Last Wednesday I attended Ad Week’s Climate Change Symposium. Here, the world of NYC advertising shared with the audience that it has found its niche within the climate change agenda, which is to engage ‘consumers’ and ‘internal stakeholders’ in a movement that in turn will activate policy and drive global agreements.

September 13th marked the beginning of “Mercedes Benz Week” in New York; September 20th marks the end of Fashion Week and the start of New York Climate Week.

Mitigating Climate Change is hot on the business agenda. What about Adapting to it? There’s been plenty coverage on the rise and detail of the American Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES and also called the US climate and energy bill), passed by the United States House of Representatives on June 26 and now facing the Senate with daunting prospects, with the objective of mitigating climate change and reducing our dependency on oil. But thus far very little coverage on the significance of climate impacts and the change and planning required for businesses, administrations and institutions – ‘climate adaptation’.

In the first part of my article on Post Consumerism, I touched on the drivers of the “Citizen Renaissance,” as Jules Peck coins it. My hypothesis is that there are emerging citizen values, and a shift away from consumerism towards citizens who are actively engaged in behaviors of business, the decisions of government and of involved in communities of interest. In this second part, I attempt to outline the market need and opportunity, and some examples that attempt to address post consumerism. The insight, indicators and market needs of the post consumer era are outlined:

The challenge for markets, and marketing, [...]

It was recently suggested by Barack Obama that we should borrow and spend less and save more, not rebuilding the economy on the same sand but instead lay a new foundation for prosperity. It’s not the message consumers, this country, or the rest of the world is used to, particularly in a recession.  For instance, after World War II, amidst the depression, retailing analyst Victor Lebow suggested that “Our enormously productive economy … demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our [...]

This week I was reminded again that a rather large component of the climate solution, massive reductions in current CO2 emissions (US is committing 80% by 2050 for instance) and a move to a low-carbon, sustainable economy, is mobilizing public through knowledge first, then belief and solutions. This is beyond ‘climate awareness’, which we now understand has reached a wide audience. I’ve said this already in my previous article referring to what John Grant describes as “Knowledge role” but I will say it again, I think here lies an important role for brands to take on issues and become [...]

I noticed a wave of bedouin or ‘Mobile Working’ in London when I was back there for nearly a month recently. In fact I spent most of my time in London either using the mobile workspace I am now a member of, Hub Pavilion, or attending meetings hosted by others (headhunters, ad industry people, independent consultants etc) in their similar space, most which also have “Hub” in their name somewhere. Hub Pavilion, and founder Stan Stalnaker, hosted a dinner for me and 16 of my guests in the space, which gave me a sense of how these spaces serve social [...]

2009 is an interesting and “critically important year” according to Nicolas Stern of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, following last week’s emergency gathering last week in Copenhagen. I agree. We are in are one of the worst economic crises the world has ever seen AND in a climate crisis (environmental crisis) – both of these things reaching a tipping point at roughly the same sort of time. But it’s also a momentous year, if you’re able to look on the bright side.
2006 was the year Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth tipped climate change awareness; 2008 was the year that markets [...]

I like Bruce Nussbaum’s list of what he’d like to see in The Stimulus Bill recently featured in BusinessWeek. The premise of his piece is that INNOVATION got a bit left out in the discussion and writing of the bill i.e., the process to get us to a healthy economy. Nussbaum does believe Obama has a vision for an America that is “green, urban, tech-centric and young”, but that much more than writing about a vision is needed to get us there. I agree.
The down payment on the new ‘green economy’, which includes investment in domestic and public buildings, tax [...]

I’ve just been co-presenting (with Rachel Botsman of OZOlab) and attending Feast Social Innovation Conference in New Orleans. If you don’t already know the smart team of ‘Millennials’ behind it, you should know: they are Alldaybuffet and this was the second in their next generation conferences and social entrepreneur events. What marked their event on Friday, February 6th as special is a combination of things, which may in some ways all add up to a loose definition of the term “Social Innovation”. Never before have I been to a conference where the ‘place’ was equally relevant and rich as the [...]

Blue Thinking is the antidote to Green.
It doesn’t go away and it’s not a project with a budget. It is the next generation of thinking emerging from the heart of brands embracing sustainability as business strategy and a driver for innovation. It’s not a green consumer story or marketing idea, not a single product innovation, not one change in the supply chain (but instead many), and nor is it a disconnected concept that should be applied to business because climate change has come upon us. Instead, it is transformational innovation.
The phrase ‘Blue innovation” instead of “Green” was coined by Bob [...]