SUPPLY CHAIN -
Putting its responsible sourcing aspirations into action, Target has developed a new forest products policy. The policy will see the retailer source all of the wood, paper, paper-based packaging and wood-based fiber used in its brand-owned products from well managed, credibly certified forests and post-consumer recycled materials.
NEW METRICS -
As with most industries these days, companies in paper and packaging know that their customers — be they publishers, fast food companies or office suppliers — want to buy products that are deemed sustainable. They know that millions of dollars can depend on whether their products can meet this threshold.
PRESS RELEASE -
Danone will invest €2 million during the next three years in a new wastewater system at its dairy plant in Tres Cantos, Spain.
The investment will allow the facility to increase its water autonomy to 80%, and furthers Danone’s goal to become self-sufficient at the site north of Madrid. The move will make the Tres Cantos factory more economical with its water usage – currently, it uses 800 cubic metres of water every day to support capacity of 4 million yogurts and custards.
NEW METRICS -
Adding to the growing body of research highlighting the value of forests for mitigating climate change, the TD Bank Group (TD) and the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) have released a new report that assigns an economic value to the ecological goods and services forests provide to Canadians.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Chicago Assembly Plant – home of the Ford Taurus and the award-winning Ford Explorer –implemented efficiency efforts towards the end of 2016 that helped the plant reduce water usage by 13 million gallons last year – expected to be significantly higher in 2017 after a full year of use.
In marking this year’s World Water Day, Ford Motor Company continuously strives to go further in its commitment to water leadership. Ford recently announced its updated manufacturing water strategy, which calls for an additional 30 percent reduction in water use per vehicle from 2015 to 2020, along with a long-term aspirational goal of zero drinkable water use in manufacturing.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Twelve of the world’s leading cocoa and chocolate companies have agreed to collectively work towards ending deforestation and forest degradation in the global cocoa supply chain, with an initial focus on Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The agreement commits the participating companies to develop and present a joint public-private framework of action to address deforestation at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) meeting in Bonn, Germany in November 2017.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A wave of efforts to increase transparency and ethics in complex global supply chains in recent years has not only unearthed grave ongoing issues, but a groundswell of private sector commitments to address them. Two that have risen to the forefront of concern for multinationals are deforestation and human rights abuses.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Forest destruction accounts for nearly the same amount of global greenhouse gas emissions as the entire global transportation sector and deforestation rates are yet again on the rise. In response, thirty-eight investors from across the globe have joined Green Century Capital Management to demand that companies reaffirm and extend zero deforestation commitments specific to Latin America.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Today, VF Corporation, the US' largest fashion conglomerate - parent company of lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories brands including Timberland, The North Face, Lee and Wrangler – released its first-ever Forest Derived Materials Policy, which sets formal guidelines for the company’s purchasing preferences and use of sustain
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
This week, sustainable menswear brand Outerknown launched #ITSNOTOK, an evergreen giveback program designed to bring awareness to environmental issues – particularly the declining health of our oceans, mostly due to pollution – all over the world. #ITSNOTOK is a call to action to consumers to become part of the solution, rather than the problem, by helping to clean up the oceans.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Growing demand for seafood and a global population growing at a rate of 75 million people every year has put ocean resources under significant strain. Approximately 90 percent of global fishing grounds are now over-fished or fully-exploited. Sustainable consumption of seafood is therefore imperative, and one of the only ways to reverse the decline and collapse of fish stocks within our lifetime.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Many CEOs want to make a difference. Convinced that companies should play a positive role in environmental stewardship and social development, they declare sustainability a top priority, launch a transformation program, hire a chief sustainability officer, and commit millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of management time to the effort. Then momentum fades.
It’s a frustrating setback—and a common one. A new report released Bain & Company, finds that only 2 percent of corporate sustainability programs achieve or exceed their aims, compared to 12 percent of other corporate transformation programs.
COLLABORATION -
Human activity is driving rampant loss of flora and fauna around the world, prompting fears that we are in the midst of a sixth great extinction event, with one-third of all species in the wild facing threat of extinction.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Apple, HP, Samsung SDI and Sony have joined the Responsible Cobalt Initiative, with a pledge to follow the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines for mining supply chains, which call for traceability and immediate correction of any abuses.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
There are about 3 trillion trees left on earth, or roughly 400 trees per person. Seems like a lot, but what if we told you that since the advent of human civilisation, half of all trees have been cut down, or that 15 billion trees are lost each year?
PRESS RELEASE -
What happens when you unite General Mills, LVMH, Mars, Rainforest Alliance and TSC and more with the experts at Quantis? You drive sustainable change.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Has a water crisis touched you or your community this year? You probably know that 2016 was a big headline year for water, from California’s lingering drought to Flint’s public health disaster. Here in East Tennessee, where we rarely worry about the availability of fresh water, the idea of scarcity hit home this fall in an unprecedented way: We endured our most severe drought in nearly ten years, setting the stage for a massive wildfire that ripped through the tourist town of Gatlinburg and killed at least 14 people.
PRESS RELEASE -
The QMAR project - Unlocking the nutritional and technical Quality potential of MARine by-products in sustainable salmonid feeds - is a business innovation project for the industrial sector, starting out in January 2017. It is being supported by the Research Council of Norway and has been granted funding up to a maximum limit of NOK 16 million spread over a four-year period.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Ambitions to reduce environmental impact by slashing water use are driving brands in industries of all kinds to rethink their manufacturing processes. This week, both Wrangler and Toyota announced they have risen to the challenge and have plenty to show for their efforts.
Having recently reached a milestone of three billion liters of water saved since 2007, denim and casual apparel brand Wrangler announced on Wednesday that it plans to reduce water usage at its facilities by 20 percent by 2020.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
In a new CDP study released last week, global companies — including Colgate Palmolive, L’Oréal, McDonald’s Corporation and Marks & Spencer — report that, on average, 24 percent of their revenues depend upon four deforestation-linked commodities: cat