PRESS RELEASE -
It’s been nearly a year since Target announced its commitments around responsible sourcing and sustainable products, and since then, we’ve shared a closer look at our goals and progress in several areas, including forest products, chemicals, packaging, and eliminating forced labor.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Consumers increasingly want to buy from brands that are environmentally responsible - and many forward-thinking companies have responded by embracing sustainability. However, there remains a disconnect between sustainability pursuits and the extent to which companies share their journey with consumers.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
While faced by a myriad of social and environmental challenges, the fashion and textile industries continue to edge ever-closer to a more sustainable, equitable and circular future thanks to the innovative thinking of industry leaders.
PRESS RELEASE -
Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY) has reported advancements against its 2025 sustainability goals intended to transform the company and the industries it serves. The 2014-2016 sustainability report, All of Us, Every Day, highlights how the company is leveraging its size and scale to drive change across its operations, industry, and communities.
Key achievements include:
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
At this year’s Sustainable Brands conference in May, we did something that we hadn’t done before — it was an ‘aha’ moment. Sustainable Brands and the Arbor Day Foundation — the world’s largest member-based tree-planting organization — partnered to host the first volunteer experience for conference attendees to get their hands dirty. This urban tree planting event, “ReGreening the Good Life,” was a fitting jump-start to the SB ’17 Detroit conference. More than 55 volunteers from the conference helped plant trees in a downtown Detroit park.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Sustainability consulting group Quantis, in conjunction with a pre-competitive consortium of over 40 private companies, NGOs, governments and scientific institutions, has released the Land Use Change Guidance: Accounting for Emissions in the Supply Chain.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Further establishing itself as a strong proponent of increasing the supply of sustainable cotton, denim brand Wrangler has joined Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture as an associate member. The multi-stakeholder initiative is working to unite the agricultural supply chain in defining, measuring and advancing the sustainability of food, fiber and fuel production in the United States.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Packaging continues to provide a significant challenge to companies looking to cut back on their environmental impacts, but new achievements in the tech and food industries indicate that progress is being made.
Two years after launching its forestry program, tech giant Apple has announced that 320,000 acres of forest in China are now certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and that it has enough sustainable working forest to cover the paper used in packaging for all of its products.
PRESS RELEASE -
We are excited to announce that The “Land Use Change Guidance: Accounting for GHG Emissions in the Supply Chain” project will soon enter a pilot phase. The Guidance is the fruit of a pre-competitive consortium, convened by Quantis, of over 40 private companies, governments, NGOs and experts to provide a reference document to guide accurate and reliable accounting for climate change impacts of land across supply chains.
“{The Guidance} is a ground-breaking effort that will result in widely recognized and scientifically robust methodology,” according to Nicko Debenham, VP Global Cocoa Sustainability & MD Biolands for Barry Callebaut.
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.
PRESS RELEASE -
Kimberly-Clark Corporation today published its annual report on sustainability, providing the first update on the company's global progress toward its Sustainability 2022 goals.
Introduced last year, Sustainability 2022 is the company’s framework to address social and environmental challenges with programs designed to create social, environmental and business value. In its first year, Kimberly-Clark surpassed three of its five sustainability targets, and is on track to meet or exceed all of its goals by 2022.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
One of the most complicated supply chain issues for companies is deforestation. Why? Because deforestation may take place in areas distant from company headquarters in countries that may not have the strongest government regulations.
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.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
This month BNP Paribas, the world’s seventh-largest financial institution, announced a new palm oil policy that sets responsible palm oil production as a pre-condition for financing. The policy requires that companies receiving financing protect forests and indigenous people.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
Following the filing of two multi-million dollar lawsuits by Canadian pulp and paper manufacturer Resolute Forest Products to silence Greenpeace’s criticism of its controversial logging in the boreal forest, 100 authors and thought leaders, including Margaret Atwood, Michelle Alexander, John Maxwell Coetzee, Stephen Fry, Naomi Klein and Yann Martel — have signed the environmental NGO’s pledge to support free speech and stand up for forests.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
By 2050, our global population will grow by more than 2 billion, which will require 70 percent more food. In addition to rising demand, companies are facing increasing scrutiny on the environmental impacts across their value chains. While improvements in processing and packaging are helping brands progress on sustainability, interventions at farm level are essential for driving real change.
We recently spoke with Pure Strategies’ Co-Founder and Managing Director, Tim Greiner, to learn more about how brands and farmers both are working together to usher the industry towards a more sustainable future.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
American Forest Foundation (AFF), International Paper, The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) and 3M Company have banded together to form the Carolinas Working Forest Conservation Collaborative.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
Alipay parent company Ant Financial Services Group has released its first-ever Corporate Social Responsibility Report and committed to leveraging the company’s technology, partners and employees to tackle issues such as climate change, inequality and poverty.
The report includes the company’s progress update on Ant Forest, the in-app carbon tracking and tree planting initiative in Alipay, and Ant Love, its philanthropic platform.
PRESS RELEASE -
Transforming the global rubber and tire supply chain to create lasting, environmentally sound sustainable rubber production requires a collaborative approach. Through an industry-first commitment to sourcing sustainable natural rubber in its tires, General Motors is helping drive the industry toward net-zero deforestation and uphold human and labor rights.
PRESS RELEASE -
On Saturday, April 22, millions of people across the globe celebrated Earth Day to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. At Kimberly-Clark, it’s also a day to reflect on Kimberly-Clark’s sustainability achievements and where we’re going in the future.
Of course, sustainability has come a long way since Kimberly-Clark was formed in 1872! Throughout our history, we’ve continuously improved how we operate and embed sustainable practices into our business.