2013 SB Issues in Focus

Throughout 2013 we're pleased to continue our Issues in Focus editorial series. Each Issue is guest-edited by a leading member of our community (see our Issues in Focus archive for a list of topics and guest editors), and offers a year-round look at some of the key topics, challenges and opportunities for brands leading the shift to a prosperous future. Expect plenty of great content, as well as opportunities to engage in conversation with both subject-matter experts and your peers. Issues in Focus archives remain part of our library and offer a terrific tool for researching best practices in sustainable brand-building as your needs change.  

If you have expertise in any of these areas and would like to submit content or are interested in sponsoring an Issue, please use the webform to the right to contact us.

Confirmed Editorial Topics & Editors

Waste Not: Striving for Net Positivity

Guest editors:
Lewis Perkins, Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute
Jenni Baker, Goodwill Industries

In order to achieve true sustainability, we must strive for net-positive processes that render waste obsolete. This Issue in Focus, we chronicle the inspiring momentum taking place in many areas in the march to eliminate waste, through case studies involving innovative solutions (e.g., industrial symbiosis) and stakeholder engagement around diverting and reducing the items and materials that we discard.

The Circular Economy: Driver of Business Model Innovation and Social Good

Guest editor:
Adam Werbach, Yerdle

We cover the broad range of radical economic and business-model innovations emerging, through which both startups and some of the top global brands are rethinking the future of business and creating new economic, environmental and social benefits.

Communicating Sustainability

Guest editors:
David Willans, Futerra
Thomas Kolster, author of Goodvertising

From our perspective, "brand" is who you are, what you do, how you do it — and then, how you communicate it. With this Issue In Focus, we examine how today's leading brands are innovating in the area of sustainability communications — through thought-provoking ads; memorable and creative mission marketing and social media campaigns and other successful stakeholder engagement platforms, these brands are transforming buzzwords such as "transparency" and "authenticity" into tomorrow's status quo. 

Innovations in Packaging Design

Guest editors:
Katherine O'Dea, GreenBlue
Charlie Sheldon, CCA
Chris Sherwin, Seymourpowell

We will highlight some of the breakthroughs in packaging design — particularly, ways in which designers, engineers, R&D, scientists and entrepreneurs are approaching the design of more sustainable packaging solutions, and the materials, systems and processes that inform these efforts.

View the call for content!

Activating Sustainability: Driving Behavior Change

Sponsored by:  

Guest editor:
Sally Uren, Forum for the Future

Shifting to a sustainable economy requires a new kind of brand-consumer partnership. As consumers begin to vote with their dollars for more innovative products and services that both delight the purchaser and support the long-term health of society, they help create competitive advantage for those brands that best deliver. Getting there requires convincing less conscious consumers that they can have their cake and eat it too (drive positive change and indulge their needs), and helping them learn how to choice-edit for the best personal, planetary and societal impact. This month we explore the latest models supporting a shift toward sustainable consumption (collaborative consumption, dematerialization), and ways in which brands are engaging consumers to encourage more conscious, less wasteful behaviors. 

Check out last year's Issue in Focus.

Retail Innovation

Guest editor:
David Ian Gray, DIG360 

Exploring how the organizations who curate so many of our goods and services — whether online, or via bricks and mortar — are helping drive shift to more sustainable consumption. Case studies highlight inventive new business models (e.g., product > service, consumer symbiosis) and more.

Stay tuned for updates! 

Information Technology and Data as Platforms for Sustainable Innovation

Guest editor:
Bart King, Cleantech Communications

Continuing the innovation theme, we'll focus on emerging technologies and big data as platforms for profitably delivering social good. We'll highlight how information technology is helping to green established sectors (e.g. IBM's Smarter Planet initiative, the "Internet of Things") and individual behaviors (the "quantified self"), where it has enabled new sustainable markets and services to emerge, and the processes that contribute to the innovation and adoption of IT and big data for sustainable purposes.

Check out last year's Issue in Focus.

The New Metrics of Sustainable Business Success

Guest editors: 

Bill Baue, sustainability architect
R. Paul Herman and Nick Gower, HIP Investor 

Sharing the latest in leading-edge thinking, action and results of new metrics that link to sustainable business value, from thought leaders and change makers from a variety of industries. We will showcase new, implementable business strategies and examples of new metrics in practice.

Check out last year's Issue in Focus.

Supply Chain Sustainability

Creating efficient, healthy, resilient, and transparent supply chains is central to a sustainable brands story. Here are case studies and solutions to help you on your way.

Check out last year's Issue in Focus.

The Science of Sustainability

Exploring advances in natural sciences that are helping to shape business and sustainability - green chemistry, bio-based materials and fuels, GMOs — a remarkable set of innovations, market drivers and barriers to growth in the realm of benign design. 

Check out last year's Issue in Focus.

Employee Education and Engagement

Nothing can convey your brand like your employees, so getting them aligned around your sustainable brand platform pays dividends across several vectors. In addition to strengthening the integrity of your brand, purpose-driven brands generate excitement, loyalty, creativity, productivity and ultimately profits. We explore some outstanding stories and creative strategies and tools for engaging your team in building your market-leading sustainable brand.

Check out last year's Issue in Focus.