PRESS RELEASE -
PepsiCo today reported continued progress in the company's efforts to strengthen its palm oil supply chain, including new steps taken to promote human rights, responsible land use and supplier transparency. These moves support PepsiCo's previously announced goal for 100 percent of the palm oil it uses to be sustainably sourced by 2020.
In its annual Palm Oil Action Plan Progress Report, the global food and beverage company disclosed that 89 percent of the palm oil it expects to use during 2017 has been traced to the mill level, up from 65 percent in 2015. PepsiCo has also taken steps to extend traceability beyond the mill to plantation level across its entire palm oil supply chain, which it aims to achieve by 2020.
PRESS RELEASE -
Today, consumers increasingly expect companies to address social justice issues, with nearly nine-in-ten (87%) citing racial equality as an issue they would like companies to prioritize. Some companies have tried to shed light on the topic, but with little understanding of the community, their efforts backfired. However, one company with a longstanding history of support for racial equality recently dared to share a bold message.
PRESS RELEASE -
More than 2,500 General Motors team members are putting on their gloves, work boots and safety glasses and returning to Detroit’s Cody Rouge community July 24-28 for the company’s annual week-long volunteer event.
TeamGM Cares volunteers are donating time and talent at a new STEM Camp for 2nd-5th graders, helping spark curiosity in science, technology and math education. GM is partnering with the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP) and Michigan Science Center in the effort.
PRESS RELEASE -
Nearly 100 General Motors facilities participated in World Environment Day, an observation established by the United Nations. This year’s theme: “connect people to nature.”
While all of GM’s manufacturing sites conduct at least one environmental outreach activity a year, this is the second time GM rallied its teams to measure its collective impact within roughly the same period.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT -
Laura Palmeiro (@laurapalmeiro), Sustainability Integration Director at Danone, sits down with us to share her thoughts on the importance of numbers to back up a good story, the value in advising a tech startup and sharing high tea with the Prince of Wales.
Though fairly new to the SB Corporate Member Network, Laura has dived right in. She also recently joined SB’s Advisory Board. Read more to learn about the value she derives from participating in these communities.
WALKING THE TALK -
If there’s one group that’s basking in the long shadow cast by Donald Trump’s ill-fated decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, it’s business.
PRESS RELEASE -
The first-ever international Equality Institute promoting LGBT workplace equality in London was held July 6 and led by The Walt Disney Company, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates and Sodexo.
More than 200 representatives from 100 companies in the U.K. and other countries attended the one-day workshop to learn and share best practices for LGBT workplace equality. Disney hosted the first Equality Institute in 2015 in Orlando, Florida. The London institute marks the first international event.
PRESS RELEASE -
Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland believes in activating people to transform the world with powerful tools like community service. Through the company’s award-winning Path of Service™ program, first launched in 1992, employees receive up to 40 paid community service hours each year to pull on their boots and make a difference.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program, Timberland recently kicked off its 25 Days of Service Challenge, an internal campaign to drive incremental employee service engagement over 25 days. While the company plans and executes monthly service events to engage employees, the Challenge encourages employees to find and run their own events for themselves, a small group of colleagues, or their full team.
PRESS RELEASE -
The mobilization of businesses, governments, and individuals in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has been heartening and inspiring. Within just days of President Trump’s announcement, businesses contributing $6.2 trillion to the US economy, and states accounting for more than one-third of national GDP, have joined together to declare their intent to continue the path towards a low-carbon economy. But we aren’t just forging ahead because it’s good for the planet, we also understand that it’s good for business.
PRESS RELEASE -
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, today announced the distribution of 21 grants totaling $120,000 from The UPS Foundation for the 2017 Keep America Beautiful/UPS Community Tree and Recovery Tree Planting Grants program. The grant recipients’ projects will result in more than 1,200 trees being planted in support of locally-relevant initiatives.
COLLABORATION -
When it comes to achieving bold sustainability goals, every action counts — a concept that is catching on fast with industry heavy hitters such as JPMorgan and GSK. The two companies have struck up new partnerships with GE and Schneider Electric, respectively, to tackle emissions and resource inefficiencies that threaten to impede their climate progress.
PRESS RELEASE -
Global consumer goods firm Unilever has suspended sourcing from an Indonesian-based palm oil supplier which was found to be in breach of policy on deforestation and peatland clearance.
Ongoing deforestation and peatland clearance by Sawit Sumbermas Sarana (SSMS) and its subsidiaries was demonstrated through satellite images in a recent investigation by Chain Reaction Research.
The study found that Unilever’s ongoing trading with SSMS might damage its sustainability reputation. As such, Unilever has joined the ranks of Wilmar International, Apical and Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) in suspending trading with SSMS.
PRESS RELEASE -
AT&T* is launching a new education effort to help students, parents and educators tackle the cyberbullying crisis. The effort shares valuable tools and resources and encourages parents to stay involved in their children’s online lives.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Mondelēz International continues to make moves to clean up its cocoa supply chains by teaming up with governments across West Africa in an effort to tackle the problem of deforestation.
WASTE NOT -
Reliance on virgin raw materials to produce products has a significant, often detrimental, impact on both ecosystems and communities. A widespread shift towards a more circular model is essential to secure a more sustainable future, yet there exist systematic barriers to the acquisition and sourcing of high-quality, secondary materials.
PRESS RELEASE -
More than 10,000 meals were donated to the local Grovetown nonprofit Concerned Women Inc. from the newly opened Chick-fil-A, as part of the restaurant's three initiatives to give back to the community, coinciding with its grand opening.
The boxes containing the sustainable meals were packed by more than 60 people Wednesday who attended "The First 100" campout in the parking lot ahead of the site's grand opening Thursday, in an effort to receive free Chick-fil-A food for a year.
Concerned Women Inc. chief Bea Sanders said the food donation will help the organization get a jump-start on its summer feeding initiatives.
PRESS RELEASE -
BASF further strengthens its operations network for certified palm products: Meanwhile the company manufactures certified ingredients at 20 locations around the world for the cosmetic, detergent and cleaning agent industries. This production network also includes the BASF factories at Gebze (Turkey) and Dahej (India): they have now received the Supply Chain Certificate of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) as BASF announced on the occasion of the RSPO’s fifth annual European Roundtable in London.
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BUSINESS CASE -
While telegraphed for days and choreographed down to the military band playing soft jazz in the background before the announcement, President Trump’s June 01, 2017 declaration that the U.S. will pull out of the Paris Agreement still jarred and dismayed.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
“Culture moves faster than brands and companies,” 2 Dope Boys co-founders Michael Brooks and Phil McKenzie said in their Monday morning workshop at SB’17 Detroit. As the antenna and point of translation that operates between culture and business, 2 Dope Boys imparts the importance of bringing cultural and historical context to uncover the true problem within organizations.
COLLABORATION -
Top brands continue to make their voices heard in the days leading up to the G7 Summit in Italy, with the release of yet another letter urging President Trump and the administration to deliver on its climate commitments.