FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Backed by John Hancock, COIN offers customers eight Impact Areas — including Better Health, Clean Water, Gender Equality and Reducing Waste — to invest in, with as little as $50.
WALKING THE TALK -
Rising nationalism and global migration are among seven trends impacting future of sustainability, according to a new report from Forum for the Future.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Today, Ceres and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announce the addition of Target and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, to the AgWater Challenge. The two companies’ new water stewardship commitments were shared today at the Financial Times Water Summit in London.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The winds are changing. Companies that have operated many steps removed from the farms and people that produce their raw materials are building stronger connections to their agricultural supply chains. This shift stems from interest to replenish soil and water supplies, and boost overall resilience and output through regenerative and thriving agriculture. Pure Strategies’ latest report, Connecting to the Farm, points to the best practices companies are using to get closer to the farm while advancing these critical sustainability aims and gaining valuable business benefits.
WALKING THE TALK -
In the business world, we frequently hear executives asking what value a program brings to an organization, placing emphasis on immediate profit rather than long-term impact. At Keurig Green Mountain, we have designed our business on a model that creates value for all that are touched by our work, including employees, manufacturers, coffee farmers and our local communities. Our business model reflects our roots as a socially minded coffee roaster, and it’s our belief that we can best grow our business and make progress toward our commitment to Brew A Better World™ by authentically aligning our company goals with our values.
PRESS RELEASE -
Nestlé Waters has today announced that it will extend its commitment to water stewardship by certifying all of its sites to the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard by 2025.
PRESS RELEASE -
Today, in recognition of World Environmental Day, Kohler Co. announces expansion of its environmental and human health product disclosures for its kitchen and bath products.
PRESS RELEASE -
Water is the most precious resource on earth — just ask the 844 million people globally that do not have regular access to a safe water supply.
Knowing this shortage, it’s almost inconceivable that 25 to 50 percent of the water that gets treated is wasted. And yet that’s the painful truth according to the International Water Association.
And it’s not just water. We’re also incredibly inefficient in how we produce and use gas and electricity; too much is wasted. It’s a situation that SAP partner Itron, a Liberty Lake, Washington-based company, is looking to change.
COLLABORATION -
Over 60 organizations including businesses such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola and M&S have signed a Catchment Management Declaration agreeing to step up action to address the increasing pressures to UK water through improved catchment management.
WASTE NOT -
Like many large companies, Hilton has been steadily improving its sustainability performance one step at a time.
COLLABORATION -
Farmers are faced with constant pricing pressures, water limitations and labor shortages, leading many to seek solutions to help them be more innovative and efficient in growing their crops. Technology and food companies alike are turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) to help.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
In the sustainability world, the conversation around beef mostly involves reducing the environmental impacts of its production (deforestation, methane emissions, etc). But Cassidy Johnston can offer a perspective we don’t often get to hear in the Sustainable Brands conversation — a New Mexico-based cattle rancher and newly appointed Sustainability Officer for the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), Johnston is eager to share ranchers’ side of the story with the public and help dispel what she says are common misconceptions behind beef and its role in a sustainable food future.
LEADERSHIP -
European home improvement company Kingfisher has set out ambitious sustainability targets for the next seven years – the latest stage of its journey to become a net positive business by 2050.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Tyson Foods, the largest meat company in the U.S., is starting to step up to the plate on sustainability and respond to pressure from investors and consumers to tackle water risks in its supply chain.
Recently, the company made a commitment to improve the water, soil and fertilizer practices in its far-flung feed grain supply chain — impacting more than two million acres of corn production by 2020, or about half of its corn supply chain. The measures have strong potential to both improve water quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tyson’s move sends a strong signal to the rest of the meat sector that driving down the massive environmental impacts of growing animal feed is a smart business strategy.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A new digital platform aims to make sustainable business decisions easier for the fashion industry. By matching actors along the supply chain and providing data-driven, solutions-focused information, Common Objective (CO) hopes to improve the day-to-day practices of textiles and clothing companies around the world.
LEADERSHIP -
As we at Sustainable Brands — and anyone working to rectify the damage people have done to the planet — are well aware, it's all too easy to ignore pressing social and environmental issues if their effects can’t be seen or felt in our daily lives.
After a life-altering excursion across three continents, SoulBuffalo CEO and founder Dave Ford was determined to find a way to change this, by taking those just as responsible for causing as solving many of these issues — global corporate decision-makers — out into the wild to experience the effects of their business decisions with their own senses.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The Welsh Government and City to Sea, a group campaigning against single-use plastics, are collaborating on the development of campaigns to encourage refills and change residents’ behavior to make tap water their first choice for hydration.
While the campaigns will help people ‘see the value of water,’ the government has also announced an additional £15 million of capital funding to further improve Local Authority recycling collection systems and infrastructure, including for plastics.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
As the amount of single-use plastic in the world's oceans continues to grow, National Geographic is announcing a new, global commitment to tackle this pressing problem. On Wednesday, the media giant launched Planet or Plastic?, a multiyear initiative aimed at raising awareness of this challenge and reducing the amount of single-use plastic that enters the world's oceans.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
In response to a severe drought, citizens and businesses in Cape Town and the Western Cape have cut their water consumption by almost 60 percent over the past three years — a performance not yet matched by any other major city globally. Now the country’s tourism industry is sharing that for them, every drop counts, in a new campaign for #WaterWiseTourism.
LEADERSHIP -
By 2050 there will be over 9 billion people on the planet, and food production will have to increase by as much as 70 percent to feed everyone. We are already struggling to feed everyone today, even in America.