Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

A.M. Wars: Cola wars r so 20 minutes ago

A growing number of players in fast foods have decided breakfast is the way to get more of the consumer dollar.  The items on their breakfast menu can, like the McDonald's Egg McMuffin, become cult items.  My bet is on Taco Bell's burrito for the A.M.

So, where the promotional and media fun will be is in the A.M. wars.  Does Dunkin' have the edge over Wendy's and Starbucks?  That will be much more interesting than the tired Pepsi versus Coca-Cola wars.

I look at the battle plan for financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can ponder all that and plan out where you're going to break the fast Saturday morning.

Smartphones: Consumer Eco Apps

You asked for more on sustainability from technology reporter Bari Faye Siegel.  And she thanks you for all your email, especially the suggestions for future columns.

This week Siegel looks at smartphone apps for consumers. 

By Bari Faye Siegel

There was a time when you could spot a greenie in the crowd. They were the Birkenstock-wearing, self-described environmentalists. These days, to rephrase an oft-used saying, “we’ve seen the future and it is us.”

No longer tethered to trees, people who care about the environment are now on-the-go, smartphone in hand. That’s why eco apps for smartphones are becoming the fun, on-demand way for consumers to find the facts about and options for a green lifestyle. Best of all, they are very low cost applications and often free!

It’s no surprise that Earth 17’s Bill Roth called these apps the "revolutionary gun" for consumer sustainability. Since consumers customize which apps they want on their smartphones, they, it can be said, co-create their own unique approach to saving the planet. They own it. Likely then, they will protect and nurture it.

In the supermarket, using apps from startups Goodguide and Barco, consumers can scan barcodes to connect the dots on which products have the fewest negative impacts on the environment – and making choices accordingly. With AUG Living Goods, products can be scanned to determine if they are local or shipped in, consuming energy and increasing the CO-2 level.

Eventually, experts anticipate, there will be real-time links on those barcodes to third parties responding live to more detailed green questions. That takes sustainability even beyond iPhone’s innovative Siri. Research shows consumers are balking at all the meaningless-to-them information on packaging. They want to be able to zero in on the data important to them.

With app Green Outlet, consumers discover which appliances are draining the most energy as well as costing the most. With Solar PV Installer they can do those pre-smartphone calculations that were done on the back of an envelope about what it would cost to install solar and how much that would save in energy bills.

Green app developers have found a friend in Tokyo-based Fullcircle Innovations. The Japanese firm has created EcoAppsFree. Through that, users can download green apps and road-test them for 24 hours without cost. After the trial they can decide whether to keep them and pay a fee. The founder of iSleep Space reports that thanks to EcoAppsFree, within 24 hours, 15,000 in about 15 countries accepted the invitation to sample the app.

This is just the start. The statistics are eye-openers.  According to Gartner, smartphones will become the highest selling consumer electronic device in the world. Around the world, predicts the IDC, that will total 982 million sold by 2015. That’s about one-seventh the world’s population, penetrating developing economies. That means government, the private sector, and activists can provide green education directly, one-on-one, in emerging economies for little or no cost. There need be no sustainability gap between richer nations and poorer nations.

Given the dog-fight of competition between the iPhone platform from Apple and the Android from Google, it’s in the commercial self-interest of both to develop as many eco apps as possible, fast. The competitive tension exists for Apple to outdo Android on the unexpected.

Already, in terms of just being green companies, all the smartphone producers are pitted against each other. According to Newsweek’s recent Green Ranking, Apple is number two in the green world ranking for smartphones, just behind Nokia and Samsung, which tie for first place. Apple, however, is number one in smartphone market share.

Of course, each individual on Planet Earth must do his or her part. With smartphone in hand, environmental information is available – literally – on-demand.

These apps put the power into your employees hands – allowing them to get smart about sustainability, Now it’s time to focus on your company’s bottom line. And, as they say, there’s an app for that.

Building EKG,™ an energy and water saving application from Noveda Technologies of Branchburg, N.J., is the first in a series of mobile-based applications developed for business enterprises to better manage renewable energy production, energy consumption and water usage in real-time and will initially be available on Apple devices.

The Building EKG application is designed to help businesses access information anywhere and at any time, enabling key decision makers to make on-demand changes across multiple platforms and at multiple facilities, irrespective of location. This application combines the capabilities of Noveda’s suite of monitoring solutions (EnergyFlow Monitor, SunFlow Monitor®, and Carbon Footprint Monitor), giving an integrated view of all critical energy cost drivers, including electric, gas, steam, and oil, among others.

"With the launch of the Building EKG application, Noveda can deliver actionable intelligence on energy and water use not only instantaneously, but via multiple channels to our customers wherever they are located. This helps our customers to take immediate action to reduce their energy and water consumption and maximize renewable energy production,” said Joe Jacob, chief technology officer at Noveda.

In addition to being a technoloy writer Bari Faye Siegel is a technology writer and marketing consultant at Noveda Technologies.

You can reach Siegel at getitwritetoday@gmail.com.

 

Chevron & Ecuador: Also about another kind of green, as in alternative investment

Running 18 years, the environmental lawsuit Chevron has been battling in Ecuador has been called a soap opera.  Even pure greens can weary of the details.  At least, greens when used to refer to sustainability issues

There's also another kind of green, in which watchers are tireless.  That's the green, as in money.  Investing in commercial lawsuits has become the business of 40 funds around the world. One of them - Burford Capital in the U.K. - had invested $4 million in that Chevron suit, on behalf of the plaintiff.

Here, in today's post on financial-information powerhouse Motley Fool, I look at this alternative investment vehicle.

Brand Equity: The Sustainability Factor

You readers asked for more expert input on sustainability.  Here is an exclusive commentary for this blog by Bari Faye Siegel, a technology writer on clean energy. 

Branding & Sustainability

By Bari Faye Siegel

Honda’s brand value increased 28 percent and GE’s 17 percent because of their initiatives in sustainability.

See, Honda was ahead of the rest of the global auto industry in fuel-efficiency. GE created the Ecoimagination division which has been the corporation’s green driver. No surprise other major brand names, ranging from Procter & Gamble to Wal-Mart, also have made sustainability a priority.

 “Sustainability” can be defined in many ways. The most comprehensive and useful comes from the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. There, it’s defined as “a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks from economic, environmental and social developments.”

Bingo! That’s right on the money. Shareholder value is now determined directly and indirectly by the value of the brands. Interbrand and JP Morgan conducted a study which found that, on average, brands constitute more than a third of shareholder value.

Sustainability has become a key aspect of the brand because investors, global and national government regulators, environmental activists, and consumers recognize that it covers a lot. That “a lot” includes office operations, production ranging from raw materials to packaging, supply chain management, marketing, and distribution.

And, those translate into, first and foremost, the cost of doing business.

A survey by McKinsey Global this year found “this concern for costs replaces reputation as the most frequently chosen reason” for making sustainability a core value. The most obvious example is that energy-efficient processes and distribution significantly reduce expense. With a global downturn, expense is a matter of survival.

However, in this era when organizations “live in glass houses,” reputation is more and more important. No entity, including government and nonprofits, can risk being careless about impacts to planet earth. Take the controversy over the 18 billion disposable diapers used annually just in the United States. According to the Sustainability Institute, those wind up as 82,000 tons of plastic in landfills. Diverse forces, from Mommy Bloggers to actual diaper manufacturers, are searching for solutions.  

No surprise then, even luxury brands have responded to enhancing sustainability. They have done it in what differentiates them in the marketplace: packaging. That aspect of their marketing is the most polluting. In upscale cosmetics, both Estee Lauder and L’Oreal have addressed this. Paperboard, which is the best bet for green, is being more widely adopted in the luxury sector.

So, how is brand value calculated? At one time, branding was treated even by the bean-counters in major corporations as an intangible whose worth couldn’t be pinned down for the balance sheet. In the late 1980s, that began changing. Interbrand explains that financial value can be determined in a variety of ways. One method is to apply all the following five steps:  Market segmentation, Financial analysis, Demand analysis, Competitive benchmarking, and Brand value calculation.

With the growth of “personal branding” or the recommendation that individuals set themselves apart from others in professional life, sustainability will also be expected in how people work and live. It could come to be that a 90-imnute commute one-way by car with a sole driver will be perceived as unacceptable. The McMansion for the empty-nest couple will be, too.

Perhaps the best thing individuals and companies can do is mind their own business – literally. By monitoring and measuring individual commitment to sustainability, there is an increased chance that it will all add up to a meaningful end. Quite frankly, how could it not?

Sustainability will continue to reshape how business, nonprofits, government, and even individuals conduct themselves. Those not willing or able to keep reducing their negative impacts on planet earth will be labeled the “bad guys” – and treated as such.

In addition to being a technology expert, Bari Faye Siegel is marketing consultant at Noveda Technologies, a leader in real-time, web-based energy management, solar PV monitoring, and water management. 

Readers can reach Siegel at barifsiegel@gmail.com. 

 

 

 

Sustainability: BLOOMBERG NEWS adds coverage

A sign of our green times, BLOOMBERG NEWS has added a new section.  It will track what businesses are doing in sustainability, reports Chris Roush on THE MEDIA BRIEFING.

Whether it's brand equity and/or supply chain management, more businesses are convinced they can gain a competitive advantage through sustainability.

Sustainability: Google exits renewable energy

A sign of increasingly competitive times in high-tech, Google is exiting renewable energy. 

Reuters reports that this company once primarily focused on search and now taking on Facebook in social networking "has abandoned a ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal."  That line of business had started in 2009.  Along with renewable energy, it also quit its online encyclopedia service Knol.

Sustainability has matured into a sophisticated business niche, with its own evolving technologies, regulations, and competitive forces.  Players have to know what they are doing to survive and thrive.

 

Sustainability: No generation gap

We Baby Boomers created Earth Day. 

Our parents supported the war to end all wars by conserving resources.  They shortened skirts to free up material for the troops and grew their own vegetables so that more could be shipped to the battlefields.

Our grandparents came over on the boat from the old world with one change of clothes, if that.  They made that last, despite the harsh soaps.  Once they all could pool their funds to buy one 700-square-foot attached house, they planted trees which supplied plenty of pears and peaches.

In my memory bank - the extended family loved to tell those tales of both survival and patriotic frugality - there never has been a generation gap in sustainability.  Therefore, it's smart communications to present a mashup of Pre-Silent, Silent, Baby Boomer, X, and Y generations in photos and videos as well as as keynote speakers. 

Sustainability: Difficult for commercial landlords to tell their story

Sustainability is part of brand identity, a matter of cost control, and now, in major metro areas like New York and Washington D.C., a regulatory issue. 

The challenge, at least for commercial landlords, is how to tell their sustainability story to all the key constituencies: government, media, investors, lenders, and tenants.  In CNN MONEY, Alec Appelbaum describes how confused many landlords have become about the significance of what they are supposed to measure or benchmark.

Commercial owners are being mandated to report on energy usage in their buildings.  Fine.  Those numbers can give them insight on what's being consumed.  The next step would be to reduce that through conservation and retrofitting for more efficiency.  The business payoff would be lower cost. Energy is not cheap.  The public-interest one would be less of a burden on the old grid system. 

However, the rub is that this benchmarking is primarily geared to reduce carbon emissions.  The data about energy use, though, is not directly related to what the building's carbon footprint is.  Both landlords and regulators have been working on creating the relationship. 

Meanwhile, landlords need to frame their stories about sustainability to be informative and positive about the impacts on cost, the gird, and the overall environment. That entails making it one of sound business practices as well as corporate social responsibility.  The tone has to be confident, yet admit no one has all the answers or even the right questions on this one.

 

Green: Question Mark

Green has been the bright spot in communications, even for the glut field of writing.  Those of us who could master the concepts such as zero-energy buildings and dense-energy batteries for electric cars found ourselves with plenty of assignments.  The clients - and employers - tend to be smart.  That has been an added-value of working with the greens.  And, every organization has been recognizing the power of green branding.  GE demonstrated that in spades with Ecoimagination and Wal-Mart has been greening its global supply chain. 

Then solar manufacturer Solyndra, recipient of more than a half-million in loan guarantees, went bankrupt.  In a presidential campaign year, no surprise the party trying to get back into the White House has made that a high-profile issue.  To represent it at the coming Congressional hearing, Solyndra even has hired law firm McDermott Will for advice, reports THE BLOG OF THE LEGAL TIMES.

Jaws-dropped, we wait to see how much damage in terms of investor confidence will happen in the green sector.  Those businesses are capital-intensive.

Goodwill Stores: Brand to watch

Not too long ago, Goodwill was just that store which sells used high heels, dolls, lamps, and computer monitors with or without a PC.  Now, Goodwill is evolving into a brand. Since the brand has so much going for it, it's one to watch.

To begin with, Goodwill funds job training.  What mission is more on the money in this era of the growing number of chronically unemployed.  It's green, in that its 2400 retail outlets sell used items.  The prices are affordable so we new frugals have no guilt shopping again. 

 Today on television there was even a commercial for Goodwill.  The story line has a male there in search of something for the wife.  Yet there are so many wonderful items for sale that his cart winds up full of stuff for himself.