The crew here at All Day Buffet came across Egg, a brand communications agency that specializes in creating powerful relationships between people and sustainable brands, and we like them. A lot. We liked the 7-70 consumer theory. “7% of the population is socially responsible to the core. And 70% are socially responsible in some way, but to a lesser extent. In between, there’s a wide range of people who are motivated by aspects of social responsibility to different degrees.” We chatted with Marty McDonald, Creative Director, about brands, communications and eggs.

What’s your background?

Born SF, moved around a lot, landed at boarding schools in England for 7 years. Back to US and east coast. Liberal arts major. Then art school in NYC. Art Director at an ad agency in Baltimore was first job. Then moved to Austin to work at GSDM. Went to Seattle as CD of DDB Worldwide in Seattle and then Boston to be a partner and CD at Holland Mark, before coming back to start egg in 2003.

How did Egg get created? Where did the idea come from?

Started working with rewarding clients at DDB in Seattle–an organic food client, EPA Energy Star, and several NFP’s including launching the NARAL brand and then worked for Packard Foundation. Became very interested in Socially Responsible Business practises from 1998-2001. Did an offsite branding day with Stonyfield Farm, and came to fully undestand the triple bottom line through Gary Hirshberg, founder. Decided to launch an agency to work exclusively with sustainable businesses like Stonyfield Farm in food, but alos alternative energy, transportation, green building, SRI and eco tourism.

Has Egg been more successful with the increasing trend for brands to be sustainable?

Yes, but also lots of new opportunities are founded within existing companies and many of these guys already have agencies that they go to.

What are some of the things that you guys have done with Egg to do good?

We are very aware of our own triple bottom line, so beyond just the biggest SR oriented aspect of egg, which is to serve exclusively 3BL businesses and help them succeed and win in the marketplace, we have many employee benefits from paid transportation and paid externships, to environmental measures like sourcing responsibly, carbon neutrality, and many more.

Have you seen anything out in the world that has truly inspired you lately?

I see more economies of scale bringing eco products to market that are finally fashionable, affordable, tasteful, convenient, and high quality. It is still bleeding edge in many respects, but the offerings are improving. Food, fashion, personal care products, fashion and green building are where most of the advances are happening. We’re all still chasing the energy solutions. But it’s exciting to watch the developments here, as so many are after the holy grail of oil alternatives.

But watch Treehugger and you’ll see daily instances of cool products that are eco sensitive and progressive minded, from shoes to geodesic dome homes.

What excites me the most, though, are the advances within large exisiting companies that are not otherwise green. One significant example is Walmart’s push to sustainability. i was reading lately that Bentonville is becoming the latest sustainability hotspot and that Arkansas is promoting its greenbelt around Bentonville. Cool.