Supply Chain

On Monday Gap Inc. released its fifth social and environmental responsibility report. This report includes the company’s accomplishments in 2009-2010, goals for the near future and updates on their work with their supply chain, employees and other stakeholders. Although it is very informative, the report still has some substantial gaps in it, making it a [...]

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Let me make one thing clear from the outset. I have never been a proponent of nuclear power plants. I think there are as many different reasons to avoid them as there are to avoid eating meat. (i.e. medical, political, social, environmental, and economic) Namely: They are dangerous today (e.g. Fukushima) The waste problem will [...]

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Last Wednesday was a red letter day for Nike. First, the company accepted the Greenpeace Detox challenge, beating Adidas in a race Greenpeace instigated between the two on who would be the first to commit to “a toxic free future.”  That evening, FC Barcelona, sponsored by Nike, beat Real Madrid, sponsored by Adidas 3:2 in [...]

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About a month ago, Puma, one of the world’s leading clothing brands, was asked by Reuters if the company would end its business relationship with Yonguor Textile of China. This question was raised after Greenpeace published a report profiling the problem of toxic water pollution resulting from the release of hazardous chemicals by textile factories [...]

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Wind power works. That’s the message Gov. Branstad and the AWEA will send to Republican presidential hopefuls and the media in the run-up to this weekend’s Iowa Straw Poll. The governor signed the first US state renewable energy standard into law in 1983. Today, wind power supplies 20% of Iowa’s electricity and has grown to be an anchor of the state’s economy.

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By: David Jaber Many CSR professionals struggle with setting benchmarks, measuring progress toward goals and evaluating past performance. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are some tips to get you started: Good metrics should be: – relevant. If your goal is to ‘improve public understanding of environmental justice,’ the metric needs to be [...]

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Think that California SB657 doesn’t apply to your company? This post clears up misconceptions as to who is required to disclose and suggests reasons why SB657 should be the catalyst for an enhanced program to fight Human Trafficking and Slavery in your Supply Chain.

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Turning computers off, or configuring them to sleep when inactive, can be a very simple way to reduce energy use. But because the computer manufacturing process itself has a significant environmental impact, arbitrarily turning computers off when idle is not necessarily the best way to amortize this impact over the life of the equipment.

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Ontario’s JBI has signed an exclusive 10-year agreement with Rock-Tenn to convert waste plastic from paper mills and Materials Recovery Facilities into liquid fuels. JBI’s patent pending, energy efficient Plastic2Oil technology offers plastic waste to oil conversion efficiency as high as 90% with the resulting off-gas used to power the process.

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While battles in Washington DC take a breather, there is no end in sight for one of the main culprits exacerbating budget problems.  Healthcare, in the form of Medicare and Medicaid costs, eats up about 21% of the federal budget and is projected to grow substantially in the years ahead.  Overall, the Congressional Budget Office [...]

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Yesterday my colleague Phil Covington discussed UPS’ 2010 sustainability report. One of the company’s achievements is the first completion of a map of water risk to UPS facilities worldwide, using the WBCD Global Water Tool. Why did UPS do it? Steve Leffin, Director of Global Sustainability at UPS explains: “[in terms of priority]…after carbon comes [...]

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What do you think happens when you toss a plastic drink bottle in the recycle bin? Another gets made from it? Sadly, that hasn’t historically been true. If that plastic is repurposed it is more likely to end up as a fleece jacket or piece of treated lumber than a new bottle. But, bottle to [...]

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FedEx’s global citizen efforts are an example of how performance and sustainability do not have to compete, but in fact, together are integral if companies are to succeed at a time of scorching global competition, rising prices, with the added demands for an improved quality of life facing diminishing resources.

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Major virgin paper manufacturers suggest that high recycled content is not appropriate for fine printing and writing papers, based on misleading carbon footprint analysis. Verso and Sappi Paper carbon footprint analysis shows the same or higher carbon emissions with increased recycled content – based on making recycled paer at mills designed to make virgin paper. The most comprehensive and peer-reviewed lifecycle analysis of recycle vs. virgin paper manufacturing shows that the opposite is true – making fine paper from waste paper is a more efficient process than making paper from trees, using less energy, less water, creating less effluent, and generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

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Two major trends in today’s world: concern about energy consumption and the ever-increasing use of computing power were bound to collide and indeed they have.

As a result, nearly all computer and data center equipment manufacturers are developing more energy-efficient hardware. Indeed, many manufacturers are stretching to reach increasingly stringent Energy Star standards.

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Last week mega-brewer SABMiller released their 2011 Sustainable Development Summary Report. The company, which earned $5.04B up 15% from last year on revenues of $28.3B, up 7%, sold 218million hectolitres (5.76 billion gallons) of beer, up 2% from the previous year. The report’s language shows a good understanding of sustainable development and a good awareness [...]

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FEMA, the Federal Office of Emergency Management, estimates that up to 40 percent of businesses never re-open when a natural disaster strikes their community. One obvious part of the problem is the extent of physical damage to the property, but in many cases supply chain disruptions and lack of preparedness can be the leading causes. [...]

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I recently had a chance to chat with Carl Eckersley, Director, Environmental Product Stewardship, Personal Systems Group, at HP.  He provided insight not only on designing for environmental sustainability at HP by taking account the entire life cycle (LCA) of the product, but also how the electronics industry has joined forces to push forward the human dimension of sustainability. [...]

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Many consumers these days are in search of a way to not only support, but become more personally connected to a sustainable supply chain which provides them with products that do good. The Hoop Fund, recent winner of Hub Bay Area’s Venture funding, was formed with this type of conscious consumer in mind.

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This post is part of a series on Stakeholder Engagement sponsored by Jurat Software. By Nicole Sherwin Companies are only beginning to uncover the best practices for engaging suppliers on sustainability.  With suppliers providing the major inputs for the operations of businesses, it would only make sense that companies would be eager to engage this [...]

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By Larry Bohlen The newest Fair Trade standard, gold and associated precious metals, made its debut a little more than a year ago. It promises to improve social and environmental conditions for millions of small and artisanal gold miners around the world. Brilliant Earth, the California-based ethical jeweler was one of the first to offer [...]

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In a world where fossil fuels are increasingly expensive and less desirable, it makes sense to unleash the innovation of one’s best engineers on developing new materials – free from fossil constraints. This goes double for a car company looking for not only new materials, but ways to make traditional materials both lighter and stronger. [...]

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Earlier this month at Sustainable Brands ’11,I interviewed Eric Ostern, Unilever’s Senior Manager of Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations, about the company’s Sustainable Living Plan. In my wrap-up, I noted that I had two questions left unanswered. Lucky for me — and you — the answers landed in my inbox yesterday. Here they are: 3P: [...]

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Freight handling stakeholders in port areas and the Environmental Protection Agency have launched an initiative that’s designed to help clear the air in the nation’s port areas. It’s called the EPA SmartWay Drayage Program and it has potential for a nationwide solution to port pollution. It builds on clean truck programs that have been around [...]

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Sherwin-Williams Company recently received an EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for a new paint formulation that uses both soybean oil and recycled plastic bottles. Since introducing the new formula last year, Sherwin-Williams says it has used 320,000 pounds of soybean oil, 250,000 pounds of PET, and eliminated 1,000 barrels of oil. It also eliminated 800,000 pounds of VOCs, or volatile organic compounds.

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Many companies still consider stakeholder engagement a good idea they’ll consider sometime in the future when they’ll have the time and resources. But for Gap Inc. it became clear about a decade ago, after being targeted several times due to labor violation accusations, that not only they have to start interacting with stakeholders, but they also have to do it right.

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DHL Supply Chain is adding a new offering to its Go Green menu of services, a dedicated waste and recycling arm in the United Kingdom, called DHL Envirosolutions. The service aims to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and meet environmental and sustainability targets. It’s a full package of environmentally-related services, sort of a one-stop enviro [...]

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Last week at Sustainable Brands ’11 in Monterey, I had a chance to sit down with Eric Ostern, Unilever’s Senior Manager of Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations to learn about some of the progress Unilever has made since the launch of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan last fall. 3p: What distinguishes the Unilever Sustainable Living [...]

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By Kristie Middleton The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled last week against Columbus, Ohio-based restaurant chain Bob Evans, requiring the company to allow shareholders to vote on a proposal submitted by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). The HSUS’ proposal encourages Bob Evans to begin phasing in cage-free eggs and will be [...]

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Fair Trade USA and Textile Exchange may transform the global textile industry’s approach towards supply chain management and responsible sourcing.  Yesterday the two organizations announced a strategic partnership that will offer both emerging and leading brands the opportunity to support cotton farming communities and source more sustainable and ethical fibers.   Textile Exchange has already [...]

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