A colleague here at FD Element forwarded a New York Times Op-Ed on the usual suspects that really caught my eye today. The article struck me as unusual - both with its street smarts and nuanced analysis - for two reasons.
Have you measured your corporate greenhouse gas emissions?” is so simplistic, that a yes answer could mean many things. Scope 1? Scope 2? Have they taken on the challenge of addressing the full supply chain?
GreenBiz.com offers some advice for getting the most out of the questions, if you are a Walmart supplier that is just beginning to think about environmental issues.
Just a couple of weeks ago, soya traders agreed to extend a moratorium on buying soya linked to Amazon destruction. However, as discussed in January, 80% of Amazon deforestation is from cattle farming. With continued involvement of major international organizations and companies — Greenpeace, McDonald’s, Nike, Wal-Mart, and Carrefour — a giant leap in protection of the Amazon was made a few days ago.
International companies such as McDonald’s are happy, and companies like Nike, Wal-Mart and Carrefour are asking for more.
This column highlights the top economic stories of the week.
Many Japanese, want what amounts to a revolution in a politically risk-averse nation: the ousting of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for more than a half-century. More on this story here.
The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores is on a mission to determine the social and environmental impact of every item it puts [...]
As the Economist wages the largest debate about bio-fuels in memory, another market opportunity appears to be showing itself in the bio production space as well. Bio plastics have been sprouting up in various applications, but a recent study puts the total market of green packaging at $43.9Billion by 2013. The highest growth gains in this market will be in bio plastics for reasons of price stability and increased capacity the report said. Bio plastics will, it is reported, preform at an annual growth rate of thirteen percent. This spells big news for an industry which currently holds only about .1% percent market share.
Part of the reason for this growth will be due to policy changes which restrict the use of some of the most environmentally damaging materials, but the largest effect seems to be coming from packaging producers themselves. Corporate social responsibility leader Coca Cola has developed a new bottle which is composed of around thirty percent bio plastics with the intended goal of developing a one hundred percent renewable option in the future. Likewise, Wal-Mart has begun sourcing toys and children’s goods made from bio plastics.
The draw is that decomposition coupled with less petroleum based material seems to be better environmentally, but some counter this analysis. According to the Guardian Newspaper, foods producers in the UK such as Innocent Drinks have chosen to stop using bio plastics due to lack of recycling options for the products at present. Likewise there have been claims that bio plastics can be environmentally damaging on par with their petroleum based counterparts. Recent innovations have made it so less energy is needed to create bio plastics and thus it seems the growth of the sector makes environmental sense. Followers of Bill McDonough’s cradle to cradle concept often tout the re-usability and closed-loop life cycle of these products, while others derided their historically slow decomposition rates. Some applications in the burgeoning bio plastics space are:
Earth Day takes place this April 22nd.
As a green leader or entrepreneur, the day begs the question, what will you be doing?
In a mad public relations world that anchors on events as a tangible “touch point” in lieu of diving into the messier (and harder to track or control) world of ‘awareness’, Earth Day is one of many symbols (i.e. polar bears) we use when speaking to some of the starker and concrete practices of the planet’s ecological anxieties.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc announced plans to test two different hybrid Class-8 trucks and three different types of alternative fuels in an effort to double their fleet’s fuel-efficiency.
Environmental activists were joined by Vallejoans for Responsible Growth and California Healthy Communities Network in their opposition to the plans from the start. Due to their vocal opposition, Vellejo’s city council forced a $700,000 independent environmental investigation into the plans in 2007.
Last June, I asked if it was “crunch time” for Wal-Mart’s sustainability initiatives? After all, the economy was faltering, and consumers were focused on saving money more than saving the planet. After subsequent economic events (think Lehman Brothers, the car makers, and 2.6 million jobs lost), that question seems even more pertinent.So, when I pulled up the recorded webcast of Monday’s Sustainability Milestone Meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas, I was very interested to see what Mike Duke, who will take over the reigns of the company on February 2nd, had to say about the topic in relationship to the current economic climate.
Of course, this meeting was “star-studded” in a fashion: no Queen Latifah or American Idol winners, but famed architect and cradle-to-cradle proponent William McDonough was the keynote speaker for the event. While I’m always interested to hear what McDonough had to say, Duke was the one to watch at this meeting. The move towards sustainability has been a keystone of the second half of outgoing CEO Lee Scott’s tenure at the helm; would Duke give any indication that he didn’t share his predecessor’s passion for greening the company?
June’s most often associated with weddings, summer vacations, and Father’s Day… as you can see by the headline, we went in some other directions that month, too.Summer was here, and the living was sustainable… and here are some of our best efforts.
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