PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
2016 is the centennial of the National Park Service (NPS), and in February the agency got a present from the biggest tech company in the world – or, more accurately, the world got a present from Google and the NPS: On February 11th, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell hosted an event at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site to announce a Public-Private Partnership between Google and the NPS.
CLEANTECH -
This Friday, world leaders will convene to sign the Paris Climate Agreement. The international regulatory environment and national policies to curb emissions are reshaping global markets. Decarbonization could define the 21st century economy. But what do these changes mean for businesses?
SUPPLY CHAIN -
I was fortunate enough to visit Manila in the Philippines recently for an interesting summit that was held by the Asian Development Bank and supported by CSR Asia. The event brought together a diverse group of participants from government, investment organizations, and people who work on the ground helping facilitate Inclusive Business (IB). IB can be seen as a variant of social entrepreneurship where large firms work to reduce the risk around partnerships with bottom of the pyramid entrepreneurs by treating them as part of the company that they serve.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
The U.S. Senate might be waiting to make a decision regarding the labeling of genetically modified organism (GMO) ingredients, but Big Food companies are not. This week, Mars, Incorporated, ConAgra Foods, and The Kellogg Co. jumped on the bandwagon with pledges to label their products for GMOs nationwide.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
In a surprise announcement on March 16, the UK government unveiled a tax on sugary drinks amidst its budgetary plans. Companies have 2 years to reformulate their products, but the director general of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) said they were “extremely disappointed” by the decision and called it “a piece of political theatre.” Soft drink makers, including Coca-Cola, are reportedly considering suing the government to force the tax to be scrapped.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
On Friday, General Mills announced that it will “soon” start labeling its products that contain genetically modified organism (GMO) ingredients nationwide. With the rationale that it is impractical to label its products for just one state, the company plans to disclose GMO ingredients according to the law set to go into effect in Vermont on July 1.
PRESS RELEASE -
Ford Motor Company will provide a briefing at a forum of the G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, highlighting its Partnership for A Cleaner Environment. PACE is a program that aims to help the company’s suppliers minimize their impact on the environment by sharing details of Ford’s best practices for water, energy and carbon dioxide reduction.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
On March 7 and 8, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center and the United Nations Office for Partnerships hosted the 6th Annual International Women’s Day Forum.
The event convened public and private sector leaders to discuss gender parity as a significant economic opportunity with global economic effect. Suzanne Clark, EVP at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opened the conference and set the tone by stating that $28 trillion would be added to the GDP by 2025 if gender equality existed.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
‘Forced labour affects roughly 21 million people around the globe, of whom 68% are exploited for private economic gain.’
These chastening figures, produced by the International Labour Organisation, are spurring governments around the world to bring in tough new measures to deal with this $150 billion industry.
PRESS RELEASE -
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Center for Corporate Climate Leadership recognized Kimberly-Clark with one of only 17 Climate Leadership Awards given nationwide for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The awards acknowledge the voluntary work organizations do to manage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the supply chain.
Kimberly-Clark received the Excellence in Greenhouse Gas Management "Goal Achievement Award" for reporting and verifying organization-wide greenhouse gas inventories and achieving publicly-set aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals.
WASTE NOT -
The statistics on food waste — a top-of-mind issue governments, businesses and NGOs across the globe — are staggering: Every year, U.S. consumers, businesses, and farms spend $218 billion growing, processing, transporting, and disposing food that is never eaten. As a result, up to 52 million tons of food is sent to landfills annually, plus an additional estimated 10 million tons get discarded or go unharvested on farms. Meanwhile, 1 in 7 Americans is food insecure without reliable access to sufficient affordable, nutritious food.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Today, Canadian environmental NGO Canopy welcomes six large Chinese viscose producers to the growing roster of fashion and textile leaders committed to eliminating the world’s ancient and endangered forests from their fabrics. While to date 60 brands and designers, representing more than 85 billion USD in annual revenues, have signed on to the CanopyStyle campaign — triggering the need for deep shifts within the viscose supply chain — the real change will come from producers, who must provide the industry with alternatives.
LEADERSHIP -
Last week, the Government of Canada released the 2015 Progress Report and 2016-2019 draft of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS).
PRESS RELEASE -
Access to basic health care is critical for the wellbeing of rural West African cocoa communities. To help meet the need, The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) partnered with cocoa suppliers Blommer Chocolate and Olam Cocoa to fund and build a community health center in Cote d’Ivoire in the town of Teapleau on the Western side of the country. Cote d’Ivoire is one of the largest cocoa-producing countries in the world.
CLEANTECH -
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to delay the enforcement of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan was a victory for the coalition of 27 industry opponents and mostly Republican-led states that believe the regulations are a “power grab.” In response, a bipartisan group of 17 states has announced that they will collaborate to expand clean energy, modernize energy infrastructure, and drive change.
CLEANTECH -
There’s plenty of talk about “smart cities” as the surest route to building strong and resilient urban environments in the face of mounting climate impacts, but what about a “smart country”? While Singapore technically is a city-state — being both a city and sovereign nation — it is embracing many of the same smart city techniques as cities across the world.Globally, cities are experimenting with smart city technologies to tackle issues such as waste collection and traffic light management, but Singapore is focused on two core global challenges: urban density and an aging population.
WASTE NOT -
While waste reduction charity WRAP calls on stakeholders to do their part to help improve recycling consistency and efficiency in England, three companies in France have partnered on a circular economy initiative for small household appliances.
CLEANTECH -
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with conservatives seeking to delay the enforcement of President Obama's Clean Power Plan until legal challenges are resolved. The move is a blow to the administration and a victory for the coalition of 27 mostly Republican-led states and industry opponents that call the regulations "an unprecedented power grab."The temporary stay came from a 5-4 majority of the justices; the high court's four liberal justices said Tuesday they would have denied the request for delay.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
The prospects of linear models in Europe are slowly diminishing. European experts have concluded that the current cradle-to-grave way of life – exploiting resources, processing them, using them, and discarding them – has no future.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Could the health and environmental benefits of taxes on sugary drinks and carbon-intensive foods outweigh the out-of-pocket costs? New research from Oxford University and the University of Reading suggests that is indeed the case. A study published in BMC Public Health found that a combination of a sugar tax on soft drinks and a food-based carbon tax in the United Kingdom could raise £3.6 billion in revenue, reduce carbon emissions by 19 million tonnes, and increase life expectancy.