Search

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting is a big undertaking, but companies are realizing the benefits, encouraged by demands from consumers and investors. But once all of the reporting work is done, that information needs to be communicated to the public.

This is a tricky task. If companies boast about their strategy or overstate their performance — whether intentionally or accidentally — they run the risk of being labelled a greenwasher, a tag that could bring financial and regulatory consequences along with lost trust among stakeholders. Stay too quiet — also called greenwhispering — and companies can appear ambivalent about ESG issues. 

It’s a difficult balancing act but a necessary one.  Effectively communicating ESG performance is vital to avoid throwing away the hard work a business puts toward developing an ESG strategy and measuring performance.

Why is it important to communicate ESG performance?

More than ever before, consumers and investors want to support brands committed to sustainability and social impact. A study by Kantar showed that the brands consumers see as having a positive impact grow at twice the rate of other brands. Today, demonstrating that your brand is a responsible corporate citizen is necessary to ensure long-term sustainability and growth.


Research technology business Glow measures consumer perceptions of companies and their ESG efforts. Their data shows that 25 percent of consumers have changed brands because of perceived ESG performance, with the brands deemed to be most sustainable gaining twice as many switchers as the average brand. 

There are plenty of stats to show that both consumers and investors care about ESG performance and are willing to put their money where their mouths are. Being able to communicate your ESG progress and performance is a vital part of doing business today.

Despite companies’ tireless efforts, however, only 12 percent of brands have “top of mind” social issue associations with consumers. Findings like these indicate that communicating to consumers that you are sustainability-minded and conscious of your wider social impact is easier said than done. 

How to communicate ESG performance

First things first: Companies need a strong ESG strategy, complete with attainable goals and a commitment to measure progress, or they’ll have little to communicate. As companies get started, they’d be wise to focus on transparency and authenticity, first and foremost. No matter if the results are good, bad or ugly, staying transparent and authentic is the name of the game. It’s not only the easiest course of action to maintain, but also the best way to build trust among stakeholders. 

Being transparent means showing where your business is on its ESG journey, as well as where it plans to go in the future. This should be complete with intermediary goals and a commitment to keep stakeholders in the loop about progress. Authenticity includes balancing attainable short-term goals with more aggressive science-based targets that provide a realistic path forward. Any business can say it wants to be net zero by 2050, but having a concrete plan to get there is what it is all about.

Allowing consumers and investors to have an unobstructed view of all things ESG, whether good or bad, will build trust, demonstrate commitment and motivate your internal team to strive for continual improvement.

Telling an ESG story

While transparency is important, and indeed it’s increasingly required by investors and regulators, dumping data on consumers isn’t likely to be effective. For ESG data to resonate strongly, it has to be presented in a relatable way.

This is where the importance of ESG storytelling comes into play — some method of relaying your goals, intentions and progress in a way that speaks to consumers. 

When telling an ESG story, the subject of the story should be the impact, not the program. Rather than spouting numbers on how much money is being donated where, or new hiring policies that favor traditionally underserved communities, bring the people those initiatives are affecting to the front and center.

Consumers can relate to one person’s story. Piles of stats and data are valuable, but they can be difficult to strike a chord with your audience.

Where to communicate ESG performance

In today’s technological wonderland, it isn’t easy to know where to focus your messaging. Do you go for earned news coverage or paid advertising in print or TV? And what about other ways to reach your desired audiences? 

According to data from Glow, consumers in particular receive the majority of their ESG information from news coverage, advertising and social media. When asked where they would like to receive ESG information, consumers brought another preferred medium into the mix: product packaging.  

Depending on what your company sells, it can be difficult to tell your entire ESG story on a package. But combining different media while focusing on the same story or campaign will help consumers and other stakeholders begin to associate your brand with your chosen cause. Narrow your focus to something that your customers will relate with, and spread that message.

What does effective ESG communication look like?

Dove, a giant in the hair and skin care industry, has advocated for body positivity for nearly 20 years — and that hard work and consistent focus is paying off with consumers. 

In a 2019 survey from DoSomething Strategic, respondents were asked to associate brands with a specific cause, and 53 percent of respondents associated Dove with body positivity, the highest association with a single cause of all brands surveyed.

Dove’s focus on a story and social cause that resonated with customers has made it a consistent favorite among conscious consumers. Glow’s ESG brand tracking data shows that Dove is performing significantly above average for grocery brands in the U.S. driven by recognition for its body positivity campaigning as seen in open-ended comments about Dove such as, “they promote body positivity,” “they support women’s issues” and “they have a girl's positive self-esteem program.”

Dove’s leadership clearly understands their market and builds the brand’s story around a social cause that is relevant to their products. Dove's ESG initiatives also extend to other areas such as forest restoration and reducing plastic use in packaging, but the brand narrowed most of its consumer communication to the body positivity cause — and it has resonated strongly with consumers.

The bottom line

Communicating and storytelling is a vital part of ESG, but it is nothing without a strong ESG strategy. Committing to transparency and authenticity in all aspects of your company’s ESG journey, and finding a story to tell that will resonate with your consumers, is the recipe to building positive public perception.

This article series is sponsored by Glow and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image credit: Parradee/Adobe Stock

There’s no shortage of “vegan” shoes on the market, but one design house is determined to make vegan footwear the norm, not simply an alternative to leather. Løci is achieving more than reinventing how shoes are made — the brand is blurring the lines between “sneaker” and “shoe.” Celebs and their fans are taking notice: One of the designs, the Løci Nine, has sold out eight times since it made its recent debut.

To start, Løci says it’s determined to stop the use of any animal products within the fashion industry, and it seeks to stem the flow of plastic into the world’s oceans. That pledge is both seen and felt in the uppers of all Løci shoes: they don’t appear to be leather, but they don’t look like your run-of-the-mill canvas or polyester-based sneakers, either. The shoes offer a strength, and a sheen, that together tempt its owners to wear them with jeans — or even with a suit.

Then, there are the shoe’s insoles, and again Løci stands out. The brand uses cork, which under the feet feel sturdy yet soft, secure yet lightweight. Løci says it also uses cork as it is hypoallergenic and allows the foot to mold itself comfortably within the shoe.

Under the insole, Løci says it only uses natural rubber for its shoes’ soles. Bamboo and recycled nylon comprise the lining of the sneakers. Even the eyelets, through which the shoes are laced, have sustainability street cred: They’re made from recycled brass.

Beyond the design of the shoes, Løci seeks out stylists that share the brand’s sustainability mindset. Designers Ilaria Urbinati and Laura Sophie Cox, for example, have recently released an ecologically-focused unisex shoe collection — and more collabs will roll out over the next several months.

So far, the company says it’s prevented 1 million plastic bottles from ending up in the world’s oceans; each pair of shoes contains the equivalent of 20 PET bottles. Løci also donates 10 percent of the profits from all shoes sold online to various wildlife and environmental nonprofits. 

Løci and other disruptors in the fashion sector are confronting many uphill battles. According to the brand, 8 million pieces of plastic make their way into the world’s oceans daily; more than a billion animals are killed annually to satisfy the world’s demand for leather; in turn, cattle ranching is the largest cause of deforestation and the loss of animal habitat. But considering the A-listers who are snapping up these shoes, Løci could succeed at rounding up some voices who can amplify how the fashion industry is wreaking havoc on the planet — and show how better products can help curb these disturbing trends.

Image credit: Leon Kaye

Last week, TriplePundit profiled the backstory of Colombia’s “Lost City,” Ciudad Perdida, an archeological site that’s important culturally and spiritally to local Indigenous communities. Dating back to 800 CD (AD), Ciudad Perdida predates world-reknowned Machu Picchu by more than 600 years. Today, the 80-acre site that is part of a national park is difficult to visit, and that’s by design. Ciudad Perdida’s remoteness and its serene grounds, when compared to easy access of its counterpart in Perú, have led some to call it the “Anti-Machu Picchu.”

The archeological wonders and setting within the lush green jungles that cover Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains make Ciudad Perdida well worthy of a visit. But the 1,200-year-old site also stands out as it offers a compelling case study of what occurs when local Indigenous communities are finally allowed to manage their ancestral lands without any outside interference.

For the Indigenous people who live in the area surrounding Ciudad Perdida — the Arhuaco (or Ijka), Kankuamo, Kogi and Wiwa — tourism's results have been promising, with schools and infrastructure improvements among the successes. Though, as with any case when a large influx of money starts to roll in, there are some pitfalls as well.

Management of Ciudad Perdida is by and for local communities 

Though several tour operators can book trips to Ciudad Perdida, they are limited as to what kind of itineraries they can offer and how long visitors can take to complete the 17-mile (as far as the crow flies) hike into the ancient site. Stays are limited to three or four nights, and the price is the same for everyone: Last month, the price was 1.4 million Colombian pesos (just under $300). Visitors are divided into groups of 10 to 12 people, with few exceptions.

Do the math, and one can see how the revenues can quickly add up. But it’s not only about money being funneled into a local bank account: Everyone who works across the operations that keep the trails to Ciudad Perdida busy are Indigenous people from the area or, as often the case with a trekking group’s translator, they are from Santa Marta or nearby towns. In addition to the guides, locals also work as cooks, 4x4 or motorcycle drivers, mule drivers, porters or clerks at the kiosks alongside the trails. The work may not be as remunerative as it was when other commodities were the backbone (and bane) of the local economy in decades past. Nevertheless, based on the number of gringos traipsing to and from Ciudad Perdida, clearly guiding and supplying visitors has created steady work.

Investing in local communities

For someone who is hiking toward Ciudad Perdida during the rainy season — as was 3p’s timing when we visited last month — the muddy trails and surroundings will lead to an assumption that investments aren’t unfolding within local communities too quickly. But such thinking overlooks the town growing out of El Mamey, the local community where surface roads from northern Colombia’s National Route 90 end; in addition, the town serves as the trailhead where the hike to the archeological site begins. Judging by all the 4x4s, motorcycles, storefronts and occasional wireless internet, visitors’ money is being put to use.

Further, while organizations and NGOs such as the Global Heritage Fund offer support and can advise as to what kinds of improvements could be made in the region, in the end how the money is spent is up to the local communities.

For now, the focus is on building schools. Trekkers making their way to Ciudad Perdida will pass one community school, at which students not only learn a standard education curriculum, but are also taught about their history and heritage. Another school far removed from the sites trails is for young men who are believed to have potential as serving as a mamo, the spiritual leader who is tasked with overseeing and protecting Ciudad Perdida.

Future challenges: Building wealth, ensuring social impact and mitigating environmental risk

Certainly, future investments could thrive across the communities surrounding Ciudad Perdida. For example, plastic trash exacts its own tolls on the local environment. Just as all supplies have to be hauled into the area by mules, the same goes for anything that needs to be removed — and that includes plastic bottles. Though the fee to trek into Ciudad Perdida includes “rehydration,” the reality is that sometimes the water filters at the park’s base camps didn’t work: The need to hydrate constantly, even during the rainy season, left visitors little choice but to purchase bottled water or other drinks. Though it was apparent that the mules departing Ciudad Perdida were carrying sacks almost as large as the ones entering, not all trash makes it out; a fair share of plastic bottles could be seen strewn on the sides of the trails. An investment in a closed-loop recycling system would be a branding dream for any clean tech startup, but that will not occur unless locals give the green light.

The same goes for any systems that could help minimize all environmental impacts on Ciudad Perdida. Microgrids that could keep the base camps’ lights on at night, or water filtration systems that could decrease demand for bottled water, would also show promise. Sustainable farming practices could also thrive in the mountains and hills surrounding Ciudad Perdida. But for now, such ideas come up against centuries of mistrust and disruptions that for too long got in the way of these local communities’ ability to carry on, live their lives and mind their own business without any outsiders’ meddling in their affairs. 

Today, the rush of visitors to Ciudad Perdida keeps generating economic opportunities, which for the most part have proven to be both steady and sustainable. But one point about which our guides constantly reminded us was one result of the region’s tourism boom: drinking, and day drinking, are now a common pastime. As one of our guides told us, “You’ll see these guys day drinking daily, and that’s what happens when there’s always money around.”

Of course, the Indigenous in Colombia are hardly the first people to treat themselves when economic times are good: Just look at what occurred in San Francisco during the Gold Rush era or today in the Permian basin, and both of those examples illustrate debauchery in comparison to what is going on now in Colombia’s Sierra Nevadas.

Bottom line: The results for now show that having control over who visits Ciudad Perdida has been a net positive for local communities. Beyond the feeling of empowerment and economic benefits, locals are allowed to continue their traditions while sharing them with their visitors; sustainable development is the norm instead of chaotic boom-and-bust cycles; and opportunities in education that were nonexistent at the turn of this century are increasing.

Meanwhile, other Indigenous peoples in Colombia are feeling empowered and are telling the powers-that-be to shove it. For example, earlier this year, the Indigenous-owned company behind a brand of beer, Coca Pola, received threats of legal action from Coca-Cola over trademark infringement. Representatives of two Indigenous groups, the Nasa and Embera, who both live where the Coca Pola beer is made in western Colombia, clapped back and told the soft drink giant that in return they would ban sales of Coca-Cola products within their territories.

Image credits via Leon Kaye

Careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) increasingly offer employees stability, pay and opportunities that outpace other industries and occupations. Unfortunately, these positions and their benefits are also notoriously inequitable. Winnie Karanja, founder and CEO of the media company Represented Collective, is working to change these conditions and inspire more BIPOC women and girls to enter the field.

While women make up roughly half of the total workforce (48 percent), they comprise a mere 34 percent of employees in STEM-related fields. And even then, their ratios are skewed toward the medical field and the social and life sciences — away from engineering and the computer and physical sciences. Black, Latina and Indigenous women are even more severely underrepresented than the average — together they make up fewer than 10 percent of STEM workers. 

Karanja — who made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2020 after founding another STEM initiative, Madym — explained to TriplePundit what motivated her to go beyond just working in the field to working to transform it: “I was inspired to help others get into the field from an experience that I had talking with a former elementary school principal around getting her students to learn how to code," she said. "It was really this place of seeing the need to have more people who look like me get into the field, but also to have the support structures in order to do that.”

Inequity in any industry ultimately hurts BIPOC women as well as their families and communities. But it is especially damaging when the jobs in question are among the fastest growing and best paying — with a median annual salary that was $22,000 higher than non-STEM wages in 2019. Unemployment was also half for those who were in STEM positions at the time versus those who weren’t, with the same pattern continuing into the pandemic, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). These jobs are also expected to grow at twice the rate of all other industries combined through 2029.

“The STEM field offers a lot as far as economic opportunities that then ripple into other sorts of structures," Karanja explained. "If you’re able to have high-wage employment, you’re able to have access to better healthcare, housing, education opportunities and all sorts of different areas." She described how her work with Represented Collective inspires her to ensure healthy work environments. “No one wants to go into an environment where their contributions aren’t going to be welcomed. And we want to create an environment where people can grow and can continue to grow. STEM offers so many opportunities in terms of high-wage employment and that’s still an area where, for women of color, they’re getting paid less than their white non-Hispanic male counterparts are.”

Karanja encourages employers to review their processes to ensure that everyone is measured by the same standards and given the same opportunities. “Again, exploring the bias that tends to take place within that space but also how are we ensuring that there is upward movement of Women of Color, of People of Color, within the company? And are we ensuring that there is management training? And different forms of support structures and upward mobility that is often offered to white men, that that’s offered to Women of Color, to People of Color, as well?”

Of course, recruiting and retaining BIPOC women goes beyond just paying a fair wage and offering advancement opportunities. As Karanja so astutely pointed out — “No one wants to go into an environment where their contributions aren’t going to be welcomed.” And yet, workers in the field report higher rates of gender bias and racial discrimination from both their co-workers and management. While this illustrates why STEM continues to be a boys’ club, she offered leaders a remedy to turn it around, by, in her words, “Really ensuring that we’re listening to different voices, that we are valuing the contributions that women and people of color are bringing and that we’re creating an environment that cultivates collaboration, that cultivates bringing of new ideas as well.”

Recruitment and retention issues in STEM begin before employees even walk through the door, however. According to the American Associate of University Women (AAUW) girls and young women are “systematically tracked” out of science and math throughout their educational careers. Karanja and the Represented Collective are working to change this dynamic through products, expert panels and curated experiences. One of these products is the organization's Legendary card collection, which tells the story of women from around the world like Alice Ball — a Black chemist whose painstaking dedication to developing a cure for leprosy was nearly forgotten by history. Like the other women featured on the cards whose scientific innovations and contributions have been forgotten or ignored, Ball’s work was originally credited to a man instead. 

“The Legendary card collection is all about telling these nuanced stories of women, primarily women of color, and the innovations that they’ve had in this field and really taking that and saying let’s celebrate their achievements. And alongside celebrating their achievements let's have this nuanced take on their life. Let’s explore and showcase their intersectionality.” Karanja related how by delving into issues of racism, sexism, ageism, identity and positionality that they experienced, these historical figures are not only humanized to inspire girls and women but also, she said, “to make sure that people realize that those challenges are very much our reality right now.”

Image credit: Christina Morillo via Pexels

The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry has a significant impact on global forests. The industry relies heavily upon key commodities such as soy, palm oil and paper. Despite best efforts, many standard practices in the production of these commodities also play a role in deforestation, a pressing issue in the fight against climate change and natural resource degradation around the world. 

To tackle this issue, the Consumer Goods Forum, a group of the world’s largest CPG companies, launched the Forest Positive Coalition of Action in 2020. The 19 founding corporate members committed to bolster supply chain collaboration, investment in production landscapes, stakeholder and government engagement, and transparency and accountability in order to root out deforestation from their supply chains. 

After introducing key performance indicators (KPIs) in its inaugural Annual Report last year, with a particular focus on industry collaboration and supply chain transparency, the Coalition recently released a second update — highlighting progress and establishing a framework for the future.

How it’s going: The Forest Positive Coalition of Action encourages disclosure and stakeholder partnerships to tackle deforestation

The Coalition — which now includes 22 member companies with a market value of over $2 trillion, led by steering committee leader Mondelēz International — has made collective improvements in industry transparency and disclosure, according to the new report. The Coalition is collectively reporting on 62 percent of its performance metrics, a 6 percent increase in collective disclosure rates from the previous year. 

Collective action is not limited to within the Coalition, however. The report highlights work with more than 200 stakeholders and relevant organizations across a wide range of interests and impacts — including smallholder farmers, governments, local communities and suppliers. 

Not only has this multi-stakeholder approach helped establish the necessary disclosure and transparency KPIs and frameworks, but it has also served as a means of establishing measurable and actionable commitments for suppliers within the value chain. 

“Our work with stakeholders sets the scene for much more specific action around what we mean by transparency,” said Christine Montenegro McGrath, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer for Mondelēz International. "We’re also looking at the performance of the suppliers. These KPIs going forward give us an understanding of how suppliers are actually doing and who's making progress, and maybe who's not.”

Fighting deforestation across key commodity supply chains

The Coalition publishes commodity-specific roadmaps to guide members in their efforts to remove deforestation from their supply chains. Recognizing the ongoing impacts of beef production, the Coalition launched a Beef Roadmap earlier this year, joining other commodity roadmaps for palm oil, soy, and paper and pulp. 

These guidelines are developed extensively with stakeholders, particularly NGOs, and the Beef Roadmap is no exception. The new guidance came out of the Coalition’s multi-stakeholder approach through dialogue with Brazilian meatpackers, civil society organizations, and Coalition members themselves, with 52 percent of members already reporting on these new KPIs for beef production. 

Looking ahead to a “forest positive” future

While all of these achievements help the Coalition establish the framework needed to achieve collective action in the fight against deforestation, they ultimately point toward the ultimate goal of forest positivity. Based on other industry terms like “climate positive,” forest positivity refers to moving beyond eliminating deforestation and conversion of natural ecosystems from supply chains and toward having a net positive impact on commodity sourcing areas and the people who call them home. 

The Coalition recently launched a number of pilot programs aimed at transforming production landscapes into forest positive ecosystems through significant financial investments. Members are required to invest in these reforestation and community development initiatives, with the ultimate goal to transform an area the size of the Coalition’s collective production footprint by 2030. 

Looking toward the future, the Coalition aims to leverage these improvements in transparency, disclosure, and stakeholder engagement to push a shift across the entire CPG industry. 

“Originally, deforestation was maybe talked about in some meetings, but there wasn't a roadmap, an action plan or any tangible accountability,” McGrath said. “That’s what we mean by a Coalition of Action. It’s about collective action and impact at scale: Can we get to scale, beyond the current 22 members? Our ultimate ambition is sector transformation, within and beyond the Coalition.”

The achievements detailed in the 2022 report indicate that Mondelēz International and other companies are well on their way to achieving their collective goal of removing deforestation, forest degradation, and forest conversion from industry supply chains. With these recent achievements in establishing industry transparency, marking significant progress on KPIs, and making proactive financial investment in reforestation, the Coalition has made some notable improvements on the road to a more responsible CPG industry and a forest positive future. 

This article series is sponsored by Mondelēz International and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image credit: Vlad Hilitanu/Unsplash

The world’s wealthiest, most polluting nations have yet to fulfill their 2009 commitment to finance climate adaptation and mitigation funds for developing nations. Leaders of the 55 countries most vulnerable to climate change, known as the V20, are getting creative ahead of the U.N. COP27 climate talks next month.

Finance ministers from the V20 are considering a plan to stop payment on a combined $685 billion in debt until the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank address climate change the way their nations see fit. Their goal is to create a plan to swap some of their debt for climate adaptation and conservation projects.

This announcement comes at a precarious time for climate finance, as world leaders prepare for COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Negotiations to settle which countries should pay for climate disasters are set to be at the heart of this year’s climate conference, as vulnerable countries that have historically emitted the least amount of greenhouse gases are dealing with catastrophic climate-related disasters. The United States, Europe, and other high-polluting, wealthy countries are expected to push back against requests to fund climate adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries at COP27. 

Though the wealthy countries that were historically the largest emitters of greenhouse gases agreed to finance $100 billion per year in climate adaptation and mitigation projects for developing countries at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, they never followed through on their promise. Now, many of the same countries oppose creating a fund to finance the damages caused by climate disasters because they do not want to be held liable for the costs. At the same time, developing island countries vulnerable to climate hazards spend at least 18 times more on debt servicing than they receive in climate finance. 

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said she is open to the idea of a debt-for-climate swap for V20 countries. “We have to find a way to link two problems with one solution, and the problems are climate and debt. The solution: debt for climate swaps,” she said at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank this week. Georgieva committed to work with the World Bank to advance a debt swap plan at COP27 in November. 

While the IMF director is committed to working with the V20 to create climate finance solutions, the World Bank president has been conspicuously absent from V20 talks. In September, World Bank President David Malpass made public remarks doubting the effect human activity and fossil fuel consumption has on global warming and climate change. The U.S. and European countries responded to Malpass’s comments with swift condemnation and a call to increase the scale and speed of climate finance. 

Research from the V20 indicates that climate shocks, caused largely by carbon emissions from developed nations, have wiped out 20 percent of vulnerable countries’ wealth over the last 20 years. “V20 economies would be 20 percent wealthier today had we not been suffering the daily toll of climate loss and damage. In aggregate dollar terms, this is half a trillion in losses," said Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives and current ambassador for the V20. "For the most at-risk V20 economies, the loss exceeds total growth. We are experiencing losses and damages from the climate emergency every day, and yet we have contributed the least to emissions.”

The V20 is calling on wealthy nations to make good on their promise of $100 billion per year to finance climate adaptation and mitigation, and it is also asking international financial institutions to implement a debt-for-climate swap in order to free up capital for adaptation and mitigation projects. Ken Ofori-Atta, finance minister of Ghana and current V20 chair said: “As economic managers, it has long been clear to us that climate change is not a distant challenge. It has set ablaze not only many of the world’s forests, but also our fragile national budgets. Climate change is simply compounding existing and increasingly acute fiscal stress.”

In addition, the V20 has asked the World Bank and IMF to officially recognize the group as an official constituency. Finally, the group is also asking for developed countries to present an implementation plan for their 2021 commitments made at COP26 and to double their collective international climate finance funds. 

Image credit: Seiji Seiji via Unsplash

When it comes to scientific research, there are internationally recognized processes that provide confidence in research findings. For published research, these processes culminate with the peer review process. Peer review has been described as an integral part of scientific publishing that confirms its validity. There are different forms of peer review, but the process, which has been around for more than 300 years, empowers experts to provide comments to improve papers and validate research. 

Sense about Science, an independent charity that challenges the misrepresentation of science and evidence in public life, is clear in its criticism of studies that have not passed the peer review process by saying: “Unpublished research is no help to anyone — if you don’t publish exactly how a study was carried out, others can’t decide whether your methods were valid or repeat them to verify the results. As a society, it is unwise to base decisions about health or public safety on work that may well be flawed.”  

For the tire industry, the topic of tire and road wear particles (TRWP) is an important one that requires research that is thorough, credible and validated by experts. Advancing scientific understanding of TRWP and its potential impacts on human health and the environment is a priority for members of the Tire Industry Project (TIP), a voluntary CEO-led sustainability collaboration for the tire sector. We have supported scientific research into TRWP for more than a decade and welcome all credible contributions to advancing scientific knowledge of these particles.

TIP commissions research that follows good scientific practice to help provide credible answers to questions about the fate and potential human health and environmental impacts of TRWP. The studies we have sponsored to date have found TRWP are unlikely to pose significant risk to human health and the environment; however, we are mindful of an evolving scientific understanding of TRWP and are supporting independent research to improve the knowledge base. 

Responsive to new scientific findings, our ongoing study plan includes research into the potential impacts of long-term exposure to TRWP, the degradation of TRWP in the environment, and the presence, fate and transport of TRWP in air, soil, rivers and oceans. Tire trade associations are also playing their part, with important science-based initiatives in place in Europe and the United States to bring stakeholders together to further TRWP research and mitigation and to provide tire-tread test materials for TRWP researchers.  

These meaningful contributions are rooted in good scientific practice so that stakeholders can confirm the validity of the methods used and repeat the practices to verify the results. They make a credible contribution to the global state of knowledge on TRWP and are useful for making evidence-based decisions about health and environmental safety.

As an organization that is rooted in science, we recognize the importance of transparency and good scientific practice for evidence-based decision making. However, robust science is often overlooked in media coverage of unverified or incomplete research that lends itself to sensationalist headlines and clickbait. The hype and half-truths born of unverified research are a stealthy threat to sustainability when they lead to thinking that undermines progress for people and planet. 

When it comes to sustainability, TIP members are convinced that good scientific practice holds the answers. That is why we are committed to the peer review process and convinced that unverified science should be challenged by asking for evidence. 

Image credit: Ed 259/Unsplash

This article series is sponsored by the Tire Industry Project. Members of the Tire Industry Project (in alphabetical order) are Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, Hankook, Kumho Tire, Michelin, Pirelli, Sumitomo Rubber, Toyo Tires, and Yokohama Rubber. 

Ever wondered what goes into the recycled-content products and packaging you see on store shelves? The short answer: a whole lot. Take Sustana Fiber’s recycling mill in De Pere, Wisconsin, as an example. When the mill opened 30 years ago, it almost exclusively processed paper. Today, about half of the fiber it receives comes from product packaging like tubs, cartons, and even those potato chip cans lined with foil, Jim Schneider, the company’s vice president of operations, told TriplePundit. 

The mill’s technology and procedures yield quality that is high enough for truly circular processes — for example, reprocessing a branded coffee cup into fiber that can be used for another food-grade cup by the same brand. Almost all incoming raw material is used for some purpose, whether that’s food packaging or animal bedding. 

With expanded capabilities comes a need for supply — and accessing recyclable materials requires efficient community infrastructure. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that domestic recycling infrastructure needs to be strengthened on practically every side: Consumers are confused about what to recycle and how, manufacturers and recyclers are missing opportunities to collaborate, and markets for recycled materials are weak. Joe Riconosciuto, Republic Services’ director of materials marketing and recycling, told American Recycler this month that amidst challenges to fiber recycling, “the entrepreneurial drive is alive and well in our industry.” 

For its part, Sustana Fiber certainly hasn’t been waiting for paper to drop onto its doorstep. Through collaboration with local and national stakeholders, the company has been able to expand its offering, which means more business for the recycling mill at a time when fiber sources like office paper and newsprint are on the decline. It also means more businesses abiding by circular principles, keeping products and materials at their highest value as they move through the economy and eliminating as much waste and pollution as possible along the way. 

Turning linear relationships between businesses and recycling mills into circles

Essential to a recycling mill’s advancement are partnerships with the companies that design and sell products, with the goal of helping these brands to use more recycled materials and make their packaging easier to recycle. 

For example, labels and other promotional materials are one market where Sustana Fiber sees promise. “That is a perfect example where there's a very valuable fiber source that currently, for the most part, is going to landfill,” Schneider said. Sustana Fiber has developed technology to remove the siliconized layer from the label liner and get the fiber clean enough to make new labels, a process that would gum up conventional machines, and the Wisconsin mill is working with some of the largest U.S. label suppliers to create a system that’s more circular. 

In other cases, Sustana Fiber works with businesses as they develop new products. In an ideal scenario, companies would reach out to their local recycling mills to make sure the products they’re designing are compatible with the mills’ machines. “I don’t need to know what it is,” Schneider said. “But I could tell you very quickly if it’s going to recycle in our process.” One piece of advice he shares with companies is to be careful about how they innovate away from plastic. Though it has its problems, plastic is one of the easiest materials to separate from fiber while recycling and the materials used to replace plastic in some applications can be more difficult to process. 

When partnering with businesses, the connection usually starts out linear — with a company wanting to recycle their products or packaging at end-of-life. “As these relationships develop, that’s when that one-sided line starts to curve and turn into a circle. Well, you have to start a lot of lines before you get a circle,” Schneider said. Eventually, some businesses are willing to step up from simply recycling their materials to putting that recycled material back into their products. 

Throw out push marketing and empower consumers to pull recycling forward 

The other side of outreach lies with consumers — and when it comes to educating the public, push marketing doesn’t do much good. “You want the brand owners or the consumers being the ones pulling these things through,” Schneider explained.

In an effort to engage greater consumer buy-in, in 2018 Sustana Fiber partnered with the Carton Council, an industry organization that aims to expand the recycling of cartons in the U.S. Efforts from that year-long collaboration included chat bots and quizzes on social media, as well as a pledge. “The Carton Council is doing a very good job in getting some of the messaging out there that these materials are recyclable,” said Schneider. “[Cartons] are very viable sources of fiber.”

In another move to collect more recyclable material through education, Sustana Fiber recently signed a commitment to increase the recycling of paper cups. The company is joined by North American paper mills and end markets that collectively represent 75 percent of mixed paper demand in the U.S. and Canada. “All recycling depends on end markets, and not all mills are readily equipped to separate the plastic coating found on paper cups,” said Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, the organization that facilitated the commitment, in a statement. “However, the facilities that signed this declaration are shining a spotlight not only on their ability, but their commitment to accept paper cups.”

Ultimately, Schneider would like to see everyone along the fiber supply chain understand the value of so-called end-of-life materials. “We do not want [fiber] to end up in a landfill, because it’s an excellent raw material that has a long life to it, beyond its first or second use.” Overall, he is hopeful about the direction the industry is taking: “I do believe right now we’re at a point where, really, people are starting to act more than just talk.”

This article series is sponsored by Sustana Fiber and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Images courtesy of Sustana Fiber

Advocates for corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles have worked to demonstrate that socially responsible businesses produce bottom-line results. Nevertheless, many corporations and financial influencers continue to support the MAGA movement, which has now embraced an anti-business platform that threatens the very core of ESG principles.

The MAGA movement and the Big Lie

If there is any doubt that the MAGA movement is a threat to ESG principles, consider its roots in the 2016 campaign of former U.S. President Donald Trump. As a candidate, Trump married the "Make America Great Again" slogan with a heady brew of racism and xenophobia.

In the hands of Trump, the MAGA slogan also became code for the entitlement of any single individual to overpower facts, evidence, and professional experience with their personal beliefs, opinions and conspiracy theories.

Editor's note: Be sure to subscribe to our Brands Taking Stands newsletter, which comes out every Wednesday.

The entitlement strategy began to take shape as early as 2011 when Trump latched on to the “birther” conspiracy. He repeatedly asserted his right to question then-President Barack Obama’s qualification as a natural-born U.S. citizen. Trump brayed about it over and over again throughout the 2012 election cycle, despite ample documentation of Obama’s birth in Hawai‘i.

By election day, he had fully merged the birther conspiracy theory with the “Big Lie” election fraud canard. “On election night in 2012, when President Barack Obama was reelected, Trump said that the election was a 'total sham' and a ‘travesty,’ while also making the claim that the United States is ‘not a democracy,’ after Obama secured his victory,” ABC News observed. 

“Trump even wrote on Twitter, ‘We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!’" ABC News also noted (emphasis added).

Turning up the Big Lie volume

As a candidate in the 2016 election cycle, Trump leveraged the personal entitlement strategy to claim the office of the president of the United States for himself, long before voters headed to the polls.

“Day after day — at rallies, in interviews and on Twitter — Trump and several top backers have hammered the message that a victory for Hillary Clinton would be illegitimate," NBC News reported in October 2016. "Trump has frequently suggested that widespread voter fraud will swing the election, and he has urged his supporters to closely monitor the voting process.”

“In a tweet ... he declared that there's ‘large-scale voter fraud happening on and before election day,’” NBC News added.

Weaponizing MAGA against ESG

The personal entitlement strategy almost enabled Trump to claim a second term through a violent uprising, justified by persistent lies about election fraud.

That was the beginning, not the end, of the threat to ESG principles, as the impact on American democracy has continued to spread and amplify.

Personal entitlement to one’s own beliefs — regardless of supporting evidence or widely accepted social standards — is the connecting thread between new abortion bans, anti-trans legislation, book bans, gag rules on educators, and the hysteria over critical race theory.

Above all is the Big Lie about election fraud. Trump is long gone from office, but scores of MAGA-affiliated candidates have taken up the Big Lie mantle to entitle themselves to office, regardless of the results on election day.

There are no “both sides” to ESG

In recent months, the MAGA movement has also thrown the threat to ESG principles into sharp relief by embracing an anti-business platform aimed at “woke” corporate leaders who advocate for ESG principles.

The anti-ESG movement has already gone beyond rhetoric to attract legislators in Texas and elsewhere. 

That should be a wake-up call. However, ever since the failed insurrection of 2021 the corporate response has been mixed at best, if not outright supportive of MAGA-affiliated candidates and office holders.

To cite one high-profile example, Home Depot continues to drag the MAGA baggage of co-founder Bernie Marcus, who supported Trump’s bid for re-election in 2020.

Marcus left the company a full 20 years ago. However, his eye-popping donation of $1.75 million in support of the Trump-approved U.S. Senate candidate Hershel Walker this year has drawn new attention to Home Depot’s corporate support for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and other Republican campaigns.

“The Home Depot PAC donated $90,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee amid the current election cycle. The committee recently paid for an attack ad targeting Walker's opponent, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock,” USA Today reported last week. “The Home Depot PAC has also donated thousands of dollars to other PACs that support Republicans, including those affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and South Dakota Sen. John Thune." 

In an email to USA Today, Home Depot spokesperson Sara Gorman explained that the Home Depot PAC "supports candidates and organizations on both sides of the aisle who champion pro-business, pro-retail positions that create jobs and economic growth."

However, when one side of the aisle is dominated by MAGA-affiliated candidates who champion positions that are antithetical to ESG positions, there are no both sides.

All Republican candidates have been tainted by the MAGA brush, but according to data cited by USA today, the Home Depot PAC continues to provide outsized support to Republican campaigns.

“About 73 percent of the PACs that received donations from the Home Depot PAC are Republican... Of the Senate candidates who received contributions from the PAC, 88 percent were Republicans,” USA Today fellow Eleanor McCrary observed.

Democracy — and the bottom line — really are on the ballot

If U.S. business leaders don’t care whether or not the nation morphs into an authoritarian form of government, they may be motivated to act on a bottom-line basis.

A Morning Consult survey commissioned by the organization Business and Democracy Initiative indicates that business leaders are well aware of the connection between a strong democracy and a strong economy.

Among the findings: 96 percent of business leaders say the existence of a well-functioning democracy is "important" to a strong economy, and more than 80 percent of business leaders think that companies should act to protect democracy and ensure safe and fair elections.

With that information in hand, the organization Accountable.US has sent letters to the CEOs of all Fortune 100 companies, warning that their professions of social responsibility are ringing hollow.

That comes too late to stop corporate funds that are already in the MAGA pipeline, but all business leaders can help undo the damage by ensuring that their employees, clients and customers — especially women, people of color and youth — have a free and fair opportunity to vote in the 2022 midterm elections. 

Image credit: Natilyn Hicks via Unsplash

At a time when inflation is pushing more people toward food insecurity, America’s largest food companies are in a position to assist when it comes to improving nutrition nationwide. To start, they are primed to expand access to healthy food through their abilities to scale up food production. But that isn’t the reality, at least when it comes to producing, distributing and selling nutritious food products.

At least, that’s according to the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI), which rolled out a report this week ranking the “nutrition” claims of the largest food companies doing business in the U.S.

Editor's note: Be sure to subscribe to our Brands Taking Stands newsletter, which comes out every Wednesday.

Among the ongoing public health problems: At least one in six young Americans are obese, and about 10 percent of the population experienced food insecurity during 2020. How can companies help? Obviously, improving the nutritional profiles of their food products is one tactic. But engaged company leadership committed to making nutritious foods, i.e., governance, is also important, ATNI advises. So is ensuring that access to healthy foods is possible for low-income families, and the promotion and marketing of such foods was also on ATNI’s radar.

But based on how these 11 companies scored, that isn’t happening.

Unilever: governance and leadership counts when it comes to nutrition

The winner in these rankings is Unilever. The big reason? The company has a relatively bold commitment to boost its share of highly nutritious foods this year, and based on the sheer tonnage of such products sold, it’s delivering on that pledge. Unilever has also continued to report on its sugar and sodium reduction targets. Strong governance, as in leadership coming from the C-suite, is also why Unilever outranked 10 other large food companies doing business in the U.S. 

“Accountability of Unilever’s nutrition strategy lies with senior leadership, and it is one of three companies that link remuneration of senior leadership to nutrition objectives,” the ATNI report found.

Conagra: How about those plant-based meals?

Somewhere in the middle is Conagra. Overall, the company that’s the force behind brands such as Birds Eye, Chef Boyardee and Vlasic only ranked ninth out of the 11 ranked companies. But in terms of the percentage of sales from “healthier” products, Conagra ranked first after ATNI crunched the numbers, with that ratio a smidge under 50 percent. ATNI didn’t outright mention the company’s plant-based brands such as Gardein, but credited Conagra’s ability to have more than 80 percent of its vegan and vegetarian meal products meet its internal nutrition score.

One area where ATNI dinged Conagra was in its marketing efforts: “Conagra is encouraged to commit to increasing the proportion of marketing spending on healthy products relative to overall marketing spending and publish a commentary outlining the changes to the company’s marketing spending in support of healthier eating.” Ouch: Perhaps a little more promo of Boom Chicka Pop is needed, rather than that laser focus on ensuring Slim Jims are strategically placed next to all those convenience store cash registers.

The sugary drink giant ranks at the bottom

Coca-Cola ranked dead last. ATNI called out the beverage giant for being the only company in its index that hasn't adopted any sort of nutrient profiling system. The report also notes that the company lacks a plan for reaching any sugar or calorie reduction targets. And while the company is burnishing its dairy and juice product portfolio, not much is going on with other foods based on ingredients such as fruits, nuts, legumes or vegetables.

As for Coke's philanthropic efforts, ATNI responds: “Coca-Cola makes in-kind donations of its products in the U.S., primarily for disaster relief efforts. However, the company does not have a policy in place to limit the donation of unhealthy products and prioritize donations of healthy products, nor does it track its product donations.”

What's next?

What’s notable about these rankings is that none of these companies had particularly stellar scores from ATNI’s point of view. When it comes to nutrition, these 11 companies are more in the midst of a race to the bottom rather than doing their part to bolster public health here in the U.S. That’s not a surprise considering many of these companies’ lobbying and public relations campaigns aiming to stifle just about any legislation designed to tackle America’s obesity problem.

Bottom line: When it comes to integrating nutrition into their core business models, mapping out affordability and accessibility of healthier food options, and marketing the “good stuff” as opposed to promoting sugary drinks and snacks, Big Food has been a big fail on meeting these challenges. 

Finally, ATNI’s assessment of the food and beverage sector’s efforts is summed up in how it feels about these companies’ lobbying efforts. “Companies are encouraged to actively support (and commit to not lobby against) public policy measures in the U.S. to benefit public health and address obesity as enshrined in the National Strategy on food, hunger, nutrition, and health,” the group concludes.

Image credit: Calle Macarone via Unsplash