It's about engaging community action, and by that, taking things beyond online communities and channeling young people's entrepreneurial minds towards ideas with social benefits. It's the principle of online sharing of successes to inspire real-world action that works well in our areas of business: energy efficiency projects, introducing electric cars to fleets, and improving product standards.
Good news stories can be sidelined in debates around energy and climate change, so the positive approach is encouraging. Undoubtedly, though, the presence of huge companies in the Collectively project - others include Nestle and Coke's rivals PepsiCo - will certainly raise eyebrows. That said, it's clear that many of the world's giant companies are making strides to improve the sustainability of what they do; realising that the bottom line, innovation, and 'green' are pretty solidly aligned.
Renewable energy in particular is becoming a much more familiar part of business practice. Furniture giant IKEA is investing EUR1.5billion in renewable energy, as well as energy and resource efficiency work. Then it's pushing solar panels in-store, backing up its corporate belief that its customers are more concerned about sustainability issues than the norm. Whether intentional or not, 1.5billion is also the company's projected amount of customers by the end of the decade.
That is a huge amount of resource churning through one company, so it will be interesting to see the numbers in terms of carbon emissions and materials used six years down the line and beyond. In the States, two more corporate giants, DuPont and Proctor & Gamble, are rolling out the use of cellulosic ethanol, derived from the waste of plant products in a zero carbon net process, in their washing products. This will slowly replace corn-based ethanol - a product that has been increasingly viewed as not a long-term sustainable option. Current scale is not all that grand, re-using 7,000 tonnes of agricultural waste a year, but the potential is certainly there.
Collectively.orgCSRengaging young peopleethanolforum for the futuregreen businessIKEAJonathan Porrittrenewable energysustainabilitysustainable businesswashing powderProducts and technologyGreen strategy and politics
