COLLABORATION -
At the 2018 Global Forum on Responsible Business and Recruitment this week, the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) called on businesses around the world to play their part in the fight to end all forms of forced labor. The event, co-hosted by the CGF and Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), brought together key stakeholders to discuss how best to galvanize efforts and drive real progress on the issue.
LEADERSHIP -
On Thursday, June 14th, I will be with my closest family at Buckingham Palace, proudly receiving my OBE. For those outside the UK, this may not mean much (unless you’ve been watching “The Crown”), but the award is a public recognition of doing something useful — in my case, for services to sustainability.
BUSINESS CASE -
The Dow Chemical Company’s newly released 2017 Sustainability Report details its progress against its goals for 2025, including surpassing the year’s target for savings and revenue from projects that are “better for ecosystems.” Such projects generated $120 million in cost savings and new cash flow in 2017 against the goal to reach $1 billion by 2025.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Today, along with the release of its 2017 Shared Goodness Corporate Social Responsibility report, The Hershey Company unveiled Shared Goodness Promise, a new CSR strategy aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and centered around investments, collaborative programs and sustainable business practices aimed at making a positive difference in peoples’ lives.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
TD Bank Group recently launched its corporate citizenship strategy to center on a new multi-year program, The Ready Commitment. Guided by the bank’s purpose, focus on creating shared value and desire to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), TD is targeting CDN $1 billion (US $775 million) toward community giving by 2030 in The Ready Commitment’s four focus areas:
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The idea of the Deep Time Walk is simple but incredibly powerful: When dealing with the vast dimensions of time and space, we are often unable to grasp the magnitude quantitatively, just through studying the numbers. A Deep Time Walk allows us to walk the timeline of the history of the Earth and also universe, and thus for example, on a walk of 4.6km, if we start with the birth of Earth, each one-metre step represents one million years.
WASTE NOT -
Like many large companies, Hilton has been steadily improving its sustainability performance one step at a time.
NEW METRICS -
The private sector has been mobilizing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. But corporations are also in constant pursuit of returning shareholder value, and as such, need to look for ways that SDG-aligned strategies can give a true measure of shareholder value.
COLLABORATION -
Companies looking to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and support startups get their solutions to market by using a new digital match-making platform, fetch. The Dutch-based enterprise helps bring together potential collaborators by showcasing market-ready innovations and allowing companies to search by SDG or industry category to find the ones that align with their corporate sustainability goals.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
As we approach the 2020 deadline for many corporate sustainability pledges, plus the commitments made in the New York Declaration on Forests, sustainable business practices are front and center in the minds of decision-makers. The next twelve months will be pivotal in achieving these goals.
PRESS RELEASE -
CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) today released its 11th annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, detailing its latest efforts to shape the future of health care, reduce environmental impacts and exemplify corporate leadership in fulfilling the company's purpose of helping people on their path to better health.
Among the company's key CSR initiatives in 2017 were an enterprise response to combatting the opioid crisis, the development of a carbon emissions reduction target in line with climate science, and a rapid and robust response to a series of natural disasters that impacted CVS Health operations, colleagues and communities.
PRESS RELEASE -
Rising to meet the challenges of achieving global sustainable development is expected to require all the major stakeholders around the world to work together. DuPont Nutrition & Health is among this group that aims to make a greater impact on the food and beverage industry value chain.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
By 2020, the market for “green” chemistry is expected to reach $100 billion globally, with North America seeing an increase from $3 billion to over $20 billion during the same period. This growth, essential to the future of our planet, is a sign that the industry is engaged in much-needed change. Today, 8.3 percent of all deaths and 5.7 percent of the total burden of disease worldwide are related to chemical exposure.
BUSINESS CASE -
In a first-of-its-kind analysis for the hotel industry, food waste reduction programs were shown to be effective and financially beneficial. The research – which was conducted on behalf of Champions 12.3 – studied the costs and benefits of reducing food waste for 42 hotel sites across 15 countries. Over a three-year period, nearly every site realized a positive return on its investment; on average, hotels saved $7 in operating costs for every $1 they had spent on the programs.
WALKING THE TALK -
The Hershey Company has announced a new comprehensive strategy for cocoa sustainability with an emphasis on addressing pressing issues facing cocoa-growing communities such as poverty, poor nutrition, at-risk youth, and vulnerable ecosystems. Cocoa For Good will involve collaborative programs, partnerships, and a half-a-billion dollars in investments by 2030.
LEADERSHIP -
The adage, “behind every great man, there is a great woman,” has officially — and irretrievably — been relegated to the history books. In its place comes the understanding that behind every woman is a powerful and growing network of women who have, and are helping to, pave the way.
When I joined Ceres more than a decade ago, I was privileged to experience firsthand the power of working under a female CEO and a gender-balanced leadership team. Today, even as the organization has quintupled in size, Ceres maintains this gender parity.
PRESS RELEASE -
As a leader of Responsible Business in the hospitality industry, The Rezidor Hotel Group publishes its 2017 Responsible Business Report. Included since 2010 in Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies List, Rezidor is committed to work in a responsible and sustainable way. Rezidor operates 470+ hotels of sustainable hotel brands such as Radisson Blu and Park Inn by Radisson. Rezidor is a member of The Radisson Hotel Group.
PRESS RELEASE -
In 2017, Nestlé launched more than 1000 new, nutritious products and contributed to over 41,000 job and traineeship opportunities through its Nestlé Needs YOUth initiative. Furthermore, the company has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by over 30% in the last 10 years. The 2017 Nestlé in society – Creating Shared Value report (pdf, 15Mb) details the company’s progress on key commitments.