PRODUCTS AND DESIGN -
Amazon has announced the launch of Amazon Elements, a new line of everyday essentials with transparent origins. Beginning with signature diapers and baby wipes, Amazon Elements offers Prime members an unprecedented level of information — when and where items were made, why each ingredient was included, where the ingredients were sourced and more.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
With Fair Trade Month beginning tomorrow, Keurig Green Mountain Inc. (KGM), formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, has revealed its strategy for building a more resilient supply chain. By continuing its support of fair trade, the company is aiming to build lasting relationships with its suppliers, and help communities become more robust in tackling climate-driven issues that could impact their supplies over the coming decades.
WASTE NOT -
Whirlpool has announced a new recycling initiative that offers consumers a responsible alternative to throwing out their used refrigerator water filters.Whirlpool typically recommends that consumers replace their refrigerator water filter every six months for optimum performance. However, consumers can now take advantage of the company's Refresh & Recycle mail-in program; a simple way to recycle used refrigerator water filters. Recycled filters will be tested for material content and transformed into concrete aggregate used to build roads and other concrete structures. To make this all happen, Whirlpool says it is partnering with recycling company g2 revolution.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
This week, three more major food companies announced new policies around the sourcing of palm oil.
COLLABORATION -
H&M announced two new initiatives this week centered on the betterment of its supply chains, one from the social perspective and one from the environmental.First, the apparel company signed a unique agreement with ILO, under which the partners will address industrial relations, wages, capacity-building for social partners and skills development throughout H&M’s supply chain.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Unilever and Solidaridad have announced a new partnership to improve the lives of one million people in Unilever’s extended supply chains.As part of this new partnership agreement, both parties will raise a mix of public and private grants, credit and investments to finance the smallholder farmer initiatives. They also will share the cost of three full time employees to execute the joint program.This builds on Unilever’s and Solidaridad’s history of creating sustainable supply chains that already engage more than 150,000 smallholder farmers and workers in India, Mexico and Colombia.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Today, a group of public interest organizations called on Walmart and the eight other companies involved in the recently launched $100M “Closed Loop Recycling” loan fund, to instead support proven policies to boost recycling, such as extended producer responsibility (EPR), which holds consumer goods companies financially responsible for the collection of their packaging post-use (rather than having taxpayers and local governments foot the bill) and meeting recycling targets.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
IKEA has expanded the use of sustainably sourced cotton in its products to 72 percent, up from 34 percent in 2012, according to a recent announcement.The furniture company uses around 0.6 percent of all cotton grown around the world, and in 2013 sourced 79,000 tons of cotton from more sustainable sources; it used a total of 110,000 tons of cotton in 2013.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
This week, Canadian forest-conservation NGO Canopy commended the world’s largest tissue manufacturer, Kimberly-Clark Corporation — global producer of Kleenex, Huggies, Kotex and dozens of other paper towel, diaper and family-care brands sold worldwide — on the release of a cutting-edge study of the existing and potential raw materials for its products. The comprehensive lifecycle analysis (LCA) was authored by the Georgia Institute of Technology, with Canopy bringing independent expertise to the advisory board.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The American Cleaning Institute (ACI), the nonprofit trade association representing over 120 companies in the US cleaning products industry — including BASF, Clorox, Dow, Novozymes, Method, Seventh Generation, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever, to name a few — has launched a new voluntary initiative to promote and demonstrate continual improvement in the cleaning products industry’s sustainability profile.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
This post first appeared on CSRwire's TalkBack blog on December 17, 2013.The ubiquity of the apparel industry is staggering. Everyone wears clothes. The manufacturing of apparel triggers national development and industrialization, jobs and forms of commerce for the sellers of it, and cover and satisfaction for consumers. At three trillion and counting, the global garment and textile industry is responsible for a great deal of progress throughout the world.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
WWF says it is cautiously welcoming a first attempt at a Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) by Indonesian pulp and paper giant Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL), released Tuesday. WWF notes that a commitment to support forest conservation areas equal in size to its plantations sets a new standard for the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia, but is concerned about certain loopholes in the policy, which Greenpeace says is ‘essentially a license to continue forest clearance.’
SUPPLY CHAIN -
CDP, with the help of FirstCarbon Solutions (FCS), a pioneer in environmental and sustainability business solutions, has announced the debut publication of the Supplier Climate Performance Leadership Index (SCPLI), a new evaluation and benchmarking tool for CDP supply chain members and suppliers.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Sustainable supply-chain management company EcoVadis and BSR’s Clean Cargo Working Group (CCWG) have announced a partnership aimed at standardizing sustainability reporting requests for the sea freight supply chain.Under this partnership EcoVadis will align its environmental assessment questionnaires for sea carriers with the Clean Cargo Environmental Performance Survey framework. Clean Cargo members also will have the opportunity to leverage the EcoVadis online collaboration platform to access sustainability scorecards on their partners’ performance.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
In his pre-show keynote at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas yesterday, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich outlined a range of the company’s new products, initiatives and strategic relationships aimed at accelerating innovation across a range of mobile and wearable devices, and challenged the entire electronics industry to join Intel in becoming “conflict-free.”
SUPPLY CHAIN -
It was every retailer’s worst nightmare: Days after the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in one of the worst industrial disasters in recorded history, activists began plastering the Internet with pictures of clothing labels uncovered amongst the rubble of concrete and human remains. Amongst these, some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Mango, H&M and Walmart.
COLLABORATION -
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today it has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Coca-Cola to support the revival of economic activity and livelihoods in Leyte, the Philippine province most devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in early November.Under these MOUs, USAID, P&G and Coca-Cola will help establish new sari-sari stores (small community stores) and rehabilitate damaged or destroyed sari-sari stores located in public markets. In addition, the organizations will facilitate store owners’ access to microfinancing loans and other interventions to help them get back on their feet.
COLLABORATION -
A diverse group of leading UK companies and multinationals including BT, Kingfisher, Coca-Cola Enterprises, SKF, Capgemini and The Crown Estate have teamed up with NGOs Forum for the Future, The Climate Group and WWF-UK to encourage businesses to commit to becoming net positive, by giving back more than they take from the environment and society.
COLLABORATION -
A group of the country's leading consumer brands have formed a new coalition to persuade Congress to update the nation's out-of-date and ineffective chemical safety laws. Strong lobbying by other industry groups has given policymakers the impression that business is monolithic in its support for weak legislation. The new coalition, Companies for Safer Chemicals, will make a business argument for strong reforms that support the industry innovating to create safer and cleaner products.
COLLABORATION -
Nestlé has announced a commitment to helping reduce waste and boost responsible disposal in Chile by supporting a new recycling network.The company has backed the “Collective Recycling Project,” which aims to recycle about 1,200 tons of waste per year through the installation of five recycling centers in the capital city of Santiago.The project is a joint collaboration with Walmart Chile, Coca-Cola Chile, PepsiCo and Unilever, with the goal of improving waste management in the country.