PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO, December 22, 2016 - Sustainable Brands® opened early bird registration for its notable US conference: SB’17 Detroit. Best-available pricing for All Event Passes ends January 5th, 2017. The event will be held at Detroit’s world-class Cobo Center convention facility, May 22-25, 2017. More than 2,500 global brand leaders and sustainability professionals are expected to attend and contribute their expertise to a crucial conversation on advancing brand value through sustainability-led innovation.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) has released its first-ever Citizenship Report, detailing progress in reducing its environmental footprint, improving social conditions for those in need, advancing Diversity and Inclusion and empowering women inside and outside the Company. P&G has published a sustainability report annually since 1999 but has updated it this year to include a more comprehensive overview of the good the Company is doing.
PRESS RELEASE -
Outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland recently celebrated the close of the ninth consecutive harvest season of its Victory Garden, a plot of fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers outside the company’s Stratham, New Hampshire headquarters. Each year, a dedicated group of Timberland employee volunteers manage and cultivate the 1,000 square foot area of raised garden beds. The fresh flowers and produce are then made available to employees for purchase, with proceeds going to the New Hampshire Food Bank (NHFB). Funds raised from this year’s harvest will provide close to 2,000 meals to feed local adults and children who struggle with hunger this holiday season.
PRESS RELEASE -
Kimberly-Clark today announced it earned a perfect score on Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's
2017 Corporate Equality Index (CEI),
the national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Thai Union Group PCL, one of the world’s leading and likely most contentious seafood companies, today announced an ambitious strategy to ensure 100 percent of its branded tuna is sustainably sourced with a commitment of achieving a minimum of 75 percent by 2020.
As part of the new tuna strategy, Thai Union says it will invest $90m in initiatives that will increase the supply of sustainable tuna. This includes establishing 11 new Fishery Improvement Projects (programs to transform fisheries that ensure sustainable fish stocks, minimized environmental impacts, and improved management of the fisheries, or FIPs) around the world.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Silicon Valley-based firms are often praised for innovation, but how do they measure up when it comes to sustainability efforts?
PRESS RELEASE -
CVS Health, the nation’s largest pharmacy innovation company, announced on December 5, 2016 that it has received a perfect score of 100 percent on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for the third consecutive year. The CEI is an annual national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices pertinent to LGBT equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Columbia Sportswear says its new OutDry Extreme ECO Jacket, which hit shelves last week, marks a milestone in sustainability - as the first high-performance, environmentally friendly, breathable, waterproof jacket made without the use of a common synthetic additive known as perfluorinated compounds (PFCs).
As part of the launch, Columbia has partnered with hip-hop artist and environmental advocate Macklemore to help raise awareness on the impact that PFCs can have on the environment. Macklemore (aka Ben Haggerty), who finds inspiration and solace in the forests in the Pacific Northwest and other natural places around the world, shares his thoughts on environmentally responsible rainwear in a new video:
PRESS RELEASE -
CHARLOTTE – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is the recipient of a $1 million grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, which will support two critical TNC initiatives. The first initiative focuses on using the comprehensive system-scale planning approach to help countries balance the generation of renewable energy and the conservation of rivers that provide food, livelihoods and many other values to people – particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The second program aims to scale up cost-effective investments in nature-based resilience approaches that will help protect communities from climate risks and extreme weather events.
CLEANTECH -
French engineering giant Bouygues Group is making a convincing case for reinventing the wheel, rolling out four new solar road projects across four continents that could change the way we drive by 2018.
Colas SA, a subsidiary of Bouygues Group, has designed solar panels that are rugged enough to withstand the weight of an 18-wheeler truck — and are currently building them into road surfaces in France. Colas has been performing research and laboratory tests over the past five years and now plans to construct 100 test sites to further test the new technology before commercializing it in 2018.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Estée Lauder Companies has published Future Beautiful: Our Progress on Sustainability and Citizenship in 2016. The report highlights the company’s progress across five key areas of Sustainability and Citizenship including: Products and Packaging, Employee Well-Being, Sustainable Sourcing, Efficient Operations and Citizenship.
“Sustainability and citizenship is about how we do business. How we create long-term value and continually deliver a sustainable business model,” said William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman.
PRESS RELEASE -
Eastman Chemical Company has been named America’s Most JUST Company in the chemical industry, according to JUST Capital and Forbes magazine’s inaugural “JUST 100 List,” which for the first time ranks the publicly traded companies in the U.S. that perform best on the things Americans care most about. The rankings are based on one of the largest surveys ever conducted on attitudes towards corporate behavior, involving 50,000 Americans over the last 18 months. This year’s list ranks U.S companies against their peers within 32 major industries. In future years, Forbes and JUST Capital will rank companies across industries.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
This Friday will be one of the biggest days in the global retail calendar (just behind Alibaba’s Singles’ Day earlier in November). Black Friday sales have begun encroaching on Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., with some stores remaining open on the holiday, and sales beginning even earlier in the week.
NEW METRICS -
Drawing on the work of Reporting 3.0 - in particular, its Reporting Blueprint and forthcoming Accounting Blueprint - this panel on the final afternoon of New Metrics ‘16 facilitated an animated discussion on true materiality, exploring the broad range of definitions of materiality, and whether they may coalesce into a more common definition or continue to be disparate for different audiences.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Throughout Sustainable Brands’ New Metrics ’16 event this week, I expect to hear a continual drumbeat of the need to measure impact. That is how it should be.
As a panellist for the session on “Demonstrating the Impact of Sustainability Labels and Certification,” I will be one of those discussing why businesses need to measure the social and environmental impact of their sustainable sourcing programs and how they can find out about the impact of sustainability standards.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Today, Target announced the launch of its 2020 sustainability goals, focused on reaching new levels of transparency and sustainable sourcing. The goals center around three key commitments:
PRESS RELEASE -
Report released on top sustainability issues and challenges in the cosmetics and personal care industry
Valuable insight on environmental and sustainability priorities that looks at how beauty companies are deploying initiatives to drive change in a resource-constrained world
PRESS RELEASE -
Sustainability can be incredibly engaging. The pressing issues of our day demand that humans find new ways of existing – and quickly. Happily, society’s attitudes about sustainability are heading in a positive direction. In recent years, consumers have begun to demonstrate a preference for sustainable products and services, while many businesses have embraced sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as part of the way they operate. As sustainability practitioners and communicators, the world is primed to listen to our message.
PRESS RELEASE -
Both the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Regulation S-K concept release in April of 2016 and the new GRI G4 guidelines that came into full effect in January 2016 are causing sustainability practitioners to take a long, hard look at the topic of materiality.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Serving more than 9,000 sites throughout North America, Sodexo is using its reach to try to influence behaviors among its millions of customers.