THE NEXT ECONOMY -
More and more companies are looking for ways to adopt circular models for their products, and some of the latest examples have been provided by industry giants. Furniture company IKEA, chemical firm Total, and Inditex - parent company of apparel brands Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti and Bershka - are all working to reduce their environmental footprint by changing how their products are made.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Panera Bread today issued its Kids Meal Promise to express the company’s long-held beliefs about kids’ meals and commitments relative to its Panera Kids™ menu. The promise is meant to be a challenge to the restaurant industry and to all food manufacturers who offer kids food.
Panera is the first national restaurant company with a kids menu that meets all of five tenets of the Kids Meal Promise, including:
COLLABORATION -
The industry group Sustainable Apparel Coalition has opened use of its Higg Index suite of tools for measuring and evaluating supply chain impact to non-member small and medium-sized (SME) brands and retailers. SMEs may now take advantage of a special licence for full access to the Higg Index.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games are making history by leaving a significant legacy of low-carbon technologies in Latin America while set to balance 2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents (CO2e).
The Rio 2016 Organizing Committee and The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), the Official Chemistry Company of the Olympic Games and Official Carbon Partner of Rio 2016, announced today that more than 2 million tonnes of third-party-verified greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions are projected to be delivered by all projects and actions implemented to fulfill the commitment of hosting a global event with minimal carbon impact. Through unique cross-sector collaboration, the Olympic Games act as a catalyst for the adoption of more sustainable solutions that are relevant to the economy and society.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Among the latest news in responsible food sourcing: The Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games will have the largest sustainable seafood offering to date of any Olympic or Paralympic Games; McDonald’s announced developments collectively impacting nearly half of its food menu in the United States; and Subway has enhanced its commitments for local sourcing of produce and other products.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Walt Disney Company has purchased $2.6 million in carbon credits in the forests of Mondulkuri province – marking the largest carbon credit sale to date in Cambodia and breathing life into a carbon-trading program many had written off as all but dead.
In collaboration with the Cambodian government and brokered by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS),
the US-based media giant will purchase 360,000 tonnes worth of carbon emissions in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in a bid to offset its global carbon footprint.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
New research commissioned by environmental non-profit Hubbub and consumer goods giant Unilever reveals that in the first week of the summer break, £12 million worth of food will be thrown away as UK families head off on holiday; more than half of people surveyed admitted to throwing away perfectly edible food before they went on holiday. This unfortunate statistic is in keeping with 2015 research from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which found the UK to be among the top food wasters in Europe.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Currently, 663 million people lack access to safe drinking water, and by 2025, half the world’s population could be living in water-stressed areas.
PRESS RELEASE -
When we look at the statistics, it is still very clear that women are extremely underrepresented in Science, Technology and Math (STEM) careers. Half of the U.S. workforce is female, and half of the college population, however, only 28% are in STEM fields[1] and only 39% of chemists and material scientists, 28 percent of environmental scientists and geoscientists, 16 percent of chemical engineers and 12 percent of civil engineers are female[2]. Additionally, research shows that women who complete STEM degrees are less likely than males to actually pursue a STEM career.
PRESS RELEASE -
We make choices every day. Hit the snooze again, what do I wear today, where do I eat lunch, latte or cappuccino, paper or plastic? And so on and so on. We probably make thousands of choices every day. The same thing happens when we think about choosing where we work, what kind of work will I do, where do I want to live and is the company located there? Pay and benefits are important, of course, but another choice is “do I identify with the values of the company?” Company values were a big determinant for why I came to Hershey and I know for many people I work with, it was important to them as well.
PRESS RELEASE -
The U by Kotex brand and
DoSomething.org kick off Power to the Period, the first-ever, national period products donation drive and second installment of the U by Kotex Period Projects – a groundbreaking series of projects, each inspired by a woman who shares the brand’s passion for creating real change.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
This week, the Beer Institute announced a new initiative to encourage its member companies to display specific consumer information on products, packaging or websites.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
It was something of a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ kind of week in the ongoing quest for sustainable sourcing of palm oil — potentially the most prolific and embattled ingredient in the consumer goods industry.
First, five multinationals active in Singapore — Unilever, Danone, Ayam Brand, IKEA and Wildlife Reserves Singapore — came together this week to drive an increase in the amount of sustainable palm oil sourced in the country, with the goal of delivering products that have not contributed to haze pollution or deforestation to consumers.
PRESS RELEASE -
PAWTUCKET, RI – June 28, 2016 – Today, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) was recognized by the Civic 50 as the most community-minded company in the Consumer Discretionary industry. The Civic 50 is an initiative of Points of Light that sets the standard for corporate civic engagement and creates a roadmap for companies seeking to best use their time, talent, and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business. Hasbro has been recognized by the Civic 50 each year since the initiative began in 2012.
CLEANTECH -
Apple seems to be embedding its renewable energy commitments into its corporate structure. The company recently created a new wholly-owned subsidiary known as Apple Energy LLC and filed an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates power companies, to be able to sell electricity and other power grid services to non-utility customers. The move is a strong sign that Apple will not only fulfill its plans to operate on 100 percent renewable energy through net-metering, but plans to generate and sell renewable energy back to the grid.
PRESS RELEASE -
POWER PLAY
Toyota’s New Plano Campus Drafts Impressive Energy & Environmental Line Up
COLLABORATION -
As a first-time attendee at a Sustainable Brands conference, I expected SB’16 San Diego to be largely about environmental issues. It certainly was – from the conference’s commitment to producing zero waste, to Pratt & Whitney’s “green” jet engine on display in the parking lot. But as a purpose-driven professional with a commitment to the social impact side of corporate social responsibility, I was thrilled to hear panelists redefine sustainability through a human-focused lens.
PRESS RELEASE -
According to research from the EPA WaterSense® program, the average American adult spends 8 minutes in the shower, using about 18 gallons of water each time they lather up.* Kohler, a global leader in the manufacture of kitchen and bath products, encourages consumers to reduce their water usage by 25 percent by cutting their shower time by two minutes.
PRESS RELEASE -
Duck, Duck, GOOSE!
Toyota Tagged to Receive Keystone Leadership in Environment Award
WASTE NOT -
“It didn’t make sense to me — to make a bunch of products that use a lot of materials, and then throw it away,” Scott Hamlin, co-founder at Looptworks, said during a Tuesday breakout session on partnerships in the circular economy at Sustainable Brands '16 San Diego.
What Hamlin saw was a broken apparel industry, which focused on the traditional take-make-waste model. That’s why the social entrepreneur decided to found a company that doesn’t use virgin materials at all — and Looptworks was born.
“We are called Looptworks because we are working toward a closed-loop system,” he said.