What happens downstream?: Scott Mattoon's blog

Noah Kagan described the Blended iPod video as the best example of viral marketing on the web right now.  It had been viewed 4,499,819 times by the time I watched it while listening to Noah at the Opportunity Green conference at UCLA today.

Noah shared the stage with Günther Lie, Director of Interactive Marketing at Method Products, in a panel interview called Green 2.0 - Connecting Our Community.  Günther observed that the marketing messages directed at prospective green customers are infused with shame and guilt.   I'd say that's right, and, to an extent, is why businesses' participation in communities online is so crucial to the green sea change washing over the economy.  Social pressure on a scale only possible through online communities is driving conformity to new social standards.  The green ethos is coalescing first online.  What was briefly a meme in early online communities is now a code of conduct among those communities with intention.  The price of admission to an effective, thriving community is having a working knowledge of eco and social responsibility.  Businesses lacking the vocabulary of CSR, carbon offsets, and radical resource efficiency need not apply.  You won't get noticed taken seriously on worldchanging.com, treehugger.com, openthefuture.com, openarchitecturenetwork.org, care2.com, witness.org, or the myriad other huge, vibrant online communities shaping our socially and environmentally just future unless you accept an informed role in the cause.

Today we held the first formal convening of the Employee Advisory Board for Corporate Social Responsibility at Sun.  Our CSR Program Manager led the 20 or so of us volunteers through the current status of CSR at Sun and what's next.  The lively discussion generated lots of ideas on how to approach our employees, management, board and customers with the business-case for doing more.  Complacency not being a Sun trait, no one in the meeting was satisfied that we're doing enough.

I offered that leadership beyond the technology is desirable and that there is demand for consulting, guidance, and methodology for becomei

Still, Sun has made some important strides toward CSR, to wit:

• Delivered 2006 CSR Report
• Signed on to UN Global Compact
• Joined the new Electronics Industry Code of Conduct (EICC)
• Initiated Stakeholder Engagement Programs (including this employee board)
  
• Some other TBA projects designed to engage communities in the steering and advancement of these efforts
  

It was clear from the discussion that there are lot of employees who are knowledgeable and passionate about the relevance, value, and priority of CSR at Sun.   From a field sales point of view, I offered that leadership in CSR, beyond the innovation of green technology, is something that our customers are looking for.  For example, one Fortune 500 customer told me that putting together the metrics and programs to go carbon neutral is something "We have no idea how to do."  This a reflection of the state of business in the realm of Eco Responsibility, and CSR in general.  And the going-green aspect of CSR is climbing as a priority, (some say it is eclipsing other important priorities).   The Al Gore effect, as my friend at BSR calls it.

So, where does Sun go from here?  The Employee Advisory Board advocated for establishing Sun's leadership in the market.  Clearly Sun is leading in many areas, but taking it to a programmatic level with our customers is an opportunity for improvement.  Like all of the volunteers in the meeting today, I hope to contribute to the effort.