The work of organizations joining forces in win-win, pre-competitive ways to bring about massive, impactful shifts away from business as usual
More than 530 companies and 100 investors – from iconic Fortune 500 firms to small family-owned businesses – are calling on the Trump administration and the new Congress to continue to support policies to accelerate a low-carbon future that will help curb climate change.
There are an estimated 21 million victims of forced labour in the world today, with labour exploitation fast becoming the dominant form – in 2015, it overtook sexual exploitation for the first time in the UK. The insidious nature of forced labour, coupled with the growing complexity of global supply chains, makes it a tough problem for corporations to identify, let alone stamp out.
This week, Duke Energy Carolinas announced that it will invest nearly $1.4 million to help protect wildlife habitat and land conservation efforts in South Carolina into the foreseeable future. The Oconee County Conservation Bank will benefit from $618,000 to support regional land conservation and habitat preservation efforts, while the Foothills Conservancy Program will receive $762,000 for the Keowee-Toxaway Habitat Enhancement Program (KTHEP), which supports projects that create, enhance and protect fish and wildlife habitats along the shores of Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee, as well as in their watersheds.
A partnership of 12 organization is set to launch an online hub for information and solutions to reduce food waste, “Further With Food: Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions,” at FurtherWithFood.org. The site is intended to help realize the national goal to halve food waste by 2030, announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S.
At the recent C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City, the City – along with Paris, Madrid and Athens - pledged to remove all diesel vehicles by 2025, as part of an effort by mayors to improve the quality of air for citizens. The pledge also includes a plan to incentivize alternative vehicles and promote walking and cycling infrastructure, helping to deliver on the ambition of the Paris Agreement.
Sustainable food initiatives aimed at tackling food waste and climate change are sweeping through Europe and the UK, and the latest example comes in the form of a partnership between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) UK and global catering and facilities firm Sodexo.
While in the past I have written summaries that looked back on accomplishments and challenges in sustainable development over the last 12 months, this year, I’ve decided to take a different approach. Instead, on the heels of COP22, I asked sustainability leaders to share their thoughts about where things are today, and where they see things going. Of course many were encouraged by the more than 365 companies that pledged to continue their carbon-reduction efforts at that meeting in Marrakech.
Increasing access to clean, safe and sustainable sanitation to 10 million people by 2022 is a top priority for personal care corporation Kimberly-Clark’s Sustainability 2022 goals, and on November 19, World Toilet Day, the company renewed its commitment to its Toilets Change Lives program, a multi-national commercial program that leverages the power of its well-known brands to educate and engage consumers and help solve the global sanitation crisis.
During the campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump called climate change a hoax, threatened to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, committed to easing restrictions on drilling and mining on federal lands, and promised to
On October 5, the Paris Agreement on climate change cleared the final hurdle to go into full effect. This required at least 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of emissions to join – as I write this post, WRI’s real-time Paris Tracker shows that 89 countries representing 63 percent of emissions have now joined the Agreement.
Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) is reinforcing its commitment towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through participation in “The Pari Island Project,” a new multiparty collaboration aimed at improving the availability and sustainability of clean water in Indonesia.
The third Setouchi International Art Festival is currently taking place across 12 islands and two coastal ports in the Seto Naikai, or Inland Sea of Japan. The Sea boasts over 700 islands in total. The islands, which never underwent rapid industrial modernization, have maintained their original backdrop of lively Japanese culture, tradition and rusticity. But the legacy of that harsh era remains, with many islands grappling with unauthorized dumping of industrial waste, environmental pollution, and rapid depopulation. The festival, which aims to revitalize the islands through modern art, has proved a successful joint effort by companies and the local community.
As California enters its sixth year of record-breaking drought, 20 leading organizations this week announced the formation of the California Water Action Collaborative (CWAC), their collaborative effort to support critical projects designed to protect the state’s water future.
Steve Jennings, the Founding Partner, Chief Innovation Officer and Futurist at Better Ventures opened up Wednesday afternoon's panel discussion entitled Understanding and Developing the Capacity for Transformative Relationships by asking the panellists to share what transformative partnerships mean to them. “10 years ago, partnerships for sustainability were very transactional,” answered Loa Dalgaard Worm, the Executive Director at FSC Denmark. “NGOs wanted money to run their initiatives, and businesses wanted something to put it their CSR reports.”
In 1908, Dr. Kikunae Ikeda changed the culinary world forever when he discovered umami as the fifth basic taste (along with sweet, salty, sour and bitter). Aspiring to foster healthy lifestyles and “create good, affordable seasonings and turn simple but nutritious fare into delicacies,” Ikeda invented a method for producing seasoning with glutamate as a key component. The following year, his friend, chemical and pharmaceutical businessman Saburosuke Suzuki II, launched a business venture to begin selling AJI-NO-MOTO®, the world's first umami seasoning, and the Ajinomoto Group was born.
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) has announced a new digital ‘Global Solutions Platform’ to engage business students to support the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or Global Goals). The platform consists of two parallel projects through which business students will analyze and evaluate the quality of company activities as they relate to responsible and sustainable business operations, and highlight the most notable achievements of companies in each major industry.
British creative consultancy Radley Yeldar (RY) has launched the 2016 Fit for Purpose index, ranking the world’s most socially, environmentally and economically purposeful companies. The overall trend that surfaced in this year’s index was collaborative thinking; the top purposeful brands are collaborating with stakeholders and partners within and outside the company to embed purpose in authentic and meaningful ways.
Today, brewers, governments NGOs and retailers in 76 countries around the world partnered on the second annual Global Beer Responsibility Day in an effort to promote responsible consumption of beer.
Today, 37 leading agri-business companies have today launched the Global Agri-Business Alliance (GAA) in Singapore. Their aim is to collectively tackle the major environmental and social challenges facing agricultural supply chains and rural communities across the world.
For the first time ever, leading food and agriculture supply chain companies and conservation organizations have formed an “end-to-end” partnership to support farmers in the improvement of soil health and water quality.