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Peter, very interesting and informative post. I was wondering if you saw anything during your research as to how cable distributors reacted to HBO Now? I am assuming that these companies must be starting to sweat as consumers are starting to move closer and closer to paying for what channels you want vs, the traditional pay for everything model. I am assuming that based on HBO’s quality of content, many distributors could not really play hard ball with them when hearing of this idea.

Very interesting post! As with the comment above, I had never really thought of the practical uses of VR–only saw it as an entertainment device. Do you think that they can or would want to license the technology platforms they are creating to the retailers they already partner with?

Thank you for the post. It is interesting to see Nike make such a large target for themselves in 2020. How much of this increase in online revenue do you think needs to be managed by Nike vs. the natural flux of people purchasing more online in the next few years? It will be interesting to see how they reach out to customers via social media. I remember Nike having a “create your own shoe design” for a release of Kobe’s a few years ago. These sort of promotions would seem to do very well with all the new social media outlets. How do you think they can best reach out to customers on these platforms?

Great post. It is very intriguing how Gett is trying to adjust consumer behavior in such a substantial way. Do you think that they will be able to truly change the “Rule of 7” for newer brands by doing these types of commercials? Gillette and Coke are known brands and products so it would make sense that consumers would purchase them. What do you think the success rate would be for a new product? Would the cost of potentially giving free samples through the taxi network lead to future customer purchases?

Peter, thank you for your post. I think the possibilities of driver-less cars (both in safety and productivity) are fascinating. Was wondering if you saw anything about the regulations that may be coming with such new technologies. It seems to me that the benefit of self driving cars is reduced if cars with drivers are still allowed on the road. Do you see a future in which driven cars are eliminated/banned? What would this mean for people who enjoy driving as a leisure or sport?

Rachel,
Very interesting post. I found it interesting and great that Mars was able to partner with Hershey and Nestle to create CocoaAction. Later in the post you mentioned Mars should again use it’s global brand to help spread awareness and their technologies to additional businesses in order to maximize overall global sustainability. I saw this as a possibility for Anheiser Busch (the company I wrote about) as they are also an industry leader in both manufacturing beer, but also in their “green” initiatives. What is you take on how these large companies can balance teaching others better ways of being sustainable while also maintaining a competitive advantage? As discussed in TOM during the IKEA case, the majority of these sustainable advantages also tend to drive profitability, so it is difficult to be optimistic that these sharings will always happen.

Interesting read! And a scary read as a big fan of avocados. I find it interesting that pretty much the whole supply of avocados seems to be coming from California and Mexico. Has there been research into growing in additional locations? It would seem that other areas would have relatively similar climates, but perhaps the risk of droughts are higher in some of these potential locations. The amount of water to grow an avocado is a bit concerning, especially since California is dealing with similar issues with their almond supply. It will also be interesting to see if possible shifts in agriculture in the US–from West to Mid/South–due to high costs of water may effect the overall supply chain for Chipotle.

Hartley,
Very interesting post. I also find some of their lack of action a bit concerning considering they are such a large company. I did my post on Anheiser Busch and they also had the same issue with their refrigeration and are doing a similar program to change out the refrigerators at their distributors. I think it is also a great idea to look into their transportation network.
As one of the largest food companies in the world, has Nestle looked into their supplier network? Given the variety of food product they have, I am sure their suppliers are facing a large amount of environmental issues, so perhaps Nestle can enforce some “best of the best” practices on their suppliers to generate a larger amount of environmental progress.

Aakash,

As others have said, very interesting read. Would have never thought of Blue Apron as a “sustainable” company.

As mentioned above, I am also very concerned with the current price tag of $10 per meal. I do not think an average household/family would be willing to pay this sort of price. Perhaps they can find a middle ground of delivering a slightly larger amount of food to consume throughout the week that would still be less than the average load at a grocery store. This would potentially lower their transportation/delivery costs and allow a cheaper price point as well as reducing overall transportation which appears to be an issue for their overall sustainability. I think this type of price point is also a concern in terms of expanding to other markets in the future. I am interested to get your view on how this sort of system or even Blue Apron could expand to areas of the world that have the starvation concerns that you mentioned. Or do you see it as a more long term game of getting American food consumption/waste down and eventually exporting more to these other countries?

Interesting take that sports (and perhaps entertainment in general) can be a key contributor to getting the messages of climate change to a broader audience. I was not aware of all the actions Nike was doing in this space. My concerns are do you think these steps are enough to actually spark a debate, or should they take further action?
Perhaps Nike can apply pressures to various sports leagues or use their larger profile athletes to spread the word on sustainability. One of the largest concerns I see from a sustainability standpoint long term is the current processes for the Olympics and World Cups in which countries are spending large sums of money to construct facilities that generally are never used again. This is a large waste of resources, money, and labor that could potentially be used for better services. Is there a way to change this, or perhaps use these platforms to promote sustainability in other ways?
A lot of leagues have their “month of service” and other type of green initiatives. Do you see a way of expanding this branding? (whether it be with partnerships with a company like Nike, or the leagues doing it on their own)