These companies have moved beyond pledges and are making good on their commitments to pursuing a purpose beyond profit.
Alipay parent company Ant Financial Services Group has released its first-ever Corporate Social Responsibility Report and committed to leveraging the company’s technology, partners and employees to tackle issues such as climate change, inequality and poverty. The report includes the company’s progress update on Ant Forest, the in-app carbon tracking and tree planting initiative in Alipay, and Ant Love, its philanthropic platform.
Six years after launching its Sustainable Living Plan, Unilever’s efforts to deliver brands and products with purpose and sustainability at their core are finally paying off.
A more sustainable apparel industry is on the horizon thanks to continued efforts by industry leaders to develop innovative textile policies that value natural resources.
The food industry is undergoing a major shift, with companies responding to growing consumer demand for transparency and products that put health and sustainability first. A new announcement from The Dannon Company provides yet another example of how brands are taking action and tapping into public-private partnerships to stay on par with the changing landscape.
Increasingly brands are turning to purpose as they realise that traditional marketing approaches are less and less effective among today’s consumers. Globally, 60 percent think that branded content is just clutter (Meaningful Brands 2017, Havas Media). Faced with seemingly endless product proliferation, they are choosing brands that offer more than just functional or emotional benefits. Instead, they are searching for a value proposition that makes a meaningful and authentic contribution to their lives and broader society. Consumers are seeking brands that demonstrate a purpose that contributes to the creation of a better world.
It’s already been a busy year for Procter & Gamble – full of new milestones, goals and partnerships aimed at continuing to improve its products and operations along the entire value chain. We caught up with P&G’s VP of Global Sustainability, Virginie Helias, ahead of her upcoming keynote at SB’17 Detroit, to hear the latest on the company’s progress on its multifaceted sustainability agenda.
A year after being suspended from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and dropped by companies such as Unilever, Mars, Incorporated, Nestlé and Kellogg for clearing peatlands in Kalimantan, Indonesia, Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Group has announced plans to eliminate deforestation and exploitation throughout its supply chain.
Corporate social responsibility is stuck. When it emerged on the scene 20 years ago, businesses and other stakeholders had high expectations for what a focus on CSR could deliver. But the reality is that neither business nor society are on track to enable nine billion people to live well within the boundaries of the planet by 2050 - let alone 2030. There’s a lot at stake: Unless business collectively steps up to contribute substantively to embracing and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, many business models will be at risk.
In its annual Environmental Responsibility Report, tech giant Apple has revealed ambitious new plans to develop a closed-loop model for its supply chain. To achieve this goal, the world’s second largest smartphone producer will focus on using only renewable resources and recycled materials and eliminating conflict materials from its value chain.
Following the announcement of its new store renovation initiative, CVS Pharmacy has revealed that it will be eliminating parabens, phthalates and the most prevalent formaldehyde donors in nearly 600 beauty and personal care products in its CVS Health, Beauty 360, Essence of Beauty and Blade lines. CVS Pharmacy will stop shipping store brand products that don’t meet these standards to distribution centers by the end of 2019.
Cross-Posted from Product, Service & Design Innovation. Coming off a string of apparent strides toward recognizing the benefits of sustainability – including ratifying a shareholder resolution that commits the company to investing in a low-carbon future, earning a place on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) earlier this year, launching an online tool for low-carbon startups to access financing, and last month
Cross-Posted from Organizational Change. Water is essential to business of all kinds — from resource extraction to retail. Its scarcity poses collective risks; not just to a company’s facilities, but also to the municipalities in which it operates and the communities comprising its consumer base.
Future 500 CEO Bill Shireman moderated two discussions during Sustainable Brands 2014 earlier this month that explored major progress made in the past two years in advancing zero-deforestation supply chains and implications for climate, human rights and transparency.Shireman kicked off the session on day one with an intriguing quote by a famous revolutionary: "There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen."
Last month, Ashoka Changemakers announced four winners of its League of Intrapreneurs: Building Better Business from the Inside Out competition, honoring initiatives within organizations that are pioneering game-changing models for business and society.
Corporate leaders and experts on global warming and climate change policy came together on Earth Day in Sausalito, California for REDD+ Talks, an inaugural event focused on how emissions from deforestation contributes to global warming and how this will affect the business world.
On Monday Unilever announced that since 2008 it has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its manufacturing and logistics operations by more than a million tons while also increasing sales by more than a quarter.
The Conscious Capitalism 2013 conference, which took place over the weekend in San Francisco, saw a host of inspirational and motivational talks about the potential of business, large and small, to change the course of the world for the better.
Danish biotech company Novozymes has embarked on a new venture aimed at boosting human and environmental health in Mozambique by giving some 400,000 people access to clean, locally produced cooking fuel.
On Thursday Pepsi announced it has reached its goal of helping three million people gain access to safe drinking water in Africa, Asia and Latin America two years ahead of schedule and now plans to double its target to helping six million by 2015.
Unilever today announced that more than 50% of its factories achieved the goal of sending no waste to landfill in 2012. This achievement has prompted the company to stretch its original zero-waste target by bringing its commitment for 2020 five years forward.