General Mills has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI) by S&P Dow Jones Indices and investment specialist RobecoSAM after demonstrating best-in-class performance against numerous sustainability metrics, according to a recent announcement.The DJSI provides analysis of financially material economic, environmental and social practices, including innovation or supply chain management, climate strategy and stakeholder engagement, with a special focus on industry-specific risks and opportunities.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) has launched its first sustainability accreditation for food destinations, developed with retail landlord Hammerson.The first initiative of its kind, SRA says the new rating will be rolled out to a variety of destinations, including shopping centers, airports, stadiums and stations.Hammerson’s WestQuay shopping center in Southampton, UK was the first location to achieve the new Sustainable Restaurant Association Food Destination rating, which now allows its 17 million annual shoppers to select from a range of restaurants that source ingredients more responsibly and manage food, water, energy and waste more efficiently.
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It’s been only a few months since Fenugreen won the Innovation Open at the Sustainable Brands ’13 conference, but you wouldn’t know it based on their momentum and accomplishments since. Since winning SBIO, the company’s brilliantly simple product, FreshPaper, has been featured on NBC’s Today Show, Bloomberg, CNN, Dr. Oz and on Oprah’s Wow List.
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It takes two days to train a cow to milk itself. This may sound like a farmer’s utopia, but at Bakerview EcoDairy, a robotic milker is just one of many dairy farm innovations being put to use.Bill Vanderkooi, president and CEO of the farm, seeks out all of the latest technologies to help him run his operation, which hosts an onsite market and agricultural education center. Armed with a Master’s degree in animal science, Vanderkooi opened the 80-acre farm near Abbotsford, British Columbia, in June of 2010. He has since established himself as a pioneer among small-scale, sustainable farm owners.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz told Reuters this week the company will not cut hours or benefits for employees — referred to as "partners" — in response to Obamacare.While many other large companies in the food service sector have said they will need to shift costs onto their workers in anticipation of upcoming changes under the health law, Starbucks says it will not follow suit.“Other companies have announced that they won’t provide coverage for spouses; others are lobbying for the cut-off to be at 40 hours,” Shultz said. “But Starbucks will continue maintaining benefits for partners and won’t use the new law as an excuse to cut benefits or lower benefits for its workers.”
MARKETING AND COMMS -
With the announcement of the first synthetic burger grown in a petri dish, would it be more or less shocking to say “human waste is the currency of the future”? “Carbon footprints” and “data footprints” are carving the way for “microbial footprints.” Consumers are paying to get dirty … germ-dirty, that is. “Going viral" is taking on a whole new meaning in marketing. Online communities are flourishing around “intestine communities.” Brand ecosystems now have as much to do with biology as technology."Rotten" Is the New "Improved"
The Tofurky Company, maker of plant-based meat alternatives, is celebrating the opening of its new LEED Platinum-certified manufacturing plant on the waterfront in Hood River, Oregon.The new plant, which will become operational in early 2014, is only the second LEED Platinum food processing plant in the USA and the sixth in the world. Environmental features of the building include an array of 400 rooftop solar panels capable of producing over 100 kWh of electricity per year, a free solar-powered electric car charging station and a green roof with a bocce court. Recycled materials are used throughout the building, which is 34% more efficient than required by the Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code and 40% more efficient in its use of water.
Growing consumer awareness of the vulnerable state of the global environment and food supply, along with increased education about ecologically sound foods, will lead to a long-term increase in environmentally conscious eating, according to a new report from the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) Innovation and Packaged Facts.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In their last semester at UC Berkeley, Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora were inspired by a class lecture about the possibilities of growing mushrooms using entirely recycled coffee grounds. The perfect representation of turning waste into wages, after various experimentations the pair founded Back to the Roots in 2009. We caught up with Nikhil to learn more about the company’s business model and its newest offering, a tabletop aquaponic farm.
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Global beverage company Diageo says it is working towards zero waste to landfill targets at all of its sites by 2015, but is looking to make its waste management activities a higher priority via a five-pronged approach.The company's latest sustainability and responsibility report says it has reduced waste to landfill by 53.4 percent this year, contributing to an overall reduction of 77.9 percent against a 2007 baseline. This means that 81,099 tons of manufacturing waste is now being reused or recycled.
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The Worldwide Brewery Industry Water and Energy Benchmarking Survey, which is carried out by Campden BRI and KWA on behalf of the Dutch Brewers Association every four years, reveals that breweries have reduced their energy usage by over 9% and water usage by over 17% over the last four years, according to Campden BRI.The survey shows that between 2008 and 2012 average water use has been reduced dramatically by over 17% from 5.2 hectolitres (hl) of water per hl of beer to 4.3. Average energy use fell by over 9% in the same period from 229 Megajoules (MJ) per hl of beer to 207 MJ/hl. Even the top 10% most water- and energy-efficient breweries achieved a further 9% reduction in both energy and water usage between 2008 and 2012.
PRESS RELEASE -
Del Monte Foods recently announced the winners of its inaugural Sustainability Excellence and Education (SEED) Awards, a program that recognizes its manufacturing and distribution facilities for displaying excellence in environmental sustainability and employee education. Del Monte is proud to recognize its distribution center in Lathrop, California, pet food plant in Buffalo, New York and vegetable manufacturing plant in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota as the program’s first winners.
Mexican-owned baking company Grupo Bimbo, as part of its drive towards a fully sustainable supply chain, has inaugurated the first Ecologic Sales Center in the Historic Center area of Mexico City, with an investment of close to 20 million pesos ($1.5 million USD).The eco-friendly facility will have 73 distribution vehicles with electric engines completely designed by Grupo Bimbo technicians, the company says. The Ecologic Sales Center is intended to serve as the company’s new sustainable distribution model.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Environmental activists (and former Girl Scouts) Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, along with over 100,000 people in the U.S. and around the world, are calling on Kellogg Company CEO John Bryant to end the food company’s partnership with Wilmar International, the world’s largest palm oil trader, unless it agrees to stop relying on deforestation.
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A Canadian coffee company says it has developed a more environmentally friendly alternative to the ever-popular, single-serve K-Cup pods, made a household name in recent years by the ubiquitous Keurig home coffeemakers.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
PepsiCo has announced that it will no longer label its Naked juices as being ‘‘all natural,’’ after paying $9 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the drinks contain artificial ingredients.The company said in an email statement that it uses an ‘‘added boost of vitamins’’ in some of the drinks. However, a lawsuit filed against the company said the vitamins are actually synthetic ingredients, which includes a fiber made by Archer Daniels Midland. While PepsiCo did not confirm or deny that these synthetic fibers are included in the juices, the company is dropping the use of the word ‘‘natural’’ until more solid regulatory guidance emerges.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Bean and rice tortilla chip maker Beanfields Snacks has achieved its certification as a B Corporation.The family-owned company joins Ben and Jerry’s, Etsy, Patagonia and hundreds of others companies worldwide using the power of business to tackle social and environmental problems.
COLLABORATION -
Coca-Cola has announced a new set of environmental goals, including returning 100 percent of the water from its manufacturing facilities back to the environment at a level that supports aquatic life by 2020.Coca-Cola says it is extending its nearly decade-long partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to achieve these new conservation and performance targets, promoting the integration of nature’s value into decision-making processes and convening influential partners to help solve shared global environmental challenges.Under the renewed and expanded partnership, Coca-Cola and WWF jointly developed new sustainability goals for the Coca-Cola system — the Company and its nearly 300 bottling partners in more than 200 countries.These goals include:
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Global food and beverage giant Mondelez International has unveiled a new training facility for coffee farmers to promote sustainability and entrepreneurship in Vietnam. The company says this is a major step toward implementing its "Coffee Made Happy" sustainability program, which commits to investing at least $200 million to help one million coffee farming entrepreneurs by 2020.
More than a year after pledging to reformulate its products to eliminate a cancer-causing chemical, Pepsi purchased from ten states still contains high levels of carcinogenic caramel coloring, according to independent testing commissioned by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) released last week.