Walking the Talk
These companies have moved beyond pledges and are making good on their commitments to pursuing a purpose beyond profit.
HSBC to Phase Out Coal Financing by 2040 — Will Wall Street Follow Suit?
Cross-Posted from Finance & Investment. HSBC announces its thermal coal phase-out plan on the same day as a Sierra Club-Center for American Progress report calls out Wall Street’s outsized contribution to the climate crisis. Can the necessary sea change be made in time to avoid disaster?
Tony’s Chocolonely: The Advent of More Teachable Brand Moments?
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. “Tony’s has done a great job of raising awareness of an important issue; and there is a real risk that the overriding message that will be left, once the dust settles, is one of a brand getting it wrong — and that could undermine all of the important messaging that Tony’s tries to share through its purpose.”
European Retail Giants Drop Brazilian Beef Over Deforestation Linked to Meat Giant JBS
Cross-Posted from Supply Chain. The move comes following an investigation by Repórter Brasil and Mighty Earth that tracked deforestation-linked beef to European retail store shelves. JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, has long been on the radar of environmental NGOs and forward-looking investors due to its destructive practices.
The Way We Think About Carbon Markets Is About to Change
Cross-Posted from The Next Economy. What has been sorely needed is an agreed-upon international framework that broadly establishes who can sell carbon credits; who can buy them and for what purpose; and what constitutes a quality carbon credit. COP26 took a major step towards such a framework.
McDonald’s Working to Increase Demographic Representation of Franchisees
Cross-Posted from Organizational Change. Effort aims to help underrepresented applicants become McDonald’s franchisees by removing socio-economic barriers — in part through a $250M commitment to alternative financing — to attract more franchisees who reflect the composition of the communities it serves.
Purpose & the Stakeholder Factor: 10 Trends for 2021 and Beyond
To capture the top trends of 2021, Porter Novelli reviewed and analyzed a year’s worth of Purpose-driven and stakeholder news, activities, campaigns and announcements to deliver the latest in stakeholder intelligence. Here are our 10 need-to-know trends for today and tomorrow.
Cotton Laundering Shows Risk of Business as Usual with China
Cross-Posted from Supply Chain. China’s importance to global supply chains as a key source of raw materials and labor puts brands at high risk of inadvertently supporting forced labor. Right now, the focus is on the garment industry; but other industries should pay close attention and ensure they are closely monitoring their entire supply chains.
Shaking Up Boardrooms and Society: The World’s First Purpose Governance Playbook
Cross-Posted from Organizational Change. ‘The New Purpose Governance Framework’ is the first comprehensive set of purpose-governance guidelines in the world, which charts the path for boards to up their game in approving and governing their organization’s purpose.
Synergizing ESG Data Collection Improves Reporting, Performance
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. Nasdaq OneReport helps companies position themselves for current and future ESG-related work — whether regulatory or voluntary — to help align overall goals and outcomes across organizational departments and roles.
Conscientious Consumption: The SB 2021 Holiday Gift Guide
With no end in sight to the pandemic and its many ripple effects, we can all use a little bit of brightness in our lives! So, here are some of the many companies, platforms and products aligned with a more intentional approach to consumption, that we’d be happy to support anytime.
Attention, Business Leaders: Environmental Rights, Human Rights Inextricably Linked
Perhaps the takeaway of the week is that the ‘next 10 years’ of business and human rights coincide with the 2030 deadline for us to halve carbon emissions — and that environmental rights are now very clearly seen as human rights. Companies pursuing a net-zero strategy must make human rights central, too.
2021 a ‘Landmark’ for Corporate Human Rights Litigation
On day two of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, delegates discussed how environmental damage is being viewed as a human rights violation in a growing number of court cases around the world — and that the UN Guiding Principles may increasingly be criteria in court judgements.
Racing to Zero, Part 1: On Track, or Playing with Numbers?
Many companies say they’ve reached their net-zero goals, but is it really that easy? We can make the numbers look good, at least in the short-term; or we can strive for greater impacts — towards real zero and beyond. If we don’t take this challenge seriously today, we won’t be in business in ten years’ time.
Where Is the New Roadmap for Business and Human Rights Taking Us?
Cross-Posted from Supply Chain. As delegates from the UN launched the roadmap at day one of this year's Business and Human Rights Forum, full respect for human rights by business was described as a strategic — not just an operational — issue, requiring a change of corporate culture and of business models.
While Travel Was Quiet, JetBlue Was Busy with Sustainability
Cross-Posted from Cleantech. During COVID, JetBlue announced several sustainability targets — including a net-zero target by 2040, as well as a set of short-and medium-term targets to help them get there. We asked Carl Otto, JetBlue’s Senior Analyst for Sustainability and ESG, how they'll do it.
Calling On All ‘Bad Actors’ to Join the Climate Change Fight
Cross-Posted from Collaboration. Those of us committed to combatting climate change have no patience for companies that are ‘part of the problem’; but we should embrace anyone that is truly committed to being part of the solution. We’re all on the same team — and we will stand or fall together.
Beyond Data: How Financial Firms Can Build a Sustainable Future
Cross-Posted from Finance & Investment. Disclosure and data certainly are important, but they are not sufficient to create a more equitable and sustainable world. Companies that take a narrow or compliance-focused approach to ESG are missing the forest for the trees.
Net Zero: 4 Signs We’re on the Verge of a Systems Change
Cross-Posted from The Next Economy. The roadmap and momentum are there; so, the big issue now is acceleration. We have the capacity to build a better future — and right now, some leaders are driving a fundamental redefinition of value by adopting new metrics and standards.
Carbon Footprint Measurement and Challenges: A Case Study
Cross-Posted from The Next Economy. Cuningham was commissioned to estimate GHG emissions for a company with $6.6B in annual sales and operations in 14 states, with 305 locations comprising more than 4M square feet. Companies’ real work begins when their GHGs are known and they can decide how to respond to newfound knowledge about their impacts.
Trending: Baby Steps on Eliminating Transport Emissions Still Leave Big Carbon Footprint
Wednesday was Transport Day at COP26; and promising corporate and government pledges came together from airlines, automakers and the shipping industry. But the question remains: Are we doing enough, fast enough?
