9 out of 10 dentists recommend being carbon free
Being Intentional - Motive's Bi-Weekly newsletter for Intentional Shoppers
Welcome to Being Intentional, our bi-weekly newsletter focused on the world of sustainability and the steps we can all take to move closer to a better world for everyone.
We frequently get asked how we score brands; where do the numbers come from? What is the methodology we use? These are great questions and the answer gets at the heart of what we do. The short answer is that we use ESG data to rate companies. While many people are familiar with ESG, many more are not. If you're not familiar, allow us to provide a quick overview. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance and it's a way to quantify a company's position on issues that fall into the realms of environmental, social, or governance performance. ESG has traditionally been viewed through a financial lens and it allowed investors to qualify a company's risks e.g. is this company likely to be involved in a scandal, etc. ESG data is now commonly used to create financial products for retail investors (think "Green Funds"). There are now over 3,500 unique funds that are based on ESG data, which means that billions of dollars are flowing into the ESG universe.
Where does ESG come from, though? Good question! ESG data is derived by analyzing as much information as possible on a company. Some of this information comes from financial statements which provide insight into things like executive compensation, or the existence of independent board members, or oversight committees. Some of this information comes from public disclosure, such as the resources a company consumes, or a company's hiring practices. Some of this data is simply derived from the type of industry in which a company operates. As you can see there are many inputs into ESG data, and it's important to keep in mind that ESG reporting is unregulated and does not conform to a single standard. If you'd like to open up Pandora's box just ask anyone involved with ESG data their opinion on standards and frameworks. Just joking. Don't do that or will be forced to write another blog post about it. Like this one, or this one.
Who collects all this data? And, if there isn't a single standard for reporting couldn't there be problems? More great questions! These inputs are collected by firms called reporting agencies. ESG reporting agencies are similar to consumer credit agencies; they collect raw data and then apply their own weighting to the data in order to produce a score. And, just like consumer credit agencies, the data isn't perfect. The reporting agencies can overlook things, or companies can intentionally or unintentionally mislead reporting agencies, or the weightings that the reporting agencies give to the raw data can improperly skew the scores. There are a lot of variables at work, and with variables come increased chances for error.
But--and this is important--when ESG data is aggregated from multiple reporting agencies, and when ESG data is viewed as a relative data point, we are able to paint an accurate picture of a company. Perfect, no. Accurate, yes. Sure, there may be (certainly are) larger margins of error than we'd all like, but it allows us to track the progress of a company and compare two companies to see if one is better than another in a number of key issues.
This is definitely more than you wanted to know about ESG, but the ESG wave is turning into a tsunami and at least now you can hold your own at cocktail parties (do people even go to cocktail parties anymore?).
As always, thank you for reading and supporting Motive. You're the best and we are deeply grateful.
Taylor & Kai
Every little change helps...and there are few changes smaller than toothpaste. Browse any pharmacy shelf or online listing and we find dozens of options varying by flavor, promised outcomes, or the availability of sparkles.
But for all of this variety, the shelf is dominated by five principal brands: Sensodyne, Crest, Colgate, Arm & Hammer, and Tom’s of Maine. And these five brands are actually misleading because Tom’s of Maine is owned by Colgate--so really only four brands to choose from. So, which one is best for people and the planet.
Good news: at least all four brands have positive RealScores! Even so, however, Arm & Hammer and Colgate really set themselves apart and are among the highest-rated brands across any and all sectors!
Arm & Hammer(RS: +41, ↑ 99%)
Colgate (RS: +39, ↑ 99%)
Crest (RS: +15, ↑ 65%)
Sensodyne (RS: +13, ↑ 63%)
For the first time ever, no individual industry sectors were prominent at a critical interest threshold. All user interest was spread to brands from a wide distribution of industry sectors with no sector being statistically more prominent than any other sector.
This is very interesting and exciting!
It’s too early to draw any meaningful conclusions, but it would seem Motive users are turning to us for information across all purchases. In one sense, it would mean Motive users are not driven by a specific interest in sustainable fashion or ethical foods, as examples, but rather by an interest in sustainable EVERYTHING!
We have been careful in our development to appeal to as many intentional shoppers as possible and this is a sign that our efforts are paying off...and a sign that we will be keeping an eye on.
GSK Adds Carbon Neutral Toothbrush to its Lineup of Sustainable Products
Carbon Neutral Toothbrush? GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), makers of Sensodyne toothpaste (see above), have a media push on right now touting the virtues of the first-ever carbon neutral toothbrush. This is less interesting as a toothbrush than it is as a study in how marketing departments view the opportunities of “carbon neutrality”
From our Blog:
Be Critical: Climate change denialism and alarmism both contort the science to their own agendas and are both prevalent--it helps to have a foundation to help us all make sense of what we are hearing.
Titans of (Sustainable) Capitalism: If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now: Sustainability is profitable. The ‘titans of capitalism’, the self-styled experts in profit, have now recognized this.
From our YouTube Channel: