Follow the growing amount of collaborative work — cross-functional, cross-sector, pre-competitive and more — bringing about massive, disruptive, needed shifts to business as usual.
Canada’s most populous province has become a leader in the social enterprise sector in North America, with over 10,000 social enterprises in operation employing an estimated 160,000 people. Ontario’s government has leant considerable support to the sector, directly and indirectly, to make this happen.To learn more about how and why, I spoke with Minister Brad Duguid of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure.
Mars has signed a new partnership agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to help make food safer across the globe, with a specific focus on the developing regions of the global South.The partners will do this by promoting international standards for food safety and quality, improving food safety management to reduce illness caused by unsafe food and improving global access to information. The plan is to share our expertise and data, helping the FAO to identify food safety issues early, as well as to develop tools that will help support food safety programs in developing countries.
Representatives of 193 countries met at the United Nations’ annual summit last month to agree on a global agenda for continued growth made up of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs tackle environmental, social and economic issues and will stimulate action from all sectors and stakeholders to build a more sustainable world. The goals reflect the fundamental changes the world needs now and in the future to tackle poverty and climate change, and grow sustainably and equitably. Over the next 15 years, countries are expected to use these goals to frame policies, allocate financing and drive changes that will help build a fair and sustainable world for all.
This week, the first draft of the new climate change agreement set for COP21, the United Nations (UN) international conference on climate change, was presented to governments. The document will act as a concise basis for negotiations for the next negotiating session, which is happening from October 19-23 in Bonn, Germany.
The Hershey Company has announced it is joining Partners in Food Solutions (PFS), an international public-private partnership that connects volunteer experts from the world’s leading food companies with their counterparts in Africa to help them improve and expand their businesses.These high-potential African companies can feed more people better, safer, more nutritious and more affordable food, while at the same time providing more stable markets for the crops of smallholder farmers in their region, PFS claims. The volunteer experts connect through a new model of remote consulting launched by PFS.
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post, "What's Working: Sustainable Development Goals," in conjunction with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed set of goals was the subject of discussion at the UN General Assembly meeting on Sept. 25-27, 2015 in New York; they cover 17 key areas of development — including poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality, among many others.
The CEOs of 10 global food companies pledged to accelerate business action on climate change and urged U.S. and world leaders to form a robust international agreement at COP21 in December in a joint letter coordinated by Ceres and released yesterday.
Carlsberg Group is inviting companies and members of the public to submit their ideas on how to make Carlsberg beer more sustainable. The competition, “Cheers to Green Ideas,” was launched in partnership with Scandinavian think tank Sustainia on Monday.
Award-winning British designer Christopher Raeburn showcased his new Spring/Summer 2016 SARAWAK collection on Tuesday at London Fashion Week. Raeburn worked closely with apparel branding, labeling, packaging and embellishments company Avery Dennison RBIS (Retail Branding and Information Solutions) to explore sustainability throughout the design process, from mood board to the runway.
The leaders of state and regional governments, spanning North and South America, Europe and Australia, on Tuesday announced collective climate targets that would save 7.9 gigatons of equivalent carbon dioxide (GtCO2e) by 2030 — greater than the U.S.’s carbon emissions in 2012.Announced at Climate Week NYC, the pledges come from the Compact of States and Regions, a UN supported initiative that aims to drive major emissions reductions after the COP climate summit in December, where the expected deal will come into force in 2020.Altogether, the sub-national governments making up the Compact represent 10 percent of global GDP and 220 million people.
Facebook, Google and Twitter are among the more than a dozen companies that have come together today, the International Day of Peace, to draw attention to the vital role of food assistance in creating a more peaceful world.Many firms are donating television and digital media channels to drive support for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. It delivers food assistance in emergencies and works with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience, assisting some 80 million people in around 80 countries each year.
Three of the world’s largest brewers, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken and Carlsberg, as well as local brewers and beer associations, have come together to lead Global Beer Responsibility Day, a new worldwide effort to promote the responsible consumption of beer, according to a recent announcement.In its first year as a global, collaborative effort, brewers, along with many other local partners, will focus on reducing the harmful use of alcohol and promoting responsible enjoyment of beer in communities around the world.
Today, C&A Foundation and Ashoka Changemakers launch Fabric of Change: Innovating for a Sustainable Apparel Industry, an online challenge that seeks innovations for building a fair and sustainable apparel industry. Winners will receive prizes totaling more than €100,000 to support their solutions.
Nearly 24 million Americans live in food deserts and don't have access to affordable, quality, fresh fruits and vegetables. For the third year, fresh juice brand Naked Juice, a division of PepsiCo, is partnering with Wholesome Wave — an organization that helps create affordable access to fresh, local and regional food to those in need — to provide fresh produce where there is none.
The threats climate change poses to the private sector are significant and the need for international agreements on climate change to keep global warming below 2°C is ever more pressing. The challenge that we all face now is in finding consensus and a common vision that is applicable not only to all countries but to all corporate sectors too. So, as we reach #100daysToParis, how can the ambitions of COP21 be met and what is the role of collaboration in achieving this?
A remote village in Kenya could have access to 15 million gallons of clean water by the end of the year — funded by Unilever shampoo, deodorant and body wash sales at Walgreens.
New research from international non-profit organization WorldFish makes a strong case for how to improve nutrition in Bangladesh. The study finds that there are significant health benefits associated with the use of small fish in chutney and flour, especially for pregnant women and infants.Bangladesh has high rates of undernutrition; 24 percent of women in Bangladesh aged 15-49 have a body mass index (BMI) below the healthy range. For infants and children, undernutrition is a major cause of stunting which can adversely affect their development, especially in the first 1,000 days of life.
For years, the answer to the question “Do people really want to buy more sustainable products?” was a profound “sort of.” Surveys consistently show that we aspire to buy responsibly, and we even say we’ll pay more for environmental or socially preferable products. But purchase intent does not always translate to real sales, and companies have often struggled to make sustainable products more mainstream.
The University of Minnesota has received a $12 million dollar award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bring together a network of scientists, industry leaders and policy partners committed to building better cities of the future, according to a recent announcement.The network will connect across nine research universities, major metropolitan cities in the U.S. and India, as well as infrastructure firms and policy groups. The project includes 25 faculty members across the nine universities, and will involve more than 40 graduate students conducting research in cross-university interdisciplinary teams.
Through an ambitious project model combining innovative financing approaches with traditional conservation, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) and The Orangutan Project (TOP) are partnering with local communities to actively manage Thirty Hills, 100,000 acres of former logging forest in Sumatra, Indonesia.