts of the people
inside. The second part was to back the
beauty up with practical tools – workshop
toolkits, analysis tools, data to support
research – made available super fast so
that everyone could start working with
the programme and the targets and get
it into their everyday business thinking
as fast as possible.
STEP03Step three was again a cultural point at
L’Oréal that meant that the programme
took root quickly beyond the corporate
centre. Our culture is very entrepreneurial
and so this meant that once the brands
started seeing the potential of Sharing
Beauty With All they started taking
it all forward by themselves, taking
the initiative and making it their own.
This approach, where people don’t
wait to be given direction or to be set
rules, meant that we moved far faster
than a top-down approach could
achieve. Our culture meant that
as soon as people ‘got it’ they didn’t
need any more encouragement –
they went and started working with it.
28
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
Otherwise it’s too easy for the regions
to see this as another ‘corporate centre’
programme to put in place – and in
some places ‘sustainability’ is really not
recognised as an agenda at all. So in
countries with issues around poverty
and development, it might make most
sense to focus on responsible sourcing
of raw materials and job creation/
security. Whereas, in a country like
Japan the biggest issue is recycling.
So each local country has been allowed
to ask ‘What makes most sense for
us? What will help with our license
to operate? What will help us drive
more success?’
NS And so what do you see as
the biggest achievements of
the implementation programme
so far? Your big progress on carbon
and palm oil?
AP No, strangely we actually see
those as relatively easy areas to
make progress and they make the
big headlines but are probably not
the best proof of our transformation.
I think the biggest achievements are
the many thousands of wins we have
every day. These are less glamorous
but it means that every decision
and process at L’Oréal now has
sustainability considered in some
way and every person is being touched
by Sharing Beauty With All. New Product
Development is the core of our business
and sustainability is now central to it.
That’s a real transformation.
Beyond that I think there are now two
new emerging pieces that are likely to
be our biggest impact achievements.
The first is the product assessment tool
that we have taken two years to develop.
We believe this will underpin all our
progress to date, as it will mean that
every single one of our products will
be assessed across a full range of
environmental and social assessment
criteria. We have worked with experts
and stakeholders from around the
world to develop this and we have
integrated the latest insights on science
and subjects like planetary boundary
thinking. This tool will drive scale on
sustainability even further and faster.
STEP04And the fourth step was all about
leadership. A lot has been said about
this in different organisations, and
I’m sure it can vary a lot, but I can
only speak to the power of having
the CEO fully committed and leading
from the front on this. Jean-Paul Agon
led the communications and made
clear from the start that this was
all about business transformation.
He would mention our commitments
at every single executive meeting,
and it’s important to underline that
performance against our Sharing
Beauty With All targets is now a
part of the bonus and incentive
scheme across the business.
NS What about rolling out regionally
and in different country cultures.
Has that been difficult?
AP I would say that there is one
overarching trend that has helped us
with this – the move towards more
natural cosmetics. While it’s not exactly
the same issue of course, this has
helped to create a more receptive
conversation. Beyond that, you have
to approach things very differently
from country to country and actually
from brand to brand.
At each country level, we’ve needed
to work with and make a feature of the
local differences in focus and taste.
29
The second big achievement that we
are getting very excited about is the
work we are doing to go beyond the
‘less harm’ approach. We want to move
from fewer towards no impacts in our
industrial activity – carbon neutral,
no water, zero waste – and onwards
to measurable positive impact.
Our long-term vision is the restoration
of ecosystems and we already have
initiatives running in different countries
on shea butter and rice where we
are seeing carbon gains and the
restoration of ecosystems.
NS And what about working
with your suppliers? Have they
been able to respond to your
transformation fast enough?
AP They are of course integral to this.
We were very lucky in that the supply
chain was already very well managed,
but we have enhanced our approach
by making sustainability one of the
key selection criteria for a supplier.
We also provide self-evaluation and
learning tools to all suppliers to help
them work to our guidelines. It means
that they are now pushing us as much
as us pushing them.
NS Where next on this journey?
What does L’Oréal want to tackle
and make reality next?
AP Three simple things. The first is
consumer communication. We want
to play a big role in the challenge of
helping consumers to make different,
better choices and to see value and
aspiration in sustainability.
Second, disruptive innovation. We see
big changes coming in areas like
packaging and in the evolution of beauty
routines. This will be very exciting.
And finally, positive impact. I think
the role and expectation of business
is changing and the most successful
companies in the future will be those
that are most positive in their impact,
not just those that harm the least.
And this will become measured and
proven – so there will be no hiding place.
And at L’Oréal, we want to be one of
the companies leading the way on this.
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
HANDLE
WITHCARE
31
THEHUMANRIGHTSGAP
Human rights have moved further up the
corporate agenda in recent years, though most
companies are still trying to find a path to tangible
progress. But we could be arriving at a turning
point – when business shifts to seeing human
rights as an opportunity, not just as a risk – says
Salterbaxter’s Arabella Bakker. Richard Karmel,
London Managing Partner at Mazars UK,
also gives insight into how business can
assess potential risks.
THEHUMANRIGHTSGAP:
HOWBUSINESSCANSTEPUP
01 	Assess the salient
human rights issues
	Take a people-first
(not business-first) approach
to evaluate impacts.
	Look at the scale, scope and
the remediability of impacts.
02 	 Engage stakeholders
	Get out and talk to all the relevant
stakeholders and rights holders.
	For example: NGOs, communities,
workers, consumers and supply
chain partners.
03 	Identify and activate the
opportunities for change
	Find the opportunities for
your company. This is about
policies, operational changes
and outcomes.
04 	Report on human rights
	Develop the right level of
reporting to meet stakeholder
expectations.
	This could include a standalone
human rights report, or a
dedicated section in the
annual or sustainability report.
Shortly after the launch of the UN
Guiding Principles on Business Human
Rights in 2011, John Ruggie, the UN’s
Special Representative, told a journalist
from Business Ethics: “It’s important
to keep in mind that the principles
are principles. They’re not a toolkit.
You don’t take it off the shelf and plug
it in and get an answer.”
And therein lies both the opportunity
and the challenge.
Business has often struggled to make
an honest assessment of its impact on
human rights. In fact, it’s not uncommon
for ‘human rights’ to appear as a single
issue on a company’s materiality
matrix, bearing no reflection of
the breadth and complexity of the
underlying issues. After all, human
rights intricately interlinks with
issues such as sourcing, working
conditions, labour rights, pollution
and water scarcity.
Whether by design or out of inexperience,
it has sometimes seemed as if human
rights is simply too big a topic for some
companies to probe.
32
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
WHY DOES THIS
MATTER NOW?
We are at a tipping point. The tide is
beginning to change internationally
with the advent of soft law, voluntary
frameworks and public rankings,
putting pressure on business to face
up to its impact on human rights and
to report with greater transparency.
This is no longer a cause driven solely
by NGOs and activists.
Rather, human rights is moving firmly
onto the agenda of senior business
leaders in functions such as finance and
risk. Here are just a few reasons why:
•	 The UN Guiding Principles reporting
framework
•	 The EU Non-Financial Reporting
Directive
•	 The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015
•	 The US Department of State Trafficking
in Persons Report 2015
•	 The Corporate Human Rights
Benchmark (piloted in 2016).
Never before has there been such
a momentum of focus on human
rights issues, engaging areas of
the business that have the power
and influence to accelerate
meaningful and lasting change.
CHANGING MINDSETS
Human rights has often lazily been
seen as something that rests deep
within the supply chain of large,
multinational corporations with
operations in developing countries.
This mindset needs to change if
business – including companies of all
shapes and sizes – is to respond to the
changing expectations of lawmakers,
civil society and corporate peers.
One of the strengths of the new UN
Guiding Principles reporting framework
is the focus on salient human rights
issues. This means evaluating the
business’s impact on human rights –
not the impact of human rights on the
business. This is a subtle but significant
shift in business’s understanding of the
relationship between the two.
Take for example a technology company.
Its salient human rights issues might
include conflict minerals and data
privacy (potential risks to the business)
as well as freedom of expression (an
opportunity for significant social impact).
The principle of salience is invaluable
in helping us understand and evaluate
where the gap can be closed between
business benefit and positive social
impact. And the former should no
longer be overstated at the expense
of the latter.
THENEWREPORTINGFRAMEWORK
IDENTIFIESTHREEFACTORSCOMPANIES
SHOULDLOOKATTOIDENTIFYTHEIR
SALIENTHUMANRIGHTSISSUES:
SCALE,SCOPE,ANDREMEDIABILITY.
33
The new reporting framework identifies
three factors to help companies identify
their salient human rights issues. The
first is scale – the gravity of the human
rights impact and how much someone’s
enjoyment of the right may be set back
by the company’s activities. The second
is scope – the number of people who
could experience a negative impact.
And the third is remediability – how
easy it is for the impact to be righted.
THE OPPORTUNITY
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights assessment should not
become a mea culpa. Too often (and for
reasons not unfounded), the relationship
between business and human rights has
been viewed with a degree of culpability.
However, just as business has shifted
from seeing sustainability as a burden
to an opportunity, so too do human
rights present business with the
possibility of showing leadership and
generating positive social impact.
present sufficient guidance and
frameworks for individual companies
to take control of their human rights
impact and to show leadership.
The topic of human rights is firmly on
the corporate agenda for the foreseeable
future. We anticipate that the expansion
of the UN Guiding Principles reporting
framework database and the release of
the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark
will help to nudge more companies
into action.
Large or small, national or international,
now is the time to view human rights not
just as a potential risk to the business,
but as an opportunity to create positive
social impact – and in so doing to
help close the gap between business
and society.
Some companies undertake human
rights impact assessments as part
of the risk management process.
That’s an approach which can help
companies build resilience to risks while
also identifying opportunities to drive
positive change and create shared
value for business and for society.
Identifying and reporting on human
rights has rarely been an easy task for
business. Companies have been caught
on the back foot, coming under fire for
violations, poor governance and slow
responses to crises. Yet the current
momentum presents business with
the opportunity to get on the front foot.
There may not be an off-the-shelf toolkit
for how to do this, but the UN Guiding
Principles and other developments
QA WITHRICHARDKARMEL,
LONDONMANAGINGPARTNER,MAZARSUK
Arabella Bakker: To explain the
concept of salience, which activities of
a business – or supply chain – could
pose the greatest risk to people?
Richard Karmel: To address this simple
question, you don’t only look for risks to
the business; your starting point should
be a thorough search for any possible
risks to people. Only by starting with a
people-first approach will you ensure
all your risks are covered. In the mining
industry, for example, the obvious risks
might be health and safety (workers
getting injured), and community and
environmental impact (putting waste
back into rivers), but a less obvious risk
could be the use of local military trained
security who may pose the greatest risk
to people. In the agricultural industry
in Africa, a salient risk might be child
labour, while a less obvious risk might
be the possible abuse of workers
transporting the product. These salient
areas where human rights are most
at risk are the same areas that,
if neglected, could have an enormously
negative impact on your business.
34
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
What’s interesting is that most
organisations seem to be starting
to realise this and are asking ‘how?’
rather than ‘why?’. This feels similar
to a shift that happened a while back
with sustainability generally, when
companies and their leaders seemed
to suddenly change from resisting to
simply accepting and focusing on how
to address the challenges practically.
So, the outlook is positive for those
that want step out of the comfort zone.
But as we’ve seen, there are a lot of
gaps out there that need to be bridged –
and we know we’ve only scratched the
surface. And as before, for the
most part there aren’t big magic
bullets or simple solutions. It’s all
about mending the gaps one small
idea, conversation or action at a time.
SO,WHETHERIT’SCALLEDTHESHIFT
FROMMINDINGTOMENDINGTHEGAP,
ORRADICALENGAGEMENTAND
CONNECTIONWITHSOCIETY,
THEPOINTISCLEAR.THEGREATEST
OPPORTUNITIESFORBUSINESSARE
INTHESPACETHATREQUIRESACTIVE
INVOLVEMENT,MINDSETCHANGE
ANDINSOMECASES,MODELCHANGE.
35
Got two minutes? Grab a pen and list
five gaps that your business needs to
mend. Consider how close – or far – your
business currently is from the needs
and demands of society as a whole.
What would it take to genuinely mend
the gap? Jot down any ideas that
occur to you. Then consider sharing
your thoughts with a colleague or
collaborator. It could be the start
of something important.
WHERE
AREYOUR
GAPS?
HELPUS
FILLIN
THEGAPS
01
02
03
04
05
Leadership gap
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
	INTEGRATION GAP
How integrated is your sustainability
strategy with your business strategy?
	 BEHAVIOUR GAP
How engaged are your employees
on sustainability?
	 INFORMATION GAP
How transparent are you with
customers on sustainability
performance?
	 MARKETING GAP
How well are your marketing and
sustainability teams aligned?
	 INVESTMENT GAP
Are you articulating the business
value of sustainability to
mainstream investors?
	 HUMAN RIGHTS GAP
How are you doing on addressing
human rights?
	 OTHER GAPS
What are the other significant
gaps with society?
36
DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
ABOUTUS
Salterbaxter is the leading international sustainability
strategy and communications consultancy. We help
companies and brands Step Up to the changing relationship
between business and society.
We combine smart strategy, sharp insights and creativity
to help businesses succeed. Whether it’s communicating
to investors or opinion formers, engaging employees 
or changing consumer behaviour, our work delivers
for our clients in three key dimensions:
01
	PURPOSE
Creating, defining, understanding and building
more purposeful organisations, strategies, brands
and communications.
02
	PERFORMANCE
Strategies to drive better performance and
communications to make this performance 
transparent and trusted.
03
	TRANSFORMATION
Helping to find the new models and drive
the changes needed to fulfil the new contract
between business and society.
Samuel Griffin-Flynn
samuel.griffin-flynn@salterbaxter.com
Tel +44 (0)20 7229 5720
82 Baker Street
London, W1U 6AE
Olivia Sprinkel
olivia.sprinkel@salterbaxter.com
Tel +1 646 500 7906
14th Floor
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
salterbaxter.com
@salterbaxterMSL
36
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ABOUTDIRECTIONS
Directions, now in its sixteenth year,
is widely viewed as the leading annual
publication on trends in sustainability
and communications.
Salterbaxter also produces
supplements and events on
key topics throughout the year.
Designed by Salterbaxter MSLGROUP.
Copyright © Salterbaxter MSLGROUP.
Directions is a registered trademark
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Printed by CPI Colour. CPI Colour are
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Connecting Business and Society: Closing the Engagement Gap

  • 1. 16 DIRECTIONS16 Each year,Directions takes an in-depth look at an area of sustainability and communications.This time,we’re delving into the quite sizeable gap that still exists between business and society.It’s not the void that interests us so much as the question of how it can be shrunk. How do we move from just minding the gap to actually mending the gap? INTOTHEGAP Inside,we hear from experts and practitioners on how business and society can be brought closer together,what the obstacles are, and what the priorities should be in the months and years ahead.
  • 2. EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTORS ROBIN NUTTALL Co-author of ‘Connect: How companies succeed by engaging radically with society’ and Partner McKinsey Company PETER ZOLLINGER Head of Impact Research Globalance Bank LAURA PALMEIRO Sustainability Integration Director Danone JAN-WILLEM VOSMEER Corporate Social Responsibility Manager HEINEKEN SOFIE SCHOP Senior Project Manager, Communications Sustainable Apparel Coalition ALEXANDRA PALT Chief Sustainability Officer L’Oréal DR. RENÉ BUHOLZER Managing Director, Global Head Sustainability Head Public Policy Credit Suisse RICHARD KARMEL London Managing Partner Mazars UK SALTERBAXTER CONTRIBUTORS • NIGEL SALTER CEO • OLIVIA SPRINKEL Head of Salterbaxter North America • ROISIN GREENE Account Director • CAROLINE CARSON Consultant • KATHLEEN ENRIGHT Director Consultancy Communications • HUW MAGGS Strategy Director • KRISTINA JOSS Senior Consultant • ARABELLA BAKKER Director Consultancy Communications
  • 3.
  • 4. 1 Amazing progress has been made on the sustainability front. • Most businesses now have detailed sustainability targets and strategies. According to a recent study by Accenture, 87% of CEOs say that sustainability is central to their planning and strategies. • Reporting and disclosure are now pretty much standard practice – there may even be too much. • Sustainability is starting to be part of the way that products and services are innovated and marketed. And the challenge of longer-term thinking and a reinvention of the role of capitalism is being championed by the likes of McKinsey, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley and Inclusive Capitalism. We even have a major agreement from Paris on climate to build on and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a platform for global actions. So the plus column is looking pretty good. Is the job done? Well, no. From looking at 2015 and 2016 we see that in many ways things haven’t changed at all. VW’s share price dropped by over 20% at one point due to the quite astonishing emissions scandal. And the Panama Papers scandal proved that the issues of taxation and transparency are fundamental to rebuilding the trust in business and finance – and that there is still a very long way to go. It seems as if a lot of the work that has been done to date has been focused on ‘minding the gap’ – making sure business does less harm, protecting reputation, managing risk. But as most of us know, the big opportunities for business are not achieved when it just minds the gap. They emerge when business and brands actively seek to mend the gap. John Browne and Robin Nuttall describe this as ‘radical engagement with society’ and Robin talks more about this in our first article. So this year in Directions (number 16!), we decided to take a step back and assess some of the gaps that still need to be bridged. Don’t get us wrong, we celebrate and applaud the great progress being made in many ways. But our passion is in showing business the commercial opportunity it can gain if it goes beyond ‘housekeeping sustainability’ and truly seeks to connect with society’s challenges in order to secure and drive long-term success. There are gaps in policy, gaps in innovation, the value-action gap, gaps between ambition and reality, gaps in knowledge and understanding, gaps in finance, gaps in science. We see them all as opportunities for business to succeed rather than simply as problems. We’ve chosen a few that we think capture the heart of the debate. We know there are plenty more we could cover too – there are gaps in our gaps! We’d love to hear your views on these. BUTASMOSTOFUSKNOW, THEBIGOPPORTUNITIES FORBUSINESSARENOT ACHIEVEDWHENITJUST MINDSTHEGAP.THEY EMERGEWHENBUSINESS ANDBRANDSACTIVELY SEEKTOMENDTHEGAP. CONTENTS 02Connecting the gaps The engagement gap 06Profit and purpose The integration gap 10Eye to eye The behaviour gap 14Consumer trust in brands The information gap 18Speaking the same language The marketing gap 22The investment gap How the financial sector can step up 26Say_Do/Practice_Preach The implementation gap 30Handle with care The human rights gap 34Conclusion
  • 6. 03 THEENGAGEMENTGAP: HOWBUSINESSCANSTEPUP 01 Take a hard look at the gaps between the business and its stakeholders. 02 Be prepared to redraw the lines of connection. This isn’t just about CSR strategy, it’s about the company’s forward direction. 03 Get the whole organisation behind a more connected mindset – it will pay off. The public’s distrust of big business is nothing new. As far back as 97 BCE, for example, legal codes in Han Dynasty China considered ‘merchants; former merchants; sons of merchants; and grandsons of merchants’ certain kinds of criminals. But the cost of such unpopularity is much higher for businesses today than it ever has been. New technology and the public appetite for novelty can subject companies to relentless transparency. Missteps may trigger an availability cascade, with the media feeding its 24-hour news cycle with unverified and oversimplified information that the public embraces. In a matter of days or even hours, perceptions gain traction, and a corporation’s good standing, which may have taken years to build up, could be irreparably damaged. But there’s also opportunity here. While conducting research for ‘Connect: How Companies Succeed by Engaging Radically With Society,’ which I co-authored with former BPCEO LordJohn Browne and Polaroid Swing Co-Founder Tommy Stadlen, we discovered that about 30% of corporate earnings is at stake in a company’s relationship with external stakeholders. What’s more, businesses that connect effectively with society can see a shareholder value boost of more than 20% over a single decade relative to peers. The bottom line is clear: if you can capture this opportunity, you can grow in a way that your competitors cannot.
  • 7. 04 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER 01Map your world It may sound obvious, but it is absolutely critical to understand the trends that are shaping your context and to quantify the value at stake. Doing so effectively means considering your goals in relation to those of your stakeholders while bearing in mind the resources and influence each of you brings. 02Define your contribution In ‘Connect’, we explain that knowing where your company can actually make an impact, versus where it can only be a spectator, is vital to set your engagement priorities. For every topic, firms should choose which combination of the ‘3 Cs’ of engagement strategy – contest; concede and lead; and collaborate – is most appropriate. THE ‘FOUR TENETS’ OF RADICAL ENGAGEMENT In ‘Connect’, we argue that conventional corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts are inadequate for establishing and maintaining dynamic relationships with these complex stakeholders. I would characterise typical CSR initiatives as box checking, an activity that’s disconnected from the company’s core commercial activity. What businesses need instead is to identify and pursue their social purpose with the same rigour as they identify and pursue their commercial purpose. And that major shift in mindset needs to begin at the top of the organisation by adopting the following four tenets. WHO TO ENGAGE Businesses need to develop strong connections with several stakeholders, including employees, governments and regulators, the environment, and NGOs. Employees both reflect and create their employers’ brands. In addition, employee morale greatly influences financial performance. One London Business School researcher, for instance, found that companies listed among the ‘100 Best Companies to Work for in America’ between 1984 and 2009 generated 2% per annum share price uplift versus their competitors. Governments and regulators, meanwhile, wield the greatest power of all over business, and they require companies to perform a unique and challenging balancing act. “Ignore government and its influence will eventually catch you off guard,” we write in ‘Connect,’ “commandeer it and you risk a backlash from society further down the line.” Lord Browne in 1997 became the first Big Oil chief executive to publicly recognise the link between man-made carbon emissions and global warming. He believes the environment may be big business’s most complex stakeholder. The rise of technology and NGOs have essentially given a new and powerful voice to environmental concerns. Business leaders should place their organisations at the centre of transformative solutions that make the low-carbon world an attractive destination.
  • 8. 05 03Apply world-class management – embed deeply within the business line “The management of the connection between business and society is rarely done as professionally as other parts of the business,” we write in ‘Connect’. In order to radically engage society, organisations should subject these efforts to the same four core management tools that they deploy in their commercial efforts:creating capability;organising to win;establishing processes;and measuring outcomes. 04Engage radically Finally, businesses must fully embrace openness and transparency. As we write in the book: “To earn trust and credibility, the private sector should engage the external world on the front foot, building lasting relationships which are based on regular, authentic negotiation rather than public-relations propaganda, brinkmanship or passive silence.” WHAT’S NEXT The future of public engagement will be shaped by three main trends: the rise of artificial intelligence; the shift of the world’s economic centre toward emerging economies; and the emergence of a wealthier, better- educated, and more empowered global class than we have yet seen. This new generation could be the most lucrative in history for businesses. It will certainly be the most challenging. But we need not greet these disruptions grimly. With the right guidance, the most progressive businesses stand to gain huge ground against their competitors. Gaining support for these efforts will require structured thinking around their potential upsides and downsides as well as a concerted move from the back foot to the front foot in the way the organisation engages with society. AND,ASWEPOINTOUT IN‘CONNECT’,THERE’S PERHAPSNOBETTER TIMETOINITIATETHOSE EFFORTSTHANRIGHTNOW. “Companies have never been more accountable for the positive contribution they make to people’s lives,” we write. “The connected firms of the future will push the boundaries of human possibilities in their quest to contribute. They will not fracture their bonds with society.”
  • 9. 06 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER Olivia Sprinkel: How important do you think it is for a business like Danone to have a clear purpose? Laura Palmeiro: It’s extremely important. At Danone, our mission shows us our direction as a company. Like many Danone employees, I find our mission to be very inspiring. It doesn’t say anything about profitability. Of course, profitability is necessary to remunerate our shareholders and also to reinvest in the future. But making money is not a purpose in itself. The purpose of the company is to deliver our mission of achieving health through food – and to do it in a sustainable way while benefiting the largest number of people. We aren’t just targeting a niche market or a specific social class. We want to reach as many people as possible with our brands. For a long time, customers and the wider society have been distrustful of big businesses. The reasons for this are mainly historical, and there is a widespread perception that corporations are usually there just to make money. There have also been ethical issues, a misalignment between economic, social and environmental interests. In the past, most businesses didn’t address stakeholders’ interests, but only their own, and normally only in a financial sense. As we know, lots of companies have started to move towards a more comprehensive understanding of their responsibilities – to include shareholders, society and the planet. But there is still a misunderstanding and misalignment between business and society. This is something that will only change through greater PROFITANDTHEINTEGRATIONGAP Danone has succeeded like few other big companies in putting sustainability at the heart of everything it does. Salterbaxter’s Olivia Sprinkel caught up with Laura Palmeiro, Danone’s Sustainability Integration Director, to find out how they’re bridging the integration gap. THEINTEGRATIONGAP: HOWDANONEISSTEPPINGUP 01 Everything Danone does is guided by a clear mission and purpose. 02 Group leadership have provided essential support for integration – including a group-wide manifesto and new integrated report. 03 There has also been a big push to engage employees at all levels, as well as suppliers and society. DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER
  • 10. WHENWE’REABLETOBUILD STRONGECOSYSTEMS, EVERYONEBENEFITS. 0707 transparency. The only way to fill the trust gap is to become more transparent with external parties, to invite them in to give their opinions, to co-construct solutions together. To become more porous. Maybe even to bring outside parties into the governance of the company. OS Can you give some examples of how Danone is collaborating with external parties? LP We are strong believers in co-creation. It’s one of the guiding principles behind the different funds that we have set up. One of them is Danone Communities, where we are working to solve nutritional problems in different parts of the world. Then there is the Ecosystem Fund, where we are working with not-for-profit partners to create jobs and reinforce our local economic and social environments, or ecosystems. Together, we provide training and financial support for Danone business partners, to help them develop their businesses in a better way. compliance, governance, quality control, human rights, diversity and inclusion through to measurement of our carbon footprint, reduction of environmental impact, sugar reduction, adaption to nutritional needs. There are four pillars to the Danone Way: For each of the pillars there are different topics; for example, Better World (the environmental pillar) includes water, climate change, agriculture and plastic. Then within each of the topics are specific practices and policies, and targets to achieve in the near future. Each of our country business units does an annual Danone Way self- assessment. Then external audits are carried out to verify the process and the data. These audits reinforce the credibility of the whole process. They do this at the same time as reporting their financial situations. We then carry out external audits of at least 20% of the business. We first launched the Danone Way in 2001, initially with two or three Danone group companies, and now it covers 98% of our total turnover. We update the Danone Way every year to reflect our newest commitments. For example, some of our milk suppliers are very small farmers. We help them learn about optimal methods for cattle feeding, how they can increase their yield, how to improve the cows’ lives and reduce health problems – all of which increases the quality of the milk they produce. It’s a win-win situation – the farmer gets assurance that more of their milk will get to market, which means they make more money to support their families, and we are assured good quality milk. When we’re able to build strong ecosystems, everyone benefits. OS How is Danone going about the task of integrating sustainability throughout the business? LP The backbone of our sustainability approach is the Danone Way – a process that is now completely embedded in the day-to-day functioning of the company. It touches every area of the business: PURPOSE
  • 11. THEREAREFOURPILLARS TOTHEDANONEWAY: 01 UNIQUEBUSINESSAPPROACH 02 BETTERHEALTH 03 BETTERLIVES 04 BETTERWORLD DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER OS Who is responsible for implementing the Danone Way in your businesses, and how does this relate to the company’s other sustainability activities? LP Each business has a Danone Way co-ordinator. Sometimes it’s the environmental manager, sometimes an HR person. It depends on the configuration of the business unit. The Danone Way is only one of our tools, but it is the only one that is transversal, touching all of the various sustainability topics, and which enables us to see the overall progress. Each topic is then managed by topic owners. For example, our latest climate policy came out at the end of 2015 and is applied by our worldwide community of carbon masters, co-ordinated centrally, who have their own way of communicating, setting targets and delivering against plans. There are similar experts working in other social, nutrition and environmental topics. OS You also have a manifesto at Danone. Can you tell us a little about that? LP The manifesto is our mission in action. It is what we stand for, what the mission concretely means and what we commit to do. It represents our convictions as a company. Importantly, all Danone employees have a role in implementing the manifesto. We recently held our second Manifesto Day, where we connected 100,000 Danoners simultaneously, through Webex. The CEO gave an address and we shared progress and examples of the manifesto in action, including screening some short films that had been made about how the manifesto has come to life in our subsidiaries. Colleagues all over the world were tweeting and we enjoyed being all together, whether in offices or in plants. Everyone could see the presentations in their own languages. It’s a big thing to do, and a technical challenge. But it is very inspiring, having the whole organisation together like that. It gives a sense of unity. OS You’ve also been working with the B Corp community. Are you looking to become a B Corp? LP We’ve signed an agreement last year with B Lab, the organisation behind B Corps. The Danone Way approach has existed for a long time and is embedded in our culture, including our ways of thinking and doing business. Our CEO met people from B Lab and realised that the Danone Way is essentially like an internal B Corp assessment. Much like the existing B Corp-certified companies, we believe that we are not only responsible to shareholders but also to civil society and all our various stakeholders. In both cases, it’s about creating dialogue with society and using business as a force for good. This led to the question: ‘Why couldn’t we become a B Corp?’ As we started to look into it, we saw that the existing B Corp assessment was really aimed at medium to small scale businesses and would therefore be extremely difficult for us to answer. We realised that if we supported the idea and wanted to become a B Corp, we would have to find a way for big companies to respect the same topics and logic that B Corp companies do now, but with an assessment process that’s adapted to fit the challenges of collecting detailed information across a big multinational. So we set out to try to certify at least 10 Danone subsidiaries in order to
  • 12. 0909 THEMOSTIMPORTANT THINGISTOHAVEFULL SUPPORTFROMTOP MANAGEMENT. understand the challenges. One of them, Danone Spain, has been recently certified and another one will most probably be certified before the end of the year. We’re using what we’ve learned from this process to help develop a questionnaire for big companies as part of a working committee that was formed. Other members include big accounting firms and financial institutions as well as companies such as Unilever and Natura. OS Danone recently published its first integrated report. Can you describe how that came about? LP Danone has always had sustainability embedded in its culture, but our way of applying this has become more structured in the last few years. We started formalising it with the Danone Way and by setting up the funds. And our latest steps are our manifesto and the integrated report. I think you need to have an integrated strategy to have an integrated report – and we’ve had an integrated strategy for many years. So it was only natural for us to embark on this project. But we needed to have the right organisation in place to make it happen. It has taken us a few years, but we finally published our first integrated report this year. In my view a perfect integrated report doesn’t exist so far. There is no unanimous agreement on what an integrated report should look like, and there can be very different interpretations. But I think we are going in the right direction by having a first version of an integrated report. We have already heard from stakeholders that they think it is a good tool. It gives all kinds of stakeholders – NGOs, unions, suppliers, rating agencies – more information on how our management is actually making decisions, as well as the role of sustainability within our strategy, and this should help a lot in closing the transparency gap. OS What advice would you give to other companies on how to successfully integrate sustainability into the business? OS A final question. Are you optimistic that the gap between business and society can be closed? LP I’m very optimistic, partly because society is becoming more challenging than it used to be. The work that NGOs and civil society are doing is extremely important. People have more information now, not to mention more means to exchange and share information, and this is a good thing in itself. It is a helpful challenge for big corporations, as it pushes them towards transparency and giving explanations. Companies are going to have little choice but to start integrating dialogue into their normal working processes. Younger generations are much more challenging to businesses than the generations that came before. They’re pushing businesses to keep evolving – through what they choose to buy, what they choose to share on the internet, where they choose to work. Millennials will help to make sure that we keep working to close the gap. So, yes, there are good reasons to be optimistic. LP The most important thing is to have full support from top management. Without that, it can be extremely difficult to put an integrated strategy into action. This is a condition for success. Once you have their approval, you should try and involve everybody in all operations. This is important for the buy-in of the project. Integrated sustainability will only really work if it is embedded throughout. It doesn’t work if it’s present in some divisions but not in others. And you need to be collaborating and co-creating solutions across the whole organisation.
  • 13. 10 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER THEBEHAVIOURGAP More companies than ever before have clear values and ambitious sustainability goals, but these are often a poor predictor of real employee behaviour. Salterbaxter’s Roisin Greene looks at how business can bridge the difficult gap between what employees say they believe – and what they actually do. Increasingly, people throughout business and society recognise the importance of acting responsibly. But this does not always stop us from making poor decisions, and then repeating the cycle. Why is it that our explicitly held sustainable values do so little to predict what we actually do? What’s true for individuals is also true for organisations. Even the best and clearest trickle-down strategies, processes, values and targets have their limits. It’s basic human nature to avoid loss, overvalue our own inputs and sometimes veer away from what we intended to do. This is why influencing employee behaviour is not only the next important step in many companies’ evolution as responsible organisations – for many, it’s also one of the toughest challenges they face. To put it bluntly, your company will never be truly sustainable unless all of your employees adopt truly sustainable behaviours. And for all the reasons just mentioned, this can be a big ask. KEY OBSTACLES: HABIT AND BIAS It’s easy to assume that a lack of information is the main issue when people fail to act in their – and also society’s – best interests. But that’s not the whole truth. Education alone is almost never enough. We should stop wasting resources trying to de-bias employee mindsets with greenwashing and instead start to de-bias our organisational processes. The decision to give in to temptation and revert to old habits is a moment laced with many nuances. Employee engagement campaigns are designed with the best of intentions to raise sustainability awareness and influence behaviour. Which is why it’s such a shame that so many are formulaic, rooted in unrealistic assumptions about human behaviour and often lack in-built measurement of effectiveness. TO
  • 14. 11 Organisations need to design new structures, strategies and processes to help bridge the gap between people’s explicitly sustainable values and their implicitly unsustainable actions. Let’s look at three key areas where it is possible for almost any organisation to make systematic improvements to help their people make better decisions, achieve sustainability targets and ultimately build a better society. 01. REMOVING UNCONSCIOUS BIAS Increasing employee diversity is a key pillar in many organisations’ sustainability plans, but this does not automatically mean the people in charge of hiring are making more diverse or gender-neutral recruitment decisions. To the contrary, many companies continue to overlook the best candidates in favour of the familiar. Why? More often than not this comes down to unconscious bias. Harvard professor Iris Bohnet’s research has shown that the traditional, unstructured interview process is a poor predictor of on-the-job performance. Yet this approach continues to be used by most companies. Typically hiring managers are free to use the interview to explore details that they think are important, and this leaves the whole process open to their personal bias. One of the key issues at play here is overconfidence – the belief (perhaps entirely unconscious) that you are right and that your experience and expertise is better than that of others. And many hiring managers are simply more likely, by default, to hire someone who is similar to them (same gender, background, education or hobbies). Unconscious biases can affect employee decisions across the full range of companies’ sustainability aspirations. One of the best ways to combat this is by implementing smarter processes that reduce the effect of individual biases and help employees to make smarter, more responsible decisions. THEBEHAVIOURGAP: HOWCOMPANIESCANSTEPUP 01 Adopt new frameworks and tools to help employees make better decisions. 02 Create a great employer brand to reinforce positive behaviours. 03 Boost ‘psychological safety’ to help employees adapt and speak with an authentic voice. O
  • 15. 12 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER Such improvements do not have to be complicated. In the case of fair hiring, simply removing names, gender and image cues from the hiring process can be enough to neutralise managers’ personal biases. Google has gone a step further and completely redesigned its recruitment process to remove unconscious bias. How? By structuring the content of their interviews using data. Before interviews, the company’s people- analytics departments crunch data and identify which interview questions are more highly correlated with on-the-job success and weigh them accordingly. 02. INFUSING YOUR BRAND WITH PURPOSE Employees seek out jobs and organisations that align with their values and give them a sense of genuine purpose. This is especially true among the youngest generation of jobseekers. In a recent Deloitte survey, millennials said they believed businesses were behaving with increasing responsibility – though most felt that businesses continue to focus too much on their own agendas. If an employee’s personal values are not in line with those of the company they work for, they are extremely unlikely to be willing or motivated to change their behaviour in support of the company’s goals. Ultimately millennials say that they want companies to focus more on people, products, and purpose – and less on profits. Organisations need to develop a strong employer brand that supports a culture in which employees’ work lives and personal values are aligned. A powerful employer brand ties all of the organisation’s activities together – leading with purpose and permeating into everything your employees do and how they do it. For sustainability activities to be mainstreamed throughout a business, they need to be internalised by all employees and become a norm. When a well-meaning company creates ‘green teams’ to take on the sustainability activation, employees who are not part of these teams can end up deferring responsibilities – essentially outsourcing ownership of their individual sustainable behaviours. By contrast, some companies are using small ‘nudges’ throughout the organisation to change behaviour incrementally and create new norms. Each time these companies teach employees how to talk about the company purpose or sustainability initiatives in their day-to-day interactions with customers or suppliers, they are also reinforcing these behaviours within the internal culture. Merck has created an employer brand that is very effective in positioning the company values (‘improve life, achieve scientific excellence, operate with the highest standards of integrity, expand access to our products and employ a diverse workforce that values collaboration’) at the heart of every activity. So Merck’s Open Innovation Centre is designed using their own IP products; they use their expertise in drug and delivery systems to create new partnerships which deliver malaria and AIDS treatment more effectively; and they transfer what they have learned in delivering clean water to laboratories to supply water to communities in developing countries. The employer brand ties all of these initiatives together and communicates them consistently throughout the organisation, showing how they all contribute to a single purpose. WESHOULDSTOP WASTINGRESOURCES TRYINGTODE-BIAS EMPLOYEEMINDSETS WITHGREENWASHING ANDINSTEADSTART TODE-BIASOUR ORGANISATIONAL PROCESSES.
  • 16. 13 03. THE IMPORTANCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY Now that sustainability issues are firmly on the table, organisations need to create teams and work environments that support positive behaviours, each of which in turn will support the company’s sustainability strategy. There is an increasing body of research suggesting that ‘psychological safety’ is by far the most important trait to develop high-performing teams. This is the belief that you will not be punished for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. Without this sense of safety, employees focus on impression management and self-protection for fear of appearing ignorant, incompetent, intrusive or negative. Such fears are very common in the modern work environment, which leads to workplace silence and ultimately a decrease in learning and innovation, both of which are essential in moving towards a more sustainable organisation. In comparison, teams where members feel safer are more likely to admit mistakes, to partner and to take on new roles. How do we move away from an environment where being wrong is avoided like the plague, where blame is more important than gratitude and where outlying views are ignored? Again, Google is a notable innovator. The company has found that psychological safety is the most important factor in its efforts to create high-performing teams. Topping a list that also includes dependability, structure and clarity, meaning and impact of work. To help its teams improve and to monitor that improvement, Google has created a tool called the gTeams exercise. It’s now been over a year since the launch, and the findings are revealing. Google teams that adopted a new group norm, such as starting meetings by sharing a risk taken in the previous week, have improved psychological safety by 6% and structure and clarity by 10%. Feedback from teams has suggested that having a framework to talk about these dynamics was the most impactful part of the experience. DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY In order to win in an increasingly uncertain environment, companies need to do things differently. A final word of caution: when organisations try to optimise everything, it’s sometimes easy to forget that success is often built on human experiences. Ultimately, it’s how our people and our teams work together that brings about the innovation and change. PSYCHOLOGICALSAFETY STARTSATTHETOP According to Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, there are three key steps to building psychological safety in any organisation. Leaders who want to create an internal culture of responsibility should take note. 01Frame problems as opportunities to learn For the vast majority of us, workplace uncertainty, complexity and interdependency are constants. Create a team dynamic where each member feels comfortable to ask for clarification or help and where they feel their input matters. 02Acknowledge your own fallibility Leaders should demonstrate a tolerance for failure by acknowledging that they are not always perfect and share insights into how they learned frompastmistakes.Thiscreates a safe space to speak up and encourages team members to voice their opinions. 03Model curiosity by asking a lot of questions This creates a need for team members to answer the question being asked and have their voices heard.
  • 17. DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER C O N S U M E R I N B R A N D S THEINFORMATIONGAP Giving consumers more information about the sustainability of products is great in principle. But it won’t automatically foster more informed buying decisions. Salterbaxter’s Caroline Carson reviews the gaps in consumer transparency and she talks to Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Sofie Schop about how they’re supporting brands to reach consumers at scale.
  • 18. 15 Consumer trust in brands and companies is a volatile commodity. With each emerging corporate scandal or ethics issue, public trust in big companies erodes, sometimes purely by association. Yet when governments or industry bodies sit down to hash out better standards for corporate accountability, it is almost always other stakeholders – such as investors, NGOs, employees, suppliers and partners – whose concerns and needs dominate the discussion, not the general public. As a result, many businesses do not think of consumers as a main audience for their corporate sustainability programmes and reporting. More often than not, consumer engagement is seen as the preserve of the marketing teams, with little to do with corporate communications. The net effect is that consumer engagement on sustainability has lagged well behind initiatives aimed at other audiences. As a result, a lot remains unknown in this space. What do consumers want and need in order to be able to make more informed purchasing decisions? And is anyone prepared to reveal the good, the bad and the potentially ugly when it comes to their products? THE CASE FOR GREATER TRANSPARENCY For companies, these are increasingly urgent questions. In our always-on, social media saturated culture it is becoming ever more difficult for brands to conceal or ignore any unpleasant truths that may be lurking behind their glossy advertising campaigns. If companies don’t tell, someone else eventually will. The trusted companies will be the ones that are willing to reveal all. But there is a much bigger idea at play here as well, a very simple idea really, but one that could be a game-changer: if a critical mass of companies manage to be fully transparent about the environmental and social impacts of their products, their action could set in motion a huge wave of consumer behaviour change. As more brands provide consumers with this kind of information, consumers will become more aware of the environmental and social issues and so begin to seek out this information from other brands, which in turn will need to provide a similar level of information if they want to compete. With time, this will bring tangible change, because brands with a poor record on social and environmental issues will be exposed and have little choice but to put their houses in order. WELL-INFORMED CONSUMERSCANCREATE THEDEMANDFORBETTER BRANDPERFORMANCEON SUSTAINABILITYCRITERIA JUSTASTHEYCURRENTLY DRIVETHEDEMANDFOR BETTERPRICINGAND QUALITYOFPRODUCTS. TWO ROADBLOCKS: CREDIBILITY AND COMPARABILITY There are some big practical obstacles. One is the sheer challenge in establishing credibility around these sensitive topics, given that so many consumers no longer trust big companies to tell them the truth. A recent study, by TNS for The European Commission found that only about half of European consumers trust companies’ claims about environmental performance. Also in that study, 58% said they think product labels do not provide enough information, and 48% said existing labels are unclear. So there appears to be a clear opportunity here for corporate innovators to build trust – and with it brand loyalty – by providing consumers more and radically clearer product information. But will consumers believe what these companies say, even if what they’re saying is clear? Probably not without some form of external verification. And unless it’s easy for consumers to compare different companies’ claims, the information won’t carry much meaning. For that to be possible, companies will need to collaborate across sectors in unprecedented ways. THEINFORMATIONGAP: HOWTHEAPPARELSECTOR ISSTEPPINGUP 01 The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is developing guidelines to help its member companies be more transparent. 02 Competing footwear brands are sharing data and insights to find out how best to provide this information. 03 Initial insights suggest that simplicity, comparability and credibility of the information is key.
  • 19. 16 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER 50% TRYING TRANSPARENCY ON FOR SIZE One industry that has made impressive strides towards consumer transparency is the apparel sector, thanks in no small part to the work of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). The SAC’s members are a who’s who of leading apparel, footwear and home textiles companies, and they’re all being encouraged to make comparable sustainability information for their products and brands publicly available by 2020. The SAC has developed a roadmap to help members do this. But the big question remains: how should all this new information be displayed? What does genuine transparency look like in practice, and how much information is too much? IS STANDARDISED LABELLING THE ANSWER? As part of the pilot project, Salterbaxter has been working with the SAC to design and test a label that can meaningfully communicate product-level performance information directly on the shoe, plus a range of supporting communications that consumers can turn to if they want more detail. This is about giving shoppers the critical information they need, clearly presented and at exactly the right point in the buying process when it can help them decide whether to purchase or not. The main challenge is how to distil all of the environmental issues from the full life cycle of a shoe into one easy- to-understand label with one performance score. A few months into the pilot, we’re already starting to unwrap some useful insights. We’ve found that once consumers understand what the initiative is about, many of them are receptive and think the new labelling will have a positive effect. But it is also becoming clear that third-party accreditation and/or verification of the standard will be important to build trust. THEMAINCHALLENGEIS HOWTODISTILALLOFTHE ISSUESFROMTHEFULLLIFE CYCLEOFASHOEINTOONE EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND LABELWITHONE PERFORMANCESCORE. OFEUROPEANCONSUMERS SAYTHEYTRUSTCOMPANIES’ CLAIMSONENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE. THE OTHER SIDE TO TRANSPARENCY For behaviour-change potential, labels carry a particular power to help consumers make quick, informed decisions. But that power depends almost entirely on how much the consumer already knows about the underlying issues at the moment they pick up the product. Traffic-light labelling schemes on food are a good example. They work because shoppers have learned, thanks to long-running campaigns and education initiatives, the significance of calories, fat, fibre and salt. Also because regulation (in most countries at least) ensures this information is displayed consistently across brands and products, making it easy for consumers to compare one product to another. In the case of sustainability impacts, some topics – such as labour issues – are already widely recognised thanks to the amount of publicity they’ve had, but many other issues, from waste and toxicity to energy efficiency and the supply chain – are much less known and understood. So while it will be important for companies to improve the quality and comparability of the data that companies present during the path to purchase, it is just as important to explain to consumers why they should care about these issues, by connecting them with how they experience the product. Only then will the information be truly transparent. There are no off-the-rack solutions, but the SAC’s pilot project has shown that there’s certainly willingness from leading brands to be proactive in doing what is needed to bridge the information gap. And once the big brands start doing it, surely more will follow suit. To explore this, the SAC has been convening a group of member brands in an EU pilot project called the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). This is a truly groundbreaking initiative, because it has major competing footwear makers – including HM, Inditex, Nike and adidas – sharing product sustainability information freely with each other, to find the best way of sharing this information with consumers.
  • 20. 17 SS We aim to enable and encourage our members, which are brands, retailers, facilities and affiliates, to become fully transparent by 2020. In order to reach consumers at scale we create tools and provide support to our members, instead of reaching out to consumers directly. We also engage and partner with peers and key stakeholders like consumer associations and NGOs to start the public dialogue. CC Is the idea that the Higg Index1 will become a certification standard? SS No. We’re developing tools that allow members to voluntarily share Higg Index performance information in a comparable way. What this will look like is something we are testing out by talking with consumers and other relevant stakeholders and peers. CC How has leading the EU initiative – the PEF footwear pilot – influenced the roadmap so far? SS It’s a huge influence. The footwear pilot will be an important resource of information. The outcomes will provide hugely valuable insights into consumer perceptions. The information we are gathering through this collaboration with the European Commission will be shared publicly and integrated into our broader transparency work. CC It’s impressive how open and honest the brands are able to be on the PEF project. SS Oh definitely. This is the way we at the SAC operate and I’m very proud of how it works. Everyone who commits to this project is really that open and willing to share. SAC is a coalition, so it is the members themselves who co-create the tools. Sharing insights is the way to create tools that will be useful and beneficial to everyone. CC What do you think transparency will mean for brands’ performance? SS Ultimately, the whole point is to accelerate improvement. Sharing performance information is a crucial first step. Comparability to other scores or performance over time will add essential meaning to the data. QA WITHSOFIESCHOP, SENIORPROJECTMANAGER, COMMUNICATIONS,ATTHE SUSTAINABLEAPPAREL COALITION Caroline Carson: Transparency is one of the key pillars of the SAC’s 2020 vision and strategy. How has this been received by your member brands? Sofie Schop: Transparency – particularly consumer understanding and perception – is indeed an important part of our 2020 vision and one of the main reasons for members to join. By measuring sustainability performance, the industry can address inefficiencies, resolve damaging practices, and achieve the environmental and social transparency that consumers are starting to demand. CC Where is the demand for consumer transparency coming from? The consumers themselves? Or is it brands, regulators or NGOs who are driving the change? SS The demand comes from all of these stakeholders. This is why we work on creating one common language for the industry. We want consumers to speak this language, and we have invited stakeholders like brands, governmental institutions, NGOs and academics to create the language together. CC There are two sides to transparency: brands making it available and consumers engaging with it. The roadmap obviously starts with the former, but what plans are in place to build interest and demand for greater transparency in the apparel sector?1 The Higg Index is a suite of self-assessment tools that enables brands, retailers and suppliers to measure their environmental, social and labour impacts.
  • 22. THEMARKETINGGAP Too often in companies, the sustainability and marketing functions fail to understand what the other is saying. But profitability and purpose increasingly mean the same thing, says Salterbaxter’s Kathleen Enright. Jan-Willem Vosmeer shares how they work together at HEINEKEN. Companies will only be able to drive the change the world so urgently needs if they can rally all their stakeholders – including their customers – behind the sustainability agenda. Yet in many companies the sustainability and marketing functions barely talk to each other. When they do, it can seem as if they’re speaking different languages. We often witness the effects of this intra-organisational gap.On the one hand, we see chief sustainability officers (CSOs) struggling to translate their sustainability strategies through the brands and into consumer engagement; on the other, we see chief marketing officers (CMOs) struggling to leverage sustainability to bring meaning and value to brands. Does it have to be this way? Absolutely not. Having a sustainability strategy is part of the minimum license to operate, so it is hardly irrelevant to the work of the marketing department. And marketers have a key role at the heart of the sustainability agenda as well. After all, they are the ones who will manoeuvre the difficult shift from corporate to consumer communications, getting sustainability out of the boardroom and into the living room. There is no one-size-fits-all model for resolving this issue. Each company has different drivers for sustainability and will need to structure itself accordingly, but there is one common factor for success: that marketing and sustainability need to work closer together. GETTING THE STRATEGY AND STRUCTURE RIGHT In a sense, the business of sustainability is the management of a new type of knowledge. It doesn’t sit with one person. And it requires new ways of working and making decisions that sit with the many, not with the few. MARKETINGAND SUSTAINABILITYCAN BESEENASTWOSIDES OFTHESAMECOIN. Working together with different, often new, partners takes time. All parties need to go through a learning curve, develop a shared language and be able to trust each other. Collective ownership A few companies have stepped ahead of the curve in terms of spreading ownership of sustainability out across the whole organisation – so that it can drive innovation,generate employee pride and create new market opportunities. For example, Nestlé has made the decision not to have a CSO so that the sustainability strategy is not an isolated concern but rather is shared throughout the business. Finding where to start This is not an overnight process. Clearly it won’t be possible to suddenly have every part of your company’s DNA come to the forefront in support of the sustainability strategy. Finding the right place to start is key, and this means choosing the right issues at the right time, delivered through the right brands and with the right partners. It’s important to make these decisions with a collaborative mindset; that is, aligning the sustainability and marketing agendas with the heart and purpose of the business. This is the only way to ensure the challenges – including the big sustainability issues – can be meaningfully addressed. THEMARKETINGGAP: HOWCSOs ANDCMOs CANSTEPUP 01 Choose strategic goals that align both the CSO and CMO agenda with a clear brand purpose. 02 Find a common language, possibly going so far as to coin a new term alongside ‘sustainability’. 03 Ask different questions and get new answers – look to the new ‘aspirational consumers’ for ideas.
  • 23. FORABRANDTOBE CREDIBLEANDAUTHENTIC, ITSPURPOSEHASTOBE ROOTEDINAGREATER SOCIETALNEED. 20 SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE Marketing and sustainability can be seen as two sides of the same coin. And when we look closely at those two sides and the language associated with each, we can see that CMOs and CSOs are often concerned about the same things. It’s just that when they talk about what guides them, they aren’t using quite the same terms. ‘You say pot-ah-to, I say pot-ay-to…’ CMO says today, CSO says tomorrow We regularly meet CSOs who say they are finding it difficult to get through to a particular marketer who manages a brand that is doing very well on an existing strategy, which has them easily delivering their targets and unlocking commercial rewards. Telling such a marketer that they need to change, because we think consumers need to be more responsible, is an understandably tough conversation to have. CMO says digital, CSO says transparency When CMOs talk about ‘digital’ and CSOs talk about ‘transparency’, are they actually saying the same thing? Transparency has not only allowed businesses to show consumers the ‘good’ things they are up to, but has increasingly allowed the consumer to scrutinise the life cycle of the products they buy in to. Social media has been a catalyst for transparency and has allowed consumers and stakeholders to respond in the blink of an eye to an issue they feel is important enough to shout about. Together, social media and transparency have created a connection and a conversation between stakeholders, consumers, investors and businesses. Find your own interpretation To many people, the term ‘sustainability’ really means very little. It’s too broad, too generic, and yet contradictorily, also too narrow; a lot of people understand it to be mainly about environmental impact. In some areas of modern business, sustainability is increasingly associated with creating added value, while in the marketing world it is still associated with austerity and sacrifice. So, do we need a new word? I would argue that each company needs to find their own word or phrase to express their ambitions and the value they bring to the sustainability landscape. Language is appropriation. The more a term is owned and understood, the more it will become part of corporate culture. There are already some notable examples of this. Sony speaks of ‘Futurescapes’, Unilever speaks of ‘Sustainable Living’, PepsiCo speaks of ‘Performance with Purpose’. WHAT A BRAND IS FOR In recent years, pressure from activists and governments has pushed many businesses to set more ambitious targets. An increasing number of businesses are building sustainability plans into their core strategies, with a joined-up structure that stretches across geographies, business functions, products and revenue models. From a consumer perspective, market saturation and mass media have shifted us into the ‘Era of Emotion’. People’s internal motivations have changed. ‘YOUSAYPOT-AH-TO, ISAYPOT-AY-TO…’ Our access to endless information and socialisation has given new life to age-old questions. ‘Why am I here? What impact do I want to have on the people around me?’ DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER Too often, what’s missing is the middle ground. And the truth is that sustainability and marketing both need short-term and long-term wins. Sustainability needs to be identifying the quick wins that will drive longer-term momentum, while marketing needs to remember that the role of marketing is brand guardianship, which has to be delivered over a long period of time.
  • 24. 21 THEVIEWFROM HEINEKEN JAN-WILLEMVOSMEER,CSRMANAGER, SHARESHOWSUSTAINABILITYAND MARKETINGAREMEETINGAROUND THETABLE. “It just makes sense to do it given that millennials – a key segment for our business – expect brands not only to be about lifestyles but also to contribute to solutions for the complex problems facing society. We very much believe that HEINEKEN’s brands can be gamechangers on topics like climate change, anti drink-driving or nature conservation, and for that to be possible we needed our sustainability and marketing people to work more closely together. Our focus on responsible consumption of alcohol is an example of this in practice – a public conversation driven by our sustainability strategy, on a topic that our whole organisation is passionate about. Beer brings people together, but we think it’s important to make the point that misuse of alcohol is not cool. Through Heineken, our flagship brand, we’re trying to make drinking in moderation aspirational. So we’ve launched global campaigns like ‘Dance More, Drink Slow’ and more recently ‘When You Drive, Never Drink’ (as part of our Formula 1 sponsorship) which are about repositioning moderate drinking as something that can be cool. It may seem strange for a beverage company to tell its consumers to drink less. But we see it as an opportunity both for society and for our business. And we’re providing a growing number of low- and no-alcohol brands and a range of serve sizes to give people who want to drink moderately, more options, while still having a good time.” Authentic brand purpose Brand purpose sits at the heart of all this. The leading businesses and brands of the future will investigate and reimagine purpose and value. But brand purpose, done incorrectly, also has the potential to be the next wave of greenwashing. Consumers have fast realised this and are rejecting what they perceive as ‘counterfeit’ brand purpose – a pure marketing activity with no greater societal benefit. To unlock the rewards of brand purpose, it has to be an authentic brand purpose – one that is rooted in and supported by the company’s sustainability strategy. It needs to be about doing, not just saying. It needs to set commitments and deliver proof of promise through action and measurement. Change the brief What is standing in the way of marketers understanding the sustainability agenda and vice versa? We know that the language often used is confusing and misleading for both parties, but what it actually comes down to are the questions being asked upfront – the brief. The data couldn’t be clearer. Advocates will never be more than 20% of the consuming public. But that’s okay because there’s a new kid in town, one who cares about style, shopping and status, as well as doing right by the planet. GlobeScan have named this high-velocity demographic ‘aspirational consumers’ and their emergence is significant for many reasons, but mainly because they are the largest consumer segment globally (39% of the population) and the first to unite materialism, sustainability, and cultural influence. In short, they are the most critical audience to reach and engage if we want to drive sustainable behaviour change at scale. Aspirationals want something to believe in and they want brands to stand for something bigger than a product or service. Give them an inspiring ethos. Bring a strong point of view. Back it up. And that’s where the glitch is. They need proof of promise, which is to say credibility. And marketers need their sustainability colleagues to help deliver this. If we change the brief to ask different questions, surely we would get different answers? For decades, the green movement has been chasing the wrong ball: if only we could cultivate so-called ‘advocates’ (pejoratively dubbed ‘tree-huggers’) then we could scale the market for sustainable goods and tip the business paradigm toward more conscious capitalism. It’s time to admit that this was wishful thinking. For a brand to be credible and authentic, its purpose – the ‘why’, its reason to exist – has to be rooted in a greater societal need. Purpose has to be about more than just selling more stuff. Sustainability provides the framework and the proof points to do this. It has become the new proxy for brand trust.
  • 25. THE INVESTMENT GAP 22 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER Sustainable development will never happen on the scale that’s needed without an unprecedented injection of cash. Salterbaxter’s Huw Maggs and Kristina Joss note there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful that change is on the way. They talk to Credit Suisse’s Dr. René Buholzer and Peter Zollinger from Globalance Bank about how the financial sector can step up to the task.
  • 26. HOWTHEINVESTMENT GAPCANBEBRIDGED 01 More CEOs and CFOs need to articulate a sustainable business vision compelling enough to capture investors’ attention. 02 We all need to start thinking of our biggest societal challenges as opportunities for economic growth. 03 Today’s policy and research initiatives are not enough on their own, but could point the way towards systematic change. LARGE-SCALE INVESTORSHAVE THREEMAJORLEVERS THEYCANUSETOADVANCE SUSTAINABILITY–IFTHEY CHOOSETO. 23 THEVIEWFROM CREDITSUISSE DR.RENÉBUHOLZER,GLOBALHEADOF SUSTAINABILITYANDHEADOFPUBLICPOLICY Despite the need to significantly scale action, there is a growing cohort of financial institutions who are taking steps. One example is Credit Suisse. We spoke with Dr. René Buholzer to understand why and how the bank is scaling its sustainable investment activities. “Our sustainable investment focus at Credit Suisse has steadily evolved over time. This is not a new undertaking for us – we have been providing financial services to support education, nature conservation, gender equality and many other issues for a long time. But we have reached something of a tipping point recently, thanks in part to the influence of big global initiatives such as the SDGs and the UN’s Climate Summit. Globally, we are focusing on client segments where there is a clear need for better access to sustainable investment. Market research has shown that millennials are twice as likely to invest in opportunities with positive environmental or social impacts. So if we want to attract or retain this client base we clearly need to cater for their investment beliefs with an appropriate offering of products and services. The priority has to be integrating sustainability values into the overall investment process, which is conceptually and organisationally much harder than just creating an asset class. Looking ahead, we see an unprecedented opportunity to connect with our client and stakeholder communities through sustainable investment. And we think it is very important to keep the dialogue going, both internally and with our clients, around why we are embedding sustainability into our core business decisions and investment strategies – and why this is so valuable for Credit Suisse, our clients, and for society.” 23 We all know the significance of 2°C. But there is another number that could turn out to be just as consequential for the future wellbeing of the planet: $12 trillion. That’s the amount of renewable energy investment that Ceres and Bloomberg estimate will be needed over 25 years in order to prevent global temperatures from bursting past a certain dangerous climate-change threshold. By their projections, we’re currently on course to see only $5.2 trillion invested – less than half of what’s needed. And that’s just one example. To achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs), something like 2.5% of global GDP needs to be invested in public and private initiatives every year. Is it happening today? Not by a mile. How can large-scale investors be convinced to move substantial capital into sustainable development opportunities? And why do so many investors seem so uninterested in making this happen? THE KEYS INVESTORS HOLD Before we look more closely at the reasons for the investment gap, it’s important to note just how much financial power the investment banks, mutual funds and other large-scale investors actually hold. Together, these organisations exert tremendous influence on global investment flows and stock market movements.Theypoolhugesumsofcapital on behalf of asset owners. And they have the crucial role of allocating capital to businesses based on their expectations of future performance. These investors have three major levers they can use to advance sustainability in the financial sector – if they choose to. 01 They can advance the financial markets from within – by pushing for the markets to factor environmental, social and governance issues into company valuations. 02 They can ‘crowd in’ private investment, making use of financial innovations (new products, services, portfolios, investment strategies and structures) to make sure clients’ capital is directed towards environmentally and socially focused investments. 03 They can exercise their shareholder rights of active ownership to directly influence companies’ business, management and strategy.
  • 27. 24 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER GAPS AND OPPORTUNITIES While we are observing signs of a more systematic approach on the part of leading investors, there are many gaps that still need to be addressed across the financial system before sustainable investment can be scaled up to the extent that the world needs. Here’s a quick look at five of the key gaps – which can also be seen as key opportunity areas, where change can take hold. And possibly already is. 01The capacity gap Todays’ financial and social situation is unprecedented. There’s no way that established business models can offer all the knowledge, skills and processes that are needed to address the new challenges. Most investors simply don’t have the organisational capacity to take this on. Not yet, anyway. Since 2013, Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing has been working to advance market-based solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges – in part by training and developing the next generation of sustainable investing leaders. 02The metrics gap Most of the metrics that are commonly used by financial and sustainability professionals are incompatible. This leaves investors with a lot of work to do in order to translate ESG metrics into tangible investment decisions. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures is working to develop a new metric standard, which would make it easier for investors and other stakeholders to compare companies’ climate-related risks.The task force has some significant clout behind it, it was set up at the request of the G20 and is chaired by Michael Bloomberg. “Good climate-related disclosure standards exist. While some firms disclose using these standards as guidance, most don’t include them in their financial filings. That’s what is unique about the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures – while we are building off existing efforts, the recommendations we’re developing are specifically for inclusion in financial filings. We want to help institutionalise consideration of climate-related financial issues at the board and senior management level – and within the financial community.” Taskforce member and Global Head of Sustainable Business and Finance at Bloomberg, Curtis Ravenel 03The communication gap Communication is a critical part of the sustainability agenda, but very few companies have so far hit on a narrative that’s clear and compelling enough for mainstream investors to take note. Even companies’ own investor relations teams often don’t see the point. There are already some notable exceptions, though. At ABB, the Swedish-Swiss power and automation technologies company, senior leaders have made it clear that sustainability is core to everything the company does, including financial relationships. Investor relations plays a key role in making sure ABB investors understand and are up-to-date on things like value creation and sustainable revenue and profit generation. 04The policy gap The policy framework is skewed towards conventional investments. Big shifts in the rules and incentives governing financial markets are needed, both nationally and internationally, to encourage more investors to choose sustainable investing instead. The UNEP’s Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System is doing its bit to try and speed up the transition to a green economy through policy. The goal is to find best practice financial market policies and regulatory innovations that can make a sustainable financial system a reality faster. 05The leadership gap Significant progress is never possible without leadership, and the investment situation is no different. Where are the outspoken leaders whose foresight and moral responsibility can inspire a definitive shift towards sustainable investing? Recently there have been a few glimmers of this type of leadership within the financial sector itself. At the Bank of England, Mark Carney has advocated for tougher corporate disclosure standards to help investors gauge climate change risks. And Larry Fink at BlackRock wrote to SP500 CEOs imploring them to focus on long-term value creation. These are, so far, the exception. But there’s every reason to believe that a much more significant shift on the investment gap should be possible within another few years. Better conversations happening at higher levels could create a positive feedback loop and a decisive momentum. The question is: who will step up to really lead this process and define what comes next? Will the new leaders emerge from the finance industry, the investment community or the policy world? Whoever they are, a significant opportunity awaits.
  • 28. 25 FLIPPINGTHE SCRIPTCOULDBRING SUSTAINABLEINVESTING INTOTHEMAINSTREAM CONVERSATION. QAWITHPETERZOLLINGER, HEADIMPACTRESEARCH ATGLOBALANCEBANK Huw Maggs: What do you think are the big gaps at the moment between the sustainability agenda and mainstream finance? Is this about communication, metrics or leadership? Peter Zollinger: I would say that there is actually a bigger gap at play here, and it’s one that if bridged has the potential to address many of the underlying challenges you refer to. It’s the gulf that exists today between the mainstream discussion on the macroeconomy by politicians, economists, investors and others, and the narrative around global sustainable development challenges. Apart from a few isolated examples, these two conversations rarely connect – and they need to. HM How can the two sides of this discussion become more integrated in their thinking? PZ There’s an opportunity to flip the sustainable development conversation on its head. Instead of asking how economies and markets need to change in order to align with big environmental and social challenges, we should really be asking how in solving these big challenges we can support wider economic growth. Now is a great time to have that kind of conversation. There’s a real window of opportunity. We have a global economy that’s not doing well. People are desperately looking for investment opportunities that bring some level of return in a zero interest environment, without excessive risk. Federal reserves and national banks are pumping money into the market with little to no success. At the same time we have this other world opening up around the climate change conversation, the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN’s Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System. Put these two things together, and the timing couldn’t be better for major change. HM When you talk about flipping the conversation, what does that look like in practice? PZ I think it can happen in many different ways. It’s really about asking the right questions. So for example: how can climate change solutions play a role in addressing slowing growth in China? How can the SDGs provide a lens of opportunity for growth and job creation in Europe? How could monetary policy support sustainable development challenges in ways that get economies going again? It’s not necessarily about having all the answers to these questions, it’s about getting these sorts of questions into the mainstream conversation. Flipping the script at this level could bring sustainable investing into the mainstream conversation at a lot of different levels. By starting at the top, we could see a knock-on effect as these conversations make their way into boardrooms, investment mandates and everyday exchanges between investment banks and their biggest clients. Then we might start to see all sorts of other gaps closing as well.
  • 29. 26 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER THEIMPLEMENTATIONGAP Lots of businesses have a plan for a more sustainable future. The hard part is making it real. Alexandra Palt, Chief Sustainability Officer at L’Oréal, talks to Salterbaxter’s Nigel Salter about going beyond the big ideas and headlines to drive business transformation through its sustainability programme, Sharing Beauty With All. THEIMPLEMENTATIONGAP: HOWL’ORÉALISSTEPPINGUP 01 Approaching sustainability as an opportunity to transform the business, with full support of the CEO. 02 Making it inspirational for employees and quickly rolling out practical tools. 03 Focusing on the ‘little wins’ that add up to big change.
  • 30. 27 Nigel Salter: Tell me a bit about the early days after the launch of Sharing Beauty With All and how you built the focus on the way it should be implemented. Alexandra Palt: Well, to be honest, our biggest fear in working through all the processes and targets of the new commitments was always that it might get seen as just a sustainability framework that is nice to have, but not central to the main business strategy. So we were quite obsessive about ensuring that senior management focused on what this would mean in practical terms and how it would change the business. We knew that our mission was to get this into the bloodstream and not to be something alongside the business. NS So how was it all received and how did you achieve what you were aiming for? AP It’s essential to find a way to work in the same direction as the company culture and to work from the inside as otherwise you create too many barriers. It all becomes a process of culture change but you achieve more change by working with the grain of the culture than against it. So we went through a series of steps that were key to moving from awareness to action. I think it’s true to say that we didn’t have these specific steps planned out in sequence at the time and they were running all alongside each other at different moments. STEP01The first step was really all about building awareness within our management and our brands. We helped them to understand the changes taking place in consumer demands and patterns, the facts about resource constraints and long-term risks, and also the opportunities that brands have to use this agenda in ways that support and drive the brand proposition and sales. This is the sort of information that they work with every day, so we needed to make sure we provided insights that helped and supported rather than more challenges and problems. STEP02Step two was in two parts. We knew that we needed to have a beautiful branded programme that people within L’Oréal would look at and, to a degree, fall in love with and see as aspirational. This was the power of the Sharing Beauty With All idea and also the look of the way it was all presented. This was actually crucial to winning the hearts of the people inside. The second part was to back the beauty up with practical tools – workshop toolkits, analysis tools, data to support research – made available super fast so that everyone could start working with the programme and the targets and get it into their everyday business thinking as fast as possible. STEP03Step three was again a cultural point at L’Oréal that meant that the programme took root quickly beyond the corporate centre. Our culture is very entrepreneurial and so this meant that once the brands started seeing the potential of Sharing Beauty With All they started taking it all forward by themselves, taking the initiative and making it their own. This approach, where people don’t wait to be given direction or to be set rules, meant that we moved far faster than a top-down approach could achieve. Our culture meant that as soon as people ‘got it’ they didn’t need any more encouragement – they went and started working with it.
  • 31. 28 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER Otherwise it’s too easy for the regions to see this as another ‘corporate centre’ programme to put in place – and in some places ‘sustainability’ is really not recognised as an agenda at all. So in countries with issues around poverty and development, it might make most sense to focus on responsible sourcing of raw materials and job creation/ security. Whereas, in a country like Japan the biggest issue is recycling. So each local country has been allowed to ask ‘What makes most sense for us? What will help with our license to operate? What will help us drive more success?’ NS And so what do you see as the biggest achievements of the implementation programme so far? Your big progress on carbon and palm oil? AP No, strangely we actually see those as relatively easy areas to make progress and they make the big headlines but are probably not the best proof of our transformation. I think the biggest achievements are the many thousands of wins we have every day. These are less glamorous but it means that every decision and process at L’Oréal now has sustainability considered in some way and every person is being touched by Sharing Beauty With All. New Product Development is the core of our business and sustainability is now central to it. That’s a real transformation. Beyond that I think there are now two new emerging pieces that are likely to be our biggest impact achievements. The first is the product assessment tool that we have taken two years to develop. We believe this will underpin all our progress to date, as it will mean that every single one of our products will be assessed across a full range of environmental and social assessment criteria. We have worked with experts and stakeholders from around the world to develop this and we have integrated the latest insights on science and subjects like planetary boundary thinking. This tool will drive scale on sustainability even further and faster. STEP04And the fourth step was all about leadership. A lot has been said about this in different organisations, and I’m sure it can vary a lot, but I can only speak to the power of having the CEO fully committed and leading from the front on this. Jean-Paul Agon led the communications and made clear from the start that this was all about business transformation. He would mention our commitments at every single executive meeting, and it’s important to underline that performance against our Sharing Beauty With All targets is now a part of the bonus and incentive scheme across the business. NS What about rolling out regionally and in different country cultures. Has that been difficult? AP I would say that there is one overarching trend that has helped us with this – the move towards more natural cosmetics. While it’s not exactly the same issue of course, this has helped to create a more receptive conversation. Beyond that, you have to approach things very differently from country to country and actually from brand to brand. At each country level, we’ve needed to work with and make a feature of the local differences in focus and taste.
  • 32. 29 The second big achievement that we are getting very excited about is the work we are doing to go beyond the ‘less harm’ approach. We want to move from fewer towards no impacts in our industrial activity – carbon neutral, no water, zero waste – and onwards to measurable positive impact. Our long-term vision is the restoration of ecosystems and we already have initiatives running in different countries on shea butter and rice where we are seeing carbon gains and the restoration of ecosystems. NS And what about working with your suppliers? Have they been able to respond to your transformation fast enough? AP They are of course integral to this. We were very lucky in that the supply chain was already very well managed, but we have enhanced our approach by making sustainability one of the key selection criteria for a supplier. We also provide self-evaluation and learning tools to all suppliers to help them work to our guidelines. It means that they are now pushing us as much as us pushing them. NS Where next on this journey? What does L’Oréal want to tackle and make reality next? AP Three simple things. The first is consumer communication. We want to play a big role in the challenge of helping consumers to make different, better choices and to see value and aspiration in sustainability. Second, disruptive innovation. We see big changes coming in areas like packaging and in the evolution of beauty routines. This will be very exciting. And finally, positive impact. I think the role and expectation of business is changing and the most successful companies in the future will be those that are most positive in their impact, not just those that harm the least. And this will become measured and proven – so there will be no hiding place. And at L’Oréal, we want to be one of the companies leading the way on this.
  • 34. 31 THEHUMANRIGHTSGAP Human rights have moved further up the corporate agenda in recent years, though most companies are still trying to find a path to tangible progress. But we could be arriving at a turning point – when business shifts to seeing human rights as an opportunity, not just as a risk – says Salterbaxter’s Arabella Bakker. Richard Karmel, London Managing Partner at Mazars UK, also gives insight into how business can assess potential risks. THEHUMANRIGHTSGAP: HOWBUSINESSCANSTEPUP 01 Assess the salient human rights issues Take a people-first (not business-first) approach to evaluate impacts. Look at the scale, scope and the remediability of impacts. 02 Engage stakeholders Get out and talk to all the relevant stakeholders and rights holders. For example: NGOs, communities, workers, consumers and supply chain partners. 03 Identify and activate the opportunities for change Find the opportunities for your company. This is about policies, operational changes and outcomes. 04 Report on human rights Develop the right level of reporting to meet stakeholder expectations. This could include a standalone human rights report, or a dedicated section in the annual or sustainability report. Shortly after the launch of the UN Guiding Principles on Business Human Rights in 2011, John Ruggie, the UN’s Special Representative, told a journalist from Business Ethics: “It’s important to keep in mind that the principles are principles. They’re not a toolkit. You don’t take it off the shelf and plug it in and get an answer.” And therein lies both the opportunity and the challenge. Business has often struggled to make an honest assessment of its impact on human rights. In fact, it’s not uncommon for ‘human rights’ to appear as a single issue on a company’s materiality matrix, bearing no reflection of the breadth and complexity of the underlying issues. After all, human rights intricately interlinks with issues such as sourcing, working conditions, labour rights, pollution and water scarcity. Whether by design or out of inexperience, it has sometimes seemed as if human rights is simply too big a topic for some companies to probe.
  • 35. 32 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER WHY DOES THIS MATTER NOW? We are at a tipping point. The tide is beginning to change internationally with the advent of soft law, voluntary frameworks and public rankings, putting pressure on business to face up to its impact on human rights and to report with greater transparency. This is no longer a cause driven solely by NGOs and activists. Rather, human rights is moving firmly onto the agenda of senior business leaders in functions such as finance and risk. Here are just a few reasons why: • The UN Guiding Principles reporting framework • The EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive • The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 • The US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2015 • The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (piloted in 2016). Never before has there been such a momentum of focus on human rights issues, engaging areas of the business that have the power and influence to accelerate meaningful and lasting change. CHANGING MINDSETS Human rights has often lazily been seen as something that rests deep within the supply chain of large, multinational corporations with operations in developing countries. This mindset needs to change if business – including companies of all shapes and sizes – is to respond to the changing expectations of lawmakers, civil society and corporate peers. One of the strengths of the new UN Guiding Principles reporting framework is the focus on salient human rights issues. This means evaluating the business’s impact on human rights – not the impact of human rights on the business. This is a subtle but significant shift in business’s understanding of the relationship between the two. Take for example a technology company. Its salient human rights issues might include conflict minerals and data privacy (potential risks to the business) as well as freedom of expression (an opportunity for significant social impact). The principle of salience is invaluable in helping us understand and evaluate where the gap can be closed between business benefit and positive social impact. And the former should no longer be overstated at the expense of the latter. THENEWREPORTINGFRAMEWORK IDENTIFIESTHREEFACTORSCOMPANIES SHOULDLOOKATTOIDENTIFYTHEIR SALIENTHUMANRIGHTSISSUES: SCALE,SCOPE,ANDREMEDIABILITY.
  • 36. 33 The new reporting framework identifies three factors to help companies identify their salient human rights issues. The first is scale – the gravity of the human rights impact and how much someone’s enjoyment of the right may be set back by the company’s activities. The second is scope – the number of people who could experience a negative impact. And the third is remediability – how easy it is for the impact to be righted. THE OPPORTUNITY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Human rights assessment should not become a mea culpa. Too often (and for reasons not unfounded), the relationship between business and human rights has been viewed with a degree of culpability. However, just as business has shifted from seeing sustainability as a burden to an opportunity, so too do human rights present business with the possibility of showing leadership and generating positive social impact. present sufficient guidance and frameworks for individual companies to take control of their human rights impact and to show leadership. The topic of human rights is firmly on the corporate agenda for the foreseeable future. We anticipate that the expansion of the UN Guiding Principles reporting framework database and the release of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark will help to nudge more companies into action. Large or small, national or international, now is the time to view human rights not just as a potential risk to the business, but as an opportunity to create positive social impact – and in so doing to help close the gap between business and society. Some companies undertake human rights impact assessments as part of the risk management process. That’s an approach which can help companies build resilience to risks while also identifying opportunities to drive positive change and create shared value for business and for society. Identifying and reporting on human rights has rarely been an easy task for business. Companies have been caught on the back foot, coming under fire for violations, poor governance and slow responses to crises. Yet the current momentum presents business with the opportunity to get on the front foot. There may not be an off-the-shelf toolkit for how to do this, but the UN Guiding Principles and other developments QA WITHRICHARDKARMEL, LONDONMANAGINGPARTNER,MAZARSUK Arabella Bakker: To explain the concept of salience, which activities of a business – or supply chain – could pose the greatest risk to people? Richard Karmel: To address this simple question, you don’t only look for risks to the business; your starting point should be a thorough search for any possible risks to people. Only by starting with a people-first approach will you ensure all your risks are covered. In the mining industry, for example, the obvious risks might be health and safety (workers getting injured), and community and environmental impact (putting waste back into rivers), but a less obvious risk could be the use of local military trained security who may pose the greatest risk to people. In the agricultural industry in Africa, a salient risk might be child labour, while a less obvious risk might be the possible abuse of workers transporting the product. These salient areas where human rights are most at risk are the same areas that, if neglected, could have an enormously negative impact on your business.
  • 37. 34 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER What’s interesting is that most organisations seem to be starting to realise this and are asking ‘how?’ rather than ‘why?’. This feels similar to a shift that happened a while back with sustainability generally, when companies and their leaders seemed to suddenly change from resisting to simply accepting and focusing on how to address the challenges practically. So, the outlook is positive for those that want step out of the comfort zone. But as we’ve seen, there are a lot of gaps out there that need to be bridged – and we know we’ve only scratched the surface. And as before, for the most part there aren’t big magic bullets or simple solutions. It’s all about mending the gaps one small idea, conversation or action at a time. SO,WHETHERIT’SCALLEDTHESHIFT FROMMINDINGTOMENDINGTHEGAP, ORRADICALENGAGEMENTAND CONNECTIONWITHSOCIETY, THEPOINTISCLEAR.THEGREATEST OPPORTUNITIESFORBUSINESSARE INTHESPACETHATREQUIRESACTIVE INVOLVEMENT,MINDSETCHANGE ANDINSOMECASES,MODELCHANGE.
  • 38. 35 Got two minutes? Grab a pen and list five gaps that your business needs to mend. Consider how close – or far – your business currently is from the needs and demands of society as a whole. What would it take to genuinely mend the gap? Jot down any ideas that occur to you. Then consider sharing your thoughts with a colleague or collaborator. It could be the start of something important. WHERE AREYOUR GAPS? HELPUS FILLIN THEGAPS 01 02 03 04 05 Leadership gap 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 INTEGRATION GAP How integrated is your sustainability strategy with your business strategy? BEHAVIOUR GAP How engaged are your employees on sustainability? INFORMATION GAP How transparent are you with customers on sustainability performance? MARKETING GAP How well are your marketing and sustainability teams aligned? INVESTMENT GAP Are you articulating the business value of sustainability to mainstream investors? HUMAN RIGHTS GAP How are you doing on addressing human rights? OTHER GAPS What are the other significant gaps with society?
  • 39. 36 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER ABOUTUS Salterbaxter is the leading international sustainability strategy and communications consultancy. We help companies and brands Step Up to the changing relationship between business and society. We combine smart strategy, sharp insights and creativity to help businesses succeed. Whether it’s communicating to investors or opinion formers, engaging employees  or changing consumer behaviour, our work delivers for our clients in three key dimensions: 01 PURPOSE Creating, defining, understanding and building more purposeful organisations, strategies, brands and communications. 02 PERFORMANCE Strategies to drive better performance and communications to make this performance  transparent and trusted. 03 TRANSFORMATION Helping to find the new models and drive the changes needed to fulfil the new contract between business and society. Samuel Griffin-Flynn samuel.griffin-flynn@salterbaxter.com Tel +44 (0)20 7229 5720 82 Baker Street London, W1U 6AE Olivia Sprinkel olivia.sprinkel@salterbaxter.com Tel +1 646 500 7906 14th Floor 375 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 salterbaxter.com @salterbaxterMSL 36 DIRECTIONS 2016  SALTERBAXTER Contact us:
  • 40. ABOUTDIRECTIONS: Directions, now in its fifteenth year, is widely viewed as the leading annual publication on trends in sustainability and communications. Salterbaxter also produces supplements and events on key topics throughout the year. Designed by Salterbaxter MSLGROUP. Copyright © Salterbaxter MSLGROUP. Directions is a registered trademark of Salterbaxter MSLGROUP. Printed by CPI Colour. CPI Colour are ISO14001 certified,CarbonNeutral®, Alcohol Free and are FSC® Chain ofCustodycertified. Printed on Splendorgel EW which is manufactured using ECF pulp and is FSC® certified. ABOUTDIRECTIONS Directions, now in its sixteenth year, is widely viewed as the leading annual publication on trends in sustainability and communications. Salterbaxter also produces supplements and events on key topics throughout the year. Designed by Salterbaxter MSLGROUP. Copyright © Salterbaxter MSLGROUP. Directions is a registered trademark of Salterbaxter MSLGROUP. Printed by CPI Colour. CPI Colour are ISO14001 certified,CarbonNeutral®, Alcohol Free and are FSC® Chain ofCustodycertified. Printed on Splendorgel EW which is manufactured using ECF pulp and is FSC® certified. 2013 Authentic? 2001 Trends in CSR reporting 2005 Best in show of this year’s crop 2009 Mapping the landscape of European CR 2013 Authentic? 2001 Trends in CSR reporting 2005 Best in show of this year’s crop 2009 Mapping the landscape of European CR 2014 Getting under the surface 2002 Trends in CSR reporting 2006 Is CR in your blood? 2010 The Innovation Edition 2014 Getting under the surface 2002 Trends in CSR reporting 2006 Is CR in your blood? 2010 The Innovation Edition 2015 The rise of science 2003 Trends in CSR reporting 2007 Cutting through the noise of the climate change debate 2011 Opportunity in the new age of uncertainty 2015 The rise of science 2003 Trends in CSR reporting 2007 Cutting through the noise of the climate change debate 2011 Opportunity in the new age of uncertainty 2016 Mind the gap 2004 Trends in CSR reporting 2008 Sustainability gets tough 2012 Profits from purpose 2016 Mind the gap 2004 Trends in CSR reporting 2008 Sustainability gets tough 2012 Profits from purpose CBP0005330610162129
  • 41. 82 Baker Street London, W1U 6AE Tel +44(0)20 7229 5720 salterbaxter.com @salterbaxterMSL