5 years ago - Around 52 million tons of food are wasted each year in the United States despite 1 in 7 US citizens lacking reliable access to sufficient, affordable and nutritious food. While raising consumer awareness is an important food waste reduction strategy, interventions at the corporate level have a crucial role to play in addressing the issue on a large scale.
5 years ago - In the lead-up to National Honey Bee Day (August 19), I was inspired to take a look at brands’ recent efforts to ensure the health and stability of our tiny pollinator friends. In the past few years, we have seen a host of organizations garnering attention for the issue, first with research and later, amped-up efforts with highly visible, consumer-facing campaigns to bridge the awareness gap.
6 years ago - Today, approximately 40% of the food produced in the U.S. goes to waste and 97% ends up in landfills. There it decomposes and produces methane gas — 25 times more harmful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas and a major contributor to global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer. A similar story can be told across the globe. Food waste poses a significant risk to both food security and the planet, but new technologies and creative reuses of waste streams are pushing the food industry towards more sustainable, circular models.
6 years ago - In the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, the Facebook pages of most people who care about sustainability read like a grief or suicide support group. Amidst the weeping and gnashing of teeth, there is a sense of everyone looking forward to the next election in two or four years. While I understand the sentiment, it is important to remember that election cycles are always at the whim of a small group of swing voters, whereas every person who cares about sustainability and social justice has a chance to vote many times every single day and that vote might ultimately have as much, or even more impact on the future (and present) as elections do.
6 years ago - The Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently published its 2016 list of the world’s top 100 CEOs. As in the past, HBR’s staff looked at the financial and ESG (environment, social, governance) performance of the CEOs of 1,200 large companies. They used a measure of financial performance developed by a team of Harvard academics for 80 percent of their score. The remaining 20 percent came from averaging two overall measures of corporate sustainability performance, including CSRHub.
6 years ago - As climate change, population growth and water pollution increase pressure on freshwater resources, seven global food and beverage companies today announced commitments to work with the thousands of growers in their global supply chains to reduce water use and pollution impacts.
7 years ago - The amount of food we waste globally has become a front-of-mind concern recently and with good reason: In the U.S. alone, an estimated 26 percent of all food produced is wasted. In a country where, in 2013, an estimated 17.5 million households faced food insecurity, this just should not be a problem. One major link in the food waste chain is retailers, which often throw away less than aesthetically pleasing produce, often not even donating it to food banks or other charities.
7 years ago - This week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the “Better Buildings Challenge SWAP,” a three-episode web-based reality series in which Hilton Worldwide and Whole Foods Market swap energy-management teams at their facilities in San Francisco.As part of the SWAP, each team identified innovative ways to save energy in Hilton San Francisco Union Square, a 1.8 million sq. foot hotel and Whole Foods Ocean Avenue, a 25,600 sq. foot grocery store. See episode one, below:
7 years ago - Back to the Roots®, an Oakland, California startup spearheading a movement to reconnect people with food, announced today that it has completed a $5 million strategic seed financing round, led by Tony Robbins’ and Peter Guber’s startup accelerator, Agency of Trillions, along with additional new angel investors. Previous investors — TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie, Annie’s founder John Foraker, and Clif Bar CEO Kevin Cleary — also joined the round.
7 years ago - Sustainable Brands recently referenced a study from Ohio State University that shows that “not only do many consumers not want to put much effort toward finding out whether our purchases were produced ethically (which is not exactly news), they have a way of looking down on those who do.”I can relate: My in-laws feel that way about me! They see organic food, for example, as expensive nonsense for fools/snobs/hippies who believe in that “green stuff.”
7 years ago - A detailed analysis of 10 electric vehicle (EV) fast charging NRG EVgo Freedom Station sites at Whole Foods Market locations in the San Francisco Bay Area shows a 191 percent increase in EV charging over the last year.EV drivers also show a significant preference for DC fast charging, 12 to 1 when comparing the number of charging sessions to the Level 2 charging also available at those locations. In September 2015 alone there were nearly 6,900 DC fast charge sessions at those stations.
7 years ago - Energy shots such as 5 Hour Energy have proliferated in recent years as they have taken up an increasingly large portion of the multibillion-dollar energy drink market. The smaller, sugar-free energy shots often position themselves as a healthier alternative to full-sized energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster.But can energy shots truly be healthy?They sure can, according to Lisa Curtis, CEO of mission-driven food startup Kuli Kuli.
7 years ago - In 2013, 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children, according to Feeding America, while nearly 26 percent of all produce is discarded before it even reaches the grocery store — solely for cosmetic reasons. Deemed "ugly," billions of pounds of edible, healthy produce goes to waste.
7 years ago - Challenges and Opportunities.When it comes to social branding there are two key challenges. First, a company must have a clear definition of its brand and an authentic desire to have a positive impact on the world. For many brands this could be a challenge, as motives and marketing have become so fractured and there also exists a fear of leading an authentic conversation across social media in case it invites too much scrutiny, accountability and, potentially, a PR crisis.
7 years ago - Greenpeace released the ninth edition of its Carting Away the Oceans (CATO) report today, ranking 25 supermarkets on the sustainability of their seafood procurement. Whole Foods ranked first for the third year in a row, followed by Wegmans, Hy-Vee, and Safeway in the “good” category. In total, 80 percent of evaluated retailers received passing scores overall.Supermarkets were scored across four areas:
7 years ago - Growing public health and consumer safety concerns about the overuse of antibiotics in food has sparked a wave of resistance, with both Subway and Kroger facing pressure this week to curb their reliance on antibiotics — which the companies say they use to promote growth and produce their meat efficiently.Opposition to the excessive antibiotics use has arisen from the spread of antibiotic-resistant ‘superbug’ bacteria, which render infections that are normally treatable with antibiotics more severe and even deadly. Food contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria is one way in which ‘superbugs’ can be transmitted from farms to people.
7 years ago - On Thursday, Whole Foods Market today announced the name of its new streamlined, value-focused brand of stores: 365 by Whole Foods Market. Slated to begin opening in 2016, the new stores promise lower prices on natural and organic products that meet Whole Foods’ existing quality standards.Jeff Turnas, a 20-year Whole Foods Market veteran, will serve as president of 365 by Whole Foods Market and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Austin.
8 years ago - Companies, especially publicly owned corporations, carefully manage their image and messages. But this age of social media, changes in consumer tastes and demands for increased transparency have caused more companies to be bolder, especially when it comes to sustainability and social responsibility issues. One such company is Starbucks, which has often taken controversial stances on the Affordable Healthcare Act, minimum wage and now, race relations.
8 years ago - The financial landscape is rapidly changing thanks to new guests who have recently pulled up a seat at the investment table: Millennials.The generation has come into its own, with well-earned spending and investment power that it wields with great discretion. Millennials are placing their capital differently than previous generations, and they often demand that their investments meet socially progressive criteria. The nation’s first socially networked generation is eager for opportunities that are equally focused on generating returns and strengthening a more responsible bottom line.
8 years ago - Last week, Safeway and Fair Trade USA announced a partnership to launch Fair Trade Certified™ seafood into the North American market. The program addresses both social and environmental responsibility in fishing communities across the globe. In March, Safeway will debut the world’s first Fair Trade fish – wild-capture tuna from small-scale fishermen in Indonesia – in its Northern California, Portland and Seattle Division stores.