SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights July 21, 2015

We think the Sustainable Brands annual conference is one of the “must attend” gatherings of sustainability managers and service providers.  This year’s theme was “How Now,” with focus on “how” companies can support, strengthen and innovate their brands [for sustainability] – “now!” (This was the organizations’ 15th annual conference.) 

Outstanding experts in branding and related fields share their wisdom and experience.  The focus of this week’s Top Story, as originally published on the Huff Post platform, is: Sustainability is not what your brand says/it is what it does.  Author Karen Monson, Senior Director of Global Citizenship and Sustainability at pharma company Janssen, shares her perspectives on the conference.  She focuses on a graphic used by author Denise Hohn – “A Brand is What You Do and How You Do It” and expands on the theme.

Janssen, she explains, explores new ways to address sustainability for people, planet and its business.  Partnering as a “big company” with smaller, emerging healthcare companies, Janssen encourages these incubating entities to innovate. Janssen also invests in the local communities. Conferences like those staged by Sustainable Brands, she writes, helps her to learn about best practices, trends, and provide inspiration.  But returning to the home office, she observes, you have to take action on purpose-driven issues…a brand is about what you do / not what you say.  And she asks, what does your brand do?

This is an insightful article worth reading.  Our view:  The brand is the logo, in ancient Greek language, meaning the “sign,”, the “word,” what goes before us to market and represent the values of our enterprise, to remind prospects and customers of the trust in our product or service, and the brand is an important part of motivating people (to follow, to buy, to be loyal to the brand).
 

This is just a sample of some of the articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links. Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of July 21, 2015