Business and Society 2.0

The Swedish EU Presidency, together with the Swedish Forest Industries Association , is challenging EU members to be more effective in the sustainability of their forestry resources. The Swedish Forest Industries released a Manifesto, with actions and recommendations for good economic, social and environmental development. Stop Global deforestation and growth plantation rates in EU will have a significant positive impact on climate change. Increased Growth in Forestry Protecting Biological Diversity Free Trade The Role of Managed Forests. An increase in forest growth will retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere The Role of Wood Products, as a renewable building material Global Deforestation, a cause of a fifth of human emissions Global Emissions Trading, harmonizing principles in other regions outside Europe The Forest Industry is Vital for the Production of Bioenergy First Goods, Then Bioenergy Promote Better Competition in the Electricity Market Retain site-Specific Environmental D

Enterprise 2.0 is defined by Andrew McAfee as the use of social networkings platforms like Facebook, Flickr, Linkedin and Wikipedia, in the context of companies or between companies and their partners or customers. He has just published his new book, Enterprise 2.0, New Collaborative Tools For Your Organization´s Toughest Challenges.

Sustainability and management best practices indexes and reporting We can identify some enterprises, namely in the paper and forest industry, to use some special kind of Key Indexes or Best Practices Reporting Systems integrated in their annual reporting to stakeholders. One case is Stora Enso, a Finnish company, which is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) since 2001. This DJSI assesses the economic, environmental and social aspects of some of the world´s largest companies. Stora Enso has been included also in the FTSE4 Good Index series, since 2001. FTSE4 Good Index series, focus on environmental management, human and labor rights, supply chain labour standards and efforts to counter bribery. Another wood, pulp and paper supplier, the Swedish Holmen Paper as well as Stora Enso, are also examples of using the Global Research Initiative (GRI), to transparently announce to this stakeholders the commitment to a sustainable and responsible management. GRI Indicators includ

An interesting model to increase employee´s awareness and to push for their ideas and creativity, is the scheme implemented by Holmen and reported in the last Holmen Report. Any employee can submit an idea and Holmen Paper receive more then 170 suggestions per year. The suggestions are scrutinized by management with the Unions involvement. For the suggestions that are considered useful, there is a reward in the compensation, which is calculated by the difference between investment and first year profit. This means for Holmen a one year payback of the investment and for the employee a bonus in his compensation. This is a “win-win” relation, keeps motivation high and creates a climate of transparency.

Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact that human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, that have arisen through the manufacture and distribution of a product or service. Producing 200kg of paper, the average we each use every year, creates between 130–250kg of CO2 depending on the source of energy. This is comparable to many other small scale domestic activities, and is roughly equivalent to the CO2 produced by an average family car over a distance of 600 miles.While the main raw material of paper, trees, is a vast carbon store and the prime absorber of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the precise carbon footprint of the paper cycle is difficult to pinpoint as it depends on how the paper is made and the source of energy used in production. Nuclear, hydro, biofuel and geothermal energy, heavily used by some paper making countries, are all low carbon, while fossil-fuels are carbon intensive. &quo

The paper industry is Europe’s largest recycler and is one of the greatest environmental success stories of recent years. Today, the average recycling rate across European countries is over 62%, representing more than 50 million tonnes of used paper collected each year.Paper fibres can be recycled up to six times, and recycling is certainly the best way to keep waste paper out of landfill. So paper has excellent credentials as a renewable, sustainable and recyclable product, and managed paper production has a positive environmental impact. At the same time, a responsible use of paper and attitude to recycling will have an even greater environmental benefit. "When people use more paper, suppliers plant more trees. If we want bigger commercial forests, then we should use more paper not less. Our policies should directly protect important wildlife habitats, not try to reduce our demand for paper."(1) (1) Edward L. Glaeser, Professor of Economics at Harvard University © Copyright

People think paper making is a great energy consumer. In fact it was some years ago, but technology has played is role, things changes but the idea stays the same. Looking more closely, we will see some interesting facts and figures about paper making and the usage of energy. On average it takes 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity to produce 200kg of paper, the average amount of paper that each of us consume each year. "The European pulp and paper industry is strongly in favour of renewable energy and has declared an intent that commits the industry to increase the share of biomass-based energy in its total primary energy consumption from 49% in 2001 to 56% in 2010"(1). Does 500 kilowatt-hours sound a lot? Well, let´s look to other energy consumption of our day to day life. 500 kWh is equivalent to: • Powering one computer continuously for five months • Burning a 60w light bulb continuously for one year • The energy consumed by a typical household leaving its electronic e

Another prejudice is that paper destroys forests. In fact the main raw material of paper is cellulose fibre which generally comes from trees, but this doesn’t automatically equate to the destruction of forests. Papermaking and other industries that depend on trees need thriving forests. It’s in their interest. "Almost half of the timber harvested from the world’s forests is used to make paper products, so the paper industry has a huge opportunity to make sure that those forests are responsibly managed and will be here for generations to come" (1) . It is estimated that there are 25% more trees in the developed world today than there were in 1901, and in Europe alone, forests are increasing annually. Deforestation is generally occurring in the tropics but for a variety of reasons. The main cause of deforestation is either for agriculture or for domestic fuel requirements, which between them, account for almost half of the trees cut down worldwide. There have been, and continue

According to a survey of professional media buyers, 70% of respondents perceived recycled paper to be better for the environment than virgin paper. It isn’t as straightforward as you might think. While recycled paper does reduce waste paper going to landfill, you must also consider paper’s full life cycle and not just the fibre source. Modern paper mills producing virgin fibre paper, whose energy source is nuclear, hydro or internally bio-fuelled, may well have a lower carbon footprint than a mill making recycled paper, powered by fossil fuels. And it’s important to remember that virgin fibre is always required to make recycled paper possible in the first place. For these reasons, it is very difficult to directly compare the environmental impact of recycled and virgin fibre paper. The paper industry has eight representatives in the UN’s list of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies, more than any other industry. Both virgin and recycled paper products can therefore have an equally

It is a prejudice the idea that paper is bad for the environment. In fact, the pulp and paper industry is one of the few that makes really sustainable products. The exception is coming from countries not yet commited to protect their forest resources, but they are decreasing. This is not the case in Europe were the forest area is increasing each year. The rate of replanted trees in good managed forests are three to four times more than the cutting pace. This means that the forests are growing and also renewed by young trees which absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere then older trees. Beeing paper a wood product it will store carbon with its lifetime. In adition, most of the forests are certified by independent and non profit organizations. Two of the most known entities that certifies that paper used is coming from sustainable forests are: - the Forest Stewardship Council ( FSC ) and - the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification ( PEFC ). According to FSC, "the amount

Chris Smith wrote for Search Engine Land " What Could Save the Yellow Pages? 10 Ideas ". From his article he has the opinion, in spite of the usage decline of printed Yelow Pages (YP) and that well known companies like Idearc and R.H. Donnelley are facing great difficulties, the Yellow Pages companies can survive. I take his ideas numbers 2 and 4, to reduce environmental impact and improve Public Relations, to comment a bit more. To reduce environmental impact by reduction on the number of books distributed is a false question and it is a myth I would like to reformulate. What is important for YP industry is to optimize the distribution of books, ideally distributing to those that really use the books or have potential to use them. If there are areas or households that have potential to use the printed directories, probably boomers and matures will have more propensity to use the print then youngers (1), YP should delivey to these potential users/buyers and on the contrary th

A report from the Kelsey Group, mentions the following case of success: Profiles of Success - Local News Goes Multiplatform in Las Vegas, by Rob Curley, President and Executive Editor, Greenspun Media and Chris Jennewein, Senior VP and Publisher, Greenspun Media. The Opportunity In Las Vegas, Greenspun Media owns a local newspaper, radio station, cable news outlet, local alternative weekly, weekly newspapers and several tourism-related publications. The objective was to determine how to drive synergy across these key properties and position Greenspun for the future. The Solution The solution was to develop an "online first" approach, with all new online staff and new Web sites. "What attracted us to Greenspun was that we could change the rules," said Greenspun Publisher Chris Jennewein. Since Greenspun's Las Vegas Sun was the No. 2 newspaper in town, "we had no core print business to support and defend." Moreover, Greenspun's TV properties can supp

To produce paper we need forests and most of the people think that using paper we are contributing to cut the trees and this is dramatically bad for the environment. However, most of the forests are already well managed in the sense that these forests are growing more then the pace of cutting the trees. Forests in Europe, growing and well managed are a good contribution to countering the threats of climate change. Most of them are certified forests in accordance with PEFC and FSC (1). Young forests binds more carbon then older ones. The driving force is coming from Sweden, which is following a direction towards a sustainable forest industry. According to "The Forest Industry - a Natural part of Sweeden" (3), growth of sweedish forests will increase by 20 million cubic meters by 2020, which represents 20% increase. The positive impact on environment from managed forests in relation with forests left untouched, has to be also compared with the effects of paper and printing prod

First of all millenials (age 14-25) and Generation X (26-42) spend less hours reading newspapers in print format (1.1 to 1.4 hours per week) but old generations, baby boomers (age 43-61) spend 2.7 hour a week and matures (age 62-75) still use 4.3 hours a week. However the millenials and generation X are not reading news from newspapers online. They only spend 0.7 and 1.0 hours per week reading newspapers online. Other generations, boomers and matures spend more time reading newspapers online then youngers, 1.3 hours per week (1). Both newspaper readership, print and online, are declining and Internet surpassed newspapers as the source of information. Content and quality of the news provided are important for our democracy and liberty of thinking. If newspaper industry fails to atract these younger generation to their contents, most of the professionals and specialized journalists and opinion makers will not have access to express themselves and share with the community. Of course they

The need for self expression, empowerment and entertainment cross all generations and this is important to be considered in the future development of social networking tools such as online videos, blogging and spaces. These facilities also stimulate teachers to find new ways of teaching and motivate students to learn with more interactivity between peers and teachers. According to Seybold Report (1) "people who are using social networking the most are the Millenials, those born between 1977 and 1995, otherwise known as Generation Y". In spite of beeing the future, in what concerns money spenditures, according to the Generation Buy Survey (2) "not only are 40 and 50 years old spending more on themselves per month then millenials and Generation X", but they are also spending "more then three times the amount of money per month on their spouses than adults under 40". The same is occuring with kids and teen children. This is an important issue for marketers to

In a recent dicussion, Mark Ellis, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at DMI, Inc, posted the following comment: "Print is absolutely not dead. I've been on the sales side of the industry for more than 25 years. There’s been talk of “paperless society” all the way back to when I first got my start at a print for pay division of Xerox (the old Xerox Reproduction Centers AKA XRC) in the early 80's.The role and value of the printed document will only continue to be enhanced with the advent of new communication technologies such as Web 2.0. This is especially true in the area of direct marketing, direct mail, and in particular cross media variable data, or 1:1 marketing where variable data printing is incorporated. The economy has already slammed the print industry, and there will undoubtedly be another shake out which will probably be much worse then the post 9/11 recession. I’ve been with my company for 18 years and we are fortunate to have grown to the largest 100% all d

We see a trend in printing technology to use also the electronic media support. For most of the conventional media, printing technology continues to be offset lithography. Digital printing was considered has having less quality then offset. This is not an issue anymore. From print buyer´s perception, only 25% consider it as unacceptable. In fact, most of the print jobs can be done with new digital technology equipment with an offset quality, except in a few cases. There are new tools like System Brunner´s Proof Check (1) that can measure color and adjust parameters quickly. What can increase quality perception of a printed job is more the finishing options available, like “UV coating, foil stamping, embossing or die cutting on the front or the cover”. (2) Actually the unit cost of digital printing is still higher then offset technology, but for short runs the digital printing is a better solution, mainly due to the high cost of make-ready for the offset. We can estimate the “breakeaven

Well some people discover new ways and formulas to get printed products alive. In the case, Home Pages, in the market since 1997, are launching new Directories for small cities and communities. The business is growing, but still to be proven if this is sustainable for the long range. It is published in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin, with around 40.000 independent businesses. The strategy is to cover just a small community with very attractive prices. If the business is mostly done locally, then for the advertiser does´nt make sense to invest in a book with a large scope and circulation. If for the advertiser the target customers are within an wider scope they can invest in several books. Reference http://homepagesdirectories.com/

Susan Greenfield a british investigator, states that an excessive use of social networking, like Twiter, Bebo and Facebook can be dangerous to the brain. It can "accomodate" the brain functions to live just the moment and lack also the capacity of paying attention and concentration. Technology and environment are influencing the way brain works and performs. According to the Guardian, "social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity". "It might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder." She stated also "a much more marked preference for the here-and-now, where the imm

To ilustrate this mobile marketing feature that integrates print to online publishing, Goss International introduced the technology called RSVP. According to Brian Lawler, " the product is a two-dimensional bar code in a small graphic (about 1 cm. square) with a small logo included. The bar code is printed into an advertisement, and can be read by a scanner or (and this is the differentiating part) a cell phone camera. The idea promoted by Goss is that the RSVP code will become a well-known symbol for market bargains, sales and discounts. Once the code is captured, the cell phone can send the customer to a web page, or alternatively, the RSVP code initiates an event that sends a digital coupon back to the cell phone. It can b e low-sophistication, or high-sophistication". Brian continues explaining "the idea is that you could be reading your newspaper, and could photograph an advert featuring an RSVP code with your cell phone. The cell phone would then receive a digital

In adition to the usage of barcodes to link print copies to a mobile browser, the mobile marketing can also use other applications to complement and create value to the traditional print media. As it is mentioned in the Seybold Report (1) some "specialty" sites like Bebo Europe and Videojug, "the first a social networking site, the second an online video site", both gave the opportunity to newspapers to add value to their print editions and "attract users from their traditional constituency". Print media should incorporate in their electronic versions, ways to interact with users. Generation Y (ages between 14 and 32) are heavy users of socialnetworking and tools like online video, blogging, microblogging and spaces. With these "new ways of reaching the audiences" (2) some measuring indicators are important to be established, namely Interaction with users Engagement of users with the content,enabling them o visit frequently Amplification of conte

Generally speaking there is a believe that most people does not use the Yellow Pages printed books and otherwise prefer to use some sort of electronic information search. However a marketing research conducted by LinkDirect (1) and mentioned by Peter Rand that "only one every 1.000 UK consumers has opted out of home delivery of printed directories" (2). Rand cited the "results of a delivery conducted in Gloucestershire in 2008, after an opt-out campaign undertaken in the area by an environmental group" (2) showed that only 0,24% has opted for not receiving the directory. The study also demonstrates that of these 0,24% opt outs, 18% were older people and 17% younger people, more or less the same percentage, which is against our previous ideas that only older people wants the printed books and youngers only use Internet. Middle age people with high income rates 14% of opting out for receiving the printed book, gives an indication that age is not really a diferentiator

A new book is now available-Buyology in Brief, by Martin Lindstrom. A quick summary extracted from http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page1 Does sex sell? What do religion and ritual have in common with successful brands? How successful is product placement? Does subliminal advertising really influence our behavior? Based on the largest neuromarketing study ever conducted, Buyology separates the truths from the lies about why we buy, revealing how marketers and advertisers truly capture our attention, our loyalty, and our dollars. Buyology unveils the results of marketing guru Martin Lindstrom's pioneering three-year, $7 million dollar study that used the latest in brain scan technology to peer into the minds of over 2,000 people from around the world. The shocking results will reveal why so much of what we thought we knew about why we buy is wrong. Buyology rewrites the rules of marketing and advertising. In 1957, when a market researcher named James Vicary claimed that a lig

Not just the Internet usage is growing, but also it is expected that most of the world population will be connected and comunicate with the aid of some mobile device. Future publishing can take this trend as an opportunity, developing contents that could take advantage of these technologies. For the moment, screen dimensions difficult the visualization of large contents of data like we have in newspapers, magazines or the Yellow Pages ads. Few mobile devices support now Flash and the replication of some web contents are not visible. However, there are a number of companies like Goss RSVP(1), Upcode(2), Scanbuy(3) and Snaptell(4) that allow mobile users to connect what they see in a print page to a mobile browser. As the trend on mobile devices is going in the direction of using full HTML and support technologies like Flash and video, publishers can take the opportunity to better intersect their print pages to the "online" environment. The print page is still a tactile and emo

I read a paper from Frank Buytendijk, concerning the concept of Enterprise 2.0. It offers his vision on the way companies are managed. Here is is vision, in a summary way, extracted from his blog: " Many have applied the Web 2.0 definition to the enterprise. They believe that Enterprise 2.0 simply means using Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, mash-ups, and gadgets within the organization. Or does it? IT architects are quick to point out that such technologies can only work if they are based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and supported by a solid middleware layer. But to serve what business purpose? Tenured IT professionals will quickly see many parallels between the Enterprise 2.0 enthusiasm and the knowledge management hype of the 1990s that—worthwhile as it was—never made it into the main stage. So what is different today? Drawing on our diverse backgrounds in customer relationship management, enterprise content management, enterprise performance management, a

There are advancements in the printing technolgy. Last Graph Expo 2008 (Drupa) showed some interesting developments. The HP Inkjet Web Press , is one on them. We can see from the HP site (1) some of the features. The HP Inkjet Web Press represents a new product category for HP in the commercial printing marketplace. Specifically targeting high-volume production operations, the HP Inkjet Web Press establishes a unique combination of width, productivity, print economics, and print quality at high speed. Taking our design guidance directly from high volume printers, HP is delivering a Press with a 762mm web that runs up to 122 meters per minute. Width and linear speed comprise the two key elements of productivity, and the HP Inkjet Web Press equation delivers up to 2,600 full color impressions per minute. Additionally, our wider platform will enable printers to bring the benefits of digital to new areas. Book signatures, full sized newspaper broadsheets, and a variety of multi-up formats

In spite of some signals on print jobs growth, like the "Economist, which is growing in circulation by an average of 5.6%" (1), in general, according to the study Digital Printing Directions, printing workload is decreasing and in 2020 is expecteed to be 70% of 1995 volumes (2). This Digital Printing Direction study, from Frank Romano, found there is a trend for shorter runs and faster turnaround times. 45% of jobs are short run and time sensitive while 19% are long runs and not time sensitive. In 2000 the number of print jobs produced in a week was 18% and is expected to decrease to 13% by 2020, while the number of jobs produced in a day or less was 15% in 2000 and is expected to reach 20% by 2020. Frank Romano´s study shows also that in 2000, offset printing technology was 80% of the printing revenue while digital printing only accounted for 5%. In 2020 this will turn to less than 30% and digital printing to growth up to 40%. The trend is also to move from one colour, to fu

Paper Industry is changing towards a "new generation" of paper grades, pulp and paper manufacturing technologies. It is a fact, the trend of paper consumption in the world is going down. Print volumes went down since 1995 almost 20%, by the use of Internet and other digital media. Between 1995 and 2020 the worldwide print volumes are expected to decrease by about 30% (1). This general trend does not tell what is going in the industry and what are the expectations for the future. Newspaper Publishers have probably experienced the competitiveness of the media industry and the change of consumer habits using much more information available online. However, some publishers presented strong operations like Prisa Group, the owners of El País, the spanish newspaper that has increased circulation the last years. According to Pedro Garcia Guillén, General Manager of El País (2), "the circulation and number of readers has grown last years, in spite of competition from newspapers a

The idea of this blogue is to discuss the implications and expected opportunities related to what is beeing developed in the new generation of Internet, the so called web 2.0. There is a reference title which I consider the framework for the wiki generation, Wikinomics by Don Tapscott. Most of the web aplications and the related cultural changes are having an implication on the way Marketing and Publishing activities. Place here your ideas and strategies.