SB Brand-Led Culture Change 2024 - Full Program Announced!

Collaboration

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.

Advertisement
How Target Is Taking Sustainable Products Mainstream (and Working with Walmart)

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.

Universities Partnering With Cities to Research More Sustainable Urban Environments

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.

WWF Combines Finance With Conservation to Protect Sumatran Rainforest

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.

Tech Giants, NGOs, Warren Buffett Campaigning to Wipe Out Wildlife Trafficking

The uproar over the recent poaching and killing of Zimbabwe’s beloved Cecil the Lion has thrust wildlife hunting and trafficking back into the international spotlight.On the heels of President Obama’s recent visit to Kenya, he announced on July 31 the formation of the United States Wildlife Trafficking Alliance - a voluntary coalition of non-profit organizations, companies, foundations and media interests that will be working closely with the U.S. government in a collaboration to reduce the purchase and sale of illegal wildlife and wildlife products.

Consumer Goods Forum Publishes First-Ever Set of Palm Oil Sourcing Guidelines

The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a global industry network driven by its members to encourage the adoption of practices and standards that serve the consumer goods industry worldwide, has announced publication of the first-ever Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing Guidelines.

Advertisement
Apple, Google, Walmart Among 13 U.S. Companies Pledging $140B for Climate Action

Yesterday marked the launch of the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, uniting 13 of the largest U.S. companies in pledging a collective $140 billion of low-carbon investments in the global economy and over 1,600 MW of new renewable energy. The high-profile pledge is the latest indicator that the White House is succeeding in its effort to garner private-sector support for a substantive climate agreement at COP21.

'Summit of Conscience' Presents Climate Change Action as Moral Imperative

The world’s first “summit of conscience” for the climate was held Tuesday in Paris, gathering UN officials, religious leaders and prominent global figures to urge action on climate change ahead of the COP21 meeting in December.Arnold Schwarzenegger was among those in attendance. The former California governor and actor spoke of the real threats posed by climate change.

How Urban Centers Become More Sustainable When Business and City Leaders Get Creative

At SB ‘15 San Diego in early June, speakers on the Sustainable Cities panel discussed big issues and a few case studies around global brands building innovative partnerships with cities. They also shared how new, non-conventional partnerships are necessary and discussed opportunities that corporate sustainability teams should take into consideration.

20 Subnational Governments Lead Emissions-Reduction Commitments Ahead of COP21

Regional and state governments around the world are committing to ambitious emissions-reduction targets in the lead-up to December’s COP 21 meeting.Today, the Climate Group’s Compact of States and Regions announced record commitments to reducing GHG emissions from 20 governments representing 220 million people and $8.3 trillion in GDP. All reporting governments have a series of reduction targets across their operations, with some as ambitious as 90 percent reduction by 2050 and 100 percent reduction by 2060. 18 governments have also reported renewable energy targets.

'Let's Make Air Pollution' Visible Campaign Aims to Improve UK Air Quality

Deliver Change, a UK-based non-profit focused on sustainable technology projects, launched a campaign this week called “Let’s make air pollution visible,” which aims to bring together businesses, policy makers and local groups to solve the problem of air pollution in the UK.“Air pollution remains the greatest invisible threat to our health today, as well as to the economic performance of our cities,” said Deliver Change chief executive Jonathan Steel. “People are waking up to the problem, but we need to be able to see the ‘unseeable’.”

Advertisement
Crowdsourcing Sustainable Solutions: Unilever Launches Foundry IDEAS Platform

Unilever unveiled a new initiative at the Cannes Lions festival on Friday that aims to put fresh momentum behind its Sustainable Living Plan with public input. The Foundry IDEAS platform will act as a hub for consumers and entrepreneurs to work together to tackle sustainability challenges.

Consumer Goods Industry Commits to Halving Its Food Waste Globally by 2025

Last week, The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) — whose membership includes hundreds of consumer brands from a range of industries around the world, including food giants Campbell Soup, Clif Bar, Hershey, Mars and Procter & Gamble — announced a new resolution to mitigate the roughly 40 percent of food wasted globally by agreeing to halve food waste within the operations of its 400 retailer and manufacturer members by 2025, and to support wider U

Hershey Fights Malnutrition in Ghana with ‘Energize Learning’ Program, Aims to Reach 50,000 Children

The Hershey Company today announced a partnership that will support its campaign to fight malnutrition in Ghana. As part of its Energize Learning program, the company is teaming up with the Ghana School Feeding Programme and current partner Project Peanut Butter to distribute a peanut-based protein supplement called Vivi to schoolchildren. The program aims to reach 50,000 children by 2016, and eventually expand to serve all children in Ghana’s school feeding program.

Ahoy! Five Global Shippers Collaborate to Drive Sea Freight Sustainability

This week, five major companies from the beverage and chemical industries announced a collaboration on sustainability initiatives in the shipping sector. FrieslandCampina, AB InBev, AkzoNobel, DSM and Huntsman will join forces under the BICEPS (Boosting Initiatives for Collaborative Emission-reduction with the Power of Shippers) network to create momentum for sustainability improvements in shipping.

GSK, Save the Children Launch Program to Protect Kids During Climate Disasters

Healthcare firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) and Save the Children have announced a partnership to protect the millions of children who are at risk of natural or man-made climate disasters.The Resilient Children/Resilient Communities Initiative — funded through a $2 million, three-year grant from GSK — will analyze and recommend procedures, trainings and guidance to help localities shield children from post-disaster devastation.

Advertisement
Field to Market, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy Harmonizing Metrics for Dairy Feed Sustainability

Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy announced a new partnership this week that seeks to harmonize on-farm sustainability metrics and drive greater collaboration between the two organizations. The collaboration will benefit crop producers, dairy farmers and the entire agricultural supply chain by creating a more consistent approach for measuring and advancing continuous improvement in the sustainability of dairy feed production.

How New Engagement Tools Are Making Carbon Offsets More Accessible for Business

Given the packed room for Wednesday afternoon’s panel discussing carbon offsetting, it’s evident that as organizations become increasingly aware of their environmental risks, carbon management has become a critical tool.

Whirlpool, Kohler Commit to Research Project for Net-Zero Water in the Home

Whirlpool Corporation and Kohler will collaborate to identify ways to achieve net-zero water in the home, according to an announcement made this week at SB '15 San Diego.During the conference, representatives from both companies discussed a shared hope to create energy and water advancements that lead to reduced consumption and allow existing buildings to become self-sustaining systems.

Looptworks Working to Replenish the Colorado River — with Your Help

Fresh from its successful collaboration with Southwest Airlines on its LUV Seat collection of bags and accessories upcycled from the airline’s leather seats, Looptworks has launched an email campaign to enlist its customers’ help in restoring the Colorado River.

12 States, Provinces Driving Nations to Keep Temperature Rise Below 2 Degrees Celsius

Last week, California governor Jerry Brown signed an international agreement with 11 other state and province leaders, collectively representing more than 100 million people, to keep the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.Under 2 MOU is a subnational agreement designed to lead nations towards a legally binding global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris this December.

Advertisement