Chocolate shows responsibility

Got together with students of the University of Amsterdam about sustainability and consumer. How do you communicate to the consumer? You may be shocked when I say that the consumer is not necessarily interested in sustainability in general, as we certainly hoped he or she was. The consumer is mainly interested in issues that have a direct impact on the lives of themselves and their families. They don’t put their money where their mouth is unless it’s something that clearly benefits them directly. Seems to be a logical reaction. Well, anyway, the students created a chocolate bar, trying to find out what split-marketing is and how it works, also in terms of sustainability. So one group created an interesting transparant packaging with Chocolate shows responsibility stamped on it. And a cartoon showing the production process inc. the farmer growing the cacoa.

The kangaroo, the wild cat and the penguin

What binds them together? They are all stakeholders that we can learn from. From the kangaroo that hops around in a very energy efficient way from issue to issue. From the wild cat, normally very wary of humans, but also related to the house cat, that bites itself into an issue and alerts the world about it. From the penguin, that lives in huge colonies, and is not always very fast when it comes to new issues.

How to find out about new trends and issues, that was the theme of the workshop I was presenting at the Ethical Corporation 2010 conference.

The kangaroo stands for the investors, the issue hoppers, not necessarily acting upon what they ask: CDP, Forest Disclosure, DJSI, FTSE4Good. New: CR and renumeration. Advise: put your money where your mouth is.

The wild cat stands for the NGOs, the issue biters, always on the look for new issues around sustainability in the supply chain. New: they follow an agenda. Advise: one voice please!

The penguin stands for the retailers, the issue freezers, not always very efficient in handling new issues. New: they cooperate with competitors on sustainability. Advise: do not be afraid of nobody.

And also listen to what is not coming out the ark, those things that nobody talks about: health, shortages, aging.

So goes the the story of the sustainability zoo!

... and those that will

Now, that took some time. But we are back. With the Constructive Commodity Coalition. Having dinner with former Minister of Development Cooperation Bert Koenders, Joost Oorthuizen and Ted van der Put of IDH (http://www.dutchsustainabletrade.com/en/home)and the sustainability chiefs of RABO and AKZO: Ruud Nijs and André Veneman. My proposal was to start a Coalition around all critical commodities and issues in stead of handling every product and/or issue one at the time. And now we are going to make it happen. With more companies, NGOs and the government. That is at least one good start of a new Dutch government!

The Sustainability Consortium

We joined. Together with Walmart, Bestbuy, Unilever, P&G and numerous other retailers and manufacturers we will be working on assessments of the “sustainability” impact of products over their entire life-cycle (by using Life Cycle Analysis) We aim to develop transparent methodologies, tools and strategies to make enable businesses to make those assessments. This is going to be an exiting journey. Just working together with the industry and the bright minds of the universities of Arkansas and Arizona!

Roundtable Healthy Food Choices

February 4th, 2010 an international elite group of seventeen thought leaders representing top universities, major institutions and food companies discussed long-term healthy food choices in Western society.

Their goal was to clarify and group controversial issues and generate innovative explanations and solutions. The results of the roundtable will enable public and private parties to identify actions to promote a healthier lifestyle in general and healthier eating habits in particular.

The Roundtable on Encouraging Healthy Food Choices
is an initiative from Wageningen University and food retailer Royal Ahold. We aim to explore the knowledge and expertise of different disciplines within science about Western food choices, and to make this knowledge actionable.

And actionable it is…. Look for yourself! We invite you to explore this site and ideas in order to contribute to the improvement of our society’s health.

Arkansas!

Yes, that's where we went. We visited the University of Arkansas and some business with its HQ over there. What happened? Tons of ice kept us there a day longer. Which was actually helpful. It enabled us to visit this pretty simple office with a large cafetaria with nobody and therefore we had a lot of time to discuss all those things we always wanted to discuss with each other. Loads of people stayed at home, we had to deice our car of 1 inch of ice before hitting the road. Enrique, Chief of Staff Ahold USA, did his best to crack the ice!

I finally did it. I cooked from the cookbook of the Vrolijkheid and Ahold. All these lovely recipes just ask to be cooked. The Vrolijkheid forever making sure something nice happens in the lifes of asylum kids. We try to support them. So we produced a cookbook together. And I cooked. Tibetan soup and Israeli salad. And it tasted good!