Intel Demonstrates Water Leadership in Semiconductor Industry

| Friday May 17th, 2013 | 1 Comment
Intel's 2012 CR Report is chock-full of impressive accomplishments, but the company still wastes too much water and produces too much chemical waste.

Intel’s 2012 CR Report is chock-full of impressive accomplishments, but the company still wastes too much water and produces too much chemical waste.

Intel Corporation has released its 2012 Corporate Responsibility Report, summarizing the chipmaker’s performance across a range of sustainability activities. The report – the company’s 12th – also provides updates on Intel’s progress toward its 2020 environmental goals.

“Intel’s annual Corporate Responsibility Report allows us to transparently track our progress and aggressively work toward new goals in areas ranging from supply chain responsibility to K-12 education,” said Michael Jacobson, director of corporate responsibility at Intel.

The report documents the company’s corporate responsibility efforts along several fronts, including employee engagement, renewable power, green building design, supply chain responsibility, and education.

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JPMorgan Releases CSR Report Amid Negative Press

| Friday May 17th, 2013 | 3 Comments

JPMC_Summary ReportIf you follow the news there’s a good chance you’ve heard about JPMorgan Chase this week. Yet, there’s little chance the news was about the the company’s new CSR report released earlier this week.

If anything, it was probably related to the upcoming vote on whether to split the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive at JPMorgan Chase, California’s lawsuit against JPMorgan, “accusing the company of falsely signing documents to unlawfully collect credit card debt from thousands of customers,” or follow-ups on  JPMorgan’s “London Whale” fiasco.

Given these and other stories, I was a little suspicious when I opened JPMorgan’s CSR report. I wasn’t sure if I could be persuaded that JPMorgan is a responsible company or working hard to become one, so I decided to set up three criteria to make my final decision on the report as objective as possible: 1. Materiality of the achievements described, 2. Transparency and ability to acknowledge failures, 3. Involvement of external stakeholders in the report.

1. Materiality of the achievements described – The report, just like any other CSR report presents many of the company’s achievements in 2012, from increasing its lending to small businesses by 18 percent over 2011 to providing $6 billion to low- and moderate-income individuals or communities to growing the amount of capital committed to impact investments to nearly $50 million. But how material these achievements are?

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Trader Joe’s Amends Sustainable Seafood Policy, Again

| Friday May 17th, 2013 | 2 Comments

Trader Joe's continues to disappoint environmental activists seeking to pressure the company to improve its seafood sourcing practices.

Trader Joe’s continues to disappoint environmental activists seeking to pressure the company to improve its seafood sourcing practices.


Trader Joe’s most recent update to its sustainable seafood policy has left environmental groups largely skeptical of the grocery chain’s commitment to preserve the planet’s ocean wildlife.

In a statement posted on the company’s website, Trader Joe’s said it has ceased buying swordfish caught in Southeast Asia and is “evaluating sources from U.S. Pacific waters,” which the company acknowledged may result in “gaps in supply before being able to offer swordfish fitting our goal.”

The company also said it will buy its canned tuna from sources with more ethical catching methods and will no longer offer genetically engineered salmon or shrimp from dubious farms.

Its reputation for responsibility notwithstanding, Trader Joe’s has long been the black sheep of the grocery industry for its failure to adopt sustainable sourcing policies for its seafood. In 2009, Greenpeace launched the bruising “Traitor Joe’s” campaign to pressure the company into halting the sale of endangered species and seafood caught with environmentally destructive methods.

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Traditional VCs Get Big Returns from Positive Social Impact Investments

Travis Noland | Friday May 17th, 2013 | 0 Comments

money on treesCan you stand to invest in ways that make the world worse? Mitch Kapor of Kapor Capital and a founder of several household names including Lotus and Mozilla asked this question of an audience of revered angel investors at HUB Venture’s Angel Squared event on May 13th. According to Kapor, nearly all investors have made deals that make them guilty as charged. Even most foundations – the very institutions that are established to do good with our money – “invest 95 percent of their endowments [with professional money managers] to help create problems that the remaining 5 percent [given to program officers] are trying to fix.”

It’s not easy to accept that we may in fact be contributing to behavior that has a negative effect on people and the planet. Yet by simply handing over our money to the stock market or a popular mutual fund, we join the herds to help perpetuate a system that traditionally rewards companies that yield the highest and quickest return. The fact is that many of us who strive to fight climate change and promote values like human health and ethical business are funding big oil, tobacco companies and casinos. Even so, isn’t this a small price to pay for a functioning economic system that provides us with jobs and rewards our investment risks with acceptable returns? After all, what would come of our world if we shifted the focus of our investments from profit to impact?

Tabreez Verjee of Uprising offered the Angel Squared crowd a glimpse into the potential for such a world. Hang onto your hats and turn a minute of your attention to findings from Verjee’s study assessing the performance of recent venture capital investments in companies that are creating positive social impact.

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E-Bikes Continue to Expand in the U.S.

| Friday May 17th, 2013 | 0 Comments
shima

A2B’s top of the Line Shima

In the world of motorized transportation, the global electric bicycle business is a pretty major concern. Navigant research recently published a detailed analysis of the industry, finding that in 2012, sales of e-bikes reached 29.3 million units worldwide, with 90 percent of the market residing in China. Here in America, the market is minute by comparison, with sales of only 53,000 – but manufacturers are increasingly taking an interest in the U.S. market, hoping to build on the potential growth in affordable transportation.

Last month we reported that major bicycle company Specialized was getting in on the action by launching its own e-bike, The turbo – while this month, established electric bicycle maker A2B, is relaunching its range of bikes under the new ownership of India’s Hero Eco Group.

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No Surprise: Monsanto Beats Farmer in Supreme Court Patent Case

Lonnie Shekhtman
| Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 1 Comment

supreme court_scottlengerOn Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in the Bowman v. Monsanto case, which dealt with issues surrounding patent exhaustion—limiting how long patent holders can control the use and sale of an item—and the patenting of living organisms.

The court ruled unanimously in favor of Monsanto, concluding that patent exhaustion does not apply to this case and that Vernon Hugh Bowman violated Monsanto’s seed license.

In delivering the opinion of the court, Justice Elena Kagan wrote:

“Under the doctrine of patent exhaustion, the authorized sale of a patented article gives the purchaser, or any subsequent owner, a right to use or resell that article. Such a sale, however, does not allow the purchaser to make new copies of the patented invention. The question in this case is whether a farmer who buys patented seeds may reproduce them through planting and harvesting without the patent holder’s permission. We hold that he may not.”

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Why Most American Companies Didn’t Sign the Bangladesh Safety Agreement

| Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 3 Comments

SumOfUsEarlier this week, H&M joined other retailers in signing a landmark Bangladesh factory safety plan. The five-year plan, according to USA Today, “requires independent inspections with public reports and signers to pay for mandatory safety upgrades. It also requires companies to cut off business with any factory that refuses to make necessary upgrades, and it gives workers and their unions a role in the process.”

After H&M’s announcement, the Dutch retailer C&A also joined the agreement, as did the British retailers Primark, Marks & Spencer and Tesco, Italian fashion brand Benetton, Spanish retailer Mango, French retailer Carrefour, Canadian grocer Loblaw, Spanish department store chain El Corte Inglés, the Spanish fashion group Inditex (the parent company of Zara).

These companies have joined two others that signed the agreement last year: PVH, the American apparel company which makes clothes under the Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Izod labels, and German retailer Tchibo.

If you look at the list of the companies that signed the agreement so far you can’t help but notice that out of the 12 companies mentioned, only one is American, and it doesn’t include even one major American retailer or fast fashion company.

So what could be the reason that major European companies sign this agreement while American companies like Gap, Walmart, Sears, J.C. Penney and Target refuse to do so? Are European fashion companies and retailers simply more responsible than their American counterparts or is there something else here that can explain this phenomenon?

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Multinationals Agree to Safety Accord for Bangladeshi Factories

| Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 0 Comments
Deadly factory disasters in Bangladesh, like this one that took place on April 25 in Savar, have spurred global apparel companies to improve safety.

Deadly factory disasters in Bangladesh, like this one that took place on April 25 in Savar, have spurred global apparel companies to improve safety.

In the wake of the Rana Plaza factory fire in Bangladesh last month that killed over 1,100 workers in the deadliest industrial accident in nearly three decades, dozens of multinational apparel companies have joined a commitment to improve health and safety measures in the country’s garment factories.

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh asks companies that source goods from Bangladeshi factories to agree to establish a fire and building safety program for a period of five years. Signatories have also agreed to allow the International Labour Organization help implement and enforce the new safety standards.

At least 24 garment and retail brands sourcing from Bangladesh, including H&M, Inditex, PVH, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour, Helly Hansen, Next, Loblaws, and Sainsbury’s have agreed to sign the accord.

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Women in CSR: Angela Parker, Realized Worth

| Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 0 Comments

women-csr-banner
Welcome to our series of interviews with leading female CSR practitioners where we are learning about what inspires these women and how they found their way to careers in sustainability. Read the rest of the series here.

Parker-AngelaTriplePundit: Briefly describe your role and responsibilities, and how many years you have been in the business.

Angela Parker: I am the COO of Realized Worth. I co-founded the company in 2008 and, being a startup, everyone on the team has taken on a myriad of roles and responsibilities throughout the years. My co-founder, Chris Jarvis, and I call our roles “do whatever it takes” – since you really don’t have another option when you’re just starting out. More recently, I’ve been able to shift from the scramble of business development into the more enjoyable role of Client Relations and Business Operations. Overall, my role includes ensuring the execution of all of the day-to-day tasks necessary to achieve the company’s vision, managing the company’s non-senior level employees, and “making things happen.”

3p: How has the sustainability program evolved at your company?

AP: My company works with larger companies to create strategic sustainability programs that mobilize employees. In the early years, we embraced the programs of companies as our own sustainability efforts. Now, as things grow and stabilize at Realized Worth, we are excited to begin the development of our own internal program. Ideally, we’ll model the highly engaging programs we develop with our clients. We’re all in this changing the world thing together – and I’m an idealist. I really do believe that if we’re all taking responsibility for the power and privilege we hold, we’ll see our world shift toward the beautiful. All that to say, watch for Realized Worth’s internal sustainability program soon.

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NPR’s Planet Money Tries Crowdfunding

Lisa Marie Chirico
| Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 1 Comment
Public media embraced the future yesterday with with crowdfunding.

Public media embraced the future yesterday with crowdfunding.

It may be easy for some in the business world to dismiss, but there’s something (quite a bit, actually) to be said about interconnectedness and how it’s driving our new economy. For a case in point, let’s review public media’s collaboration with crowdfunding.

For a typical startup, one of the most challenging problems is raising money. For Planet Money (a co-production of the radio show, This American Life, and NPR) raising cash to make a T-shirt that tells the story of its own creation didn’t require any hand-wringing or sleepless nights. Instead, the show’s producers turned to their roots – the public – for a funding solution.

Enter Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform that simply refers to itself as “a new way to fund creative projects.” According to their website, since the company opened its virtual doors in 2009, more than 41,000 creative projects were funded, and over $611 million was pledged by more than four million people. Kickstarter has clearly tapped into the collective mind and wallet of the public, echoing the popularity of NPR’s programming with listeners nationwide.

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Fast Food Workers Strike – Is a Living Wage Really Possible?

Jan Lee | Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 2 Comments

feat-mcdonaldsThe recent strikes by fast food and retail workers in the U.S. have helped supercharge an old, but familiar, topic: the value of the living wage.

Workers walked off the job last Friday in an effort to force major chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Domino Pizza and Nike to significantly increase the hourly wage for part-time and full-time workers. The protest may be one of the bolder moves to hit the food and retail sector which, for the most part, has been strike- and union-free. It also highlights an uncomfortable topic for industries that have for years been able to skirt the question of how they contribute – or don’t contribute – to improving living conditions for some of the country’s poorest workers.

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SAP Pledges to Hire Adults with Autism For 1% of Workforce

Leon Kaye | Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 1 Comment
SAP and Specialist People will use a "dandelion model" in hiring autistic workers

SAP and Specialist People will use a “dandelion model” in hiring autistic workers

This week SAP announced that one percent of its workforce will eventually be adults diagnosed with a form of autism. That number could eventually be as high as 650 employees spread across 60 of its locations where SAP runs laboratories as well as research and development operations. What started as a pilot project in India will morph into one of the more compassionate, creative and necessary job programs within the private sector.

SAP’s announcement is important for several reasons. If you think it is difficult to pass a a human resource screening because you are over 40; have a spotty resume because you are entrepreneurial, lived abroad or took time off to raise a child or assist an elderly relative; do not have a college degree; or have been unemployed for six months or longer . . . then you can imagine what adults with autism face. Furthermore, SAP’s move is a call to the HR profession to wake up and end its (despicable) practice of finding reasons NOT to hire someone and look at applicants as human beings and find a reason TO hire them instead.

And with one in 88, or as many as one in 50 adults in the U.S. currently coping with a form of autism, SAP’s initiative is a big step forward to meeting the needs of this growing population.

The story starts with Thorkil Sonne, who with his wife, suffered through countless assessments of their now 16-year-old son, and was told their child would “never fit into the labor market despite his skills.”

Sonne decided that his son was not the problem, but it was society, and that it was time to change society for the better. Hence, an eventual partnership with SAP would develop and thrive.

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How Can the U.S. Get More Women in the Boardroom?

| Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 0 Comments

Business DayIt was about this time last year that Facebook was heavily criticized for the absence of women among the seven directors on the board. And it will be a year ago this June that Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer now of Lean In fame and infamy, became the eighth member of Facebook’s board.

This is a small step for a high-profile U.S. company, and small steps seem to be the only kind we’re taking when it comes to gender diversity in the boardroom.

A GMI Ratings survey, 2013 Women on Boards, shows that, since 2009, the percentage of women on boards in the U.S. has risen just 1.9 percent. This is compared to a 3.3 percent increase in Nordic countries and a four percent increase in the rest of developed Europe. When you look at the percentage of women serving on corporate boards in the U.S. (as of 2011 this was approximately 16 percent among the Fortune 500 companies) and consider that alongside our slow growth compared to European countries, you have to wonder, what’s happening?

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Buycott: Transformative App for the Responsible Consumer

| Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 0 Comments

Buycott app identifies corporate parentHere’s something that could turn the retail shopping world on its head: a free new smartphone app called Buycott, which lets you scan bar codes and nail the identity of a product’s corporate parent. Say, for example, that you wanted to boycott paper products that trace their lineage to Koch Industries, the app will flag Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Mardi Gras and Soft ‘n’ Gentle toilet paper as well as Vanity Fair plates and napkins, Brawny towels and Dixie cups.

Buycott also works in the other direction, enabling you to identify products associated with socially responsible companies. You can join campaigns and create your own campaigns through Buycott, too, although from what we’ve seen so far, that might be opening up a case of too much of a good thing.

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SBIO Semi-finalist 2013 Interview: Isidore Electronics Recycling

3p Contributor | Thursday May 16th, 2013 | 0 Comments

By Candice D McLeodlogo-isidore-125x70

Each week leading up to the Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) finals on June 5th, where the runner-up will be decided via live online public vote, we will feature two articles on an SBIO semi-finalists. Meet semi-finalist Isidore Electronics Recycling.

Isidore Electronics Recycling is a social enterprise that is positioning itself as a triple threat. The Los Angeles-based company has three distinct missions – 1) create long-term, environmentally-conscious jobs in Los Angeles, 2) divert electronic waste (e-waste) from Los Angeles landfills, and finally, 3) reduce the recidivism rate in Los Angeles by hiring formerly incarcerated Angelenos as employees.

“Here in California we have two problems – our landfills are overflowing, and our prisons are overflowing. We believe that we can help solve these two problems by creating green job prison reentry programs,” says Kabira Stokes, co-founder of Isidore Electronics Recycling.

Stokes studied both Prison Reentry Policy and Environmental Governance, as a master’s student in Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC), with the intention of finding a way to merge these two interests.

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