ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
New types of partnerships can enable systemic changes to flourish. That thinking is behind the Origin Green Ambassadors programme, which brings education, leading global brands and entrepreneurial sustainability professionals together to collaborate and learn. Five years on, there’s strong evidence that the approach is driving best practice and industry-wide innovation.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative is working to debut America’s first sustainable urban agrihood – a neighborhood growth model with agriculture at the center of a mixed-use development.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Two years after Greenpeace launched a campaign demanding Thai Union, the world’s largest tuna company, take action to eliminate exploitative and unsustainable practices from its supply chains, the two organizations have finally put their long-running conflict to rest.
In a joint press release, Greenpeace and Thai Union presented a comprehensive package of reforms and commitments that the tuna company will take in order to reduce both its environmental and social impacts.
PRESS RELEASE -
Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland believes in activating people to transform the world with powerful tools like community service. Through the company’s award-winning Path of Service™ program, first launched in 1992, employees receive up to 40 paid community service hours each year to pull on their boots and make a difference.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program, Timberland recently kicked off its 25 Days of Service Challenge, an internal campaign to drive incremental employee service engagement over 25 days. While the company plans and executes monthly service events to engage employees, the Challenge encourages employees to find and run their own events for themselves, a small group of colleagues, or their full team.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The World Wildlife Fund has published a new report, Eating for 2 Degrees — New and Updated Livewell Plates, which outlines how simple steps, such as reducing red meat consumption, could help to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
PRESS RELEASE -
Those attending the 2017 National Jamboree are in for a delicious treat!
As part of a new partnership with the Boy Scouts of America, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture will bring locally sourced food to campers at the Summit Bechtel Reserve during next month’s national event. This dynamic relationship will benefit not only the organizations, but also surrounding communities.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
With environmental and social impacts increasingly influencing investor decision making, Ceres has developed a new peer-reviewed resource guide to help investors better analyze financial risks in the food sector.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
One of the most complicated supply chain issues for companies is deforestation. Why? Because deforestation may take place in areas distant from company headquarters in countries that may not have the strongest government regulations.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
BASF, Cargill, Procter & Gamble and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH have joined together in a development partnership under the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development's (BMZ) develoPPP.de program. The partnership will help establish a sustainably certified and transparent supply chain of coconut oil in the Philippines and Indonesia.
PRESS RELEASE -
BASF, Cargill, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH have joined together in a development partnership under the develoPPP.de programme by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The partnership will help establish a sustainable certified and transparent supply chain of coconut oil in the Philippines and Indonesia.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Expanding its commitment to innovation in the food industry, Nestlé has teamed up with Rabobank and Rocketspace to support startups through the Terra Food + Agtech Accelerator Program. The food giant will collaborate with Terra to select and coach the most forward-thinking and disruptive startups in the food and agricultural industries.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Big news from Mexico – a groundbreaking regenerative economy project has just become official. The Patamban indigenous community, part of the Purepecha nation in the state of Michoacán, will be the chief beneficiaries of what will be a 12,000-hectare plantation producing a valuable commodity: pine resin.
COLLABORATION -
Two of the world’s leaders in sustainable agriculture and certification, Rainforest Alliance and UTZ have announced plans to merge later this year in an effort to simplify the certification process for sustainable agriculture.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The palm oil industry is undergoing a major transformation with public and private stakeholders ramping up efforts to make sustainability an industry mainstay. Last month Greenpeace suspended its active campaign against IOI Group after the palm oil producer announced plans to eliminate deforestation and exploitation from its supply chain. And earlier this week, BNP Paribas rolled out a new palm oil policy that sets responsible palm oil production as a pre-condition for financing.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Fifty of the world’s largest businesses, retailers and fishing companies from across the tuna supply chain have banded together to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their industry, protect the health of oceans and eliminate forced labor from fishing vessels.
WALKING THE TALK -
The Farm to Fork Disconnect
Nowhere is the disconnect between people and planet more evident than in our broken food system. For the vast majority of human history, people lived in rural communities shaped by the natural environment. The ebb and flow of seasons, the right amount of rainfall and its impact on the all-important harvest, dominated lives and livelihoods. But today, over half the world’s population lives in an urban dwelling and by 2050 this is predicted to increase to 70 percent. With the rise of sprawling mega cities comes obesity and its related health problems; with a shrinking and aging rural population comes poverty and malnutrition; in the meantime, the gap between the farm and our forks grows ever wider.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has released a new report highlighting the positive impact certification can have in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MSC Global Impacts Report 2017 details more than a thousand examples of positive change being made by certified fisheries to safeguard fish stocks and marine habitats.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
British supermarket group Sainsbury’s has launched its own in-house sustainability standard, provoking backlash from The Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade producers alike.
PRESS RELEASE -
Detroit Ento wins startup competition at SB’17 Detroit
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Cotton is often king in discussions surrounding the creation of a more sustainable apparel industry, yet over 120 million trees are felled every year — 30 percent of which originate from ancient and endangered forests — to produce textiles such as viscose and rayon.