Per this article, on 12 April 2024, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights issued a landmark judgement against the country of Switzerland for a lack of action to protect human rights against climate change.

The case was brought by a group of older women and their association who alleged that the State was not doing enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The Court agreed and found that Switzerland failed to act in time and in an appropriate and consistent manner to devise, develop and implement relevant legislation and measures to mitigate the effects of climate change.

To put this into context for you, Switzerland sits squarely in the middle of the world as to per-resident carbon emissions.  This chart has it at 89 out of 219 countries.  It is not the most carbon-free per resident, but it is certainly not the most carbon-producing per resident.

Point is, most of you reading this are living in countries that have higher per-resident carbon emissions than Switzerland.  If it can happen to Switzerland, it can happen to your country, your state, your city and your business.

As you run your business, there are a few ways to respond to this:

• It is only happening in extreme situations and to high-profile entities. It will never impact me
• If it does reach down to me, I will address when forced
• The trend is clear and I want my company to be, and be seen as, part of the solution

If you are part of the third group, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us.

United Tech Employee Management, a Palm Beach, Florida-based, family-owned, employee leasing company that handles payroll, workers’ comp, and unemployment administration became environmentally certified sustainable under the Edenark Group ISO 14001 environmental sustainability certification program in 2022.  The company then re-opened its corporate office at the end of Earth Month 2023, after a major energy-saving remodel and retrofit.  The energy-saving retrofit included new insulation, a smart NEST A/C thermostat, new water-efficient toilets, a new low-energy refrigerator, and new LED lights.

The company renewed its certification for 2024.

To celebrate Earth Month 2024, the company will expand on the prior work and also focus on community/peer outreach for sustainability.

“We are a family-owned business, and we care about our community. Serving people and protecting future generations is at the core of our culture.  We decided to upgrade our corporate office to be as energy-efficient as possible,” said Kristina Smith, President of United Tech Employee Management.  “We will use our new corporate office to present the benefits of environmental sustainability to our guests, including vendors, prospects, clients and community colleagues,” added Smith.

United Tech Employee Management can be reached at +1 561.594.4892

Every year, the 8 million members of the Alignable business platform vote for their favorite business leaders, by city.

We are honored to have won the 2024 local business person of the year award for our Edenark Group operation in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

• Edenark Group also won in 2020/21 and 2022.

We are equally honored to win the 2024 local business person of the year award in Jupiter, FL for our A Better World Starts With Me operation.

We thank Alignable, our business peers, and the local community, for recognizing the work Edenark Group and A Better World Starts With Me is doing to improve our local and global communities.

This article gives five things to look for to determine if a brand or company is greenwashing:

• Vague or ambiguous claims
• Lack of third-party certification
• Contrary practices
• No transparency
• Narrow sustainability focus

Obviously, we are biased.  However, if you are certified under a legitimate program, it will help address the other four.  If you are not certified under a legitimate program, the other four often occur.

If you want the market benefit of consumers rewarding you for being sustainable without the risk of being called out for greenwashing, become certified sustainable.

If this makes sense, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us.

Well….

• Per our current consumption rate, we need 1.7 Earths to survive
• 2023 was the hottest year on record, and we are heating faster than any time in Earth’s history
• Because of the above, Climate is the #1 issue concerning all of us
• 25% of us stopped doing business with a company in 2023 due to its lack of social/environmental action and $500 Billion is expected to move from non-sustainable to sustainable companies in 2024

If you accept that our current approach is not working, that consumers are voicing their concerns via their wallets, and that it is time to be a leader not a follower, maybe a change is in order.

If you want to be part of the solution and rewarded for same, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us.

Given that Gen X and Gen Z account for 64% of the world’s population, these two demographic groups are the future of your company.

We recently posted about a study by YouGov, saying that 70% of all consumers view sustainability as more important than your brand. 

This post is on a different study and focuses on Gen X and Z.

A key point to take from the study in this article is that 75% of Gen X and Z consumers say sustainability is more important than your brand name.  This is a bit higher than the other study, but this is just two demographic groups, not the entire population.

• Think about your current marketing and advertising efforts, given the above statement. If 75% of the two largest global demographic groups, accounting for the majority of the world’s population, care more about your sustainability status than your brand name, what are you spending your advertising budget saying, in your attempt to differentiate and stand out?  Are you using a cute jingle or phrase to promote your brand name; or are you talking about being a sustainable company?

A second key point is that upwards of 40% of brands, trying to win those consumers, are misrepresenting their sustainability status.

• Therefore, if you decide to use sustainability as a talking point, do it right – become certified sustainable via a globally-recognized and respected program, as these consumers will do their research and the governments of the world are stepping up compliance.

A third key point is that a sustainable supply chain is critical.

• These consumers, and the government compliance agencies, are expecting your vendors to be sustainable; and presenting you with the opportunity, as a vendor, to differentiate and take market share by being certified sustainable.

If you would like your advertising spend to be relevant to the largest buying groups, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us.

April is Stress Awareness Month and April 7 is World Health Day.

With these as a backdrop, what is your company doing to improve employee health?

In your company, the impact of the Big 5 (insomnia, stress, anxiety, physical pain and mental acuity) on your employees drain your company of roughly 5% of your GDP, every year.  In the US, this translates to roughly $10,000/employee/yr.

For your company, run the math on 5% of your sales.  That’s your hit…..every year….from your employees suffering from the Big 5.  That’s a big bite out of your profits every year.

So, how do you address it?

If you ask your employees to raise their hands if they have stress or mental acuity problems, how many do you think will raise their hands?  Probably none, as nobody wants to be labeled as a weak, or ‘problem’ employee.

But what if you ask your employees to raise their hands if they want to win next month’s sales contest?  For this, you would probably get a big response.

Make it about performance enhancement, not about fixing a problem.  Help them become a more valuable employee, not an outcast.

Find an organization like Edenark Group‘s A Better World Starts With Me and Gym For The Brain, which will help you address the Big 5, but via performance enhancement, happiness and health.

Employee response will be higher, your employees will be happier and healthier, and your financial performance will go up.

Those of us in the United States mostly know New York Attorney General Letitia James from her winning a fraud suit against Donald Trump, et al.

However, a more important action on her part, for all of us on this planet, is this lawsuit against JBS USA Food Company et al. 

The key difference in this suit versus most greenwashing suits is that it is preemptive, in that it anticipates a future failure to deliver and is pursuing action today against that assumption. 

In effect, without conducting a carbon footprint baseline assessment (to determine what its carbon emissions levels are), JBS has made claims that it will become Net Zero by 2040, sixteen years from now.  Further, again, without knowing where they are today, they claim they will reduce their carbon emissions by 30% by 2030, six years from now. 

Just like if I would say I am going to lose 10 pounds before summer, I would need to know how much I weigh today, the James suit states that the JBS claims have no foundational starting point and are therefore pure greenwashing. 

That’s an amazingly aggressive position to take and should send a cold chill through thousands of other companies that have, likewise, made Net Zero claims with no foundational basis.

In the suit, James says

“Consumers worldwide are increasingly concerned about their impact on the environment and put greater trust in companies and brands that pledge to be sustainable or climate conscious. Recent studies have shown that people are influenced by a company’s environmental reputation and are willing to change their habits to switch to more environmentally friendly products: more than two-thirds of American adults are willing to pay more for sustainable products. JBS Group and JBS USA have used greenwashing and misleading statements to capitalize on consumers’ increasing desire to make environmentally friendly choices, claiming:

• “Agriculture can be part of the climate solution. Bacon, chicken wings, and steak with net zero emissions. It’s possible.”
• “We will cut our own emissions by 30% in 2030 and eliminate Amazon deforestation from our supply chain within five years.”
• “JBS will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions, reducing its direct and indirect emissions and offsetting all residual emissions.”

JBS Group and JBS USA repeatedly misled consumers with these claims while the company’s executives told their industry peers that they needed to use messaging targeted to climate-conscious consumers in order to remain competitive. In reality, when making these promises, JBS Group and JBS USA had not calculated the company’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore had no way of knowing whether they could successfully reduce those emissions to net zero by 2040.”

If James wins this suit, the impact across the world will be significant, as many organizations have done what JBS has done.

This will be one to watch.

If you are interested in the benefits that sustainable companies gain, but don’t want Letitia James coming after you for greenwashing, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us.

You spend a lot of time and money trying to convince people to buy from you versus the other guy. 

But are you saying what they want to hear?

75% of Gen X and Gen Z (which combine for 64% of the world’s population and is the future of your business) say sustainability is more important than your brand name.

Similarly, 70% of all consumers will move their purchases to a certified sustainable company when they find one.  

This is why certified sustainable companies are growing 75% – 20x faster than their non-certified competitive peers and why so many companies are greenwashing (saying they are sustainable when they are not).  

So, next time you look at the invoices for your marketing program, think about what they are wanting to hear you say versus what you are saying.

If this makes sense, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us.