URSP 391 final: brand equity, sustainability assessment & reporting

Stages in a Life Cycle Assessment

1. Inventory Assessment: the quantification of energy and material inputs, emissions, waste outputs, etc. 2. Impact Assessment: an assessment of the environmental impact and impact mechanisms involved in the inputs and outputs 3. Improvement Assessment: the establishment of options and strategies for improving each stage of the product's life cycle

5 Performance Measurement Dimensions

1. Stakeholders' satisfaction - Who are the important stakeholders and what do they want and need? 2. Strategic drivers - What are the strategies required to promote stakeholders' satisfaction? 3. Business processes - What processes (activities) are needed to deliver strategies? 4. Capabilities - What are the capabilities required to put the processes in practice? 5. Stakeholders' contributions - What are the stakeholders' contributions to enable the business processes?

8 main steps of developing a sustainability plan

1. write a vision or mission statement 2. research other organizations sustainability plans and projects 3. identify areas that the organization can have a positive environmental and/or social impact 4. outline specific goals and targets based on your review of your organization 5. determine how you will implement these goals 6. determine timelines for each goal 7. decide what metrics you will use to measure your goals 8. create a reporting plan

Triple Bottom Line Framework

A new approach to measuring the success of an organization's activities that considers social and environmental performance in addition to traditional financial performance social dimension, environmental dimension, and financial dimension

Brand equity

A set of associations developed between the attributes of a brand and the benefits perceived from customers One kind of intangible brand property inherent in a brand name Financial perspective: the value of a brand to the firm Customer perspective: the value of a brand to the customer

Green Brand Equity

A set of brand assets and liabilities about green commitments and environmental concerns linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service More important for an enterprise under the rise of prevalent customer environmentalism and strict international regulations Because some companies mislead and confuse green claims and exaggerate the environmental quality of their products (i.e., green-washing), customers are not willing to buy their products anymore.

Sustainability Plan

Developed by an organization or government, or by a sustainability consultant for an organization or government, to achieve goals that foster environmental, community, and financial sustainability. Viewed as the best way of turning grand ambitions into realizable goals.

B Impact Assessment: Governance

Evaluates a company's accountability and transparency. • Focuses on the company's mission, stakeholder engagement, and overall transparency of the company's practices and policies.

Tailored Sustainability Plans

Every organization is different, thus goals and implementation are necessarily tailored to the particular organization.

Determinants of Green Brand Equity

Green Perceived Quality Green Brand Awareness Mediated by Green Perceived Risk Therefore, investments aimed at increasing green perceived quality and green brand awareness, while decreasing green perceived risk, will likely enhance green brand equity.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Implies that firms must foremost assume their core economic responsibility and voluntarily go beyond legal minimums so that they are ethical in all of their activities and that they take into account the impact of their actions on stakeholders in society, while simultaneously contributing to global sustainability • Directly associated with TBL's philosophy, with 5 main areas: 1. Environmental management 2. Social management 3. Economic management 4. Stakeholder analysis 5. Encouragement of volunteering

environmental dimension

In a sustainability plan, the emphasis is often on the

Remaining Challenge for Firms

Incorporating their environmental vision into their corporate strategies, rather than seeking to promote their green brands alone If companies want to enhance their green brand equity, they need to incorporate the ideas of green perceived quality, green brand awareness, and green perceived risk into their long-term environmental strategies.

LEED Certification

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

Measurement dimension of a company's sustainability plan

Provides a way to account for the financial, environmental, and community impacts of the changes undertaken at an organization.

Sustainability Evaluations

Should be based on measuring, verifying, and reporting, with the objectives of determining what works well, why, and how to ensure it will continue; investigating what is not working well and why; exploring barriers to success and ways to overcome them; and revisiting original goals or establishing new ones as necessary

Green Brand Awareness

The ability for a buyer to recognize and recall that a brand is environmentally-friendly, often via green brand image

brand awareness

The likelihood that customers recognize the existence and availability of a brand, which acts as a strong signal of outstanding reputation. Increases the likelihood of brand choice and produces greater brand loyalty (i.e., the attachment that a customer has to a brand) Based on two factors: brand recognition and brand recall

Brand

The set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a customer's decision to choose one product or service over another If the customer doesn't pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that customer. Typical forms: image, design, logo

Brand recall

a higher form of brand recognition, i.e., when a customer is able to allocate a brand to a specific class of products

Green brand image

a set of perceptions of a brand in a customer's mind that is linked to environmental commitments and environmental concerns Green brand awareness can reduce customers' green perceived risk (i.e., the expectation of negative environmental consequences associated with purchase behavior)

Life‐cycle cost

cost of design, supply, and production + cost of use + cost of end of life (EofL) considerations + cost of afterlife

Impact assessment

evaluates the waste and energy flows to determine the impacts and consequences of resource utilization, waste generation, and disruptive and destructive activities

Inventory assessment

identification of the material and energy flows, inputs and outputs at each step of the processes used to design and produce the products

Improvement assessment

identify opportunities for changing the operating system in ways that will lower the social, economic, and environmental defects and burdens

key benefits of brand equity

improved perceptions of product performance loyalty less vulnerability to competitive marketing less vulnerability to marketing crises larger margins more inelastic consumer response to price increase additional brand extension opportunities

ways to increase brand awareness

mark your story known send useful tips use infographics instead of simply stating statistical information be a guest blogger experiment with pull marketing, non-invasive marketing use biddable campaigns author a book host our own radio channel wear your logo on your sleeve host an event

Financial dimension

refers to profit and all issues related to the financial health of an organization, such as reduction of production costs, prospection of new markets and stockholders' equity

Environmental dimension

refers to the effects the organization has on the planet and includes sustainable supply, renewable energy, waste reduction and related issues.

Social dimension

refers to the people involved with the organization (i.e., employees, customers, consumers) and an organization's relationship with stakeholders (i.e., community members affected by its behavior), from shareholders to farmers and communities near its facilities or suppliers.

Brand recognition

reflects customer's ability to recognize a brand from abstract hints

Performance Measurement Framework

• A comprehensive and integrative system approach that can be used by corporations to assess their business models and identify sustainability innovation opportunities. - A baseline of existing sustainability innovations is gathered in which evidence is extracted from available sources, such as a corporate website or an annual sustainability report.

Milton Friedman's 1970 NY Times article

• Argued that the main objective of a business was to maximize its profits and that the only restriction imposed on the business was the need to obey the law - This scenario has changed over the last decade and organizations are now obliged to achieve social and environmental objectives in order to satisfy the interests of all involved parties and ensure the organization's long ‐term survival.

B Impact Assessment: Community

• Assesses a company's impact on its community.

B Impact Assessment: Workers

• Assesses the company's relationship with its workforce

B Impact Assessment: Environment

• Evaluates a company's environmental performance through its facilities, emissions, and materials, resource and energy use.

International Sustainability Reporting Frameworks

• Integrated Reporting Framework (IRF) - A method of reporting that presents an organization's performance holistically, thus reflecting the social and economic, and environmental context in which firms operate • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides organizations with a comprehensive voluntary sustainability reporting framework.

B Impact Assessment: Customers

• Measures the impact a company has on its customers.

CSR Practices

• Plan Phase - Secure top‐management commitment and identify resources required for CSR • Do Phase - Integrate CSR across supply chain and ensure transparency • Check Phase - Evaluate, analyze, assess, and monitor CSR practices • Act Phase - Report, present, integrate, and promote CSR practices and continuous improvement