Left Jean-Luc Colonna d’Istria of Merci. Right Medinge director and MIP dean Pierre d’Huy translates for Dominique Benoît of Pictet et Cie. Below The Brands with a Conscience certificate, designed by UffindellWest.

The Medinge Group had a slightly smaller Brands with a Conscience ceremony today at the Management Institute of Paris, reflecting the international nature of the winners. Many were scattered around the globe and unable to attend the ceremony, though two of the European winners made it to the French capital to collect their awards in person: Jean-Luc Colonna d’Istria of Merci and Pictet et Cie.’s Dominique Benoît.
   Stanley Moss, CEO of the Medinge Group, noted that it was remarkable that in a year of financial crises, there were two winners from that sector that were doing good. Apart from Pictet, the Co-op Bank received a Brands with a Conscience award.
   The seventh annual awards’ programme also honoured Alibaba Group, Marks & Spencer (for its Plan A initiative), SAP and Selco Solar Pvt. Ltd. Muna Abu Sulayman won the Colin Morley Award and a letter from her was read out in absentia by Medinge member Simon Nicholls.
   Medinge founder Thomas Gad noted that the Awards had become so successful that they had spawned at least one imitator.

Oscar de la Renta recently launched its resort 2010 collection at its newly opened boutique in the Dubai Mall, in partnership with Retail Arabia International. The fashion company’s signature skirt suits, caftans and evening gowns dominate the collection, with accessories such as wide alligator belts, patent and snakeskin sandals, and leather Cordia tote bags completing the ensembles.

Muna Abu Sulayman is today announced as the winner of the Medinge Group’s 2010 Colin Morley Award, given to an individual who has contributed to the betterment of society through sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour. The award is part of Medinge’s annual Brands with a Conscience list, now in its seventh year.
   ‘It is a great honour,’ a delighted Muna Abu Sulayman remarked, when informed of the award last night by Simon Nicholls, of the Medinge Group, who made the nomination.
   In giving this award, the Medinge Group recognizes Muna’s outstanding work in educational development, poverty alleviation and strategic philanthropy; as Executive Director of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, developing and implementing operations for humanitarian assistance across the globe; her role as the first woman in Saudi Arabia to be appointed by the United Nations Development Programme as a Goodwill Ambassador; and for exceptional reporting as co-host on popular MBC-TV social programme Kalam Nawaem, in particular her advocacy of rights for women. As a public and media personality, she speaks about issues relating to Arab society, media, building bridges of understanding between east and west.
   Since 1997, Ms Abu Sulayman has served as lecturer on American literature at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. She frequently appears as a panellist at the Davos World Economic Forum, Jewish Economic Forum, C-100 of the World Economic Forum, Brookings Institute Conferences and other venues.
   Medinge, an international collective of brand practitioners, meets annually in August at a secluded location outside Stockholm, Sweden, and collaborate on the list, judging nominees on principles of humanity and ethics, rather than financial worth. The Brands with a Conscience list is shaped around criteria including evidence of the human implications of the brand and considering whether the brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. Evaluations are made based on reputation, self-representation, history, direct experience, contacts with individuals within the organizations, media and analysts and an assessment of the expressed values of sustainability.
   Three years ago the group added a unique category commendation, the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an individual or NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died in the London Underground bombings on July 7, 2005. The award commemorates his visionary work in humanistic branding.

Filmmaker Peter Jackson will receive a knighthood in HM the Queen’s New Year Honours’ List in New Zealand, according to sources.
   While administered by the Herald-at-Arms in New Zealand, the honours have the sanction of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
   Jackson may style himself Sir Peter Jackson if he chooses.
   Jackson is best known for his adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for which he has been honoured with numerous Academy Awards, including Best Director in 2004.
   Instead of filming the big-budget blockbusters in Hollywood, Jackson insisted on making them on location in New Zealand, using local talent, in spite of earlier tensions with the New Zealand Film Commission. Weta Workshop, a New Zealand company based in Wellington, worked on the digital visual effects.
   While there were many notable filmmakers from New Zealand prior, Jackson and Weta virtually created the modern New Zealand film industry by bringing it to international recognition.
   Additionally, former prime minister Helen Clark was awarded the Order of New Zealand, the highest accolade in the country’s honours’ system.

[Cross-posted] I posted this on my Tumblog earlier today but it is worth repeating here:

I captioned it, ‘We probably will keep thinking [climate change] is someone else’s problem till we encounter threats like the Maldives and other places do: if we don’t do something, our country will disappear. But this graphic is a heck of a good reminder.’
   The pic says it all, really.

Photographed by Meredyth Lewis/JY&A Media

[Cross-posted] I know I blogged enthusiastically about the potential of Koenigsegg buying Saab to put its solar-powered car into production but, as we know, that deal has since fallen through. Saab’s future is uncertain again, even if Dutch company Spyker—which, like Koenigsegg, also makes specialty sports cars—has expressed an interest in buying it. There are still a couple of other bidders, Renco, and Red Chinese automaker Beijing Automotive (BAIC).
   While I’ve very happily dissed BYD for falling foul of intellectual property law (to which some very un-Chinese face-losing types cried over), and had it in for SAIC over its tactics in trying to buy MG Rover, I’ve always applauded those Chinese firms who are willing to showcase the true ingenuity of Chinese designers. The latest Cherys, the MG 6, and even the great symbol of Chinese communism, the Hongqi, actually look the part.
   The acquisition is not beyond Spyker’s capability. A lot of it is restoring the corporate culture and reinstil that Saab pride. While Koenigsegg had plans for a solar car, which fits marvellously with Swedes’ business and social conscience, Spyker might be the sort of owner that would encourage Swedish innovation. Saab’s engineers have not all disappeared and the new 9-5, from what I have seen, is still quite a capable and distinctive car.
   But does it have the readies to ensure long-term survival for Saab? That’s the hardest question to get one’s head around, because if it were there in the family silver, why hadn’t it been used to launch smaller, less exclusive Spykers? Simple: even if the money were there, Spyker hasn’t had downmarket plans in mind. Will it be able to take on a (relatively speaking) volume manufacturer and turn it around, or will Saab simply become another limited-production line, being built by a few hundred in Sweden?
   Meanwhile, we are seeing some interesting tactics being employed by Beijing. I already knew that the old 9-5 production line was making its way over to China, but the latest news is that the 9-3 is heading east, too. Powertrain technology and tooling have also gone, and Saab people will help BAIC integrate the technology into its cars.
   BAIC lacks, of course, a brand, but its styling is fairly sharp among the Chinese automakers when it comes to its own-design work.
   The BAIC acquisitions have been done legally and at arm’s length. There are no stories emerging from Trollhättan about Saab managers getting drunk as Chinese executives entertained them, or false promises about joint ventures that failed to materialize. Already, this shows good faith and face.
   The company has learned from the days when the Jeep Cherokee design somehow leaked from the company and pirate firms were churning out a model to which BAIC itself had the exclusive Chinese licence. It might actually be quite a good defender of intellectual property.
   It has roughly the same number of years in JVs as SAIC, initially with Chrysler, and more recently with Hyundai, so we are not talking about a bunch of amateurs.
   And BAIC has dreams of international expansion. What Chinese firm doesn’t, at this level? What it eyes is less the 9-3 and 9-5, but the Saab name that could adorn a whole generation of new cars.
   The conservative government of Sweden is unlikely to kick up much of a fuss on behalf of the Swedish worker if more assets go to Beijing.
   However, this might be the lesser of two evils, if some production is kept in Sweden—even if it is assembly—than for it to fade away completely as a slightly downmarket Spyker.
   It would ensure the continuation of a brand that will inherently be tied to Sweden, even if some componentry comes off Chinese production lines.
   And is being Chinese that much worse than being German, when Saabs have been rebodied Opel Vectras for some time now?
   If indeed Swedish engineers are flying out Beijing these days to help productionize the 9-3 and 9-5, then the quality will surely be up to Swedish levels.
   It keeps the door open long-term for top-end Saabs still emerging from Trollhättan while more basic models emerge from Beijing. Eastern markets are the ones that are really growing these days, and basic economics suggest that the products should be built where they are most desired.
   And at least whatever BAIC builds will be of Saab design, albeit on Opel platforms. It will not be a Japanese Saab, the 9-2X, which the company’s brand adorned earlier this century when GM had a Subaru share holding. It will not be a big SUV based on the Oldsmobile Bravada and made in Ohio, another of GM’s abominations.
   Whatever BAIC builds at least will have a Saab soul, not one dictated by Detroit economics. BAIC itself has an electric car design which would work quite well with the Saab brand, too. GM’s failure to grasp anything about the Saab culture meant that any differentiation and distinctiveness were washed away by cost controls and the GM way. If it could not keep its own Stateside Saturn division unique, what hope was there for an out-of-sight, out-of-mind outpost, starved of resources to develop new models?
   I wish Saab and Koenigsegg had tied up, or Saab had the volume to be independent. These are not options. Looking at what we have, BAIC might not be the worst suitor. If Saab becomes its only international brand, it certainly would treasure it more than GM, with its many divisions, ever did. And if it understands that brand value and country of origin have some important ties to car buyers, as Tata did when it acquired Jaguar and Land Rover, then Sweden might not lose out. [Full version of this entry at the publisher’s blog.]

On the main part of the Lucire site today: our Paris and New York correspondent, Rola Saab, interviews Abi Ferrin. Rola purposely sought out Abi because of her environmental concerns, and her latest collection was inspired by the Osa rainforest in Costa Rica. Continue reading here.
   As the UNEP’s first fashion industry partner, we haven’t ignored COP 15. Editor-at-large Summer Rayne Oakes is there, and you can see photographs from the event on her personal blog.
   It’s fair to say that Lucire fully believes we need to do something to help our planet—a quest we began many years ago, which the UNEP itself recognized.
   While the planet is on a natural cooling cycle presently, some record highs are still being experienced—highlighting the extremes in our weather patterns. If we don’t address these concerns now, when Earth returns to a natural warming cycle, we will really feel the temperature rises in a big way.
   There’s still a cynical part in our thinking: many climate change conferences have taken place and politicians too often put rhetoric before action. Outside the climate change arena, we’ve seen Davos become a trade fair some years. It’s why this København conference is important: we have to spur our political leaders—who represent us, not special interests—into action.
   We hope the pressure has helped. We have below a video detailing a tentative first draft of a global climate change agreement by the UNFCCC. In short, developing countries like the text, developed countries and Red China don’t. Debate will follow—and citizens really need to lobby their environment ministers more than ever if we want real action.
   The video features Swedish environment minister, Andreas Calgren, and the EU commissioner on environmental issues, Stavros Dimas. Calgren says that the agreement must be broader and have more commitments.

Above Think City cars outside the Bella Centre in København, Denmark.

Electric car companies are using the København United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) as a forum to market their products—which makes one wonder if some of these conferences have come grand trade fairs, rather than one where politicians do any work toward climate change.
   British company Electric Car Corp. has supplied 60 electric Citroën C1 Ev’ie models, which have been purchased by ChoosEV, a Danish company set up by three of the major electric power companies to promote electric vehicles. Following on the newswires this morning was news that Norwegian company Think, along with its fleet customer, Move About, have provided 15 Think City courtesy cars to COP 15.
   However, some exposure for the nascent electric car industry is better than none. The event highlights just how many decades it has taken for such cars to break into the mainstream, and the very small steps that politicians make at such conferences.