FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
A report launched at the World Forum on Natural Capital (WFNC) in Edinburgh, Scotland last week examines the vanishing wealth of the world’s nature, and the growing systemic risk that represents to global economies and societies.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Factoring the value of nature into governance and corporate decision-making is not an easy task, but governments and businesses are starting to recognize the importance of natural capital accounting. According to the Natural Capital Coalition, 68 countries are looking to produce natural capital accounts, while 10 percent of WBCSD member companies mention the Natural Capital Protocol framework in their sustainability reporting.
NEW METRICS -
We need to make better decisions to avoid the potentially severe consequences for businesses operating in a deteriorated environment. The social and environmental megatrends will, over time, act as a drag on prosperity as the costs of basic inputs such as water, energy and land escalate in response to scarcity.
NEW METRICS -
One of the hallmarks of context-based sustainability (CBS) as an approach to performance accounting in business is that it features the use of organization- or company-specific metrics. Indeed, a basic tenet of CBS is that no two organizations are exactly alike and it makes sense, therefore, for them to use different metrics to assess their performance, all in accordance with their own materiality determinations.
LEADERSHIP -
Customer experience design is the forgotten dimension of sustainability. We need to transcend what have now become well-defined approaches and definitions of customer experience, to help companies understand why their offerings are no longer resonating with people, and how to develop a profound understanding of the lived experience of every single person whose lives our organisations touch. This understanding is just as applicable to those businesses and organisations developing sustainable products, services, technologies and initiatives.
PRESS RELEASE -
Today at Aqua Nor 2017, the BioMar Group takes a moment to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the BioSustain™ concept. Sustainability has long been in the DNA of BioMar however the development of BioSustain firmly established the company as the forerunner in driving sustainable innovation through collaborative partnerships in the aquaculture industry.
“At BioMar we are proud of our long history in sustainability”, said Carlos Diaz, CEO BioMar Group, “over a decade ago we recognised the need to find sustainable solutions to fishmeal and fish oil and believed that ‘profit through sustainability’ was possible.”
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
As determined stakeholders continue to innovate proposed 2019 expedition has its sights set on the coast of Papua New Guinea, where if all goes according to plan, three 200-ton machines will troll the bottom of the Bismarck Sea for deposits of copper and gold, for Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals.
The remote-controlled robots will use enormous, spiked-covered bulk cutters to churn and grind the ocean floor, to reach as yet untouched reserves of deep-ocean minerals formed over millions of years.
PRESS RELEASE -
Advances in innovative technology by BioMar and a high priced fish oil and fishmeal market enabled the BioMar Group to average a below one FIFO ratio (Fish-In:Fish-Out) for its raw material usage in 2016 for the first time in its history. This is one of the many findings revealed in the yearly sustainability report released today.
NEW METRICS -
To make it easier for companies to reduce their environmental impacts, businesses such as Kering, Interserve, Mars and Asda have banded together to develop a new healthy ecosystem metric designed to support companies as they make the transition to a more sustainable business model.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Global stressors — from water scarcity to modern-day slavery — are reinventing traditional business models across heavy industries that support a more secure, sustainable future. As one of the largest engineering, procurement and construction companies in the world, Bechtel is uniquely positioned to be part of this transformation. We’ve completed more than 25,000 extraordinary projects across 160 countries on all seven continents.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Due to their functional properties and low cost, plastics have become an integral part of our global economy and have seen their production increase twenty-fold over the past half-century. Despite their indisputable benefits, plastics have significant economic and environmental drawbacks. By 2050, it is estimated there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans. These negative impacts are sources of concern for business and government, who are recognizing the need to rethink the global plastic system.
NEW METRICS -
For the past year, climate change has returned to the top of the international agenda. While I was attending COP22 in Marrakech last month, the news broke that Trump had been elected President of the United States, with widespread possible implications not just for the U.S. but for the COP21 climate deal reached after such hard bargaining last year in Paris.
NEW METRICS -
The value of ecosystem services has, up until recently, gone largely unrecognized by governments and corporations. While nature is inherently valuable for a variety of obvious reasons, putting a price tag on it isn’t exactly a straightforward process.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Since the signing of the Paris agreement, more and more initiatives are emerging and making waves in terms of carbon reduction. However, our planet is much more complicated than a carbon cycle, in fact, there are nine planetary boundaries to look out for from biodiversity to land system change and our current way of doing business is on the trajectory of trespassing many of them.
PRESS RELEASE -
California’s forests are in crisis. A lethal combination of drought, wildfires, warmer temperatures and pests has destroyed 66 million trees in the past six years.
Restoring our forests won’t be easy. Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature recognized the importance and magnitude of the task by allocating $40 million in cap-and-trade funds. At the same time, President Barack Obama visited Lake Tahoe to announce $29.5 million to improve forest health and decrease the threat of catastrophic wildfires.
PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO, October 7, 2016 – Sustainable Brands® recently announced the full program for New Metrics’16, scheduled for November 14-16 in Boston, MA. Drawing together over 400 global business leaders, the conference will focus on the emerging methods for identifying, measuring, and quantifying new forms of business risk and value, as well as include strategies for communicating the impact of that value to stakeholders.
NEW METRICS -
With increasing pressure on natural resources and the accompanying impact on the environment, more businesses are beginning to realize the importance of properly valuing the natural resources upon which they depend. To do this they need to include ‘natural capital’ in their decision-making processes alongside other forms of capital, such as financial and human capital. The challenge for companies is a lack of data, tools and processes to facilitate business decision making in a rigorous and consistent way.
NEW METRICS -
Two years in the making, the first global Natural Capital Protocol was launched today. The standardized framework brings together and builds on a number of approaches that already exist to help business measure and value natural capital. The Natural Capital Coalition suggests that by harmonizing these existing approaches, businesses everywhere can benefit from understanding their relationships with nature.
NEW METRICS -
Many businesses have come to better understand the critical importance of nature as an input, but the question still remains as to how its value compares to other assets — not as lumber or drinking water or a fancy dinner, but as standing forests, healthy aquifers or living organisms.
NEW METRICS -
Think tank and sustainable management consultancy SolAbility recently released its fourth Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (GSCI), a ranking of 180 countries for “sustainable competitiveness,” defined as the ability to generate and sustain inclusive wealth and dignifying standard of life for all citizens in a globalised world of competing economies.Iceland topped the list for the second year running, followed by other Scandinavian nations. The only non-European countries in the top 20 are Japan (11), New Zealand (12), and Canada (16). The US ranked 41 and the UK ranked 48; China and Russia ranked above them at 25 and 33, respectively.