Recognising social entrepreneurs, good news for greeting cards, equal rights at Google and BMW gets a wrist slap
Top-end support for social entrepreneurs
Luxury giant PPR’s Corporate Foundation for Women’s Dignity and Rights is putting its money and expertise where its mouth is.
The French company’s corporate foundation recently announced the 2010 winners of its social entrepreneurs award. This recognises entrepreneurs whose businesses promote the foundation’s mission to fight violence against women and empower women to advance their socio-economic development.
This year, three projects were chosen based on their economic viability and social added value in support of women. The winners were given grants of €15,000 and receive personal and business guidance from PPR staff.
One of the awarded projects, the Trevo Workshop, puts a unique twist on the traditionally exclusive world of fashion. Sakina M’Sa, designer and project leader of the workshop, created an “inclusion employment company” in the fashion sector, which trains previously unemployed women in the art of sewing.
The women work on Sakina’s eponymous ready-to-wear and couture lines, as well as various subcontracting projects. For example, the women recently designed the uniforms for the staff at French museum Centquatre, which were made from recycled workers’ denim overalls.
Additionally, as part of the French inclusion process, the workshop participants are provided integration coordinators by the state who teach them valuable life skills relating to housing, administrative matters, healthcare and so on.
As part of her prize, M’Sa has a designated Yves Saint Laurent manager at her disposal, to offer her business expertise and access to an influential business network.
“The PPR foundation’s social entrepreneurs programme is a unique source of innovative projects and enriching encounters, which show that business can go hand in hand with social commitment,” says Céline Bonnaire, the foundation’s executive director.
More than a greeting card
Women escaping forced prostitution in the Philippines are getting a second chance through a simple greeting card.
Good Paper is the leading US distributor of handmade, fair trade greeting cards and stationery products. The company seeks out areas worldwide that are in the most dire need of employment opportunities, such as uneducated women orphaned in Rwanda’s wars or through Aids, and women who have escaped human trafficking. Good Paper works with local non-governmental organisations that already have in place established programmes that meet the social needs of these communities but are unable to provide distinct employment opportunities.
The company’s newest line of greeting cards, Sanctuary Spring, exclusively employs Filipina women who have escaped prostitution and are left with very few job opportunities to provide for themselves and their families.
The cards are first designed by US-based graphic artists, which the Filipina women then reproduce by using different colours of handmade paper cut to fit and adorn the card. The women are paid on a per piece basis and, as a Fairtrade member, Sanctuary Spring is committed to all fair trade principles including good wages and environmental sustainability.
Sanctuary Spring goes a step beyond teaching these women a craft by helping them achieve qualifications equivalent to high school, so they have an even brighter future.
According to the company’s founder, Jimmy Quach, it has already been approached by organisations addressing human trafficking in India, Vietnam and Cambodia that are looking to set up additional Sanctuary Spring workshops in their countries.
“Right now a lot of brands have CSR initiatives where proceeds of certain product sales go to a certain charity,” Quach says. “Why not take it a step further and sell products that are both aligned with the brand and directly produce the desired social change? This type of activity builds a brand in a much deeper and coherent way.”
Google’s Gayglers achieve tax breaks
Google, well known for its innovative thinking, is helping to set a trend in the workplace. Starting in June, Google began compensating its same-sex coupled employees for an extra tax that their heterosexual colleagues are able to forgo. Essentially, US law mandates that work-provided healthcare for domestic partners is taxable if the partner is not considered a dependent. Given that gay couples are not legally permitted to marry under US federal law, they end up paying $1,000 or more in taxes a year than a heterosexual, married couple.
Google started looking into the issue when its gay and lesbian group, the Gayglers, approached the company’s benefits team. Members of the human resources team subsequently examined the company’s policies and, within a few short months, agreed that its same-sex coupled employees were not receiving the same benefits as its heterosexual, married employees.
During this period Google also elected to change two additional policies. The first was a change to its definition of “infertility”. Previously, infertility was defined as the inability to conceive after attempting for one year, after which point the employee is eligible for benefits. Google opted to remove the year clause, as it is not applicable to LGBT couples (and, for that matter, to some heterosexual couples). Google also began including domestic partners in its family leave policy.
These policy changes are applicable to US employees only for now, though the company is looking to extend them beyond the US in the not too distant future.
Adidas partners with Nobel laureate Yunus
German mega sports brand Adidas teamed up with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to form a social enterprise with the aim of providing affordable footwear to all Bangladesh’s poor.
Yunus is often hailed as the father of microloans. As the founder of Grameen Bank, he helped pioneer the system whereby impoverished individuals, mostly women, were given small loans to launch businesses that lifted them and their families out of poverty.
The Reebok brand (owned by Adidas) is working alongside Yunus’s Grameen Creative Lab, which seeks to eradicate poverty globally through social businesses, to implement the project’s next on-the-ground phase. This autumn, Reebok will run a pilot test in various villages in Bangladesh. The shoes will be produced on a non-profit basis, but the price has yet to be determined.
Thus far, the details of the venture’s marketing efforts are being kept under wraps. We will have to wait and see how this unique partnership comes to fruition.
New make-up line under fire
Mac Cosmetics, owned by Estée Lauder, and luxury clothing line Rodarte hit a nerve with their recent make-up collaboration – and not in an avant-garde fashion.
Rodarte, a high-end fashion brand run by two women of half-Mexican descent, reportedly said that they took their inspiration for their latest autumn clothing collection from the Mexican border town Ciudad Juarez. The make-up line collaboration with Mac followed suit, with lipstick and nail polish shades named Factory, Juarez and Ghost Town.
Ciudad Juarez is a poor city in Mexico that was deemed the most violent city in the world outside of war zones. It is also a factory town where many young women have been abused and murdered.
So it comes as no surprise that the line sparked an outcry for its lack of sensitivity. The companies were, however, quick to respond, pledging that all profits from the line would be donated to a new initiative established by Mac, which will “raise awareness and provide on-the-ground support for the women in Juarez”. According to the company, the initiative came out of a meeting between Mac’s top executives and representatives of Mexico’s commission on violence against women. Suffice to say, the line will also be renamed.
Marcal’s new enviro-facts label
Marcal, a US maker of 100% recycled paper products for the home, has taken a new step with its Small Steps packaging, including a clever little environmental label.
The concept behind the new packaging took root after the company reviewed the results of its latest consumer research in 2008, which looked at how consumers believed they could best reposition the brand as environmentally responsible. Plus, given its staunch commitment to 100% recycled paper for years, Marcal felt it was time to showcase its efforts.
“Consumers demonstrated time and time again that they didn’t think much about what went into the paper product they bought,” says MJ Jolda, senior vice-president of marketing for Marcal Manufacturing. “The fact is, most are surprised and appalled to learn that 98% of household paper goods are made with fibre from freshly killed trees.”
As a result, the company refreshed its label by adding the “Small Steps” moniker, which stresses that taking a small step can contribute to big environmental benefits. It also added a new environmental facts panel, which discloses info including the recycled content of its products (100%); how many new trees were used (0%); added fragrances or dyes (0%); and so on.
The company also prides itself on the products’ affordability, avoiding the so-called “green premium”. Jolda says: “Make a better-for-the-environment product or service an easy buying decision, and the benefits to all will follow.”
BMW ad banned in UK
BMW was in hot water for a recent ad some say was riding on the verge of greenwashing.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the luxury German carmaker’s print ad for its Concept ActiveE vehicle, which touted the tagline “100% joy. 0% emissions”.
An eco-savvy viewer saw the ad and reported it to the ASA because the claim “zero emissions when driving” is not 100% true, given that the car must be charged to drive, which generates emissions.
BMW responded that its use of the phrase “when driving” in the advert limits the claim to driving only. Still, the ASA wasn’t having it, and has upheld its decision.
“We considered that [BMW’s] inclusion of the phrase ‘when driving’ was contradictory to the overall zero emission claim, and the impression that the car’s use would not result in the production of emissions,” the ASA says. Better luck (and better phrasing) next time.