WASTE NOT -
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) announced it has met its three-year global environmental goals on water, energy, carbon emissions and recycling operations.The company reached its goal of reducing its water usage by nearly 20 percent, the equivalent of 25 billion cans of AB InBev products. Energy consumption decreased by 12 percent and carbon emissions were reduced by almost 16 percent in breweries and soft drink facilities worldwide. The company also increased its recycling rate to just over 99 percent for solid waste and by-products.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Starbucks will begin sourcing 100 percent of its palm oil from certified sustainable suppliers by 2015, according to a recent announcement.The coffee company made the change in response to a shareholder resolution filed by the Green Century Balanced Fund, a mutual fund concerned with environmental responsibility.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
To prepare for this year's Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) competition, we're catching up with some of our favorite entrepreneurial ventures from competitions past ...In most of the developed world, few of us give much thought to where our drinking water comes from. When thirsty, we need only to walk to the nearest faucet for an endless supply of fresh, potable water. Studies show the average American household wastes 100,000 to 200,000 gallons of water every year, while 780 million people in developing countries lack access to reliable drinking water — about one in nine people on the planet.
COLLABORATION -
Molson Coors Brewing Company and British supermarket ASDA have joined with UK-based group Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) to introduce a program to help farmers manage water resources more sustainably.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Water scarcity has been recognized by the United Nations as one of the most pressing problems facing the 21st-century world. Although 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is water, nearly 1.2 billion people, or one-fifth of the human race, live in areas of physical water scarcity, and another 1.6 billion face economic water shortages.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
In response to its recent abandonment by nearly 100 international corporate customers, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has announced an immediate end to the clearing of natural forest across its entire supply chain in Indonesia.
Disney, Levi’s and Mattel were among some of the major brands to jump ship after years of criticism over the paper company’s role in harming Indonesia’s endangered rainforests and communities.
NEW METRICS -
Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Gucci and Heinz reported their forest impacts for the first time this year, but the gap between leading companies and laggards is growing, according to the fourth annual Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) Report.Every year FFD asks the world’s biggest firms to reveal their impact on forests based on the use of five chief commodities — soy, palm oil, timber and pulp, cattle products and biofuels. According to FFD, last year 100 companies disclosed their forest footprints, a 15 percent increase over the previous year.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
“We had this incredible product — yerba mate — that gives you the strength of coffee, the health benefits of green tea and the euphoria of chocolate.
CLEANTECH -
Reckitt Benckiser, the parent company of well-known consumer brands such as Clearasil and Lysol, announced a new sustainability strategy targeting water conservation, more sustainable health and hygiene innovations for women, and further decreases of its carbon footprint.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Nearly 60 million people in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India have to rely on arsenic-contaminated groundwater for their basic needs. This has been described as the largest case of mass poisoning in human history.[1] Arsenic slowly builds up in the body and causes cancers, painful lesions and skin burns.
WASTE NOT -
This post first appeared on edie.net on December 17, 2012.
PRESS RELEASE -
Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) released their sustainability report for the Water Restoration Certificates BEF sponsored for Sustainable Brands '12 conference.
PRESS RELEASE -
NORTHBROOK, Ill., December 6, 2011—UL Environment, a business unit of UL (Underwriters Laboratories), announced today the launch of its Sustainability Quotient (SQ) Program, a comprehensive system of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability initiatives of corporations at an enterprise level. The SQ Program is based on a series of auditable standards, including UL 880:
LEADERSHIP -
When was the last time you saw the CEO of a world-class company wading knee-deep in the specification and design of sustainability metrics? Dr. Richard Stammer of Agri-Mark, Inc. (d.b.a. Cabot Creamery Cooperative) is one such person.
Ford aims to reduce water consumption 30 percent per vehicle globally by 2015, compared with the amount of water used per vehicle in 2009.