Perry Goldschein - Sustainability Strategy, Communications & Marketing

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CONSCIOUS CLICKS - The Blog

News and analysis on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder engagement, and Internet and other digital marketing and communications. You'll even get some very practical tips on these topics that you can put to immediate use!

March 10th, 2010

Is GE Missing An Opportunity?

By Beth Bengtson

GE’s Healthymagination campaign needs to be applauded for it’s ability in tying the company’s products to improving people’s personal health.  We can all relate to products that help improve our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

In one ad called “Beautiful”, the story centers on special moments in a couple’s life, the most important being when GEs Early Detection technologies help detect a wife’s cancer early, so it can be treated.  The campaign also includes a blog that furthers the wellness discussion while also touting the benefits of GE products.

Read the rest of this entry »

March 3rd, 2010

When CSR Stars Align

Aligning sustainability goals with organizational goals is essential for CSR success.

By SDialogue Staff

Measuring sustainability’s return on investment has always been challenging – especially for businesses that are bred in a “what’s the direct return?” environment.

And as CSR efforts become part of the DNA of some firms, carving out the costs as well as the benefits that directly relate to the sustainability aspects of those companys’ actions is becoming more difficult.

This is why it’s critical to align your company’s sustainability goals with that of the broader, corporate goals while also putting in place metrics based on that alignment. Without tying the sustainability goals to your overarching corporate goals, you’re setting yourself up for more challenges than necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

January 8th, 2010

Sustainability & CSR in 2010: Some Predictions

By Perry Goldschein

We’re only a week into the new year, but already I’ve seen a number of indications of where the year will go.  Here are some predictions — please enjoy with a large grain of salt (as you should with all predictions): Read the rest of this entry »

October 26th, 2009

Announcing the “S Contest” Results

Voting ended last Friday with approximately 2,000 total votes cast for our five finalists.  We’re thrilled with the level of participation. Thanks to everyone who took the time and placed a vote.

While we wish that we could help them all, the votes showed that National Association of Mothers’ Centers (NAMC) was the lucky winner.  We will have the pleasure of working with them for up to a two-month engagement worth $10,000 in services (and hope they will have fun working with us!).

Linda Juergens, Executive Director at NAMC, said “There is no way to underestimate how crucial a sustainability strategy is for organizations, particularly non-profits which are facing increasing challenges in the current economic environment.  The NAMC is thrilled to have this opportunity to work with a firm like SDialogue to accomplish our mission of supporting care giving work.”

Check our blog over the coming months, as we will report on how we were able to help NAMC.  Thanks again for your interest in the contest!

As a reminder, the five finalists – all very dynamic, worthy organizations – were:

  • icouldbe is a pioneer in the emerging online mentoring industry reaching young people who do not have access to quality educational resources, using a dynamic virtual learning environment to connect them to mentors who offer practical and individualized advice, information and expertise.
  • People Capital is an early-stage, socially-responsible firm that aims to address the funding gap between higher education costs and federal loans and grants – a $113 billion market.
  • National Association of Mothers’ Centers (NAMC) has a 35 year history of life-changing mother-to-mother support and connections addressing mothers’ unique needs and experiences within a unique culture of mutual respect. Our programs impact not just mothers, but children and families too.
  • Speak Shop. Speak Shop provides face-to-face Spanish tutoring via webcam with teachers in Guatemala and Nicaragua. Customers schedule lessons at their convenience and pay about $10 per one-hour lesson. Teachers gain business and technology skills while working at a fair wage as micro-entrepreneurs.
  • Sweetriot is an activist candy company based in New York City and is creating a sweet movement to FIX the world! Sweetriot sources and produces our cacao directly in Latin America and uses recyclable, reusable packaging which features emerging artists.

October 22nd, 2009

Social Media for Sustainability

I attended the Social Media for Sustainability conference organized by Justmeans in San Francisco on Monday. Along with hundreds of others who attended, I was excited to see a conference so laser-like in its focus on the intersection of two topics our firm seems to be addressing on a daily basis now.

The conference was designed to help answer such questions as: How should your company using social media to engage your customers, employees, activists, and other stakeholders online?  What are the best tools and platforms? How do you develop the right incentives for building community and keeping your community engaged? What is the ROI of social media and what metrics should your company be using?

While the conference didn’t answer all of these questions, many great insights were provided by both panelists and audience members from companies like Intel, Cisco, Nike and Disney, as well as Seventh Generation, Treehugger.com and TriplePundit.com.

Some major takeaways included:

  • Empowered by social media, customers, employees, activists, and other stakeholders are demanding far more from companies than ever before — with the power to affect and even define brands (e.g., United Breaks Guitars is closing in on 6 million views)
  • Social media helps co-create great ideas (e.g., MyStarbucks Idea)
  • Your brand is being discussed, whether or not you are part of the conversation — Google it, YouTube it, Twitter it and see for yourself (we’ve tried to stress this with clients ourselves — at the least, you should be “listening” in on the conversation with basic tools)
  • Sustainable brand leaders like Seventh Generation and Timberland are moving away from annual sustainability reports and towards more real-time storytelling and data — they’re looking for meaningful conversations (we’ve been helping clients with this type of activity for a while)
  • Leading brands are starting to crowd-source their efforts around sustainability
  • “‘Open companies are already performing some 30% more profitably than closed companies” (Dwayne Spradin, Innocentive) — “we” are smarter than “me”; but this requires a different mindset and culture than traditional or closed innovation — “culture eats strategy for lunch”
  • @katbaloo A good overview of Social Media Listening and Monitoring Tools as you think about tracking ROI: http://bit.ly/VBlmY

What’s been your experience with social media and sustainability?  Let us know!  More commentary at Twitter, of course (#justmeans).



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