The latest developments supporting a shift toward sustainable consumption, as well as specific ways brands are encouraging less wasteful behaviors.
The Australian Senate has voted 39-32 to repeal the country's carbon tax after years of fierce political debate.The tax on the country’s biggest polluters was passed by a previous government. Introduced in July 2012, it charges the 348 highest polluters A$23 (£13; $22.60) for every ton of greenhouse gases they produce.However, the law has faced much criticism. Last year, Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition beat Labor in an election, and made the repeal a central aim of his government.The Labor party claims the tax helps to fight climate change, but the Liberals claim it penalizes legitimate businesses.Australia is the developed world's worst polluter per capita, but critics of the tax say it kills jobs and forces energy prices up.
Our annual Eco Pulse study will be out later this month, and we’ll start blogging about what we found over the next few weeks. One consistent theme that we see in this study and last year’s Energy Pulse is this:People want better.They don’t want to feel guilty about how they should do the right thing for the environment, they don’t want to feel scared about the state of the planet, and they don’t want to be told they’re wrong for wanting what they want.
The long-term sustainability of the Pacific Bluefin Tuna fishery can only be guaranteed by following the science and halving catch limits, WWF will tell the two Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) covering the Pacific.
A dozen US home and garden retailers, including Home Depot and BJ's Wholesale Club, are working to ban or limit use of neonicotinoid, or neonic, pesticides, suspected of contributing to dramatic declines in honeybee populations, according to Reuters.The retailers are now requiring suppliers to label any plants treated with the pesticides before they can be sold in their stores. Home Depot, the world's largest home-improvement retailer, is requiring its suppliers to start such labeling by the fourth quarter of this year, and is running tests in several states to see if the pesticides can be eliminated in plant production without adversely affecting plant health, according to Ron Jarvis, the company's VP of merchandising/sustainability.
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. Greenpeace has launched a campaign urging LEGO to #BlockShell and end its partnership with the oil company, which the NGO contends has been using LEGO’s brand to clean up its image as an Arctic oil driller.
“The circumstances of the world are continually changing….That which may be thought right and found convenient in one age, may be thought wrong and found inconvenient in another. In such cases, who is to decide, the living, or the dead?”Thomas PaineIt’s not you, it’s weThe world abounds in theories (and models) of change, from Theory U to Kotter’s 8 Step Change model, McKinsey’s 7S model and many more.At the heart of all of these, and of many sustainability campaigns, is a focus upon the role and importance of values in supporting and driving any form of change.
Fossil Free Indexes LLC (FFI), an environmental, social and governance (ESG) index and research company, has released its first index covering the US equity markets.Fossil Free Indexes US (FFIUS), based on the S&P 500 and screened to exclude the largest oil, gas and coal companies, is the first index to leverage the long-term growth of US large cap indices while protecting investors from the risk of a carbon bubble. The company says evidence over the past decade indicates a high correlation between returns on FFIUS and the S&P 500, suggesting that index investors need not sacrifice returns when choosing not to invest in the biggest carbon resource companies.
It’s not too late for businesses to avoid the most severe risks from climate change through early investments in resilience and immediate action to reduce the pollution that causes global warming, according to a report by the Risky Business Project.
If you’ve heard me speak at a conference, you know there’s a point in the presentation where I typically say, “Don’t try to educate your audience into changing their behaviors.” Then I ask the audience to raise their hands if they can think of at least one thing they know they should do on a daily basis to be healthier but that they don’t do. Nearly every hand goes up, and I say, “See, knowing a thing doesn’t mean you’re going to do a thing.”But I might be wrong.
The United States could save $217-303 billion in annual health care costs if businesses and governments adopt existing evidence-based health promotion and chronic disease prevention methods, according to a new report released by the Vitality Institute.The report, developed by the Vitality Institute Commission on Health Promotion and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases in Working-Age Americans, is the result of more than a year of research and debate among some of the country’s top public health experts. It specifically notes that improving health promotion and chronic disease prevention efforts among working-age individuals is essential to strengthening America’s economic competitiveness.
Tesco, the UK’s largest grocery chain, recently announced plans to remove sweets and chocolates from all checkouts across all of its Irish stores. The change will be fully implemented by the end of the year across all 146 stores and is a Tesco initiative to support a healthier Ireland. Tesco Ireland is the first retailer in Ireland to commit to having all checkouts sweet-free.
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on Thursday announced that his company is removing patent barriers currently protecting its intellectual property in an effort to advance the development of electric vehicle (EV) technology.In a blog post on Tesla’s website, Musk writes that the company was “created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport” and “if we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal.” Moving forward, Musk says, Tesla will not “initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.
Water and climate change risks are rising in the $67 billion U.S. corn sector, contributing to production and price volatility and growing concern by corn buyers that the nation’s largest crop needs to be grown more sustainably, according to a new Ceres report.
California recently launched Energy Upgrade California, a statewide education campaign to help Californians manage their energy usage, save money and help the state meet its climate goals. Energy Upgrade California will engage people to better manage energy and water through a multi-cultural advertising campaign, a comprehensive website, retail education, community-based outreach and education, and social media.
Two reports released this week examine the increasingly urgent risks to which major corporations around the world are vulnerable thanks to climate change, along with their own part in exacerbating those risks and how they could act to mitigate them.Gap, HP, PepsiCo and over 50 other S&P 500 companies are feeling climate-change-related risks increase in urgency, likelihood and frequency, with many describing significant impacts already affecting their business operations, according to a new report from CDP.
Shelton Group, known for its 2011 “Wasting Water Is Weird” campaign, has set its sights on helping consumers understand and improve energy efficiency in the home through a series of campaigns, partnerships and interactive tools. We spoke with CEO Suzanne Shelton about their impacts to date, the “holy grail” of consumer engagement, and the missing ingredient for doing it effectively.Tell us about your "Do 5 Things" (aka Fiveworx) platform — when and how was it developed? How is it different from other tools for engaging people in energy efficiency?
The number of investment professionals in the US offering fossil fuel-free portfolios to investors jumped by more than 50 percent over the past year — from 22 percent to 36 percent, according to a new survey by First Affirmative Financial Network.The 2014 Fossil Fuels Divestment Survey found that 76 percent of respondents believe that there are growing risks associated with investing in fossil fuel extractors/manufacturers. Nearly half (49 percent) of survey respondents say institutional investors are interested in fossil fuel-free investing. And 62 percent responded that retail investors want fossil-free investing choices.
Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council have announced that the City of Austin is the first city to partner on their “I Want to Be Recycled” multimedia public service advertising (PSA) campaign, which aims to motivate Americans to recycle every day.Created by San Francisco-based ad agency Pereira & O’Dell and sponsored by Alcoa Foundation, American Chemistry Council, Anheuser-Busch, City of Austin, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Nestlé Waters North America, Niagara Bottling, Unilever and Waste Management, the bilingual multimedia campaign illustrates that recyclable materials can be given another life when someone chooses to recycle.
Coke bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has teamed up with online innovation platform OpenIDEO to try and break the habit of poor recycling performance in homes across Britain and France. Only roughly half of all plastic bottles sold currently collected for recycling in the two countries.The two organizations have launched a recycling challenge to co-create solutions that will help improve at-home recycling habits. The 11-week challenge will draw on OpenIDEO’s 60,000 members from across the globe as part of CCE’s ‘Recycle for the Future’ campaign.
When over 1,100 garment workers died in the Rana Plaza factory collapse in April 2013, it shined an unflinching light on the untenable conditions that many in the industry have long been forced to endure. Since then, consumers, activists and other stakeholders around the world have demanded that brands take immediate action to ensure that workers are not only safe, but paid fairly while they’re constructing the clothing we wear every day.