IPS reports that in January, Sierra Leone became one of the first West-African countries to launch an online mining database. The database is said to increase transparency of the country’s mining operations. The system will contain all data on mineral rights, statuses and payments recorded by the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources that pertain to [...]

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Safeway recently announced that the Safeway brand Skipjack (chunk-light) canned tuna will be responsibly caught using free-school purse-seine methods. This method of using purse-seiners spots tuna schools by using radar and sonar. The company will transition to this method by the end of the year. The tuna fishing industry is addressing the negative ecosystem impacts [...]

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The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which has been collecting GHG emissions data from companies for nearly a decade, recently released a report which revealed that there is a gap that exists between the carbon reduction performance of companies and that of their suppliers. The study, conducted in partnership with Accenture, was conducted with 50 CDP member organizations including L’Oréal, Philips and Walmart, and more than 1,800 of their suppliers. It found that while 43 percent of companies surveyed have achieved year-over-year reductions in their carbon emissions, only 28 percent of their suppliers have done so.

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Apple released details of its supply chain performance, via an extensive “Progress Report.”  Our friends at Supply Chain Matters provided a link to the report, and to a list of all of Apple’s suppliers.

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When Apple, Inc. – or for that matter, any other company – publishes the names of its suppliers, it’s a pretty good sign that the company is putting pressure on its supply chain to up the ante on sustainable practices. But the pressure doesn’t just come from the company alone. In effect, a supplier list [...]

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From the development of new urban mobility technologies, waste diversion to a commitment to greener cars, the new GM going forward is a new company as its CSR report reveals.

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Source4Style is using the Internet to facilitate commerce between two groups that are disconnected in the global marketplace – the leading sustainable suppliers and the independent designers and apparel brands that are trying to find them.

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Kraft Foods, the second largest food producer in the world, recently announced the results of a survey measuring its climate impacts, land and water use. The study was intended to provide a more thorough picture of the company’s complete environmental footprint, going beyond direct use and emissions to look at the entire supply chain. The project [...]

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Last month in Mozambique, a local SABMiller subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique, launched the first ever commercial scale beer based on cassava.

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The Chiquita banana company has positioned itself as a sustainability leader since the 1990s, and now it is stepping up its game with a promise to work with trucking companies to eliminate the use of petroleum fuel from Canada’s tar sands oil fields. While the move may expose Chiquita to some political flak – just [...]

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McDonald’s will soon roll out a new ad campaign that will feature the sage and long time American icon, the farmer. Lettuce and potato growers will see TV time.

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Cisco is a company that already has a robust CSR program and their focus for 2012 is conflict minerals. This week they released their CSR report for 2011 highlighting some of their achievements and plans for the future. Since the Dodd-Frank act was passed, conflict minerals have become a focus for many electronic companies. Cisco [...]

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Hasbro was one of the companies to drop Asia Pulp and Paper as their supplier recently. Now with the launch of their first CSR report, they have pledged to remove PVC from all new core toy and game packaging by 2013. PVC causes a lot of health and environmental problems because it contains phthalates as well [...]

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Both Nike and Puma adopted a strategy of creating a movement around reframing the word “sustainability”. Although both movements were targeted towards demographically similar markets, the respective target customers have diverging sensibilities. What will be most interesting to see is how the PR of 2011 develops into the actions of 2012.

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This year, Opportunity Green showcased some of the most innovative companies working in the corporate social responsibility space. Leaders from IBM, Starbucks, KPMG, Dell, and Patagonia shared their biggest sustainability challenges and offered solutions. Below is a compilation of some of the innovative approaches they are using to make progress on sustainability issues for their organizations.

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In the past twenty years, the jewellery industry has faced numerous issues including blood diamonds, conflict gems and dirty gold. The industry and customers were also largely unaware of where their raw material came from and seldom cared. However, a lot has changed over the past few years and several jewelers have started to take note of these requirements as customers became [...]

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When you want some fresh produce, it’s not too hard logistically to get it. You can go to the nearest local farmers market, join a CSA program, and if you’re lucky, you might even find it in your local supermarket. But what happens when you’re a $39 billion sales food service company with approximately 400,000 [...]

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Staxxon, a development-stage start-up based in Montclair, NJ, has developed a vertical folding container. The Staxxon system allows a standard 20-foot container to fold flat into a mere wisp of its usual footprint. It folds into itself much like those white cardboard packing boxes used for storage and on moving day.

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By Craig Isakow McKinsey has a unique ability to frame a conversation.  During the last decade when a price on greenhouse gases seemed imminent, every Fortune 500, government or startup’s GHG strategic plan featured McKinsey’s GHG Cost Curve.  While the argument for carbon abatement may have fallen out of favor, leading companies discovered that sustainability [...]

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In many ways, a company is only as green as its supply chain. But how in the world do you control that? Not an easy question to answer, but a good place to start would be measuring the footprint of your supply chain as it currently stands. After all, what gets measured can be managed.

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Nike and its VP of Sustainable Business and Innovation, Hannah Jones, are turning the idea of how to approach sustainability on its head.

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By Stephen Huie, MBA 2012 In recent years, organizations have developed increasingly creative and large scale supply chain initiatives to deal with increasing energy costs, a recessionary environment, and consumer demand for sustainable processes. To capitalize on this evolution in practice, academic institutions must also make a conscious effort to train the next generation of [...]

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Is it possible that a memo is going around among CEOs instructing them to engage more seriously with stakeholders in general and NGOs specifically? Just look at the list – Adidas, Nike, Puma and H&M have all made commitments to eliminate all toxic pollution throughout their supply chain following the Greenpeace Detox campaign. The Rainforest Action [...]

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Add H&M to apparel manufacturers including Adidas, Nike, and PUMA that are promising to eliminate toxins from their products while they clean up their supply chains.

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Waste from food packaging is a tough sustainability nut to crack.  The materials are often contaminated and therefore difficult to recycle, and return-logistics are messy and expensive.  However, with determination and supply chain partnerships, it is possible.  In this interview, Harv Singh of Whole Foods Market talks about how St. Benoit yogurt has successfully obtained [...]

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Medtronic issued its 2011 Corporate Citizenship update, which focuses on supply chain management, communicating with its global workforce, and balancing environmental responsibility with its goals to boost growth.

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PUMA’s Suede has been re-birthed with the company’s introduction last week of the “Re-Suede,” redesigned with mostly recycled materials.

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By Pankaj Arora How do you make the best use of your used clothes? Uniqlo shows how – in a way that makes you proud to be doing your part. Besides making affordable, accessible and fashionable clothing for all, Uniqlo brand, a part of Fast Retainling group based in Japan, is a actually a fast [...]

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Deciding to operate in sustainable and socially responsible manner is one thing, but for many companies, knowing how to achieve that goal is quite another. That’s why the OECD’s “Sustainable Manufacturing Toolkit” is a useful place for businesses that are serious about implementing sustainability measures to start. It helps answer the age-old question: What do [...]

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By Richard J. Crespin Last week, President Obama laid out a modest plan to nudge job growth. I don’t fault his modesty.  Given the government’s finances, he can’t do much.  Real, lasting growth has to come from the private sector. “What makes the current situation so hard is that we’re trying to solve a long-term [...]

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