MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
It’s commonly assumed that mainstream Main Street isn’t interested in sustainability. Shoppers will buy on price, performance and reliability. They’re swayed by celebrity endorsements and some of them want to be associated with stuff that’s cool. But being sustainable? Not a chance.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
In the midst (and potentially mist) of the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal, there was no better time to discuss the ESG (environmental, social and governance) regulation space than SB’15 London.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
GRI, developer of one of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting standards, has launched its latest Linkage Document at the Fourth United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights.Linking G4 and the UN Guiding Principles highlights the connections between the GRI G4 Reporting Guidelines (G4) and key concepts of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These include due diligence, grievance mechanisms and impact assessments — undertaken both for operations and suppliers — which are also recurring concepts throughout G4.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
On Monday, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), the world’s second-largest palm oil producer, launched a peatland rehabilitation project in Indonesia and committed to 100 percent traceability to mill by the end of 2015.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Around the world, more and more action is being taken to create a more sustainable clothing industry. In the U.K., waste reduction charity WRAP is seeing significant progress on its Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP). Meanwhile, two U.S.-based Kickstarter campaigns are offering sustainable, certified organic options: men’s denim made in America; and temperature-regulating base layers that use nanofibers from Austria.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
I came to Colorado, like millions before me, for the mountains, the active, sustainable lifestyle — and, of course, the beer. Coloradoans love their beer. So when I was invited up to Fort Collins to check out the water-saving initiatives of a local brewery I jumped at the opportunity. “Which one?” I wondered. Fort Collins is home to more than 15 breweries (roughly 1 for every 10,000 residents), amongst the highest concentrations for any city in America. New Belgium is a certified B Corp — that’d make sense. Or maybe Odell?
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Organizations making up the so-called “Freedom Ecosystem”, including businesses, government, civil society, the funding community and the broader public, can form critical partnerships to help end modern day slavery, according to a new report by Deloitte and nonprofit Free the Slaves.The Freedom Ecosystem – How the Power of Partnership Can Help Stop Modern Day Slavery is the product of a years-long collaborative effort between Deloitte and Free the Slaves, which describes how the Freedom Ecosystem can use collective action to remove conditions that allow slavery to exist.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
IKEA announced last week that as of September 2015, all cotton used for its products — from furniture to towels, bedding and other home textiles — comes from more sustainable sources; specifically from farmers that use less water, less chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and are also able to increase their profits. This positions IKEA as the first major retailer to reach this milestone. IKEA says it aims to make more sustainable cotton affordable and accessible, and also to be better for the environment and the people who grow it.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A public-private partnership has launched a new competition to combat modern-day slavery. Partnership for Freedom will award $500,000 in prizes to technological solutions that are selected as finalists for Rethink Supply Chains: The Tech Challenge to Fight Labor Trafficking.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A new study commissioned by Zero Waste Europe has found that the majority of product waste is not covered by current extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes and calls for the redesigning of producer responsibility in order to move towards a circular economy.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
It’s been five years since California signed a groundbreaking piece of legislation that set a legal precedent around the world. the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, better known as SB 657, requires manufacturers and retailers with more than $100 million in gross annual receipts to disclose their efforts to ensure that their supply chains are free of human trafficking and forced labor.At the time, the law was the first of its kind. Since then, California’s leadership to eradicate human trafficking in supply chains has made way for a wave of reform efforts in Congress, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Earlier this month, H&M was accused of being “dramatically behind schedule” in meeting the requirements of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh in a joint report from the Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Worker Rights Consortium.
NEW METRICS -
Sustainability has long been seen as a soft issue — or at least too complex an issue to apply metrics. That is yesterday’s thinking as reaffirmed by all the speakers this week at New Metrics ’15. On the final day, in the second round of plenaries, Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, SASB and TruValue Labs shared their experience and learnings from establishing metrics and setting standards within their respective industries and a few common themes came to the fore.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The world’s largest canned tuna company, Thai Union Group (TU), has been connected to forced labor, human rights abuses, and environmental devastation. Yesterday, Greenpeace launched a global campaign demanding that TU take urgent and far-reaching steps to clean up its act.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
Today, the Closed Loop Fund, an impact investment fund that makes below-market loans to recycling companies and municipalities for recycling infrastructure, announced its first three investments to bolster said infrastructure and reduce the over $5 billion dollars spent by cities annually on landfills.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post, "What's Working: Sustainable Development Goals," in conjunction with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed set of goals will be the subject of discussion at the UN General Assembly meeting on Sept. 25-27, 2015 in New York; they cover 17 key areas of development — including poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality, among many others.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
On Wednesday, just a few days from the first anniversary of the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) — an international, multi-sector commitment to safeguard the world’s forests and to help tackle climate change signed by Cargill and other major multinational companies, governments, and civil society organizations at last year’s UN Climate Summit — Cargill released a new Policy on Forests. Backed by forest protection action plans for Cargill’s priority commodity supply chains, the policy sets a comprehensive approach for the company in its efforts to prevent forest loss.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestlé and 70 other major food brands already are engaging suppliers on managing climate change, but much work remains to uncover this specific but significant area of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new CDP report.The biggest source of food-related greenhouse gas emissions occur in the agricultural production portion of producer's supply chains, but less than a quarter of the major brands that disclosed to CDP this year reported their indirect emissions from agricultural production.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Like one of its baristas, Starbucks has given consumers warm words but has been a bit slow in delivering the goods.In 2013, Starbucks announced it would source 100 percent of its palm oil from certified sustainable suppliers by 2015, but the company has been slow to take meaningful action, and a SumOfUs.org campaign is calling on Starbucks to strengthen its policies.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is soliciting feedback on a new traceability tool that verifies seafood supply chain transactions on a global scale. A public consultation period is taking place from August 16th to September 18th, during which industry members are encouraged to offer their expertise and comments to shape the tool.