|
For immediate release JY&A
Consulting
International think-tank announces seventh annual Brands with
a Conscience awards
Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, January
12 (JY&A Media)
The Medinge Group (www.medinge.org),
an international think-tank on branding and business, today releases
its seventh annual Brands with a Conscience list. In the Group’s
opinion, these diverse organizations show that it is possible for
brands to succeed as they contribute to the betterment of society
by sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour.
In announcing the winners, Stanley Moss, CEO of the
Medinge Group said, ‘This year’s awards indicate that principles
of compassionate branding are being applied globally, by businesses
large and small, across categories from finance to retail
to energy, in established and emerging economies, in new markets.
Today, brands with conscience can work to build bridges of understanding
between nations and societies.’
Ian Ryder, a founding director of the Medinge Group
commented, ‘Winning a BWAC award is more than public recognition—it
is a clear statement of your organization’s values, one of
the most powerful competitive differentiators in existence!’
The international collective of brand practitioners
meets annually in August at a secluded location outside Stockholm,
Sweden, and collaborate on the list, judging nominees on principles
of humanity and ethics, rather than financial worth. The Brands
with a Conscience list is shaped around criteria including evidence
of the human implications of the brand and considering whether the
brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. Evaluations are made
based on reputation, self-representation, history, direct experience,
contacts with individuals within the organizations, media and analysts
and an assessment of the expressed values of sustainability.
Three years ago the group added a unique category commendation,
the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an
individual or NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died
in the London Underground bombings on July 7, 2005. The award commemorates
his visionary work in humanistic branding.
For 2010, the group has singled out the following organizations
as Brands with a Conscience:
Alibaba Group/China
Co-op Bank/UK
Marks & Spencer/UK
Merci/France
Pictet et Cie./Switzerland
SAP/Germany
Selco Solar Pvt. Ltd./India
The Colin Morley Award is given to:
Muna Abu Sulayman/Saudi Arabia
Detailed descriptions and web links follow:
Alibaba Group
www.alibaba.com
A young Asian brand built on the idea that it must exist as an experience
to elevate their own or other people’s level of happiness. Jack
Ma founded Alibaba in his cramped apartment with 17 colleagues.
A decade later, Alibaba Group is the largest ecommerce company in
China, with 15,000 employees and more than 100 million users. It
also has a B2B unit with a community of more than 42 million registered
users from more than 240 countries and regions. This year Alibaba
will unveil partnership plans for Grameen China, a project to significantly
increase access to micro-credit for poverty alleviation in Sichuan
and Inner Mongolia. (Medinge named Grameen Telecom a Brand with
a Conscience in 2005, and its parent Grameen Bank was awarded a
Nobel Prize in 2008.) Employing the Grameen Bank microcredit model,
the group hopes to impact more than 72,000 lives in its first
five years.
Ava Hakim, IBM exec and member of the Medinge Group,
remarked that Alibaba is a business ‘built on trust, one which respects
intellectual property rights and will remove sites which infringe
upon the rights of others.’ She also was impressed by the six core
values named, which they have successfully applied to their business.
Co-op Bank
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/servlet/Satellite/1193206375355,CFSweb/Page/Bank
The Co-op, founded in 1872, from its origins has focused on serving
local communities. Today the Co-op is the only UK clearing bank
to publish an ethical statement. Medinge director Patrick Harris
lauded the brand, noting that ‘since 1992 Co-op has been building
its ethical stance by asking its membership to vote on issues such
as animal welfare, human rights and ecological impact.’ It claims
to have turned away over £900 million in loans to businesses not
in keeping with the Co-op Ethical Policy. The commitment to improve
their food business’ ethical and environmental performance is in
line with expectations arrived at in consultation with 100,000 members.
Co-Op was double-nominated this year, for both its banking and food
businesses.
Marks & Spencer
plana.marksandspencer.com
In her nomination, Medinge director Erika Uffindell emphasized
the focused approach to climate change, waste and sustainability
that Marks & Spencer have adopted. With their Plan A campaign,
the company established 100 commitments to achieve in five
years, clear targets for their business, actionable by people across
the group. Uffindell finds the brand very accessible
and involving: they have engaged 17,231 customers in making pledges
to support climate change and a commitment to sustainability.
Merci
www.merci-merci.com
Merci is a 1500 m² shop for fashion and home furniture based in
Paris, France. All sales profits are destined for women and
children in Madagascar. The store sells new or artist-reworked donated
goods and has had a huge impact. Some goods are sent directly to
Madagascar. Merci’s website is especially minimal and modest, yet
effectively states the store’s mission. In his nomination, Medinge’s
Philippe Mihailovich expressed the hope that Merci’s actions influence
others to follow.
Pictet et Cie.
www.pictet.com
This Swiss-based private bank started in 1805. Medinge director
Nicholas Ind cited two significant aspects of the brand.
First, its focus on sustainable development and the
redirection of funds in this direction by encouraging the maximum
investment in sustainable areas for a given risk: the bank’s management
of a water fund, launched in 2000, which has become the world’s
largest of its kind, with over €4 billion in assets; and a Clean
Energy fund. The second aspect is the Prix Pictet—the world’s first
international prize dedicated to photography and sustainability—mandated
to encourage the use and power of photography to communicate vital
messages to a global audience. This year’s theme is Earth.
SAP
www.sap.com/about/SAP-sustainability
Today, many B2Bs are silently doing a fantastic job to adapt to
our global challenges. Medinge’s chairman Thomas Gad nominated Germany’s
SAP, a software company whom he admires because ‘they actually help
other companies to create usable metrics in their CSR and sustainability.’
Over the past 10 years, SAP has been recognized by the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index for upholding ethical, environmental, social,
and governance values in products and services.
Selco Solar Pvt. Ltd.
www.selco-india.com/index.html
Medinge CEO Stanley Moss described Selco as an interesting small
business, 14 years old, who supply solar power solutions, mostly
in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. They rely on microfinance
loans, employ 140 people, and have done around 100,000 installations
of small to large size. They are partially funded by Grameen. Moss
was impressed by their cradle-to-grave attitude about product, longevity
in the marketplace after a tough start-up, good work on the individual
level, private ownership, and the understanding of need for innovation.
The 2010 Colin Morley Award to Muna Abu Sulayman
helwa.maktoob.com/%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D8
%AA%D8%AD%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B6%D9 %88%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%843966-%D9%85%D9%86%D9%89_%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%88_%D8%B3
%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86.htm
Simon Nicholls, a member of Medinge, nominated Muna Abu Sulayman,
who receives 2010’s Colin Morley Award, for excellence by an individual
or NGO, acknowledging their contribution to the betterment of society
through sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour.
In giving this award, the Medinge Group recognizes Muna’s outstanding
work in educational development, poverty alleviation and strategic
philanthropy; as Executive Director of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation,
developing and implementing operations for humanitarian assistance
across the globe; her role as the first woman in Saudi Arabia
to be appointed by the United Nations Development Programme as a
Goodwill Ambassador; and for exceptional reporting as co-host on
popular MBC-TV social programme Kalam Nawaem, in particular
her advocacy of rights for women. As a public and media personality,
she speaks about issues relating to Arab society, media, building
bridges of understanding between east and west. Since 1997, Ms Abu
Sulayman has served as lecturer on American literature at King Saud
University in Saudi Arabia. She frequently appears as a panelist
at the Davos World Economic Forum, Jewish Economic Forum, C-100
of the World Economic Forum, Brookings Institute Conferences and
other venues.
Patrick Harris, a Medinge director, added, ‘In the
list of 2010 Brands with a Conscience winners, we can see a clear
focus on commerce and finance. This is no accident. Instead,
this is a sign of the world’s markets responding to the need for
responsible and inter-generational business activities.’
Regarding his nomination of Co-op Bank, Harris said,
‘The UK’s Co-operative Bank is a prime example of a highly principled
business within a traditional competitive landscape. The Co-op are
being recognized by Medinge for their values-led business focus
and for the impact that they bring to a beleaguered sector.’
Jack Yan, a director of Medinge said, ‘Again, the Medinge
Group’s international influence has resulted in a global list
of winners, all of which practise our ideals of humanistic branding.
I’m thrilled we’ve recognized our first Chinese and Saudi
Arabian winners this year.
‘In particular, Selco Solar of India shows a commitment
to green energy that is very poignant in the 2010s. Just because
fuel prices have dropped from their 2008 highs does not mean that
the energy crisis is over, a fact the Medinge Group recognizes.’
Medinge Group member Ava Maria Hakim commented, ‘The
message to the world—and Alibaba’s 100 million users—is that China’s
Alibaba Group has set a global brand and business benchmark that
goes beyond corporate social responsibility to building an integrity-based
business driven by long-term vision. Alibaba Group is a Brand with
a Conscience of the future.
Erika Uffindell, a director of Medinge, commented,
‘Marks & Spencer is a great example of an organization living
by its beliefs. M&S has been recognized by Medinge for creating
the innovative Plan A—an initiative that involves customers and
partners in their ambition to help combat climate change and reduce
waste. Plan A focuses on five key areas: climate change, waste,
sustainable raw materials, health and being a flair partner.
Marks & Spencer’s ability to involve their stakeholders in such
a simple and accessible way has been reflected in their significant
achievements to date.’
Nicholas Ind, a founding director of Medinge stated,
‘This year, the Medinge Group’s Brands with a Conscience awards
shows impressive diversity and reflects the commitment that
brand owners are demonstrating around the globe to building organizations
that meet the needs of all parts of society. The 2010 winners come
from the UK, China, India, Switzerland, Germany, France and Saudi
Arabia.’
Special thanks to Medinge’s 2010 BWAC nominating committee
Paulina Borsook
Thomas Gad
Ava Hakim
Patrick Harris
Pierre d’Huy
Nicholas Ind
Philippe Mihailovich
Sergei Mitrofanov
Stanley Moss, chairman
Simon Nicholls
Anette Rosencreutz
Erika Uffindell
Jack Yan
About the Medinge Group
Founded in 2002, the Medinge Group first published a brand manifesto
of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for
the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled
Beyond Branding, which explored the ways in which brands
could add value within alternative business and social models. In
2004, the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience
list to recognize organizations who epitomize humanistic behaviour;
in 2006, Medinge added a special category of recognition named in
honour of its late colleague Colin Morley, which acknowledges excellence
by an NGO, in keeping with Colin’s humanistic vision. The Medinge
Group maintains an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau
accessible through its web site, www.medinge.org.
In 2007 Medinge launched an online resource, The Journal of the
Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and articles written
by Medinge members.
Notes to editors
The JY&A three-stroke logo is a trade mark of Jack Yan &
Associates and is subject to protection in certain jurisdictions.
All trade marks are the properties of their respective owners and
are used in a descriptive fashion without any intention to infringe.
###
|
