COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
It may seem odd to hear about thousands of brook, brown and rainbow trout living in a paper mill, but it is certainly no fish tale in the traditional sense.
Located near Pennsylvania’s Allegheny forest on the headwaters of the scenic Clarion River, Domtar’s Johnsonburg mill boasts a long and rich history of papermaking — and more recently — of raising fish to help support local rivers.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
In an unprecedented move, Clarins Fragrance Group is blazing new transparency trails, with brands MUGLER and AZZARO committing to produce perfume alcohol in a way that meets rigorous environmental and social requirements under a groundbreaking “made in France” program.
The key aim of the “responsible alcohol” project is to promote biodiversity in agricultural practices. Other benefits of the program include local production, which will create a short circuit between harvest and transformation sites.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
Want to subvert the traditional apparel supply chain? You must possess a “little bit of craziness,” according to Giulio Bonazzi, CEO and president of Aquafil, an Italian company that transforms abandoned fishing nets and castoff bits of carpet into good-as-new nylon fibers. Speaking on a panel at the Textile Sustainability Conference in Washington, D.C., last week, Bonazzi noted that his propensity for seeing goldmines in landfills hasn’t always drawn plaudits. In fact, he was often ridiculed.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
Customer experience design is the forgotten dimension of sustainability. We need to transcend what have now become well-defined approaches and definitions of customer experience, to help companies understand why their offerings are no longer resonating with people, and how to develop a profound understanding of the lived experience of every single person whose lives our organisations touch. This understanding is just as applicable to those businesses and organisations developing sustainable products, services, technologies and initiatives.
NEW METRICS -
Part Four in a 10-Part Series by Reporting 3.0. See previous parts below.
NEW METRICS -
“There is no sustainable business in an unsustainable world.”
This saying — a kind of Reporting 3.0 “motto” — is simultaneously contrarian and common sense: contrarian in the sense that it counters the prevailing tendency in the corporate sustainability field to focus on incremental progress toward sustainability at the company (“micro”) level. Common sense in that sustainability applies holistically (not just atomistically), such that company-level impacts “roll up” to the systemic (“macro”) level.
PRESS RELEASE -
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, today announced the distribution of 21 grants totaling $120,000 from The UPS Foundation for the 2017 Keep America Beautiful/UPS Community Tree and Recovery Tree Planting Grants program. The grant recipients’ projects will result in more than 1,200 trees being planted in support of locally-relevant initiatives.
PRESS RELEASE -
Ford Motor Company and Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing network and largest provider of campus car sharing, today announced that as part of their long-standing collaboration, the companies will plant 20,869 trees on Saturday, April 29, through One Tree Planted as a result of their college Earth Month campaign.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Purpose-driven US outdoor clothing giant Patagonia is calling for business leaders to back regenerative organic agriculture, claiming that certain textile standards are “not going far enough.”
PRESS RELEASE -
PepsiCo Latin America and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Latin America announced "Water for the Planet," a new collaboration that will work to replenish five different watersheds for the urban areas of Mexico City, Monterrey, São Paulo, Guatemala City and Bogotain the next seven years.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
It’s time to look beyond sustainability. As a term, it just isn’t enough anymore. Sustainability orients us to a zero sum equation, trying to maintain the status quo. But what exactly are we trying to sustain? What kind of value does that create – for ourselves, for our clients, or for our communities?
PRESS RELEASE -
Pollinators – bees, bats, butterflies and more – may be small in size, but they have a huge impact on our lives. Scientists estimate one out of every three bites of food we eat exist because of them. Without pollinators, our diets would be limited. Companies, however, can play a role in protecting them.
PRESS RELEASE -
Eastman team members are committed to investing in their communities, no matter where they are. At the Kohtla-Järve (KJ) site, team members have been involved in a number of endeavors that have made an impact in that small Estonian community.
Eastman began observing Earth Day events in 2013 in KJ. Volunteers recently used their time and talent to continue a tree planting project that was started last year.
In a commitment to environmental stewardship, 10 trees were planted last year in front of the administrative building, and another 10 trees were added this year.
PRESS RELEASE -
At Timberland we love trees and we have a vision of a world where children are more connected to nature. And what a better time to plant a tree than when school starts again, after a nice summer break?
From August 15th to September 15th Timberland, in partnership with Pur Projet, will plant a tree for every pair of kids shoes sold, and the geo-localization tool will allow every child to locate on a map where his tree will be planted.
All trees will be planted in Transylvania, where landscapes have been marked by extensive agriculture and original forests have long been cleared.
PRESS RELEASE -
7 million trees planted in 52 countries around the world
Foundation to award millions in environmental grants
US 08/31/16
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Kingfisher — parent company of European home-improvement chains B&Q, Castorama, Brico Depot, Screwfix and Koçtaş — has published its Sustainability Report 2015/16, which details its progress towards becoming a restorative, Net Positive business.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
The Regenerative Business Alliance — a subsidiary of the Carol Sanford Institute (CSI) — has launched the search for its 1st annual Regenerative Business Prizewinner. This prize will recognize a business that is taking on practices of enlightened disruption, drawing on the regenerative principles of living systems.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The purpose of business is changing. While historically, business students have been taught that the purpose of business solely is to increase investors’ profits — known as the Friedman Doctrine — the most successful brands are searching for a deeper meaning. Defining and activating purpose in business was the key theme of Tuesday evening’s plenaries at Sustainable Brands 2016.
While Millennials often receive credit for compelling companies to embrace higher ideals, this actually is something all generations of demanded, said Shannon Schuyler, Chief Purpose Officer at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). However, because Millennials are such a large demographic and constantly communicate via technology, their voices are being heard.
NEW METRICS -
On the week’s theme of Activating Purpose, ThriveAbility Foundation co-founders Robin Wood, Ralph Thurm and Bill Baue led a Monday morning workshop on “thriveability,” their model for a regenerative, multi-capital economy.
PRESS RELEASE -
Toyota is Ready to Catch Some Rays in Plano
Toyota’s New Plano Campus Will Get 25 Percent of Power from the Sun
Plano, Texas and San Diego, Calif. (June 6, 2016) – It might not be the sunshine state, but Texas gets its fair share of sun. And when Toyota moves into its new North American headquarters next year, the automaker plans to “catch a ray.”