In a year when the economy and business are feeling the downturn, sustainable brands are still remaining strong. In fact, in January 2009, A.T. Kearney, Inc. released a report in which it compared the performance of companies that identify themselves as having a commitment to sustainability to industry averages. The study found that in 16 of 18 industries, companies committed to sustainability outperformed industry averages by 15 percent from May to October of 2008. Investing in sustainability for the long term may be the best way to protect a company’s brand through the months and years ahead.
Ecos, which topped off 2008 by collaborating with Coca-Cola to create a “Go Green” website that encourages its restaurant customers to operate more sustainably, is well aware of the connection between strong business and strong environmental performance. Being sustainable isn’t just for hard-core environmentalists – it’s for businesses who want to improve their financial performance by using less.
This year, at the Sustainable Brands Conference in Monterey, Calif., Ecos’ very own David Weigel and Neil Sainsbury-Carter will be giving a presentation to some of the industry’s heaviest hitters. They will speak on the work that Ecos performed on behalf of Burgerville and Coca-Cola in 2008 to uncover resource efficiencies in the Northwest restaurant chain as well as promote the efforts to other food service operators to encourage more efficiency efforts. Their presentation, “Ecos, Coca-Cola and Burgerville: A Case Study in Collaboration,” is scheduled for Monday afternoon, June 1.
Since its inception in 2007, the Sustainable Brands conference has steadily grown and now attracts over 400 business and brand strategists, designers and sustainability executives. This year’s attendees include representatives from the likes of Kraft, Dell, HP, Coca-Cola, adidas, Gap, NASA, Frito Lay, Starbucks, REI and Yahoo!.
Topics covered at the conference range from consumer behavior in today’s down economy, to discussions on new market sectors and how they are responding more now to sustainable brands, to discovering who the leaders are in the way of reducing their carbon footprint and how it’s impacting their brand.
This year’s conference will take place at the Monterey Conference Center from May 31 to June 4.
