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.