NEW METRICS -
Last week at Sustainable Brands’ New Metrics ’18 conference in Philadelphia, PA, over 300 delegates from brands, NGOs, strategists and practitioners across sectors gathered to share the newest credible tools and solutions for assessing the ROI of Sustainable Business.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
The Hispanic Federation, together with actor Lin-Manuel Miranda and his family, today announced the launch of a five-year initiative to revitalize Puerto Rico’s coffee sector. The founding partners include Hispanic Federation, Nespresso, The Rockefeller Foundation, Starbucks, TechnoServe and World Coffee Research, all of which are committed to supporting smallholder coffee farmers on the island.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Nespresso has partnered with Blue Marble Microinsurance — a startup with the mission of providing socially impactful, commercially viable insurance protection to the underserved and incorporated by nine insurance entities — to launch a pilot weather index insurance program for smallholder coffee farmers in Colombia.
WALKING THE TALK -
EcoVadis has published the second annual edition of its Global CSR Risk and Performance Index. The report provides an updated look at the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of more than 33,000 companies, across the calendar years 2015 through 2017.
COLLABORATION -
The Indonesian Network of the United Nations Global Compact today announced a partnership between Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Martha Tilaar Group (MTG) — a leading Indonesian manufacturer of cosmetics and herbal medicine — to train 1,000 women from forest communities to help preserve herbal plants and become self-sufficient entrepreneurs.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
60 members of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles have revealed concrete action plans to ensure humane working conditions, greater environmental protection and fair wages in their own companies and in their suppliers’ production facilities. The Partnership — a multi-stakeholder coalition made up of companies, associations, NGOs, trade unions, standards organisations and the Federal German Government, formed in 2014 with the aim of making improvements along the entire textile supply chain —considers this a major step forward, as it means that many members agree on revealing even sensible information for the first time.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Earlier this month, adidas by Stella McCartney launched its Fall/Winter 2018 sustainable women’s activewear collection, paying tribute to the power of nature. Designed to equip female athletes whatever the weather, the animal-inspired pieces serve as a reminder that everyone can do their part to protect the world around them. The campaign features supermodel Ming Xi as its new global ambassador who is charged with bringing the brand’s continued mission of LESS IMPACT = MORE POWER to life.
PRESS RELEASE -
Eastman today announces the release of its 2018 sustainability report, Changing the trajectory. Building on the company’s progress, the report provides a review of Eastman’s sustainability strategy and goals as well as highlights from the past year. The interactive report is available online at www.eastman.com/sustainability.
PRESS RELEASE -
Humana Inc., one of the nation’s leading health and well-being companies, today released its 2016-2017 corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. In the comprehensive report, Humana, for the first time, announces the company’s alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), becoming one of the first U.S. health insurers to commit to the international targets.
PRESS RELEASE -
The first #sheinnovates Girls’ Lounge in Africa is opening at the SAP Next-Gen Lab location at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa.
The launch of #sheinnovates Girls’ Lounge at UCT coincides with the #sheinnovates Festival taking place today at Startupbootcamp AfriTech.
COLLABORATION -
When multiple layers of the supply chain work together, transformation is most effective. At Archer Daniels Midland Company, we have seen this firsthand, through providing financial and other support to improve the lives of quinoa farmers in Bolivia. Together with our partner, Andean Naturals; and our customer, Kashi, we have been working to promote sustainable quinoa and improve the welfare of the farmers and their families by empowering women farmers, improving access to education, and increasing quinoa productivity.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) today reinstated Nestlé S.A.’s membership following the submission of its time-bound action plan to achieve 100% RSPO certified sustainable palm oil by 2023.
Effective Monday, July 16, 2018, Nestlé's certificates and membership status will be reinstated.
RSPO and Nestlé share the vision of transforming the palm oil industry for a sustainable future. They also believe that achieving this requires the entire industry to work towards greater transparency, inclusiveness, direct supply chain engagement and capacity building throughout the supply chain.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Sugar has been a hot topic the past few years due to artificial and natural sweeteners entering the market and growing concerns about obesity and children’s health. The U.S.
WALKING THE TALK -
In the business world, we frequently hear executives asking what value a program brings to an organization, placing emphasis on immediate profit rather than long-term impact. At Keurig Green Mountain, we have designed our business on a model that creates value for all that are touched by our work, including employees, manufacturers, coffee farmers and our local communities. Our business model reflects our roots as a socially minded coffee roaster, and it’s our belief that we can best grow our business and make progress toward our commitment to Brew A Better World™ by authentically aligning our company goals with our values.
WALKING THE TALK -
In its new campaign, Behind the Barcodes, Oxfam shines a light on the millions of women and men trapped in poverty and facing brutal working conditions while producing the food on our supermarket shelves
MARKETING AND COMMS -
For some, blockchain is the disruptive technology that promises to solve transparency problems by creating one version of the truth; for others, it is all hype with no great real-world application other than cryptocurrency. I attended an SB’18 Vancouver workshop on “How Blockchain Technology Can Power Superior Supply Chain Innovation and Understanding” to move closer to understanding blockchain and its applications.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Today, along with the release of its 2017 Shared Goodness Corporate Social Responsibility report, The Hershey Company unveiled Shared Goodness Promise, a new CSR strategy aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and centered around investments, collaborative programs and sustainable business practices aimed at making a positive difference in peoples’ lives.
CLEANTECH -
Striving to be the world’s greenest city by 2020, Vancouver has adopted several ambitious action plans and goals. The Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) set to work in 2010 to define what a “green job” was at the city level in order to meet the City’s economic goals to double the number of green jobs and the number of businesses engaged in greening their operations within a decade. Since then, VEC has been building relationships with investors, helping local cleantech firms increase their exports, and using city infrastructure projects to lead by example.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The buyer-supplier relationship is changing in more ways than you might imagine. Consumers and retailers are increasingly demanding that suppliers demonstrate their sustainability: How are buyers and suppliers collectively adapting to changes in the market, as well as labor and environmental pressures?
My conversation with Kelley Bell, VP of social and environmental impact at Driscoll’s, provided insight into how large food brands are approaching these challenges and what the conversation is like among leading businesses as they work to create shared value with and for their suppliers.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Transparency has become a bit of a buzzword in the fashion industry and judging by the number of times it was mentioned at this year’s Copenhagen Fashion Summit, it is a trend that we are not going to shake anytime soon. Quite the contrary, transparency is reshaping how brands and retailers interact with their suppliers and consumers. But can it really transform the entire fashion industry? C&A Foundation’s Leslie Johnston hosted a panel of experts to find out.