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Shaun McCarthy, the man behind the greenest Games ever, has been awarded an OBE for services to sustainability and to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As the chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, the independent assurance body established to monitor the Games’ sustainability commitments, McCarthy coordinated the Commission’s small but dedicated team of experts, whose remit stretched from investigating waste management to the ethics of corporate sponsorship.

McCarthy joined the Commission in its inaugural year, 2006, and remained in the role until the Commission officially closed in March this year. In this role, he set an Olympic precedent – never before has an Olympic Games had an independent body to monitor and advise on sustainability issues.

Shaun McCarthy described his role at the Commission as: “One of the most challenging, and most rewarding jobs I have ever had, and that includes a stint at BAA during the construction of Terminal 5.”

He added: “This OBE is a huge honour, and I am incredibly grateful for the support of my colleagues at the Commission over the years, whose passion and dedication helped make the Games such a ground-breaking British event.”

McCarthy is now director of social enterprise Action Sustainability.  He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA); and a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS), Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (MIEMA) and the Institute of Directors (MIOD).

Image credit: Shinnosuke Ando/Unsplash

Submitted by Guest Contributor

By Gail Klintworth, Chief Sustainability Officer, Unilever

First of all I want to thank all who participated in our #SustLiving Twitter chat on May 17^th. It was great to see so many people joining the debate and willing to drive positive change with us. Together we made #SustLiving a trending topic worldwide.

Since there were so many good questions that we could not cover within the hour, I will personally respond to most of these questions via a blog series here on CSRwire Talkback. The questions fall in roughly three thematics:

1. Embedding and measuring sustainability
2. Value chain challenges and opportunities
3. Partnerships and policies

Embedding Sustainability In The Business

One of the questions that caught my eye was by @mbauerc, who asked: How is #SustLiving transforming Unilever's brand portfolio? Where do you see the biggest changes happening in the future? 

We strongly believe that the only way to guarantee long-term prosperity is to grow businesses in line with the needs and aspirations of the communities they serve. This is not new to Unilever. Our commitment to being a responsible and sustainable business was embedded in how we did business in the 1890s when William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Bros, wrote down his ideas for Sunlight Soap – a revolutionary new product that helped popularize cleanliness and hygiene in Victorian England – 'to make cleanliness commonplace, to lessen work for women, to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, and that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products.'

A lot has happened over the last two centuries. 

For example, we began our work on sustainable agriculture in the 1990s and on nutrition in 2003. Sustainability is now at the heart of our business strategy. The thinking, which has underpinned this move is based on looking at the long-term trends which are impacting our business: growth in Asia, Africa and Latin America, increasing resource scarcity, rising commodity costs and last but not least the enormous health and hygiene issues around the world.

@Casilda asked: How do you demonstrate to external stakeholders that sustainability is integrated into operations?

Putting sustainability at the heart of our business model means that all key functions within our company need to drive the strategy, from finance, human resources, marketing, communications to supply chain. We have many sustainability champions across the world embedding sustainability within the business, and we are not only building delivery into workplans but we are incentivizing everyone to get involved. 

For example, factory employees can apply for investment to take their ideas to reality through a ‘Small Actions, Big Difference’ initiative, through which 600 ideas were identified in 2012, of which 100 will be implemented this year. Regarding demonstrating this to external stakeholders, we believe that our results need to show the progress, and facts like 256 sites around the world which are zero waste to landfill, show delivery. 

@ctwigg asked how we engage our finance personnel in the Plan and to what gain?

Ah, good old finance! I must tell you that we have had a major breakthrough here in the last year. We now have a program that is being led through finance – championed by our CFO – to help us deliver at each stage of the process… assessing projects, building robust cases for change, helping us to monitor our progress etc.

Movements for Social Change, Led by Brands

At the same time, one of the main drivers for change will, of course, come from our brands' movements for social change.

Our vision of creating a sustainable business is motivating for employees, but it is not always clear to them how to apply it to their role. We integrate sustainability into existing training and have created bespoke training. For example, new brand managers engage in a weeklong sustainable marketing challenge during their foundation course.

In 2013, we are also accelerating the integration of sustainability into our brands with each brand developing their own “sustainability ambitions” as part of their brand positioning statements – for example Knorr has chosen sustainable sourcing of their vegetables as a key area where they can partner with farmers and chefs to not only help to create the demand for sustainably sourced ingredients but also to show how this helps to deliver better taste.

@susanheaney asked how we achieve buy-in and integration of sustainability principles across our brands.

We use our Brand Imprint model to help us, which enables us to take a 360-degree view of the social, environmental and economic impacts of brands and – among other outputs – triggered Lipton’s decision to source its tea sustainably. We are now applying the methodology to help brands make a sustainable business contribution in line with an aspect of their positioning.

@missionmeasure brought up a great question: What's the next big brand on deck to echo success of the 'Lifebuoy Handwashing Program'?

While very few brands will have a full-blown ‘social mission’ such as Lifebuoy soap, we do expect all our brands to identify how they will contribute to the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan through concrete action plans.

For example, Magnum ice cream is sourcing its cocoa through the Rainforest Alliance certification, which enhances its quality credentials with consumers.

Other examples include:

• Dove driving female self esteem through the Campaign for Real Beauty.
• Ben & Jerry fighting social causes around peace and justice
• Pure-it providing clean drinking water
• Hellmann's improving child nutrition through its Real Food program
• Knorr driving sustainable agriculture through its Sustainability Partnership
• Domestos providing basic sanitation through its Toilet Academy and initiatives like World Toilet Day

Defining and Measuring Sustainability

We believe that without the facts behind causes and impacts, we would be aiming in the dark and we do know that what we measure is what we get… especially when we make it very transparent both within and outside the business. It enables us to see if our strategy and actions are working, but more importantly, allows us to show progress and identify specific areas where partnerships are needed or more focus is required. This is instrumental to create a movement internally and externally.

Measurement is inextricably bound up with embedding sustainability in the business. The targets in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, for example, have been developed together with key functions throughout the business: marketing, R&D, supply management and supply chain.

[@svnickbarg asked: What rubrics, process & incentives are used (if any) for brand management teams to innovate on sustainability?] Each product category team has specific targets across their product portfolio for water, waste and greenhouse gases, and in addition our foods categories have targets for the four priority nutrients.

Internally, the Unilever Leadership Executive, our most senior executive body, receives quarterly reports on progress. Externally, we are committed to an annual update covering both progress and problems encountered as well as periodic engagement opportunities like the Unilever Sustainable Living Lab and #SustLiving Twitter chat to grow the dialogue and learn from the challenges together.

Developing Environmental Metrics That Matter

Before I explain how we measure our environmental impact, however, I would like to take a step back and ask the question - how do we define sustainability? Is it just ‘green’?

We see and support a shift from looking predominantly at avoiding the environmental “negatives” to actively enabling positive social impact – a 360-degree view at sustainability. This is also reflected in our company vision: to double the size of the business, whilst reducing our environmental footprint AND increasing our positive social impact.

We got several questions about measuring our footprint. From @britter03 who asked what tools we use to assess our environmental footprint and how we prioritize opportunities that come out of 400 brand categories, to @peggyatkc who asked if we are conducting life cycle assessments on core products or focusing on areas where we will have regional growth.

So, let me explain the process we used to develop our environmental metrics.

To understand our full impact on the environment, we wanted to measure the most significant environmental impacts of our product portfolio across the lifecycle. This includes multiple steps, from how we source our raw materials to how our consumers use our products and dispose packaging. By 'significant,' we mean impacts most relevant to our business and to society.

We therefore developed metrics for the following priority impact areas:

• Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) which covers the full lifecycle
• Water used by consumers in countries where water scarcity is an increasing problem
• Waste, which covers product leftovers and packaging that goes to landfill.

For each metric we aimed to capture the most significant areas of impact throughout the product lifecycle where we can have an influence and where it is feasible to measure the outcome.

Then we took each of the three metrics and applied them to a representative cross-section of our products: In summary we:

• Analyzed 1,651 stock-keeping units (SKUs) covering all our product categories and key product formats. Together, these are representative of our total product portfolio of 30 000 SKUs.
• Covered 14 countries that together represent our regional footprint namely: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom and the U.S.
• Captured around 70 percent of our sales.

This analysis enabled us to measure the absolute and per consumer use impact of each of our product categories for greenhouse gas emissions, waste and water use:

• Our average greenhouse gas impact is 50 grams per consumer use,
• Average water use is 8 litres per consumer use, and
• Average waste impact is 1 gram per consumer use.

Our aim is to halve each of these by 2020.

But, coming back to positive social impact, we also want to make sure that our Unilever Sustainable Living plan has a lasting effect on livelihood improvement. Nowhere is this more urgent than with the 1.3 million smallholder farmers who are linked in to our agricultural supply chain. 

Many of you are aware of the very high costs of impact studies, which make it difficult to measure impact at scale. In 2012, we consulted with NGO and supply chain partners on how to develop a livelihood assessment methodology, which is simple, quick and affordable. We need to further develop and test this methodology in 2013

If we crack this, it will be a very helpful addition to our arsenal of sustainability knowledge.

Hope this gives you valuable insights into how we are driving sustainability at the heart of our business. In the next blog post, I will focus on the challenges and opportunities of our value chain approach.

Meanwhile, please continue to share your ideas and perspective on Twitter with #SustLiving.

US telecoms giant AT&T has launched a pilot project which provides free solar mobile charging stations in locations across New York City. Called Street Charge, the public can charge their phones, tablets and other mobile devices free of charge while out and about.

AT&T says the initiative is a direct result of Superstorm Sandy when AT&T powered the City's distribution centres with commercial generators and a pop-up cellular service. New Yorkers who had lost power for days or longer flocked to the centres seeking a charge and a way to communicate to the outside world.

AT&T teamed up with solar technology company Goal Zero and Brooklyn-based design firm Pensa to develop the initiative.

Between now and the end of summer, AT&T will deploy around 25 AT&T Street Charge solar mobile charging units.

"Two years ago, we debuted free Wi-Fi in 26 locations across New York City Parks and last year became one of the first major carriers to offer underground cellular service on 36 subway platforms. Solar mobile charging is a natural next step in AT&T's efforts to provide innovative services for New Yorkers that empower them to lead more sustainable lives,” said Marissa Shorenstein, New York State president, AT&T.

• AT&T has just published its 2012 Sustainability Report where it states that its 14,300 energy-reducing projects have saved it more than $151m in annualised energy savings since 2010 and nearly 1.3bn kilowatt hours, equivalent to the electricity use of 136,340 homes in one year. 

Former British deputy prime minister and Conservative MP Lord Heseltine is to receive an honorary fellowship from the Society for the Environment for his contribution to environmental concerns.

The retired politician and cabinet member is one of 12 leading figures who will be awarded a fellowship later this month.

The fellowship recognises Lord Heseltine’s contribution to environmental concerns and his work as a previous Secretary of State for the Environment under both Margaret Thatcher’s Government in the 1980s and John Major’s Government of the early 1990s.

Recently appointed president of the organisation, Tony Juniper, a previous director of Friends of the Earth in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and vice chair of Friends of the Earth International will be receiving the accolade also.

Society for the Environment chief executive Alex Galloway said: “Our mission is to champion the role of environmental professionals, and to set standards for their recognition through the Chartered Environmentalist qualification. As we grow, it remains important to acknowledge and appreciate the work and contributions individuals have made and continue to make to the green sector.”

See July’s issue of Ethical Performance for the full story.

As the G8 Summit kicks off in North Ireland, the UK’s Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) has called for attendees to use the event to make progress in breaking down barriers to long-term responsible investment.

As a member of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition (CSRC), UKSIF is urging for commitments by the leaders of the G8 to work towards ensuring better corporate sustainability reporting by all large companies in their countries.
 
Simon Howard, UKSIF chief executive, said: “Integrating long-term sustainability factors into companies’ business strategies could help increase the quality and flow of information which lets investors make the informed and long-term decisions vital for the global economy, environment and society.

Howard also welcomed the inclusion of social impact investing on the G8 agenda, expressing hopes that attendees at the summit would take the opportunity to set out clear plans for enabling this flourishing market to operate effectively on a global scale and boost the effectiveness of international aid and development.

“We hope that G8 Leaders will return from the summit and strengthen their dialogue with the responsible investment community on how best to utilise key movements such as social impact investing to reshape capital markets for a more sustainable future,” he added.
 

The Financial Times (FT) and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group announced the winners of the 2013 FT/IFC Sustainable Finance Awards recently, with M-KOPA of Kenya winning the Award for Excellence in Sustainable Finance, Banco Santander taking the Sustainable Global Bank of the Year transaction prize and Impax Asset Management of the UK recognised as Sustainable Investor of the Year.

The FT/IFC Sustainable Finance Awards, now in their eighth year, have established themselves as the world’s leading awards for environmentally and socially responsible banking and investment. The 2013 Awards attracted a record 254 entries from 164 financial institutions and 57 non-financial groups in 61 countries.

The 2013 winners and special commendations in each category are:

Sustainable Bank of the Year
• Regional winner Africa/Middle East: Standard Bank, South Africa
Special Commendation for Leadership in the Middle East: Bank of Palestine
• Regional winner Americas: Banco Santander Brasil, Brazil
• Regional winner Asia/Pacific: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Japan
• Regional winner Europe: GLS Bank, Germany
Special Commendation for Leadership in Eastern Europe: Center-Invest Bank, Russia
• Sustainable Global Bank of the Year (transactional): Banco Santander, Spain

Sustainable Investor of the Year
• Winner: Impax Asset Management, UK
Special Commendation: LeapFrog Investments, Mauritius

Sustainable Investment of the Year
• Winner: WHEB Partners and Resysta International, Germany

Technology in Sustainable Finance
• Winner: M-KOPA, Kenya
Special Commendation: Etisalat, UAE

Achievement in Inclusive Business
• Joint Winners: Kenya Tea Development Agency, and Universitaria Minuto de Dios, Colombia

Achievement in Impact Investing (special award supported by UK Department for International Development)
• Winner: Root Capital, USA

Excellence in Sustainable Finance
• Winner: M-KOPA, Kenya
 

Car brands dominate this year’s Best Global Green Brands Report from brand consultancy Interbrand.

Toyota comes top – for the third year running – with Ford second and Honda in third. Nissan is in fifth position and Volkswagen comes in at seven.

The year’s top risers are Nissan, Ford, Nokia (9th), and UPS (32nd) while new entrants include Nestlé (14th), Kia (37th), Zara (48th), and Colgate (50th).

Interbrand’s 2013 Best Global Green Brands report examines the gap that exists between a corporation’s environmental practices and consumers’ perceptions of those practices.

A full report on the rankings will appear in the July issue of Ethical Performance.

You can view the report online at: http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/Best-Global-Green-Brands/2013/Best-Global-Green-Brands-2013.aspx
 

A mobile app which calculates how construction noise affects birds in protected areas has been created by University of Hull scientists.

As part of a major European-funded project, academics from the University’s Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies (IECS) have created the app for those working in areas covered by wildlife protection regulations, helping planners to assess the disturbance effects of work long before a project starts, or it can be used when work is underway.

The app is part of a toolkit devised as part of the European-wide TIDE project, which has brought together expertise and research on estuaries to improve ecosystem management understanding.

Using data from research in the Humber Estuary, a Natura 2000 protected area, as well as other UK wetland areas, researchers watched how different levels of noise and other activities generated during construction projects affected birds’ behaviour. The data analysed by Nick Cutts and Krystal Hemingway was then translated into an app by colleague Chris Baulcomb.

“Bird populations and their continued protection are potentially a major planning issue for those working on construction projects in protected areas such as estuaries, we hope this app will give them a clear and quick indication of how they can work without disturbing local wildlife,” said Nick Cutts, IECS deputy director and senior ornithologist.

As well as the mapping function, the app also includes a guide to the main bird species likely to be affected, and extra detail such as the months of higher sensitivity when disturbance impacts can be greatest, as well as measures that can be employed to reduce impacts. It can be downloaded to android smart phones or PCs for free via the TIDE website.
 

© Joseph Cortes | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Three out of five managers have felt pressured to behave unethically at work, according to new research from the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) and Business in the Community (BiTC).

The report, Added values: The importance of ethical leadership, found that 9% of managers have been asked to break the law at work at some point in their career, while one in 10 have left their jobs as a result of being asked to do something that made them feel uncomfortable. This is in spite of 77% of managers believing that, since 2008, the general public’s expectations of UK organisations’ ethical behaviour have risen.

In the survey of over 1,000 managers across the public and private sectors, 93% said their organisation had a values statement but over two fifths (43%) had been pressured to behave in direct violation of it, with 12% of managers saying that the correlation between employee behaviour and company values was not close ‘at all’ in their workplace.

In addition over a quarter (27%) of respondents were concerned their career would suffer if they were to report an ethical breach, with whistleblowing fears higher amongst more junior managers (17% of whom were certain of experiencing negative consequences) than directors (9%).

As a result of the research, the ILM and BiTC have made a number of recommendations for successfully embedding organisational values and ethics. These include businesses having a clear policy to encourage and enable staff to report any concerns over breaches of ethical conduct and the need for leadership to come from the top.

You can read the report and its recommendations in full here: http://www.bitc.org.uk/blog/post/beyond-buzzwords-how-make-values-matter

Picture credit: © Andres Rodriguez | Dreamstime Stock Photos
 

Global IT company Dell is stepping up its environmental efforts by setting itself a 100% waste-free packaging stream by 2020.

“Packaging is often the first part of our products that customers see and touch. From that first interaction, we want to ensure our customers know we’re dedicated to operating in an environmentally responsible manner, and we want to make it easier for them to be sustainable as well,” said Oliver Campbell, director of packaging procurement, Dell.

To achieve its new goals Dell says that it will ensure that 100% of its packaging is sourced from sustainable materials and that materials used are also either recyclable or compostable. Currently, more than half of Dell’s packaging meets both these criteria.

A new way the company is tackling the issue is through the use of a new sustainable material - wheat straw - in many of its cardboard boxes for notebooks originating in China. Many Chinese farmers currently treat this byproduct of wheat harvesting as waste and burn it for disposal, contributing to air pollution and associated health issues. Beginning this August, Dell will incorporate the straw in its boxes, starting with 15% by weight and ramping up as operations scale. The remainder of the box will primarily come from recycled content fibre.

Dell estimates initially it will use 200 tons of wheat straw per year, sourced from farmers in the Jiangsu Province. This move could alleviate 180 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

Last year, Dell achieved the goals set out in its 3Cs (cube, content, curb) packaging strategy by: reducing the size of packaging more than 12%, increasing the amount of recycled and renewable content in packaging up to 40%, and ensuring that up to 75% of packaging is recyclable at curbside. This work eliminated more than 20m pounds of packaging material and saved $18m since 2008.