Confluence Consulting
  • Home
    • About
  • Services
    • Free CSR Consultation
    • Custom Strategy
    • Implement & Manage
    • Completed Projects
  • Blog
    • Subscribe
    • 2016 Brewery Giving Report
    • Craft Brewery Analysis
  • Contact

Crowdsourcing solutions for corporate social responsibility challenges

10/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Occasionally your business gets in a bit of a rut. New ideas might be hard to come by. Perhaps any new ideas that do come through just do not work. At these times an outsider, usually a consulting firm, comes in to help. Well, has your business ever tried crowdsource the problem?
Reaching out to the masses and soliciting their support is another option that organizations have utilized more and more the last few years. Crowdsourcing helps a company solve some of its biggest issues. Crowdsourcing gives opportunities to other businesses in a different industry to contribute as well as creative individuals to bring alternative ideas.

Crowdsourcing

"the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers."
Merriam-Webster
​First, the Carlsberg Group​ is looking for ideas to improve its environmental impact with its "Cheers to Green Ideas" campaign. The initiative is looking for solutions to in three high-impact areas: eco-friendly packaging, recycling, and less water & energy consumption when brewing.
Picture
Image credit: Carlsberg/Sustainia
Earlier this year, the Carlsberg Group announced that it is working on a biodegradable bottle made from wood-fibers. The three year project wants all attributes of the bottle, including the bottle caps, to be biodegradable. By crowdsourcing, the Carlsberg Group can learn of other techniques or processes that could help with this biodegradable bottle or other projects.

The brewing industry is a very collaborative industry and breweries have done some pretty innovative ideas to improve its impact on the environment. Through a crowdsourcing campaign though, an organization receives solutions or input from different industries. These types of collaborations of different industries are difficult to find because the fit between the two may not be as apparent at first.

The second Sustainable Brands article around crowdsourcing aimed to tackling food system challenges that address business practices. In 2014, Unilever launched "Unilever Foundry," a crowdsourcing platform for small businesses to partner with Unilever.  Unilever has already used the platform for tackling sustainability challenges. For the upcoming food system challenge, Unilever is looking for ideas regarding:
  • Obesity
  • Under-nutrition
  • Food waste
  • Food chain sustainability
  • Heart Health

By Unilever and the Carlsberg Group using crowdsourcing, they are accessing new talent, tools, and ideas that may have taken their internal teams possibly longer. In addition, they are using crowdsourcing to address some of the top environmental and social challenges our world is facing. Through these unique collaborations, new innovations and unique solutions may help solve these challenges.
Sustainable Brands​ recently shared two great articles about businesses currently looking to the outside community for solutions related to corporate social responsibility strategy.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Subscribe Here

    Search Blog

    Archives

    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014



    Contributors

    Brian Phipps

    Categories

    All
    Breweries
    Confluence Tap
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    Guest Articles
    Human Resources
    Maps
    Marketing
    Operations
    Strategy

    RSS Feed

SERVICES
Free CSR Consultation
Custom Strategy
Implement/Manage
CONTACT
720.341.8365
2119 Williams St
Denver, CO 80205
CONNECT
Picture
Confluence Ltd. 
Est. 2014