SUPPLY CHAIN -
Hidden killers in food production are making healthy eating impossible for people around the world, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
After an intensive global campaign by Greenpeace, Wilmar International has published a detailed action plan to map and monitor its palm oil suppliers.
This week, the world’s largest palm oil trader, Wilmar International, published a detailed action plan to map and monitor all of its suppliers. If implemented, this would put the palm oil giant — which supplies 40 percent of the world’s palm oil — one step closer to finally eliminating deforestation from its supply chain, and would have major implications for the rest of the industry.
COLLABORATION -
This week, two fashion giants with extensive brand portfolios announced partnerships that show promise for cleaning up “dirty fashion.”
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The news last week that the Christmas advert from Iceland — a UK supermarket chain specializing in frozen food — has been banned is a bad decision.
Iceland’s advert — a repackaging of a short, animated film by Greenpeace released earlier this year with a powerful, consumer-friendly sustainability message — shows a brand that is trying to do good work by improving its impact on the world.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Today, Ceres and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announce the addition of Target and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, to the AgWater Challenge. The two companies’ new water stewardship commitments were shared today at the Financial Times Water Summit in London.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The winds are changing. Companies that have operated many steps removed from the farms and people that produce their raw materials are building stronger connections to their agricultural supply chains. This shift stems from interest to replenish soil and water supplies, and boost overall resilience and output through regenerative and thriving agriculture. Pure Strategies’ latest report, Connecting to the Farm, points to the best practices companies are using to get closer to the farm while advancing these critical sustainability aims and gaining valuable business benefits.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
After a full decade of consultation among large numbers of stakeholders from the mining industry, organized labor, nonprofits, impacted communities and businesses — a global Standard for Responsible Mining was released today.
COLLABORATION -
How much forest land — and what quality — is needed to ensure forests can continue to provide people, plants and animals worldwide with clean air and water, food and the goods and services they need to thrive?
PRESS RELEASE -
To help kick off the spring season, we once again asked our team members and guests at our locations across North America to participate in the annual CodeGreen Challenge for a chance to be named the most eco-conscious location in the company. The CodeGreen Challenge is part of Caesars Entertainment’s effort to raise awareness around environmental conservation, as well as the health and wellness benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle, through activities and promotions that educate and support environmental consciousness.
PRESS RELEASE -
SB’18 Vancouver, June 7, 2018 – Last week at SB18 Vancouver Living X Elements announced the launch of Oyster X SmartSink a carbon in the soil solution platform as a tool to normalize biomass reduction at human scale. The platform is designed to create a transparent full chain of custody for clean biomass waste sources such as forestry, agriculture and specific urban sources and return them to the landscape as a Smart X Char bio carbon. The platform is underpinned by a soon to be released carbon standard by Living X Elements and its partners in the project.
COLLABORATION -
Farmers are faced with constant pricing pressures, water limitations and labor shortages, leading many to seek solutions to help them be more innovative and efficient in growing their crops. Technology and food companies alike are turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) to help.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
In the sustainability world, the conversation around beef mostly involves reducing the environmental impacts of its production (deforestation, methane emissions, etc). But Cassidy Johnston can offer a perspective we don’t often get to hear in the Sustainable Brands conversation — a New Mexico-based cattle rancher and newly appointed Sustainability Officer for the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), Johnston is eager to share ranchers’ side of the story with the public and help dispel what she says are common misconceptions behind beef and its role in a sustainable food future.
LEADERSHIP -
By 2050 there will be over 9 billion people on the planet, and food production will have to increase by as much as 70 percent to feed everyone. We are already struggling to feed everyone today, even in America.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Half of the soil on our U.S. farmland is gone. Conventional agricultural practices and conversion of land to cropland caused this devastating loss. The good news is that the rate of soil erosion has declined, with an even brighter path ahead.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
As we approach the 2020 deadline for many corporate sustainability pledges, plus the commitments made in the New York Declaration on Forests, sustainable business practices are front and center in the minds of decision-makers. The next twelve months will be pivotal in achieving these goals.
COLLABORATION -
Mars, McDonald’s, Staples and several other companies have signed on to support the American Forest Foundation (AFF), GreenBlue, the US Forest Service and Esri in the development of a
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Imagine buying a pair of shoes and being able to address the carbon emissions from those shoes’ production and transportation right when you buy them. To date, this hasn’t been possible: We didn’t have blockchain to immutably and transparently track the carbon; point-of-sale integrations were cumbersome, and the carbon market has only worked in tonnes while a pair of shoes is around 12kg of carbon.
PRESS RELEASE -
Already today BillerudKorsnäs is largely fossil-free with 97.5 percent biofuels used in the own operation. In order to further contribute to reducing climate change, BillerudKorsnäs has adopted new climate targets for 2030 and 2050, which now has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. The approved targets, which are in line with what is required for global warming not to exceed two degrees, are to:
by 2030 reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions from own operations and indirect emissions from purchased energy by at least 59 percent compared to 2016 levels. By 2050, the corresponding emissions should be at least 74 percent lower.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The week surrounding Easter has the highest consumption of chocolate in the year. For environmentalists, it can be a bitter reminder that many of the world’s primary regions for growing cocoa are experiencing dramatic decline in forest cover as land is cleared for agriculture. Cocoa is the top driver of deforestation in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire; countries that also rank 1st and 3rd for the highest rates of deforestation in all of Africa.