Dave Armon's blog

When I travel to Northampton, Massachusetts, to spend time at 3BL Media’s headquarters, I invariably walk away smarter about the way corporate social responsibility and sustainability communicators do their jobs.

My colleagues on 3BL Media’s media consultant team work closely with clients, publishing content and reporting back on the effectiveness of various media types.

While some content types ebb and flow in popularity, video remains a reliable performer. 

It’s no wonder.  YouTube is the second most trafficked website in the world, with 20 billion visits a month. ...

Freddy Gray’s death while in the custody of Baltimore police pushed the riot-torn city’s only African America big company CEO into action, emphasizing corporate social responsibility to heal the scab that had been ripped off the community”

Baltimore Gas & Electric chief Calvin G. Butler Jr. said the 2015 death and racial strife pushed the 200-year-old utility to use the power of procurement in partnership with service providers and nonprofits to hire and train more people from inner city neighborhoods.

“The economic divide was getting wider and wider,” Butler said of...

Being a mensch seems to connect with consumers.

Two big-budget national TV ad campaigns – one from pharma giant Pfizer and the other from the wealth management firm Ameriprise Financial – are trying to drive sales through storylines involving the kind of social impact work usually reserved for nonprofits and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

In the case of Pfizer, taking the fibromyalgia drug Lyrica allows a man to do what he loves, donning a blue “volunteer” shirt and ...

Unlike many cities where Sunday newspaper readership has tanked, plenty of Minneapolis residents still treasure delivery of a chunky Star Tribune as part of their weekend routine.

“It’s our meal ticket,” Business Editor Thom Kupper said of the 580,000-circulation Sunday edition during a 3BL Media event for sustainability communicators.

Those pitching Minnesota’s largest daily need to understand that the “digital first” mantra adhered to by print outlets in some markets does not apply for his team. 

Kupper, whose business reporting team numbers 17, is continually...

If there’s any one topic that people working in sustainability can agree, it’s that their sector has an identity problem.

Acronyms abound. EHS, ESG, CSR and CR are just a few. There are professionals who feel that Social Purpose or Shared Value address both human rights and environmental issues. But just as many execs are solidly in the Sustainability camp. 

Joel Makower, the winning author and chairman of GreenBiz Group, says that the kids he interacts with will invariably describe the world they want to live in using sustainability language but without using “the S word.”...

When 3BL Media advertises for talent on job boards in western Massachusetts, we’ve used the phrase, “Silicon Alley Meets the Pioneer Valley.”

Juxtaposing New York City’s bustling media tech scene against the beautiful backdrop of the Berkshires seems to be working for 3BL Media, which has just been honored by the Springfield Regional Chamber for being third in revenue growth among regional companies.

Two of my colleagues from our Northampton headquarters, Jon Shrair and Rebecca Kreke, brought home a beautiful trophy from the...

One of the perks of attending sustainability and corporate social responsibility events is exposure to business leaders who are genuinely excited about the way their organizations are making the world a better place.

Increasingly, I’m encountering senior executives who encourage their peers to look closely at CSR programs to make sure they have adequate scale to actually make a difference, and that they connect to a company’s mission.

Bill DiCroce, the newly appointed CEO Veolia North America, is publicly applauding American business leaders for focusing on sustainability as...

For the past couple of summers, our family has watched as construction workers ferried back and forth between Rhode Island’s Point Judith and a wind farm being built off nearby Block Island.

We knew the turbines would be spinning soon when the main highway traversing the peninsula was gouged to make way for a cable that would bring ashore any surplus electricity not consumed by Block Island residents and businesses.

For the sustainarati in the Ocean State there is clearly a sense of pride that the United State’s first offshore wind project got approved and built there. ...

If the University of California was a state, it would be the 15^th largest.

The annual budget for UC is 20 times larger than Arizona, where Janet Napolitano was governor from 2003 to 2009.

So the impact of California’s 10 public university campuses, hospitals and research labs becoming carbon neutral in their energy consumption is an “audacious” goal, Napolitano told Verge 16, the GreenBiz Media Group conference, in Santa Clara, California.

The decision to tackle energy as a primary issue at UC stemmed from the same kind of assessment of meta risks she...

Leaning heavily on video and guided by metrics showing readers crave stories about solutions to environmental and social problems, a senior Huffington Post editor says coverage in the post-Ariana era will emphasize “positive journalism”

Jo Confino, speaking to CSR and sustainability communicators during a 3BL Media webinar, said the highly trafficked news site is determined to produce a flood of content and partner with activist organizations to drive change in the areas it deems important.

“The thing about...

Professional development events exist for just about every career, and they’ve been around since Thomas Edison held his first, “How to Change a Light Bulb” seminar for aspiring electricians (attendees earned 10 CEU credits and went home with some nice tsotchkes).

For the growing number of corporate and nonprofit professionals focused on social impact and sustainability initiatives, there is more choice in fall 2016 than ever before for events aimed at showcasing successful programs and the brands that made them happen. 

Getting approval from corporate controllers for...

The president of Nasdaq Inc. served as a different kind of market maker at a gathering of the Sustainerati this week.

Adena Friedman was celebrated at the United National Global Compact’s Leadership Summit as a role model for those just beginning their careers in sustainability and social impact work. Starting as an intern as she finished business school in 1993, she is now widely seen as the apparent heir to Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld, when he retires.

Friedman was also...

The United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) have sparked corporate and nonprofit communications activities that are growing each month, according to an analysis we’ve just conducted here at 3BL Media.

Brands have created 30 percent more digital content mentioning the SDGs or Global Goals so far in the second quarter of 2016 than the prior quarter. Consumer, pharmaceuticals and financial services were among the sectors referencing the SDGS more often.

The Global Goals were masterfully launched in September 2015 with great fanfare that included leaders of state,...