As you may have read in my Tweets recently, October 23 was the New Technologies Group away day.
We visited a nature reserve and spent the day helping the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the North Carr Conservation Group with maintenance of the reserve.

It was a day of extremely tough manual labour – its hard to dig up the roots of invasive pond plants when your movement is restricted by being waist deep in mud – but it felt good to have achieved something worthwhile.
It will be good to return to the site next summer to see how the rare, indigenous wildlife has flourished as a result of our work.

Here is a newsletter we have received from The NCCG about the day.

Edd

Hi everybody! I’m back here to talk about the environment again. In one of my recent posts on this blog I wrote about OHOP ( Our Home Our Planet) .
The OHOP initiative is RBs front-facing consumer communication part of a global commitment to tackle climate change. If you want to read more about it, go
to my last post, and you will find a lot of information
related to this topic.

But back to Carbon 20 . RB’s “Carbon20” programme was launched in 2007 and its main purpose is to reduce RB products’ impact on climate change by 20% by 2020.
But this programme is not similar to others, which target
the ‘easy wins’ of energy reduction in factories and travel.
It has a different approach, as it targets reductions in raw
and packaging materials from suppliers and in consumers’ use and disposal of the company’s products.
RB is worried about the climate change impact of the product’s overall lifecycle.

 
RB measures the total lifecycle of its product with an independently assured methodology, developed in conjunction with environmental consultancy, URS, targeting activities both within its own supply chain and manufacturing as well as working with consumers to change their behaviour and adopt lower-carbon routines (OHOP).

And now RB is sharing its methodology with the rest of the industry so we can all tackle climate change effectively. Great isn’t it? I think this is definitely something that businesses need to collaborate on, not compete about.

And more good news was announced last week around the world: ” RB has cut carbon emissions per unit dose by 5.75% in year 1. It means RB is already ahead of its carbon reduction target, achieving 25% of our 2020 goal in the first year”. 
This is something for everybody to be proud of..!
I think its interesting to see that Carbon 20 is not just related to social and environmental benefits, it makes good business sense too. How you say?:

1. More and more consumers want to buy products with lower carbon profiles
2. Retailers want to help consumers to reduce carbon emissions, and want to address their own carbon profiles. They want to work with companies that help them to achieve these
3. Suppliers want to work with responsible businesses, and are also trying to reduce their impact on climate change
4. Most people want to work for a company that acts responsibly in addressing major social and environmental concerns

What we can see is that RB is aligned with all its stakeholders, and working like this, as a team, it will achieve its objective before the deadline!

 
This subject is being discussed on various websites.

At Linked In the following question is being asked:  Can corporate social responsibility success make a company more appealing to graduates and early career professionals?
In my opinion, the current generation of young professionals were created in a society concerned with environmental issues and their possible impacts in the future. Thus, working in a socially responsible company is to be updated, and to present ethical values compatible with most young professionals.

 
Now I want to hear your opinion about this topic. And if you have any doubt, please, write me back, and I’ll answer as soon as I read it!
If you want to check out what people think about the CSR issue, access this link (you have to be a member of Linked In to see it):
Pati

Are you doing your bit to help the environment when you wash your dishes?

We at RB certainly are.

 
As the issue of the environment is all over the news at the moment with world leaders meeting at the UN Climate Change Summit, I wanted to highlight an important RB initiative: Our Home Our Planet – or OHOP.

I want to show you what RB does to help carbon reduction and how the company is helping the consumer make a change.
Sometimes people forget about environmental issues, and don’t give them the right attention.
But the OHOP initiative is RBs front-facing consumer communication part of a global commitment to tackle climate change. It is being tackled through Carbon 20, a major initiative to reduce the total carbon footprint of the company by 20% per unit by 2020.

Also, this week it was announced that RB has entered two new important Sustainability Indices – the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) and the company has also been named by the Carbon Disclosure Project as one of the top global corporations tackling climate change.

Last year I was working with some projects under the Finish brand, and one of them was related to OHOP.
We were studying how we could help consumers, to educate them about dishwashers and how they could make a difference.
We decided to talk about saving energy and water while washing your dishes!
Most consumers have the wrong impression that dishwasher machines waste water and energy. They don’t.
And if used properly they can actually use less water and energy than traditional hand washing.
So this initiative was to educate consumers about it. Tips are printed on Finish packaging and also on the website.

But how does all of this help with the big picture?
The OHOP initiative is about the complete product lifecycle, from raw materials to the consumer’s dustbin and beyond.
Although Reckitt Benckiser has been recognized as a sustainability leader, the biggest impact on the total carbon footprint of our products can be attributed to the consumer usage part of a product’s lifecycle – it is between 60 and 70%.

Before learning about the initiative I thought companies were responsible for this emission. But OHOP is designed to educate consumers and help them to make small behavior changes to reduce energy and water consumption when using RB products – BUT without having to compromise on the performance results consumers come to expect.

And the great thing is, this will also help the consumer save money on energy and water bills too.
So, we all have advantages helping and collaborating with the project!
Climate change is the most important environmental issue of the 21st century and it is extremely important for businesses.

Consumers are more committed to buying products that help them reduce their environmental impact in their day-to-day activities.

They prefer “eco friendly” products. But it’s not just consumers who are worried with this issue, trade customers want to work with suppliers who can help them deliver on their own carbon reduction objectives and employees want to be part of a company that is making a real contribution to tackling climate change.

So how does OHOP go about sharing its objective: ‘greener ways to clean and save’?
Products feature OHOP logos and ‘green panels’ on packs that give tips for energy and water saving as well as packaging disposal guidance.

Examples of these tips are:

• Vanish – Brilliant results even at 30 degrees
  Wash at 30 degrees instead of higher temperatures and get the same stain removal results by adding a scoop of Vanish powder to your wash
• Harpic – Don’t pre-flush an empty toilet before cleaning
  Before regular cleaning 7 out of 10 people flush an empty toilet. Harpic is so powerful you do not need to pre-flush to get the best results. And you can even save up to 1,375 liters of water per year.

Pay a visit to the Our Home Our Planet website . It shows local initiatives and explains, in local languages, the project objectives.
The website also features tips on greener ways to clean including laundry care tips, dishwasher tips, home hygiene tips and hard surface cleaning tips.

But what do you think of this kind of programme? Do you like them? Do you think they are important? Do you think they work? Do you prefer to buy products from companies that are concerned about environmental issues?

I look forward to your comments.

Yesterday I had a special moment in the company … I was asked to introduce a new trainee to RB.
This is the third time that I have done this. All of them have the same doubts - the same doubts I had 2½ years ago.

The main questions are: “What is expected from me?”, “What is the decision making process like?”, “What is the work environment here like?”

So it is worth answering those questions because we can identify different profiles with similar energy, speed, dynamism working to bring profit and SOM.
It all boils down to: Working hard and ethically and coming up with profitable ideas.

So, it’s time to say goodbye. This is my last post here.

Now you will hear from Brazil through Patricia All Wahch. Being a blogger was an interesting role…

It was really nice “blogging” with you.

Take care!

Marcus

Two years ago the buzz words were climate change, global warming and Al Gore…

Now we’re inundated with references to credit crunch, global financial crisis, regulation and the worlds worst depression since the last great depression…

The global financial crisis is a truth that we’re not quite feeling yet over in Australia.. there’s alot of talk, but nothing visibly out of the ordinary… and climate change.. well, as we sit in the comfort of our climate-controlled offices its not difficult to forget about how our Pacific neighbours are quickly (relatively speaking) and literally sinking.

I’ve got a lot to say on this battle of economics and the environment.. and probably alot more to learn. But a letter just landed on my desk that starts this debate of far better than I could. Its an article written by our highly regarded Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Have a read of it here. Then we can discuss.

You can also see the debate we’re currently having over on the Reckitt Benckiser LinkedIn  page.