WASTE NOT -
UK retailer Sainsbury’s has unveiled its latest move in the fight against food waste, by announcing a £1 million fund available to towns and cities across the United Kingdom. The commitment is the second phase of its Waste Less, Save More strategy - a five-year plan designed to help households save money by reducing food waste in the UK.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), a project of As You Sow, recently reported which major brands are leading in adequately protecting human rights and informing investors about their conflict minerals risk, and those who are failing to do so.
Mining the Disclosures is RSN’s annual analysis of conflict minerals reporting, ranking 200+ individual companies across 25+ industries in risk mitigation, human rights impact, and reporting quality.
PRESS RELEASE -
Following the release of data compiled for its Q2 CSR report, outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland shared that the company has met and exceeded its 2015 goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This achievement is a part of the company's commitment to innovate and operate in an accountable and responsible manner in terms of its products, the outdoors and communities around the world. Timberland reports the company has reduced GHG emissions by 53 percent, exceeding its target of 50 percent for 2015.
NEW METRICS -
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.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
The European Commission has approved an investment package of €222.7 million from the EU budget to support Europe's transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon future. The EU funding will spur additional investments leading to a total of €398.6 million, which will be used to finance 144 new projects in 23 member states.
The support comes from the LIFE Programme for the Environment and Climate Action, the EU's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. €323.5 million will go to projects in the field of environment and resource efficiency, nature and biodiversity, and environmental governance and information.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
A survey conducted by ethical investment specialists Triodos Bank of UK investors has revealed an overwhelming interest in increasing ethical investment options, while a surprising majority revealed they had since been unaware of opportunities to do so.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
A growing number of investors are looking for high-quality information on a company’s sustainability performance. Earlier this year Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, called on S&P 500 CEOs to demonstrate how environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors contribute to long-term commercial success.
PRESS RELEASE -
GivePower Foundation, a non-profit organization that uses solar energy technologies to deliver essential community services to the developing world, was awarded a second $500,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, totaling $1 million in grant funding in the past year.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
As much of the Southeast U.S. is still cleaning up from Hurricane Matthew, the country’s 13th billion-dollar weather disaster this year, a new Ceres report ranks the nation’s largest insurance companies on their responses to escalating climate risks, including severe weather events. The report finds that while more U.S. insurers are improving their disclosure and management of climate risks, most are still giving it minimal attention, both in terms of risks and opportunities.
PRESS RELEASE -
Bank of America announces new environmental operations goals to be met by 2020, including plans to go carbon neutral. This announcement supports the bank’s continued efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of its operations. Bank of America will work to reduce location-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 percent, energy use by 40 percent, and water use by 45 percent in its operations across the globe by 2020.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A new campaign is calling on investors and money managers everywhere to make their investments part of a “tremendous force for good in effecting positive change.” Launched by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the campaign asks investors and money managers to commit capital to impact investing efforts aimed at meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or Global Goals) agreed upon by the United Nations roughly one year ago.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
We’re undergoing a transition to a new economy - one where business is not only focused on returns to shareholders, but also one that understands and prioritizes the complex ecosystem between business, the environment, employees, and the greater community. This new pivot to prioritizing all stakeholders not only creates a framework for accountability and ethical business, but also builds better resilience and long-term value.
PRESS RELEASE -
Chick-fil-A® announces today a new initiative that will more than double the company’s investment in Team Members’ college educations – providing $4.9 million in scholarships in 2017 alone, as well as access to tuition discounts and other benefits at more than 70 colleges and universities nationwide. While Chick-fil-A has offered scholarships for more than 40 years, the enhanced initiative, called Remarkable Futures, increases the amount of funding per recipient, allowing students to receive up to $25,000 in scholarships to be applied at any accredited institution of their choice, including online and on-campus formats, and can be combined with tuition discounts and other educational benefits at participating institutions.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Business magnate Bill Gates and energy giant Total have backed biofuels company Renmatix in a $14 million investment round. Renmatix developed a new process called Plantrose® that makes converting biomass into cellulosic sugars – the critical intermediary for second-generation biochemicals and biofuels – more affordable for biorefineries.
The investment will help fund the process’ commercialization, which will expand the supply of cost-competitive alternatives to petroleum-derived molecules.
NEW METRICS -
Sustainability has finally gone mainstream (or, at least, the desire to be seen as doing important work around sustainability and benefit from sustainability credentials has gone mainstream). Well, OK, at the very, very least the desire to be seen as having great sustainability programs is mainstreaming among large multinationals and a growing wave of environmentally or socially minded startups.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Have you heard the one about the fire extinguisher?
An auditor was completing an onsite assessment of a production facility for a major apparel brand when he noticed that fire extinguishers were mounted on devices that allowed them to slide up and down the wall. The auditor asked about this.
“Well,” the facility manager said, “you require that our fire extinguishers be 4 feet from the floor, but Brand X requires that they be 3 feet from the floor, and Brand Y requires 2 feet from the floor.”
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Each year in the U.S. more than 2.3 million people experience homelessness, 7.4 million live “doubled up” with friends or family and scores live on the edge of homelessness.
Estimates are a community pays $5,000 for every person who enters a shelter, to say nothing of the social and health problems amongst homeless adults and children.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Three of the world’s largest insurers have called on G20 leaders to implement a timeframe for the end of fossil fuel subsidies when they meet in China this week.
The G20 has already committed to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption” over the “medium term.” In May, the G7 nations pledged to achieve this by 2025.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
NIKE, Inc. has announced a new strategic partnership with private equity firm Apollo Global Management, LLC, aimed at building a transparent and ethical apparel supply chain in the Americas. Through the partnership, Nike aims to increase regional manufacturing capabilities, enable quicker delivery of more customized product to consumers and drive investment in sustainability.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
In most parts of the country, we don’t have an unemployment problem anymore. Our problem is a lack of good job opportunities for most Americans. While millions of jobs have been created since the Great Recession, the fastest job growth has occurred in places such as strip malls and fast food restaurants, where jobs provide people a means of subsistence but not an opportunity to achieve financial security and advance a career. Averaged across all occupations, real wages have not only remained stagnant but have dropped, building on a decades-long trend where workers and their families increasingly cannot afford the basic goods and services they need to get by.