For us, sustainability is simply about understanding the culture in which business operates.To do this, we look through a number of cultural lenses – fashion, art, music, food, films… and video games.

Now, I know what most of you are thinking: Sustainability + video games? A disproportionate number of video games – including hugely successful ones like Halo 3 (US$300 million revenue in its first week) and Grand Theft Auto 4 ($500 million in its first week) – are ‘murder simulators’, where you exercise you thumbs in ultra violent kill fests, right?

In many cases - yes, but it is also a hugely important industry that rakes in more money and - arguably as a result – now has more influence than Hollywood. It has a grip on the minds and hearts of millions of people and is a legitimate storytelling platform… it’s a medium that is going through a renaissance with acres upon acres of room to grow, so you can imagine how pleased I was to see read about Jason Rohrer, a video game programmer stationed in upstate new york, and particularly delighted to play his game – Gravitation(You can download it here).

It’s an extraordinary game – ridiculously simple, by contemporary standards. You – a character made up of 12 pixels – play ball with your son. The more you play, the greater your world becomes and the screen expands to reveal a ‘mario bros’ style platform above… jump up and your can reach the stars. These represent ideas, and once you reach them you head flames. Spend too much time collecting stars and you world shrinks, and when you descend to the lower level to play ball with your son again he’s not there anymore (this symbolizes the fact that he has grown up and moved on!). Spend too much time playing with the kid, and you don't get to fulfil your creative aspirations - or score points!

The point?? It’s about finding that balance between work and family. You don’t have to be a parent to understand this sustainability challenge – one that many of us tackle on a daily basis. In fact, 90% of North Americans ranked ‘Leading a balanced life’ as an important sustainability issue in the latest instalment of SHIFT.

Jason Rohrer – along with contemporaries such as Rod Humble and Ian Bogost – make up a 'new wave' of game developers keen on giving games more depth and purpose. Rohrer himself has been hired an ‘idea guy’ for Stephen Speilberg’s latest gaming creation.

In truth, I am not all surprised to see this shift. I have long been interested in the gaming industry - both as a gamer and cultural anthropologist, and with some purpose we asked respondents in our latest research, if they played or purchased video games. Crossed tabbed against a list of sustainability issues, you might be surprised at some of the findings. For North Americans who play video games almost every day:
-    ‘Feeling connected to my family, my friend and my community’ was important to 86% of everyday gamers;
-    ‘Pollution’ is considered a more important issue than global warming with 68% ranking it important compared with 59%;
-    67% of them believed ‘Being part of a better society’ was important to them;
-    to support the need for a game such as ‘Gravitation’ 86% of once a week gamers believed it was important to lead a balanced life; and finally
-    to punctuate the need for more depth and purpose in the games that are made, as many 62% of users believe ‘Higher purpose and spiritual contentment’ is an important issue.

I could go, there’s lot more, but the long and the short of it points toward the opportunity for mainstream gaming companies to create games with an equal measure of substance + style, safe in the knowledge that mainstream gamers (we have the data) want to be aware of the issues and are looking for a (gaming) life with some meaning.

Tragic, there’s no other word for it. A Wal-Mart Employee was trampled to death yesterday by a shrieking mob of shoppers desperate to make the most of the bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Ugly shopping scenes have become commonplace in most recent years but surely this is a shocking reminder that we - as a culture - need to revisit what is most important. Worse still, the NYT article noted that when shoppers were told they had to leave – that an employee had been killed - some people responded by yelling ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning’.

Terrible, terrible news… buoyed by the overall cultural shift to sustainability we are seeing in the marketplace, I am disappointed that people are still consumed with the notion that they need more stuff, regardless of the cost it has on others.

In a related story, in a Wal-Mart 15 miles away a customer sustained a cut on her leg when she was trampled by another crowd of overeager shoppers but she opted to finishing her shopping before filing the police report... I'd laugh, if it wasn't so sad!

Two months without a post and now two in two days… everything is changing today (see previous post)… and fittingly, it’s a post about Obama - and his Blackberry.

In an age where the infamously addictive device is commonly known as the ‘crackberry’, Obama is under pressure to give up his beloved Blackberry. The fear – according to aides – is anyone with the right technology will be able to track his movements and know his exact whereabouts, not to mention hack into his messages.

This poses a unique situation. On one hand, it’s one less thing for the president of the united states to have to manage and confiscating the device may make more time for a little (and I mean little) more personal sustainability. But on the other - and this is what Jonathan Freedland identified as unique in his guardian article – Obama’s Blackberry ‘represents a line out to the real world, a source of information - and casual communication with friends - that does not have to first pass through the filter of his advisers. Most of us would have more human contact if we gave up our BlackBerries: Obama may be a rare case of the reverse’.

Goodness, it’s been months since my last post… terrible, i'm usually the 'Blog Police' at work... oh well, thought I’d share this song with you… it’s by The Futureheads… not only is it a great song to get ready to before you head out for the night, but it’s got a great message… check out some of the lyrics:

‘We’ve never made a difference
But tonight it will be different
It opened up in front of us
And it can change for every one of us’.

Inspiration... it's everywhere!

We are not experts on governance, but we certainly know a thing or two about consumers & sustainability.

I read an article the other day… Andrew Winston commenting on what ‘compliance’ means in the contemporary landscape. The gist of the article? Though only a few companies have made green a core business strategy, most business execs appreciate the  need to do more than what the government is asking. Major brands such as Walmart & Home Depot are going above and beyond the regulated standards, and they are smart to do so…

Not only are they minimizing the fear and cost of say an expensive product recall (see BPA in baby bottles, phthalates and lead based paints in toys…) they are also going a long way to prove to another important stakeholder – the end user/ consumer – that they are socially responsible.In the latest installment of The SHIFT Report, we presented a list of areas companies could demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility and asked North Americans ‘For you to believe a brand is truly socially responsible, which if the following areas would you want to see responsible action taken by companies whose product or services you buy?’… a massive 70% of the General Population said ‘Exceeding expectations – going a step beyond what is required of companies by the law and by government regulation’.

Say what you like about big corporations (there’s plenty, I’m sure), but you can’t deny that their huge organizational force means they have the power to raise business standards. The real issue hinges on whether they will choose to exercise it.

In my last blog I wrote about the fact that Shell had their wrist slapped because of exaggerated claims in their advertising. I netted out on the fact that they really couldn’t afford to alienate an ever-savvy consumer with misleading claims and they would do well to bite the bullet, learn their lesson and move on. Well… looks like they are at it again, and now Shell are being accused of manipulating an independent environmental audit.

Apparently, Shell officials managed to persuade the auditors - AEA Technology - to disperse its findings throughout the report, rather than leaving them in one appendix. While also downplaying experts fears that continuous noise could have a detrimental affect on endangered whales, and questions about whether permits were sought before or after drilling began.

Now I know that your average consumer would rarely get their hands on such a report, let alone have the interest and time to sit down and go through it, but at a time when we are exposed to unprecedented levels of information and advocacy is crucial to a brand’s appeal it makes sense that brands of all sizes (not just those that have messed up in the past!) play a fair and honest game. Remember… today's consumers are looking at all touch points to determine whether a brand is socially responsible or not, AND not just their advertising - HA!

Here's a little known secret – my first job in ‘advertising’ was in the research department of the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Though most of the work at the non-government body is focused on responding to complaints from the public regarding misleading or offensive advertisements, the research dept’s role was far more proactive and focused on reviewing marketing materials for specific industries and determining how they fit within the advertising code of practice.

I bring up this story because I see that the ASA – in response to the sharp rise in complaints from the British public about different companies ‘green’ credentials – is currently revising the advertising code to take environmental issues into account. If I was still working there, that would be my job.

The latest high profile incident once again features Royal Dutch Shell - the second largest private sector energy corporation in the world. At the beginning of the year, Shell had its wrist slapped when one of its print ads - featuring flowers billowing out of factory chimneys instead of smoke – claimed, “We use our waste CO2 to grow flowers…” when in fact less than 0.5% of emissions were used for such purposes. Shell is once again learning the hard way, now that their latest ad has been rebuked on the grounds that the oil giant claimed that the controversial Tar sands project was ‘sustainable’.

The fact that a mega brand – and the agency they work with - is guilty of ‘green-washing’ is not so much the issue. The real issue – and we have talked about this before – is the fact that they are underestimating just how marketing savvy people are. Shell is a huge corporation, an oil company at that. We know from The SHIFT Report, people don't expect corporations, or individuals for that matter, to be perfect - no one is - but when it comes to the art of telling their story, they have to be honest.

If a corporation has its advertising pulled because they have made vague or blatantly inaccurate claims that is the least of their worries. It’s a busy marketplace, if a corporation continually fails to be honest, credible and specific about their social & environmental initiatives then their customers will simpy take their business elsewhere.

Ci's Sustainability Passion Index™ gathers more attention as Worldchanging sheds some light on the five clusters and further highlights the fact that in spite of the fact that companies, the media and politicians are scrambling around the green pillar of sustainability, for consumers there is a myriad of social, personal and spiritual issues to be concerned about as well.

Mention the word ‘sustainable’ and nowadays most people think up warm and fuzzy images – you know misty rainforests and sunflowers, recycle bins and bicycles. I prefer to see it as the ability to survive, thrive and continue to succeed.

So you can imagine how pleased I was to come across TIGNUM… a performance consultancy that helps organizations (and the people that work within them) achieve high energy and sustainable high performance. Click here for one of several videos.

As much as 94% of 1000 + executives TIGNUM interviewed said they have less energy at home than they have at work. Often, according to TIGNUM, this is product of not only an inadequate mindset but also poor diet and insufficient cardio vascular exercise. Add this to the additional stress many people feel because they are on call 24/7 and you need little more proof that the contemporary business landscape is a veritable pressure cooker.

Mindful of the fact that so many companies are rushing in to claim a stake on the ‘sustainability’ landscape, many would benefit from taking the time to remember the personal sustainability quarter and the importance it plays in promoting high performance in the workplace.

Now, with that said I’m off for a cup of tea and a walk around the block.

It’s amazing what you can see when you look through a specific lens - more than green, sustainability is coming to life in all areas of our lives.

Case in point...

When I first came across Add-art - a hugely popular firefox extension that blocks advertising images on web pages and replaces them with art images – I thought about Personal Sustainability. A fantastic idea, I thought, a break from the litany of messaging. But then I got to thinking about financial sustainability. As busy and invasive as they might seem, ads on web pages provide revenue for websites; revenue that ensures that we - the end consumer – don’t have to pay for the content that we consume.

No one portion of the sustainability matrix trumps the other - it’s based on needs/ wants at any particular time. Personally, I like the art. It makes for a welcome change…. yet, at the same time I’ve spent years developing a screen for the hundreds of banner ads I am presented with daily. I’d like to say that I was immune to them, but then again I’ve worked in marketing long enough to now just how persuasive advertising can be.

BTW – Anyone notice the similarities between the Add-art logo and the Sherwin Williams mark we blogged about previously?

Are Microsoft customers more concerned about the environment than Mac customers?Do people who drink Coke care more about local and organic than Pepsi drinkers? Is there really a difference between the people who buy Method and those who buy Clorox?

We've got the answers. We'll profile the rivalry that has the most votes.

Who would you like us to profile? Click here for poll.

The poll will be open until July 21st, and the findings for the most popular choice will be posted on our site on July 28th, 2008.

Once the pillar of the finger-wagging-preachy-told-you-so set, Greenpeace has followed up on their highly successful ‘Greener Apple’ campaign - http://www.greenpeace.org/apple/about.html - with another parody… this time we have ‘Amy Greenhouse’ saying “NO, NO, NO ….” to adding another runway to Heathrow airport. Funny.

If a brand is aiming to market their socially responsible efforts, they’ll need three key ingredients to ensure they get the attention and respect they need. Whether it’s by word of mouth, an advertising campaign or a product’s packaging, the SHIFT report identified that people are looking for credibility, specificity and honesty - heartstrings alone won’t break through initial skepticism in which people are increasingly rooted…

… and now that is set to be formalized by the Canadian Competition Bureau. In the face of increasing criticism and complaints on both sides of the Atlantic, the bureau is requiring companies to get more specific with their green-product advertising, banning the use of "vague claims implying general environmental improvement."

They have recently developed a set of guidelines (see attachment), with help from the Canadian Standards Association, that asks companies advertising in Canada to stick to "clear, specific, and accurate" claims that have been substantiated and verified prior to use.

As Sheridan Scott, Commissioner of the bureau, rightly pointed out this measure is not just about slapping the wrists of those make false claims, it’s also about providing corporations – and their agencies - the guidelines they need to legitimize their initiatives to their consumers… it’s the Wild West out there, and as every company and their dog races to tell their customers just how much they care, the brands that are sharing details and specifics will be best placed to build trust among a skeptical audience.

As always the last word goes to a respondent from the first round of qualitative research, “If it’s a fact, it’s a fact - then give some numbers. Whatever I think or feel about it, a fact is a fact” (Austin, 35-55, The SHIFT Report).

We all have our process, right?? A particular way of doing things that gives us comfort.

I make a TTD lists. Every morning. It helps order my thoughts as the caffeine kicks in. I was sharing this method with co-workers over lunch yesterday, and it got us talking… Why do we obsess about what needs to be done? What about taking the time to look back at what has been achieved? What about a TTAD (Things that are done) list?

In our time-starved-work-more culture taking the time to look back at what has been done, may be the pat on the back/ personal sustainability (yes, even during work hours) we all need to tackle our work with pride and enthusiasm.

George Carlin’s humour might not be for all. His cynical, deliberately provocative and sharp take on things is often unkind, but we do share a common belief – we can only look after the planet once we have taken the time to look ourselves.

Personally, I’m a fan and join him in the rather dark but strangely uplifting belief that the planet is not going anywhere… we are!