The Ways to New

Chapter 8Sustainability-Driven Disruption

We took 76 million Americans to the polls. More than in 2008 when Barack Obama was first elected. Our election was held on refresheverything.com. But what was it all about? The Pepsi Refresh Project, in which Internet users were asked to say what they felt about a range of charity projects put up by other users. Pepsi would fund the most popular.

Rarely had the Internet's full potential been used on so large a scale. A total of 183,000 ideas were submitted. This operation funded hostels for abandoned kids.¹ It renovated schools, theaters, and historic monuments. It helped build bike paths and playgrounds and basketball courts. It financed gyms and fitness centers. It put food into food banks and supported a whole range of charities, such as animal shelters and children's creativity schemes. It helped to combat illiteracy and lower school dropout rates.

Nearly all the projects became topics for documentaries. Many of the winners were interviewed. The films were shown on platforms like YouTube, which brought them—and Pepsi's innovative scheme—to a wide audience. This is a new possibility that will make everything different. Corporations can never again hold back on the grounds that any money they give away will not be noticed. No more claiming there is no real return on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment.

The potential offered by online information comes at precisely the same time that companies are really beginning to ...