The central idea of this event was sustainability, and this year’s guest was the man who understands, nurtures, expands and actively follows this in his professional life – Thomas Kolster. Known as a pioneer of responsible advertising, he is a man on a mission that is growing into a movement. He coined the term Goodvertising, interesting and playful take on words, that carriers extended field of communication. Goodvertising is a term of the book that explores all that is good in communication and how to use it evermore.
Thomas Kolster is a consultant to many clients around the world, and across industries; IKEA, Ogilvy, SOS Children’s Village to startup businesses. When a situation requires, he turns his advice into campaigns, and they all incorporate Goodvertising in them. It is precisely because of his actions that one of the leading world media – Huffington Post – named him an Inspirational Leader.
Sustainability as a term is not only an interesting idea that needs to be supported, it should be utilized as a way of life, both privately and professionally and should be taken on by larger organizations, similar to those where Thomas Kolster successfully carries out Goodvertising campaigns.
The tobacco industry is one considered without compromise and tough in the eyes of the public. However, sustainability as business guidance is one of the most crucial elements of business and it is recognized as such amongst the biggest companies in the world. Sustainability and the tobacco industry may not look like they go hand in hand, but André Calantzopoulos, CEO of Phillip Morris International stated that they can and should be a sustainable organization. “Under conditions that we take every possible step to fully replace cigarettes with better alternatives for adult smokers who would still continue to smoke, in a way that we solve the challenges in our chain of values and use the opportunities to give back to the society.”
Sustainability is made up of a range of things and many details. Some of those are recycling, caring about the use of water and the environment. This is how the initiative to recycle the used IQOS devices came to be; CIRCLE (Central Inspection and Recycling for Closed Loop Economy) recycling returned devices by the highest standards of the industry. A factory in Brazil received a certificate from Alliance for Water Stewardship (ASW) in 2018, while the goal of the campaign is to have all factories certified according to AWS standards by 2025. It is important to mention that PMI is for a fifth consecutive year placed at the top of the CDP list for climate change for its all-inclusive action of lowering the green gas emissions and mitigating climate change while being transparent in reporting.
To do good in, and through large organizations seems more important than ever. This, especially after the UN Global Report has been released. Managing the social influence, lowering the impact we have on environment and contributing to sustainable goals of United Nations are key moments of sustainable behavior of large organizations, and creative professionals and professionals in general like Thomas Kolster contribute in building awareness and betterment of realizing those goals, and making them a reality.
