Category Archives: VROI

The Gravity of Courage

ESG initiatives suddenly find themselves in the political crosshairs. Laws have been passed in several states – and others are pending – requiring legal action against companies not considered supportive enough of fossil fuels.

There is even pressure on firms who refuse to support certain cable or wish to make greener investments.

Occasionally, a company resists being pulled down by this type of political pressure, but it isn’t easy: the gravity well surrounding today’s business climate is both deep and wide. Resistance requires courage and by no means all such companies have that.

The example of one company that did have the courage to resist and, by so doing, caused important change far beyond their own walls, is instructive for today’s browbeaten executives, who are mustering the courage to do the right thing.

Goldilocks Had it Easy: ‘Just Right’ in the 21st Century

Goldilocks happened on a beautiful property but in those days the criteria for such a purchase were simple and few: too big or too small? Too hot or too cold? And so on.

Today’s buyers must beware of an entirely new set of parameters when deciding where to live: too many hurricanes, or too little water? Is there an atmospheric river in the forecast, or a 20-year drought? Climate change is about to render large swathes of what has been the cradle of civilization uninhabitable, while other areas, previously covered in ice, are being prepped for cultivation.

Let’s face it, compared to today’s buyers, Goldilocks had it easy!

Throwing Shade on Sunscreen: UV Blockers Run Ahead – and Possibly Afoul – of the Science

Corals and other marine dwellers are already crushed by so many pressures that adding sunblock to the list is simply piling on. Yet thousands of tons of the stuff is piled onto coral reefs annually, and though some brands call themselves ‘coral safe’ and various governments are banning specific ingredients, the science of the sunscreen-coral relationship is by no means clear.

There are, however, simple alternatives – hats, clothes, and umbrellas, for example – that humans, with our penchant for the new and modern, have largely abandoned.

From Exodus to Diaspora: The Genesis of Coral Resilience

When the ancient Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, they would have found a barrier more daunting than the chariots of their pursuers: huge masses both deep and wide of colorful, fruitful, and razor-sharp corals.

Today, though corals appear headed for extinction around the world, those in the Red Sea are surprisingly healthy and abundant. In learning why these polyps have proven so hardy while others perish, science may have learned how to save the world’s gasping and bleaching reefs.

Seeing the Hole Picture

It seems almost impossible for a large, slow-moving white balloon, seen easily through binoculars, to sail across the United States for days without the authorities’ knowledge. It happened because our high-tech detection equipment was tuned to identify fast-moving, superheated, metallic objects… a ballistic missile, say, or a MiG 29 fighter jet. Once we recalibrated the systems to include cold, white, bucolic blimps, voila! Several more were identified in North American airspace almost immediately.

The same principles apply to business, and especially to business risk. In a world reeling from a blistering pace of change, and amid radically new local and global threats, the same old approaches to risk won’t cut it. To render unknown, unseen risks visible, one must look differently. The instruments with which risk is identified must be recalibrated, the parameters widened dramatically.

Outdoor Manufacturer & Retailer NRS Uses Customer Science™ to Find Answers

Paddling giant NRS wondered what might happen if consumers knew of the company’s values.

Would revenues increase? What value would the market place on brand-level sustainability commitments vs. product-level initiatives?

Using our Customers Science™ approach, we ran scenarios using the Valutus InVEST™ model and found… well, let’s just say doing good does indeed lead to doing well, so long as people know about it.

E3Evolution: Better Trend Tracking is a Natural Evolution

Ideas, opinions, and innovations evolve, as do the methods for tracking them. But most of those methods are mired in media metrics, or 20th-century tracking.

But one method – ours – is E3Evolution™, a better choice for those who need to know which trends sustainability leaders are seeing, what they are saying about them, and any steps they may be taking to address them.

Current to Current: A Rising River of Marine Energy

Just as humanity harvests only a miniscule fraction of the solar energy continually falling on Earth, we have as yet to make use of the incredible kinetic energy produced by the world’s waters. The Florida-to-North Carolina section of the Gulfstream alone offers an estimated 163 Terawatt hours per year in renewable, carbonless power, and there are prototype turbines already in the water ready to cable that power to shore.

There are challenges, certainly, but with oceanic currents touching every inhabited continent, a source of free power is about to be available to all.

Man: Grove. A Swamp Thing Creeps North

Uniquely adapted to low-oxygen, high-saline environments, mangroves have historically populated, and protected, exclusively equatorial and sub-tropical shorelines.

But with sea levels beginning to submerge coastal communities and crops around the globe, drastic action is needed to protect as much coastline as possible – including in the temperate zone.

Happily, mangroves are already marching northwards, and that march is being encouraged by global warming, which is opening up new areas where mangroves can thrive. Unhappily, they are also under threat from human activities.

Playing the Index Card: Heat is the New Cold

Those in what has long been called the ‘temperate zone’ are well-schooled on the impact of wind chill, which measures how cold it feels when cold temperatures and wind are factored together. This February’s historically cold blast brought with it wind chills that broke records across the Northeast and threatened the life of anyone who ventured out without proper gear.

But while wind chill is known to most, few are as aware of the Heat Index, a measure not just of hot temperature but of how hot those temperatures feel when humidity and other conditions are factored in. The Heat Index acts as a predictor of physical impacts every bit as deadly as wind chill.
 
As the planet warms, and heat waves increase in frequency, duration, and intensity, the Heat Index is about to become standard protective equipment for those venturing outdoors.