Vancouver-based green brand innovation company Change has released the results of its MapChange study, which compares actual climate change action taken by over 90 North American companies to consumer perceptions.

The companies were in the food and beverage, apparel, household and internet/software/media sectors and include giants like General Mills, Kraft, Molson, Nike, P&G, Google, Microsoft and Disney. Across every sector, a disparity was shown between actual sustainability activity of brands and perceptions, and this year, perceived sustainability was much higher for most brands than last year, likely due to factors such as improved communications or an increase in consumer and media interest in sustainability.

One of the more surprising results was Kellogg’s, which had a slightly lower than average actual sustainability score of 42, but a high perceived score of 81. Marc Stoiber, Founder of Change, notes that this could be attributed to a halo effect from their ‘wholesome’ products like Special K and purchased brands like Kashi.

The scoring on climate change was provided by Climate Counts, a US non-profit that rates corporations on their climate change efforts, while perception measurements were provided by Angus Reid Public Opinion in a survey of 2,000 American adults.

Full study results are available at Getmapchange.com.

In other Change news, the company is being acquired by US innovation firm Maddock Douglas. Change will continue to work out of Vancouver, bringing a green touch to the new products, services and businesses of Maddock clients.
‘For Maddock Douglas, this is an opportunity to add green to their innovation offering,’ says Stoiber. ‘For Change, this is an opportunity to practice green brand innovation on a much, much larger scale, and to bring green innovation together with other exciting elements of innovation in fields like healthcare and finance.’

The transition is expected to take place in early February.