Sustainable Brands 2011 – The Unofficial Road Trip Video

June 14th, 2011 · 12 Comments

“Brands are uniquely equipped to help us redefine value.” KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, Sustainable Life Media Founder

Sharing four days of sessions with 790 sustainability and brand fanatics is invigorating, inspiring, exhausting and intoxicating. On the Amtrak train back to Vancouver, trying (unsuccessfully) to detox, I recapped some of the sessions and impressions that really stuck with me.

Embedded Sustainability is becoming mainstream
As the movement has grown every major brand has had at least a pilot program in sustainability. Now it is being built right into key product, operational and supply chain systems throughout organizations like Nike, Purina, Unilever, SC Johnson and PepsiCo.

Behaviour change is meeting green change.
We know people need to change some behaviour. But companies and marketers are making ‘green’ less and less of a trade-off in product performance and perception.

People like to feel good.
Guilt-trip messaging is taking a back seat to entrepreneurial enthusiasm and genuine boardroom support. Game playing is changing attitudes and action with fun. And sustainable branding people love to party. (Check out the unsanctioned hotel foyer soccer match on the video…. danger!)

I only had the mental bandwidth to capture a few of the many great conference experiences, but I hope there are some ideas here that every marketer can absorb for the greener. Click below to read individual blogs, or just visit the main Green Briefs site to scroll all my impressions of SB 2011 in Monterey.

Tags: Green Creative · Sustainable Brands 2011 Road Trip · Sustainable Lifestyle · Sustainable Products

12 responses so far ↓

1 koann // Jun 15, 2011 at 11:47 pm

Dang, Lorne — you rocked it once again. Can’t believe you made another road trip down — thanks for documenting just a tiny bit of a great week!

Pleasure to be in community with you 🙂

KoAnn
2 admin // Jun 15, 2011 at 11:49 pm

Thanks, Koann. It was a blast. See you in 2012 – maybe I’ll ride ALL the way down!
3 koann // Jun 16, 2011 at 12:22 am

Now THAT’d be a road trip!

Hey, PS, Jacquie’s got a ton of great quotes, but the one under the vid above is from my opening remarks. It’s sort of a soapbox of mine!
4 Melissa (AlphaMonkey) // Jun 16, 2011 at 6:32 am

Awesome! Great Video and so good to meet you. I am completely inspired by your road trip!
5 admin // Jun 16, 2011 at 8:03 am

Thanks, Melissa. Hope we meet again under even more sustainable circumstances. Keep up the great work with Minimonos!
6 Marianne // Jun 17, 2011 at 10:56 am

Lorne,

Thank you so much for this, what a great recap! Can I join you on your roadtrip next year? 😉

Thanks for coming!

-Marianne-
7 admin // Jun 17, 2011 at 11:08 am

Absolutely, the more the merrier. I may start the SB12 Vancouver – Monterey Amtrak Club. We can pick people up all along the route – Portland, Sacramento, San Fran, San Jose… unless of course, SB12 is HELD in Vancouver!
8 Val // Jun 20, 2011 at 11:01 am

OK, admittedly I am one of those ‘seven fans’ you made such humble reference to….and proud to be one! We all thank you for the rare blast of creative energy. Fabulous,mind boggling and ever so worthy of an encore. In the meantime… keep on motivating…..
9 admin // Jun 20, 2011 at 2:36 pm

Thanks, Val! A pleasure to be there!
10 Gerard // Jun 22, 2011 at 6:21 pm

Hi Lorne,

Well (briefly) done! Watch out for those darn rattlers!

Gerard
11 Trevor // Jun 24, 2011 at 9:30 pm

You are a clever chappie, aren’t you? I loved the video – well done!
12 Green Briefs flashed in Vancouver City Council Meeting – The Official Transcript of my speech on the Greenest City Action Plan // Jul 15, 2011 at 4:23 pm

[…] month I attended Sustainable Brands 2011 in Monterey California, North America’s largest green branding conference. There, I discovered that Vancouver is already […]