Nowhere are the effects of societal aging more pronounced than in Japan -- the world's oldest society. It is the only developed country where annual deaths outpace annual births. They also have the highest old age dependency rate. Within the next two decades, almost 50% of the Japanese population will be dependent on the younger half to support its retirement needs.

Complicating the issue is Japan's historical resistance to immigration, which means in the future there will be fewer workers to take care of their growing senior population.

Other nations will be watching closely to see how this efficient society deals with the issues associated with longevity.

According to the International Herald Tribune, one possible solution is being explored by the Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry. They are promoting robots.

In 2006, the Ministry conducted its first "Robot of the Year" competition which garnered 152 entries, including a feeding devise for the elderly called "My Spoon." They hope that robots will increase productivity by 50% in the next five years.

The winner was RFS-1, developed by Fuji Heavy Industries, to clean office and apartment buildings.

Leave it to the Japanese to develop an innovative (and electronic) response to their shrinking workforce. Who knows? Maybe robots will be the ones to take care of the world's aging baby boomers. After all, they can work 24 hours a day and they never complain about their health.

For those of us who spend too much time at their computers, it’s not unlikely to wish to find something lost in a room by pressing control and ‘F’ keys. For those who are used to Googling every question that comes to their mind and getting second opinions, there is finally a solution. .

NY-based search engine company, Hakia, just launched a service that not only allows users to look up information with key words but also communicate with other users who are looking for the same type of information. Once users run their queries, they can review the listings and click on a button that says ‘meet others who asked the same query.’ This takes them to a discussion board where other searchers have posted messages about the topic. Users can either post a public message or contact the person who might have the information they want individually. Hakia pops up an email box and off the query goes to the individual’s private inbox.

The service just launched, so not every query will return a long list of others who have asked a similar question. Fear not – you can start your own discussion thread.

Besides practicality and ease-of-use, Hakia underscores something fundamental in today’s marketing landscape. As the GolinHarris research shows, people trust other people the most. They want to hear the unfiltered news. Direct experience and word of mouth reigns over media when it comes to most trusted sources of information. Hakia’s combination of personal queries and formal information sources suggests an understanding of how word-of-mouth impacts decision-making processes.

Even though, according to the World Bank, the average annual income in is only $2,230, "communist" China has 106 billionaires, second only to the US. Not to mention 500,000 millionaires. But due to ancient religious and family traditions and government interference, personal philanthropy is a radical concept.

According to the Wall Street Journal Asia, that trend is changing. Chinese business men like Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, is donating one third of his fortune or $10 billion to his foundation to fund charitable projects around the globe -- making it the third largest foundation in the world.

Other wealthy Chinese are following in his footsteps donating millions to address issues in agriculture, education and health care.

Concerned about the growing gap between the rich and poor, the Chinese government is becoming more accepting of the donations and it is almost mandatory that US businesses entering China take part in some form of community involvement.

However, unlike in the US, all donations must pass through the government and Chinese charities are not required to provide any information on their financials. This means that most people stick to politically correct causes like healthcare.

It will be interesting to see how China comes to define its own non-Western brand of philanthropy as the country’s wealth continues to grow.

On a recent afternoon, I was fortunate to be sitting with three colleagues viewing “The 11th Hour,” the latest fi lm by Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by sisters Nadia and Leila Conners. This powerful documentary showcases interviews with more than 50 of the world’s most prominent scientists and environmental advocates, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai and journalist Paul Hawken. We were guests of client Sole Technology and its CEO, Pierre André Senizergues, for whom we have been working to communicate his sustainability story nationally. Pierre, who created and leads some of the world’s best-known action sports shoe and apparel brands, also helped back the fi lm and played the role of executive producer. Quiet, yet enthusiastic, he is personally and professionally environmentally concerned and doing much more than others in the action sports industry to make a difference. Sharing the film with his employees was part of his plan to further mobilize his troops. He already has accomplished a lot – from developing and using water-based cements; creating an organic apparel line with a percentage of proceeds given to “green” efforts; to building an eco-friendly green headquarters complete with solar panels that create sustainable energy; adopting and encouraging green practices in his workplace; to hiring an environmental manager with the vision to make his companies carbon neutral.

Several times during the film, I found myself with eyes welled up. The movie, which addresses global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction and the depletion of our oceans and water forms, maintains the premise that by staying the current course the future of humanity is in jeopardy. At fi rst, I felt embarrassed by my emotions. But, by the time the fi lm was over, I felt that anybody who watched the fi lm and did not feel emotional, disturbed or even ashamed should be the one who should be embarrassed. The film offers hope and potential solutions by calling for restorative action by the reshaping and rethinking of global human activity through technology, social responsibility and policy.

As I watched the fi lm – and in my after thoughts and conversations the days and weeks after seeing it – I wondered how much more I could audit and change my own workplace and personal environmental efforts. More importantly, I got excited about the opportunity to introduce more companies to GolinHarris and our Geoimpact practice to talk about their sustainability goals and vision, current actions and how we could work with them to develop a roadmap for improvement. In our own research, GH has seen sustainability evolve from an “issue” to a fundamental “value” of Americans. Yet, 7 out of 10 Americans do not think corporate America is doing enough about it and feel corporations, as major polluters, must be part of the solution.

To learn more about how GH’s GeoImpact practice can help your company, go to golinharris.com or contact lbailey@golinharris.com. Services include sustainability inventories and analyses; industry benchmarking; leveraging existing programs and assets; friend and foe analyses and third-party alliance building; designing new sustainability programs that work in tandem with business goals and marketing and policy efforts, etc.

It's easy to get cynical when you are caught in the middle. Western visitors and media are constantly nagging China about what it is doing wrong. Chinese are tired of outsiders pointing their finger that are only concerned about the present tense and don’t recognize how rapidly they are progressing.

I read and hear about sustainability and the environment being an important national priority. China's 17th National Congress of the Communist Party recently concluded. This is a major Chinese political event that takes place every five years to essentially summarize the past five years work and lay out the direction for the next.

Each Chinese leader since Chairman Mao has had a legacy. President Hu's legacy is to steer China on a path according to 'Scientific Development'.

"We must pursue comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development…We must adopt an enlightened approach to development that results in expanded production, a better life and sound ecological and environmental conditions, and build a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society…," said President Hu in his address to the congress.

This sounds like a positive approach to development from the leader of the world's most impressive economy. A statement quite a bit later is somewhat more unsettling. "We will quadruple the per capita GDP of the year 2000 by 2020 through optimizing the economic structure and improving economic returns while reducing consumption of resources and protecting the environment."

How can China move from a developing to developed country while achieving balance, both in terms of its citizens' standard of living and in terms of resource usage? This is a key question that is looming over China right now. China's leadership is very concerned about maintaining balanced growth.

And, for good reason. There are many causes for concern. Just the other day, former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Allen Greenspan commented that China's stock exchange is a bubble about to burst. There are plenty of other outsiders shaking their fingers and nodding their heads at China, while the Chinese are moving full speed ahead at whatever chance they get to improve their lives.

The key to success in China is to start seeing things the way the Chinese do. This isn't groundbreaking, nor is it rocket science. However, far too often we criticize China. Whether it is related to constitutional rights or cheap exports, it is easy to get on China's case. The Chinese, on the other hand, are just trying to get ahead and increase their quality of life, often studying from the best. Something the Chinese excel at is learning from others. Just like anything in life, it is more useful to set an example rather than point a finger. Many of the world's top companies that have significant operations in China recognize this. They realize the importance of 'demonstrating commitment to China'. While the Chinese government clearly has strategic goals aligned with sustainability, it is up to these companies to align themselves with these goals if they wish to survive in an increasingly nationalist landscape. Aligning with the government goals is also a good way to ensure their brand is protected. Not only does it help China develop, the media will also regard them as a partner in making progress rather than a company looking to exploit China's competitive advantages.

Those organizations that have the power to bring something good to China will win in the end. They will win the heart of the Chinese and they will help win the heart of the cynical Westerner that demands more from China.

The Chinese have a saying, "不能一口吃个胖子" or "You can't get fat in one bite". The Chinese leadership should be commended for recognizing that sustainable development is the way to go. But, it will not happen overnight

By Bradley Burgess

Honesty, dialogue, transparency, feedback are among the many buzz words marketers use to describe their approach to social media. PR professionals tasked with 'engaging' users through social media find that there are many pay-per-play opportunities to reach these audiences. To make matters more complicated, some of these users may not want to hear from companies in areas meant for peer-to-peer conversations. Here is a solution: solicit and populate customer feedback. Allow those who want to be heard and who have something to say come forward.

Set up a section either on the company site and open the forum to collect stories on customers’ interactions with the brand, with sales points and with your products and services. A recent global consumer survey from Nielsen listed consumer opinions posted online among the top three forms of most trusted communication. Similarly, the GolinHarris research shows hands-on, direct experience is the most trusted form of media across audience groups and product categories. There may be some negative postings on online areas set for customer feedback, but for brands that have invested in their products, customer service and employees, the net outcome should be positive.

Besides underscoring a transparent and forthright corporate identity, customer feedback can help businesses gain sales. According to the word of mouth marketing company Bazaarvoice, customer reviews improve search engine rankings. Bazaarvoice advises clients on how to organize and showcase customer reviews on their company Web sites. They also help syndicate customer review pages on large portals. Through this process, Bazaarvoice has found that searches for reviews have higher shopping-to-sale conversion rates. In other words, customer reviews improve search results and sales.

If pay-per-play on a social network is not an option, gathering customer reviews in a visible manner online may be the prescription. Companies can either list these reviews directly on their Web sites or link to blog posts about their customers’ experiences. Recommendations and customer reviews have significant value in the new information and marketing cycle. In the near future, it is not unlikely for us to use search engines dedicated to customer reviews.