Last Chance to Join Us at SB'24 San Diego!

Latest News

New Report Reveals Global Trends, 'Perspectives' on CR Reporting

CorporateRegister.com, which hosts and manages the global online directory of corporate responsibility (CR) reports, today released its annual free CR Perspectives report, combining data, insight and opinion to reveal how global CR reporting has developed and where it might be headed. Read More...

Employee Engagement: Why Motivating the Elephant Is Better Than Rewarding the Rider

Many organisations are grappling with the same question: How do we create an employee reward and recognition programme designed to deliver widely adopted and sustained pro-environmental behaviours? Read More...

Jones Lang LaSalle Illustrates Commitment to Responsible Business in Latest Sustainability Report

Jones Lang LaSalle last week released its 2012 Sustainability Report, “Moving toward a more sustainable enterprise,” which details the company’s services, operations and client-focused strategies to achieve long-term sustainable solutions across five sustainability categories: energy and resources; client service excellence; green buildings; community and supply chain; and workplace, well-being and diversity. Read More...

Two-Thirds of Scholastic Books Now Sourced From FSC-Certified Paper

Scholastic, Inc., leading publisher of books for children and young adults, announced on Monday that it now purchases 68.2 percent of its paper from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified sources, surpassing its original goal of increasing the amount of FSC-certified paper purchased for its publications to 30 percent by 2012.The global children's publishing, education and media company says that after making significant gains toward the FSC goal between 2008 and 2011, it increased its goal for 2012 from 30 percent to 35 percent of all paper purchased to be FSC-certified. Scholastic also pledged to by the same date increase its use of recycled paper to 25 percent, of which 75 percent would be post-consumer waste. Read More...

Chipotle Launches Assault on Big Food with Short Film, and There's More to Come

Chipotle keeps sticking its neck out for "sustainable," locally produced food — now with an animated short-film attack on "Big Food" and with the promise of more expansive and aggressive efforts to come."The Scarecrow" is a 3-1/2-minute film that Chipotle Mexican Grill released online last week that depicts what the brand calls "a dystopian fantasy world" in which "all food production is controlled by fictional industrial giant Crow Foods. Scarecrows have been displaced from their traditional role of protecting food, and are now servants to the crows and their evil plans to dominate the food system." Read More...

10 Finalists in Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Challenge Show What’s Next in Green Building

Products from ten companies have been selected as finalists for the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Product Innovation Challenge, sponsored by the Schmidt Family Foundation and the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Three winners will be selected from this group and will share a cash prize of $250,000.The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, in partnership with Make It Right, launched its first-ever Product Innovation Challenge in November 2012. By June, over 100 products had been entered for consideration. Read More...

What Internet Citizens Should Know About the Personal Data Economy

John C. Havens is founder of the H(app)athon Project, a contributing writer for Mashable, and author of the upcoming book, Hacking Happiness. At Sustainable Brands ’13 last month, he spoke on the main stage about “Unleashing the Personal Data Economy,” and we later dove further into the subject.What exactly is the personal data economy? Read More...

Ecovative Foraging Fungi to Displace Plastic Packaging, Setting Sights on Net Positivity

In a global economy infamous for consumer consumption of “things,” Ecovative delivers environmentally responsible solutions with “win-win-win” materials. These materials are a win for our planet, for people and for Ecovative's profit. To achieve these universal benefits, instead of accepting the first, the fastest or the easiest option for production, our approach is to start from scratch and ask how nature accomplishes a task. Read More...

Bridgestone Americas and Yulex Develop Renewable Alternative to Rubber

A little-known perennial shrub called guayule (pronounced why-u-lee), native to the Southwestern United States, has been tapped as a potential alternative natural source for rubber by Bridgestone Americas and agricultural-based biomaterials company, Yulex. Read More...

BASF Licenses Genomatica Process for Creating BDO from Renewable Feedstock

Chemical technology company Genomatica has announced a new partnership with BASF. The chemical giant has licensed Genomatica’s patented new manufacturing process for a renewable form of the organic compound 1,4-butanediol, more commonly known as BDO.BDO and its many derivatives are used for the production of plastics, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibers. Read More...

Dell's Cube, Content, Curb Approach to Packaging

If you’re a long-time Dell customer, you’ve probably noticed that our packaging looks far different than it did just a few years ago. It’s smaller, easier to recycle, and may even contain some materials you’re more likely to associate with your garden than your computer. Read More...

Report: Employee Engagement Key to Successful Sustainability Program

A recent report released by financial services firm Jones Lang LaSalle claims companies that implement successful sustainability initiatives solicit employee participation and recommends organizing the engagement process into three phas Read More...

Chevron, Shell Join Environmentalists To Regulate Fracking Standards

A group of energy companies, philanthropic foundations and environmental groups have formed a new organization providing shale gas producers with performance standards certification for shale development. Read More...

Despite Climate-Related Damages, Insurers Lack Strategies

Only one out of eight insurers said they have in-depth climate change strategies, according to a recent survey by investor advocacy group Ceres. Read More...

Shell’s ‘New Lens Scenarios’ Predict Near-Zero Global Carbon Emissions by 2100

Shell released new scenarios last week that explore two possible futures with dramatically different implications for society and the world’s energy system. One scenario sees cleaner-burning natural gas becoming the most important energy source globally by the 2030s and early action to limit carbon dioxide emissions. The other sees solar becoming the top source by about 2070, but with slower action to address the threat of climate change.The New Lens Scenarios look at trends in the economy, politics and energy as far ahead as 2100, and underscore the critical role government policies could play in shaping the future. Read More...

GRI’s G4 Exposure Draft Undermines Sustainable Global Economy

We’re scratching our heads over the Global Reporting Initiative’s recent release of the Exposure Draft of its fourth generation of Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (dubbed “G4”). Read More...

GRI and Sustainability Context: Explain It Like We’re Four

“Now, explain it to me like I’m a four year old,” says Denzel Washington to Tom Hanks in the 1993 film Philadelphia. We pose this same question to the Global Reporting Initiative, the standard-setter for sustainability reporting. Read More...

Are Materiality Matrices Really Material?

While it is common practice now for corporate sustainability reports to include materiality matrices, whether or not they actually serve their purpose is debatable. Indeed, we (the Center for Sustainable Organizations) don't think they do, and have some suggestions for how to improve them. Read More...

GRI Responds to "Enforce or Explain"

GRI has now formally responded to the Enforce or Explain campaign we (the Center for Sustainable Organizations) launched last month in which we suggested that it either enforce the ‘sustainability context’ principle in its Guidelines, or explain why it doesn’t. Motivated, in part, by GRI’s own Report or Explain Campaign, in which GRI exhorts businesses around the world to issue sustainability reports or explain why they don’t, our campaign was aimed at GRI itself. Read More...

Defining "Sustainability": An Open Letter to the FTC

On April 30, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will conduct a second public workshop in its continuing efforts to address the question of how sustainability claims in advertising should be handled. Read More...

Upcoming Events

October 14-17, 2024
SB'24 San Diego
US Event
More Information

December 11-12, 2024
SB Member Network: Shifting Customer Behavior and Demand December Member Meeting
Member Event
More Information

March 18-19, 2025
SB'25 Tokyo Marunouchi
More Information