This Brazilian beauty products company is one of the most highly respected firms in the world, thanks to its general focus on sustainability, based on preservation of the biodiversity of the amazon rainforest.

Earth Day is a great excuse to take stock of your office’s sustainability efforts. The push for more environment friendly business practices is getting stronger and stronger every year. Although not all of us can be bike-commuting, composting, solar-powered people, there are some small and easy adjustments any office can make to become a little greener. One small click of an on-switch or the use of a cloth napkin instead of a paper one are small actions that replicated on a massive scale could be an important part of the fight to restore the planet – and perhaps save you some money in the process.  So to celebrate Earth Day, check out our top 5 tips for making your office that little bit greener.

Disownership is defined as: “Sharing, renting, borrowing or making similar alternative arrangements to gain access to traditionally-owned items without the expense or hassle of ownership.” According to a survey done by home solar service company Sunrun, more and more people are choosing borrowing over owning.

The results are as follows: Half of Americans have rented, leased or borrowed traditionally-owned items in the last two years; One in four Americans is more likely to engage in disownership now than they were five years ago; 49% of U.S. adults plans to rent, lease or borrow these type of items in the next two years; and the top two reasons for renting, leasing or borrowing are saving money and cutting down on maintenance.

For anyone who doesn't want to reduce carbon emissions, China seems like a great scapegoat. The defenders of the status quo argue that U.S. companies will be at a disadvantage if we tax carbon or invest in clean energy because "China's not doing anything."

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio recently offered up a perfect example of this idea: "There are other countries that are polluting in the atmosphere much greater than we are — China, India, all these countries that are still growing. They're not going to stop doing what they're doing." And New York Times op-ed writer Joe Nocera used the China Defense last week in his latest pro-fossil-fuels piece: "the Chinese are far more concerned with economic growth than climate change."

But there are three little problems with this logic:

“Ladies, gentlemen, young, old, today I come offering a remedy that has never been seen before; a surprise, something new, good, unique and innovative, a recipe that offers healing from the evils of our city. This medicine prevents tiredness, fatigue and drowsiness, cleans the digestive tract from the throat down to the intestines, and provides vitamins, minerals and proteins that strengthens the immune system, calms the nervous system, relieves depression, and cures all the symptoms that the arrival of the new millennium has afflicted upon us such as ulcers, constipation, colds, sclerosis, stroke, gallbladder, liver, and kidney problems, anemia and of course those pesky bunions…Take it, take it today in this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Anyone who has lived in Mexico City can identify this long tirade, the flowery speech of the mercolicos, known vendors who sell remedies filled with promises of multiple benefits with minimal functionality, if not completely are useless.

Trying to sell any product or service providing unspecific benefits that it doesn’t have is risky, if not a complete scam. It is a common practice in street markets and fairs, however does it happen in the formal market? More often than you would think.

Who are the world’s most sustainable companies? How are they defined? What does sustainability even mean these days? Not easy questions to come answer, but we took a stab at finding the five most sustainable companies in the world, and reveal how they were chosen, why, and give actionable advice for how your company can become more sustainable in the following blog.

This is the exclusive, short story of how Diageo North America, with creativity and guts, both in operations and in the senior ranks, achieved the holy grail of carbon emissions reductions. They did it without using carbon offsets — and about 38 years earlier than they had to.

Here's what scientists are telling us: the world must cut carbon emissions by at least 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 to (we hope) avoid the worst of climate change. This level of change seemed like a pipe dream to many, including me... until I spoke last fall to Roberta Barbieri, the global manager for environmental sustainability for Diageo, the $17 billion spirits company. Imagine my shock, as we talked about setting aggressive goals on carbon emissions, when she casually mentioned that Diageo's North American division — a group with $5.58 billion in sales and 14 production and manufacturing facilities — had already cut emissions 80 percent.

The first thing I said was, "Excuse me?!," followed quickly by, "when can I come and talk to you?"

A little over a year ago I bought a laser color printer; a device for at-home use, but still sturdy. Recently I was told by one of the small blinking lights that one of the toner cartridges was about to be out of ink. When it finally ran out I couldn’t print one sheet, even when the image wasn’t in color.

The printer cost USD 450, so I was surprised to find that each cartridge cost USD 110, almost a quarter of the value of the printer; the cartridge cost must be huge given that in reality the ink is just a marginal addition to the printer. Within a few days of buying the product the indicator light began flashing again for another color. I decided to check them all this time… Virtually none of the remaining three would last a month, so I decided to figure out the total bill. To change the four cartridges would be the equivalent of buying a new printer with zero wear and an upgraded model. This seemed absurd to me, and shortly after I got rid of the printer.

Planes are now held together by tape, not bolts. It's really, really strong tape, but still. Who knew the maker of Post-It Notes could help keep aircraft aloft?

This somewhat frightening factoid is just one of the fascinating things I learned in a recent visit to the St. Paul, MN, headquarters of the perennial innovation leader, 3M. During my daylong visit, I observed a quiet, longtime sustainability leader plugging away, creating new products that will help the world save energy, water, waste...and lots of money.

If you only knew the power of the Dark Side…

The fans of Star Wars will recognize this line immediately; it is the phrase Darth Vader uses to tempt Luke to convert to the dark side seconds before confessing to him that he is his father. So what’s the importance? It is very simple: it reflects how we all continually feel tempted to do something forbidden.

The majority of people feel a special sort of satisfaction by breaking with the norms. Doing so without suffering the consequences produces a sense of pleasure. Prohibition signifies limitation, and as a result generates an attraction that fascinates us with testing the waters, making us question whether we will be able to break our own limits.

Can this anecdote be used in marketing? Of course, and let’s take it to the next level: can it help drive sustainability?