The Good, the Bad & the Ugly…A Short History of Social Media Sustainability

Presents…

This history of social media CSR has grown out of the research and reporting SMI’s new special report: The Social Media Sustainability Index.

Produced by social media sustainability specialists, Custom Communication, the report looks at how 287 of the world’s most sustainable companies are communicating their CSR commitments using social media.

You can download an extract and buy the full report at SMI.

1962 – Rachael Carson writes Silent Spring and gives birth to the modern environmental movement.

1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden, the first piece of environmental intellectualism.

1892 – Sierra Club inaugurated.

1970 – First Earth Day.

1971 – Greenpeace founded.

1999 – Indymedia.org grows out of the Seattle anti-globalization protests

Social media gave everyone the power to tell their story online.Today, activists and companies are using that power.

2006 – GM’s Tahoe social media competition is blindsided by green crowdsourcing.

2006 – Vancity launches Change Everything, the first CSR community social network…unless you can tell us different!

2006 – Anti-oil activists in Ireland give Shell the YouTube effect…by making a video then emailing oil journalists with the link.

2006 – HSBC launches Your Point of View, a sustainability social media project.

2006 – Wal-Mart Watch makes big business (one in particular) wake up to niche, issue-oriented social media publishing.

2007 – Tyson launches its Hunger Relief blog, perhaps aiming to deflect years of criticism about its poultry-rearing standards?

2007 - Greenpeace “punks” a Kleenex TV ad to protest Kimberly-Clark’s clear-cutting of ancient Boreal forests. A taste of things to come.

2008 – Lloyds TSB finds itself on the receiving end of a hit single by an anti-bank charges group.

2008 – GM launches a social network, GMNext. Its “green” section is overwhelmed by activists who question just how green the SUV behemoth can be?

2008 – Timberland starts Earthkeeping, its commitment to social responsibility and community outreach programme.

2008 – MyStarbucks Idea is launched in part to counter community criticism of the company.

2008 - Unilever’s Dove brand finds itself on the receiving end of an aggressive Greenpeace social media campaign, Onslaughter, against palm oil deforestation.

2008 – Waste Management, the US’s largest trash collector launches Greenopolis, a sustainability-focused social network, to some plaudits and some cries of “greenwashing.”

2009 – Ford sponsors part of the Invisible People homelessness project.

2009 – Former CNN correspondent, Gene Randall, takes a corporate gig for Chevron and makes a “news documentary” rebutting claims that Texaco (acquired by Chevron) caused massive oil pollution in Ecuador.

2009 – Target’s Bullseye Gives campaign asked its Facebook community to crowdsource which 10 NGOs should share a $3 million charitable donation.

2009 - The Reality Coalition uses the talents of the Coen Bros to skew the coal industry with this TV and YouTube campaign.

2010 – PepsiCo launches the Pepsi Refresh Project and changes the face of social media CSR.

2010 – IBM creates Smarter Planet a fully integrated sustainability and marketing initiative.

2010 – Facebook, so often the catalyst for social media activism, finds itself under attack for its choice of coal-powered data centers.

2010 – Stonyfield’s farm cam and Have a Cow program promotes organic farming. And you thought YouTube cats were amusing…

2010 – Greenpeace launches a social media assault on Nestle, ably helped by Nestle’s own social media faux pas.

2010 – On the heels of its triumph in persuading Nestle to change its palm oil sourcing, Greenpeace turns its attention to HSBC.

2010 – In the fallout form the the BP oil spill social media harnesses popular rage.

2010 – Burger King, perhaps mindful of the Nestle effect, quickly agrees to drop its relationship with Sinar Mas palm oil.

2010 – Ford launches The People’s Fleet, a sustainability marketing competition to aid charitable causes in Los Angeles.

2010 – Coca-Cola creates Hand Revolt, a tongue-in-cheek social media campaign to promote recycling.

2010 – Twitter combines with Room to Read and Crushpad wine to promote literacy.

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