LEADERSHIP -
On November 5, 12 Australian companies committed to climate action at the Australian Climate Leadership Summit in Sydney, an official lead-up event to the COP21 UN climate conference. They join over 250 other companies from around the world who have made commitments through the We Mean Business coalition, including over 40 multinationals that are headquartered or active in Australia.
PRESS RELEASE -
Panera Bread is proud to share its progress in reducing confinement and antibiotics across its U.S. Panera Bread® and St. Louis Bread Co.® bakery-cafe menus.Highlights include:Laying Hens (Eggs): 100% cage-free by 2020Pigs (Pregnant sows): 100% gestation-crate free in 2015Poultry: 100% of chicken and 100% of roasted turkey in sandwiches and salads raised without antibiotics in 2015Beef Cattle: 89% grass fed, free range in 2015
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation announced today that H&M has become its latest Global Partner accelerating the transition to the circular economy.
WASTE NOT -
Asahi Group Holdings, Colgate Palmolive, Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Corporation are among the global corporations achieving an A rating for their efforts to improve water security, according to the first global ranking of corporate water stewardship revealed this week by CDP — which holds the most comprehensive dataset of publicly available corporate water information collected on behalf of investors.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The Dow Chemical Company on Tuesday announced the launch a new family of resins that offers unprecedented performance levels to help customers address some of today’s most challenging packaging performance gaps.Innate Precision Packaging Resins are created from a patented molecular catalyst coupled with advanced process technology, which Dow says will empower customers to unlock new packaging opportunities through “unmatched stiffness-toughness balance, processing ease and improved sustainability profiles.”
WASTE NOT -
As we prepare for the innumerable resource challenges of supporting a population expected to top 9 billion in the next 35 years, it is simply unacceptable to continue wasting food. Organizations large and small are now focusing a variety of efforts on eliminating food waste.
CLEANTECH -
World leaders have shaken hands on the new Sustainable Development Goals that will hopefully be shaping global and local agendas and policies over the next 15 years. The UN Sustainable Development summit coincided with the 7th edition of Climate Week, which was jam-packed with well-timed announcements and strong messages in favor of a low-carbon economy.
COLLABORATION -
The CEOs of 10 global food companies pledged to accelerate business action on climate change and urged U.S. and world leaders to form a robust international agreement at COP21 in December in a joint letter coordinated by Ceres and released yesterday.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Several dozen companies that endorsed the New York Declaration on Forests at 2014’s United Nations Climate Summit are taking concrete steps to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation from their supply chains, according to a new report from Supply Change – a project convened by Washington D.C.-based non-profit Forest Trends.
COLLABORATION -
Facebook, Google and Twitter are among the more than a dozen companies that have come together today, the International Day of Peace, to draw attention to the vital role of food assistance in creating a more peaceful world.Many firms are donating television and digital media channels to drive support for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. It delivers food assistance in emergencies and works with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience, assisting some 80 million people in around 80 countries each year.
PRESS RELEASE -
Timberland’s ongoing environmental mission has reached a major milestone. This week, the footwear brand announced that it has planted its 2 millionth tree in the Horqin Desert in northern China as part of its efforts to stem deforestation in the region.The Stratham, N.H.-based company, a division of VF Corp., has a long track record of outreach in the area. In 2001, an employee suggested the brand take part in the reforestation of the Horqin Desert in inner Mongolia, which was the root cause of sandstorms in Japan.
CLEANTECH -
The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge last year achieved concrete results in cities in Australia, Ireland, Mexico and the United States, according to the company’s 2014 Corporate Responsibility Report.This included improving infrastructure and its effectiveness, integrating municipally-owned solar energy into the existing power grid, planning for economic development and reversing neighborhood decline while increasing tax revenue.The report details how the company’s technology and talent are transforming governments, institutions, communities and the quality of life for people around the world.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final version of its Clean Power Plan, the nation’s first-ever limits on carbon emissions from power plants — the single largest source of U.S. global warming pollution.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
In an unprecedented show of business support for tackling climate change, 365 companies and investor groups sent letters today to more than two dozen governors across the United States voicing their support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan for existing power plants and encouraging the state’s “timely finalization” of state implementation plans to meet the new standards.The letter, organized by sustainability advocacy group Ceres, comes just days before the expected finalization of the rule aimed at reducing U.S. power plant carbon pollution by 30 percent by 2030.
COLLABORATION -
Yesterday marked the launch of the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, uniting 13 of the largest U.S. companies in pledging a collective $140 billion of low-carbon investments in the global economy and over 1,600 MW of new renewable energy. The high-profile pledge is the latest indicator that the White House is succeeding in its effort to garner private-sector support for a substantive climate agreement at COP21.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Procter & Gamble (P&G) Fabric Care has announced a new initiative that will see 230 million bottles of flagship brands such as Ariel, Dash, Lenor and Unstopables made out of Post-Consumer Recyclate (PCR — aka recycled packaging). If laid out end-to-end, the 230 million bottles would stretch roughly the distance between the North and South Poles, the company says.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
While a shift in consumer attitudes away from smoking has been mounting for decades, major brands are now stepping up to do their part to extinguish the unhealthy habit.First, CVS Health Corporation resigned from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week, after exposing the Chamber’s involvement in lobbying campaigns against anti-smoking laws. CVS says selling cigarettes is antithetical to its strategy to become a healthcare destination.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
General Mills announced a major move toward cage-free eggs this week as part of an updated animal welfare policy that now extends throughout its global supply chain.The Minnesota-based food giant committed itself to 100 percent cage-free eggs for its U.S. operations, a move several other large companies also have taken recently. The company did not set a deadline but said it will work with its suppliers to determine a "reasonable timeline," given the disruption that bird flu has caused to the U.S. egg supply.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The recent announcement by McDonald's, which outlines its approach to combatting deforestation across its main commodity supply chains, is perhaps the most comprehensive environmental commitment of any major restaurant group. It sets an example for all global organisations in how they should be ensuring sustainability throughout their supply chains, and reflects how a Zero Deforestation agenda is becoming the new normal for international business.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Years before the surprising examples of bold sustainable business actions discussed in Part 1, we had the writings of Jem Bendell, Wayne Visser, John Elkington and Jeffrey Hollender, who have long seen the limitations of c