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For immediate release JY&A
Consulting
International think-tank announces 2007 Brands with a Conscience
Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, December
21 (JY&A Media)
The Medinge Group, an international think-tank on branding and business,
today releases its fourth annual Brands with a Conscience list.
In the Group’s opinion, these nine diverse organizations show that
it is possible for brands to succeed as they contribute to the betterment
of the society by sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic
behaviour.
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 evaluated on criteria, including evidence
of the human implications of the brand and considering the question
of 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.
This year, the group added a unique category commendation,
the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an
NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died in the London
Underground bombings in July 2005. The award commemorates his visionary
work in humanistic branding.
For 2007, the group has singled out the following
organizations:
Adnams
Ecover
Fetzer Vineyards
Freeplay
IKEA
RED
Virgin Group/Virgin Fuels
Whole Foods
The first Colin Morley Award for a non-governmental organization
is given to Shakespeare's Globe.
Announcing the 2007 Brands with a Conscience,
Stanley Moss, CEO of the Medinge Group and chairman of the initiative,
called them ‘evidence of the increasing embrace of humanistic branding
as a critical component of corporate behaviour. The list shows that
today we are seeing successful brands demonstrate deeper ethical
understanding, commitment to sustainability and greater brand complexity.’
‘By definition, all NGO-brands should be brands
with conscience,’ remarked Thomas Gad, Chairman of the Medinge Group.
‘This year we innovate an award which supports the importance of
branding them. The first Colin Morley Award is given to Shakespeare’s
Globe of London, and honours a cultural project as a brand of conscience.
The commercial awards this year show a good mix of large organizations
and smaller entrepreneurs. We favour the idea that brand conscience
is not exclusively for enthusiastic smaller companies. It is equally
important for large organizations—and for those possibly much more
difficult.’
Nicholas Ind, a founding member of the group,
said, ‘This has been the year that the corporate world really discovered
the imperative of action on the environment. We have recognized
this in our choice of Brands with a Conscience. Among this year's
winners there are some powerful examples of what can be achieved
when a genuine commitment is made to sustainability.’
‘Brands with a Conscience has regularly shown
that it is possible to achieve international recognition while living
one's most heartfelt aims,’ said Jack Yan, a founder and Director
of the Medinge Group. ‘This year's winners may be a mixed bag in
terms of their industries, but share a joint vision to make their
part on the planet a better, happier one.’
Ian Ryder, a founding member and Director of the
Medinge Group, commented, ‘The Brands with a Conscience awards have
truly come of age this year. The range and quality of entries was
high and the judging was hard, but any one of this year's winning
organizations, large or small, demonstrates that active, "conscience-driven"
brand management helps customers, partners, communities and the
world at large. Significantly, they help in the essential act of
achieving commercial success. Well done, and thanks, to all the
nominees for trying, and to the winners for being just that little
bit better.’
Patrick Harris, a Director of the Medinge Group
added, ‘As the first recipient of the Colin Morley Award, Shakespeare’s
Globe is well positioned as a humanity-focused organization and
as a leading brand. Through its efforts of studying Shakespeare
in performance, it encourages individuals to find personal relevance,
and to realize the effects of a timeless commentator on the human
condition.’
The winners in detail
Adnams
www.adnams.co.uk
A local brewer in Suffolk, England, Adnams is
recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development,
and regularly features in the UK list of top 50 places to work.
In October 2006, it unveiled the UK’s greenest warehouse, the first
commercial building built from sustainable hemp blocks, with the
UK’s largest sedum roof, drawing 80 per cent of its hot water needs
from solar panels. An energy-efficient brew house is slated for
completion in March 2007. Adnams has been brewing in Suffolk since
1872, today employs 280, has a charity arm, and focuses on sustainability
because it wants to.
Ecover
www.ecover.com/gb/en/default_home.aspx
Ecover is the world’s largest producer of ecological
detergents and cleansing products, a pioneering, innovative company
founded in 1980 in Belgium. Their progressive environmental and
social policy is at the heart of their business success. In their
vision statement they say: ‘Ecover is a company that strives to
optimize economic value. We regard the environment as an inseparable
part of the economy … job performance as a means to foster the social
wellbeing and personal development of its direct and indirect employees.’
The Medinge Group also recognizes Ecover’s visual identity which
combines a strong brand mark with appropriate environmental signals
like transparent packaging.
Fetzer Vineyards
www.fetzer.com
The sixth-largest seller of prize-winning premium
wines in the US—and the largest grower of organic grapes in northern
California, committed to going all-organic by 2010. Fetzer uses
nothing but renewable power and water treated without chlorine;
has reduced its waste by 94 per cent since 1990; earns Salmon-Safe
and Fish-Friendly certificates for its vineyard practices; is a
charter member of Climate Leaders, an industry-government partnership;
and has helped influence its parent company, Brown-Forman, towards
sustainable business practices.
Freeplay
www.freeplayenergy.com
Established in 1994 and driven by its core purpose
of making energy available to everybody all of the time, Freeplay
Energy plc seeks to maintain its leadership in creating and developing
the international market for self-sufficient energy products. Its
commitment to this objective is demonstrated by the establishment
of its product range and the formation of strategic alliances with
partners that bring compatible technology and market leadership.
The application of the company’s technology has had a significant
role in promoting education and access to life-changing information
to isolated communities in the developing world: to date, over 100,000
Lifeline radios (powered by Freeplay technology) are being used
in humanitarian projects in over 20 countries.
IKEA
www.ikea.com
Highly ambitious and detailed work is being done
by this huge concern with some 150 retail stores around the globe.
Especially interesting is IKEA's firm stance against corruption,
perhaps the most serious obstacle for a better world in developing
countries. In Russia an invited group of 350 VIPs, including the
Swedish ambassador, returned home after IKEA refused to pay bribes
to the local government needed to obtain the permit to open a new
Moscow store, an incident later reported in The Financial Times.
The Medinge Group further acknowledges IKEA’s extensive programmes
for ecology and social responsibility.
Red
www.joinred.com
A brand which demonstrates the power of collective
action and a simple idea that everyone can get. It’s a business
model (not a charity) that works for both people and business, and
for the image of ubiquitous founder Bono. As their manifesto says:
‘If you buy a Red product or service, at no cost to you a Red company
will give some of its profit to buy and distribute anti-retroviral
medicine to people dying of Aids in Africa.’ A modern, inclusive
brand, Red has a distinctive and attractive identity that is shared
by like-minded brands. It’s a brand that partners personalize and
promote on their own sites. And it is a brand where you can easily
see the results of your actions. As MySpace, one its sponsors says,
‘Collectively, we can do good in a big way’.
Virgin Group/Virgin Fuels
www.virgin.com/aboutvirgin
www.virgin.com/news/default.asp?sy=2003&ey=2006&sm=6&em=9&cid=0&nr=12&p=1&kwd=-&newsId=786
On September 10, 2006, Virgin Group announced
that they will apportion 100 per cent of all of their transport-related
profits over the next three years into a new enterprise called Virgin
Fuels. This equates to approximately $400 million in renewable initiatives
over three years. Virgin Group and Richard Branson have the brand
strength, voice and financial muscle to make a massive difference
in this high polluting and otherwise lethargic sector. Virgin Group
and its companies already have an enormously healthy and well-recognized
position as an innovative, exciting employer with a humane focus
on its staff and customers. Virgin Fuels has taken a thought-leading
position that only a handful of organizations can occupy.
Whole Foods
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Among its many laudable initiatives, the world’s
largest retailer of natural and organic foods recently committed
to ongoing contractual relationships with local farmers to help
supply each of its stores, thus truly supporting sustainable (and
energy- or transport-efficient) agriculture.
The Colin Morley Award for excellence by an NGO: Shakespeare’s
Globe
www.shakespeares-globe.org
Shakespeare’s Globe is an educational charity whose founding
purpose is dedicated to the study of Shakespeare in performance.
Aspects of interpretation and the attainment of personal relevance
are central to its activities. At its home on London’s Bankside,
the Globe manifests its purpose in three main operational areas:
Theatre, Education and Exhibition. The theatre space itself is the
most celebrated and architecturally sensitive Elizabethan reconstruction
in existence; an inextricable linkage to London past and present.
The Globe functions without Arts Council funding, thus, it is a
business model for the arts. It explores the humanity of Shakespeare,
himself a timeless commentator of the human condition, on the only
site that can ever be the home of his performances. A genuine concept,
it is wholly inclusive in how it tries to involve the world (e.g.
Zulu Macbeth, a touring Tent for Peace made from love-or peace-themed
Ophelia handkerchiefs)—perhaps the UK’s most underutilized, but
potentially potent brand.
Images
Images for this release may be downloaded from <http://jya.net/061221pr0.htm>.
2006 BWAC Committee
Malcolm Allan
Paulina Borsook
Pierre d’Huy
Ava Maria Hakim
Thomas Gad
Sicco van Gelder
Patrick Harris
Nicholas Ind
Tim Kitchin
Johnnie Moore
Stanley Moss (chairman)
Simon Paterson
Tony Quinlan
Anette Rosencreutz
Ian Ryder
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 launches its newest online resource, The Journal
of the Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and publications
by Medinge members.
Related sites
The Medinge Group www.medinge.org
Medinge Säteri www.medinge.com
Related documents
The Medinge Group fact sheet
The Medinge Group Q&A
Brands with a Conscience criteria
The Medinge Group Brand Manifesto
The Medinge Group members’ roster
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.
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