This piece was originally published on Marc Stoiber's blog. It was co-written by Brad Bate, Senior Analyst at GreenOrder, and Stephen Linaweaver.

This piece also ran in Sustainable Brands, and Fast Company's Co.Exist blog.

Perception vs. reality has always been a major source of tension for brands. And sustainability, once heralded as the next big brand advantage, has only made things worse.

It’s simple, really. If you promise people your soap will make them smell nice and it doesn’t, they’ll get over it. If you falsely promise your soap doesn’t have palm oil from orangutan-displacing plantations, people aren’t nearly as forgiving.

Brands like Patagonia provide shining examples of what can happen when you effectively align perception and reality. Their values, their brand, and their actions all convey the same sustainability message. Using this trifecta to engage more deeply with customers may have contributed to the fact that, during the worst of the recession, their sales continued to climb.

But the Patagonias of the world are few and far between.

This point is illustrated by studies like MapChange and the Sustainability Leadership Report.

This article was written by Jill Bunting, Analyst at GreenOrder and Devraj Banerjee, Associate at GreenOrder.

Supply chain sustainability is a key part of a company’s overall environmental innovation journey. Due to mounting stakeholder pressure and competitive forces, companies increasingly need to address environmental concerns like emissions, waste and water – as well as social priorities like the right to organize, slavery, and diversity in their supply chain. Advances in technology, the rise of social media, and the rigor of lifecycle analysis have made it easier and more important than ever before for companies to understand the environmental and social performance of supply chains – and communicate about it effectively.

But marketing progress towards supply chain sustainability represents an additional challenge beyond making supply chains more sustainable.  And it means a lot more than just advertising. Getting supply chain marketing right requires applying general green marketing best practices to the circumstances unique to your company and supply chain. While a nuanced approach is critical, there are some clear “dos” and “don’ts” that form the guardrails for effective supply chain marketing.

A winning supply chain marketing approach starts with making genuine progress improving a supply chain. This is the foundation of authentic supply chain communications. Your chosen approach to improving your supply chain will depend on where you currently are in the environmental innovation journey, what your overall sustainability goals are, and how you can effectively engage your suppliers.

Once you are ready to communicate real progress, you’ll want to ask yourself some important questions and follow some basic guidelines.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I'm writing to let you know that I will be stepping down as President of GreenOrder at the end of this year.

I founded GreenOrder in 2000 with the goal of helping business leaders see that environmental innovation is both the right thing to do and key to long-term success.  Over the last 11 years, we have been privileged to work with more than 100 enterprises across nearly every industry.  The work has been more gratifying than I could have imagined, and I've learned so much from so many of you.  Thank you!

This blog was written by Daniel Winokur, Leader at LRN and manager of the EcoStrategy Alliance.

Creating a workplace that values and supports sustainability isn’t easy. If you’ve run into trouble, you’re not the only one. When working with our partners, we see many sustainability departments initiating employee engagement programs seeking to deepen sustainability values and formalize them into business-supporting behaviors. But the truth is, many of these programs simply don’t work. They don’t pull the right levers to truly impact employee culture, so they lose out on behaviors that would reduce risk, increase productivity, and lower operating costs.

Every June, GreenOrder finds itself flooded with new talent from a range of top graduate programs. Here’s a look at how GreenOrder is continuing to attract a diverse range of sustainability experts.

Julia Abell joined the GreenOrder team as a summer associate from the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business.

Prior to business school, Julia worked at Eastern Research Group (ERG) as a contractor to several of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s climate and energy programs.  Before joining ERG, Julia was an AmeriCorps VISTA and Client Intake Associate at ACCION USA, a non-profit microfinance organization.  Julia also spent a summer interning at Southern Company in Research and Environmental Affairs.

Every June, GreenOrder finds itself flooded with new talent from a range of top graduate programs. Here’s a look at how GreenOrder is continuing to attract a diverse range of sustainability experts.

Michelle Lin joins GreenOrder as a summer associate from the University of Michigan where she is earning a dual MBA/MS from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Prior to joining LRN, Michelle held summer positions at IDEO where she worked to identify future product and service offerings for a utility's customers and at the Civic Consulting Alliance where she partnered with City departments to achieve the goals of the Chicago Climate Action Plan. In addition, she was formerly a consultant at the Corporate Executive Board and worked with Fortune 500 companies to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of their sales organizations.

Every June, GreenOrder finds itself flooded with new talent from a range of top graduate programs. Here’s a look at how GreenOrder is continuing to attract a diverse range of sustainability experts.
 
Lyle Morton joins GreenOrder’s Team as a summer associate. A student at both NYU’s Stern School of Business and Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Lyle brings a wealth of education and experience to GreenOrder and LRN.

By Andrew Shapiro

The clean-tech field is a decade old by some measures, which seems like a good time to take stock and ask: How are we doing?

I say "we" because, for more than a decade, I have advised large companies on clean tech, as well as green business generally, and I've been an early-stage investor in the sector. (By clean tech, I mean technologies that address resource and environmental challenges -- and I'm thinking mostly of new companies, though some large corporations are notably active in the space.)

In my view, success for clean tech means achieving scalable impact in terms of returns for both investors and the environment. By these standards, are we succeeding?