The world's largest palm oil trader, Wilmar International, which supplies to hundreds of high street brands has announced that it has committed to a ‘no deforestation’ policy.
The new policy means that Wilmar, which supplies household brands like Gillette, Imperial Leather and Dettol, will stop trading palm oil bought from companies that are destroying the rainforest.
The change in its procurement policy follows years of pressure from Greenpeace and other NGOs which have pressurised the company to adopt a more ethical and sustainable approach to the production of palm oil.
Richard George, forest campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “Over half of the products on our supermarket shelves have palm oil - yet many companies simply aren’t doing enough to ensure that the palm oil they use doesn’t come at the expense of the rainforest. If the world’s largest palm oil trader can commit to protect these forests, then household brands like Gillette and Dettol have no excuse not to make their own commitments to protect Indonesia’s forests and tigers.
Over the last seven years, Greenpeace has repeatedly exposed Wilmar’s role in buying palm oil grown illegally in national parks.
Bustar Maitar, head of the Indonesia forest campaign at Greenpeace International added: “Wilmar’s policy shows that the sector has a massive problem, and while this policy is great news for forests and tigers, its success will be judged by Wilmar’s actions to implement and enforce it. Our challenge to Wilmar is this: will it now immediately stop buying from companies such as the Ganda Group, which is closely linked to Wilmar and is involved in ongoing forest clearance, illegal peatland development and social conflict.”
The palm oil sector is the greatest single cause of deforestation in Indonesia. Ministry of Forestry maps show that Indonesia is losing some 620,000ha of rainforest every year between 2009-2011. Palm oil’s expansion into New Guinea and Africa is already threatening forests, according to Greenpeace.
By Eileen Howard Boone, Senior Vice President of Corporate Philanthropy and Social Responsibility, CVS Caremark; President, CVS Caremark Charitable Trust
Chronic disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. It’s an important health care issue that communities across the country are facing every day.
In West Hawaii, a region with limited access to medical care and a growing population of approximately 65,000 people, the West Hawaii Community Health Center (WHCHC) strives to provide affordable health care services including chronic disease prevention and management to all residents regardless of their ability to pay.
Reducing Healthcare Costs
Chronic disease care costs the U.S. $1 trillion each year. Having diabetes or prediabetes puts patients at increased risk for heart disease and stroke. To put it in perspective, 17 people died of a shark attack in 2011—but 600,000 people die from unmanaged heart disease in the U.S. every year. In Hawaii in 2005, the total charges associated with hospitalizations due to a primary diagnosis of cardiovascular disease amounted to more than $604 million.
Breaking Down Barriers to Care
The West Hawaii Community Health Center and CVS Caremark share in the belief that care coordination is the key to achieving better health outcomes, especially among patients living with chronic disease. The CVS Caremark Charitable Trust and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) are proud to provide an “Innovations in Community Health” grant to the WHCHC to further enhance their coordination of care efforts. Through the grant, the WHWCH will be able to extend care from the Center’s four walls to patients’ homes and community organizations. They will bring together behavior health specialists, nurses and patient navigators to work together in addressing each patient’s health issues. And they will also offer patients group medical visits with a medical provider and chronic disease self-management classes. All of these health care services are customized to each patient’s individual needs to help identify and break down barriers to care.
Chronic Disease Impacts Everyone
More than half of Americans suffer from diseases that limit their lifestyle. The past 20 years have seen dramatic growth in the percent of the population diagnosed with diabetes and cardiovascular or chronic heart disease, driven in large part by increased rates of obesity. The incidence of stroke is rising, in large part because more people are surviving to old age. Rates of pulmonary disease have also risen in recent decades. And reported cases of mental disorders, including depression, are growing, too.
To help alleviate the negative impacts of chronic disease, such as diabetes, at the West Hawaii Community Health Center, a care coordinator will offer 90 diabetes patients an intensive two-pronged care approach, combining in-home care coordination and management services with group medical visits and disease management classes. And, the Center is tracking patients’ participation and progress. This new program has already made a positive impact in patients’ lives as you’ll see illustrated in this video.
The mission of our partnership with NACHC and the “Innovations in Community Health” grant program is to help increase access to quality health care and produce better health outcomes while reducing costs for patients and health care systems. We’re proud to support the West Hawaii Community Health Center and their mission to help people live healthier lives.
For more information about the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust and National Association of Community Health Center (NACHC) partnership, please click here.
Eileen Howard Boone is Senior Vice President of Corporate Philanthropy and Social Responsibility at CVS Caremark. In this role, she leads a team responsible for implementing a broad range of communications, philanthropic and CSR programs that align with the company’s purpose to help people on their path to better health.
Howard Boone is also the president of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust, the private foundation of CVS Caremark. In this role, she oversees the foundation’s charitable giving and is responsible for creating and managing strategic partnerships with non-profit organizations that share in the Trust’s commitment to provide greater access to health care in communities throughout the country.
More companies than ever before are investing in ethics programmes, according to the latest survey from the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), citing seven out of 10 respondents investing compared to five out 10 in 2010 (68% of UK and 82% of Continental European respondents) .
What is more, 87% of UK respondents stated that a member of the board of directors took ultimate responsibility for the ethics programme. This suggests that the embedding of ethical values is being given a higher priority at this level, says the IBE.
However, ethics is only a regular board agenda item for 65% of UK respondents and 70% of other European companies.
Simon Webley, IBE’s research director said: “When you consider the cost of ethical failures to a company’s reputation, it is a cause for concern that more boards are not assessing their company’s ethical performance.”
Nearly two thirds of respondent companies stated that ethics plays a part in their company’s recruitment processes (63% up from only 38% in 2010); two thirds include ethics in some way in staff appraisals, and three quarters say that a breach of their company’s code of ethics has led to a disciplinary procedure during the last three years.
Despite the increased investment in ethics programmes, a fifth of companies seem to offer training only once to general employees and managers, and only a third routinely train staff and managers once a year and (24%) of FTSE 350 respondents offer ethics training to the board only once.
Simon Webley commented: “For training to be effective and the information retained by employees, it needs to be repeated. Without regular refresher sessions it is unlikely that employees will gain the necessary acumen and sensitivity. As a result, the risk of an ethical lapse occurring in their business conduct is more likely.”
Whie most large companies acknowledge risks from environmental and social “megaforces” like climate change, few link corporate responsibility to executive remuneration, finds a new report from business consultancy KPMG.
“Environmental and social risks can impact the supply chain, productivity, financial performance, reputation and brand value. So it is disappointing to see that so many companies still shy away from quantifying these risks in financial terms and few factor in the management of these risks into executive remuneration,” commented Yvo de Boer, KPMG’s Global Chairman, Climate Change & Sustainability Services.
Three quarters of the world’s 250 largest companies researched by KPMG acknowledge risks to their business from environmental and social “megaforces”, such as resource scarcity and climate change, in corporate responsibility (CR) reports. Yet only one in ten that reports on CR clearly links CR performance to remuneration, suggesting that many companies are failing to incentivise their executives to manage these risks effectively.
The findings from the eighth KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting also reveal that only 5% of G250 reporting companies quantify and report the potential impact of environmental and social risks on financial performance.
According to the KPMG survey results, financial quantification of environmental and social risks is most prevalent in the financial and oil & gas sectors.
The survey also shows that CR reporting is now a mainstream business activity all over the world practiced by 71% of the 4100 companies studied across 41 countries. The greatest growth in CR reporting has been in the Asia Pacific region where the average CR reporting rate has increased from 49% two years ago to 71% in the 2013 survey.
Women are still paid significantly less than men in investment banking at all levels of seniority according to new data from Emolument.
The bonus and salary data benchmarking website has examined data from over 1800 employees working in front office Investment Banking & Markets jobs in London.
Its findings show that women are paid less than men at all levels and the gap starts early with a 10-16% gap even at analyst and associate level in favour of male bankers. The widest gap is at Vice President (VP) level (VPs are generally 27-32 years old), when it reaches a staggering 27%.
The figures also reveal that the ratio of men to women working in front office investment banking rises from around 5:1 at the lower levels (analyst, associate and VP) to 17:1 at MD level.
Commenting on the data, Robert Benson, ceo, Emolument.com said: “Despite the continued focus on pay equality and the drive to increase the number of women in senior roles, our data suggests that the investment banking industry still has a long way to go.
"The figures reveal a shocking lack of both female representation and pay equality which will do nothing to improve the already poor image of the industry amongst the general public.”
IT giant Dell is funding two collection sites for the first large-scale e-waste recycling facility in East Africa and has plans for 40 more.
The opening of the East Africa Compliant Recycling in Nairobi marks the introduction of a new regulatory model tailored for developing countries. The model was developed by Kenyan officials and representatives from non-governmental organisations and the IT and e-recycling industries and requires electronics companies to meet certain thresholds for e-waste collection and treatment.
Other African nations have monitored the development of new regulatory model, with a view to replicating the approach.
At the heart of the business model are shipping container-housed collection points located throughout Kenya. Each collection point functions as its own independent small businesses, purchasing e-waste from newly-trained individual collectors. To date, four collection points have been established – two funded by Dell – with at least forty more planned.
Once a shipping container is filled to capacity, its contents are resold to the main hub where the e-waste is sustainably processed into material fractions and sold back to the technology industry. Each stage of the model is designed to be profitable for participants, from individual collector to collection point to hub.
In addition to protecting the environment, the model is aimed at creating thousands of green jobs at the facility and across supporting logistics and collection networks, in part by converting existing informal-sector e-waste “pickers” into trained and legitimately-compensated e-waste collectors.
Dell and others have invested in training programmes to educate workers on the safe collection and recycling of e-waste.
Jean Cox-Kearns, Director of Compliance, Dell Takeback, commented: “It is so exciting to see this sustainable model be implemented on the ground in Nairobi, creating green jobs and implementing a solution that deals with e-waste being generated both in Kenya and the greater East African Region, and providing environmentally sound management of e-waste collected.”
A new report from Stop Child Labour (SCL) raises questions about big brand shoe labels and their track records in addressing the issue of child labour in their supply chains.
SCL says that while than more than half of the shoe companies it documents have taken significant steps to fight child labour - such as well known brands Adidas, Bata, Dr Martens and Clarks - “laggards” remain.
SCL approached companies asking them about their policy and practices to combat child labour and labour rights abuses in their full supply chain. They also assessed transparency towards consumers and SCL’s researchers. Based on 15 criteria, the final judgement was good, moderate or poor. It is the second time SCL has conducted the study.
The five brands that have not stood up to SCL scrutiny and which received a total score of ‘poor’ were: Gabor, Lotto Sports, Marks & Spencer, Schoenenreus (‘ShoeGiant’) and Wolky.
SCL says that no or too limited information was provided by Gabor, Lotto Sports and Wolky to assess their practices or improvements. It maintains that?Dutch retailer Schoenenreus made little progress, however they have promised to improve their CSR policy and the information about it on their website. Marks & Spencer was mentioned a year ago in relation to the possible use of child labour by sub-contractors of suppliers in India. SCL says that while the company has investigated the claim, it has not responded to its request to give an update about any improvements.
A spokesperson for Marks & Spencer told Ethical Performance: “Child labour is totally unacceptable to Marks & Spencer in any form and in any part of the supply chain – we have very strict policies to prevent it occurring and any breach will simply not be tolerated. We have never been presented with any credible evidence by HIVOS and conducted our own investigations following its report late last year. No evidence of child labour was found.”
Sweden is to pilot the world’s first large-scale autonomous driving project in which 100 self-driving Volvo cars will use public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
The ground-breaking project ‘Drive Me – Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility’ is a joint initiative between Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg. It is also endorsed by the Swedish Government.
The pilot will involve self-driving cars using approximately 50km of selected roads in and around Gothenburg. The roads are typical commuter arteries and include motorway conditions and frequent queues.
“Our aim is for the car to be able to handle all possible traffic scenarios by itself, including leaving the traffic flow and finding a safe ‘harbour’ if the driver for any reason is unable to regain control,” explained Erik Coelingh, Technical Specialist at Volvo Car Group.
The project will commence next year with customer research and technology development, as well as the development of a user interface and cloud functionality. The first cars are expected to be on the roads in Gothenburg by 2017.
“Autonomous vehicles and a smarter infrastructure will bring us another step towards even safer traffic and an improved environment. It will also contribute to new jobs and new opportunities in Sweden,” commented Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd, the Swedish Minister for Infrastructure.
Lego is augmenting the building blocks of its carbon emissions reduction programme with a new WWF partnership.
The Danish toy manufacturer has pledged to improve performance on a range of environmental priorities – including a greater focus on collaboration with suppliers to reduce total carbon emissions and becoming a WWF Climate Saver?.
Gitte Seeberg, ceo of WWF Denmark commented: “With the support of WWF, Climate Saver member companies have cut their CO² emissions by more than 100 million tonnes since 1999. This is about twice the current yearly CO² emissions of Denmark. Therefore, changes in corporate practice are essential if there is to be real progress for the climate. And in WWF we are very happy that a major player like the Lego Group is now also a Climate Saver.” ??
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The Lego Group has also pledged to explore how it can best innovate its products to be more sustainable and has committed that by the end of 2016, the energy used to manufacture one tonne of Lego elements must be reduced by a minimum of 10% (compared to 2012).? It is also looking to produce more renewable energy than it uses in its facilities, i.e. to be 100%+ renewable by 2016.??
Commenting on the new partnership, Lego Group’s ceo, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, said: “We have experienced strong growth for eight consecutive years and, as we grow, we are becoming increasingly aware of the impact we leave on the planet. Partnering with WWF is an important step in our efforts to get the best out of our sustainability initiatives. We are proud to contribute to WWF’s overall vision of 100% renewable energy by 2050 and already now they have played a part in the targets we have set – and how we can achieve them.” ??
British high street stalwart Marks & Spencer (M&S) has become the first major company to sign up to UNICEF’s new carbon offset project.
This initiative is aimed at improving the health and lives of vulnerable children while cutting carbon emissions that cause climate change.
M&S will kick start the project in early 2014 by providing funds for 40,000 fuel efficient, low pollution cook stoves to be manufactured, sold and maintained by local entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
The new stoves are 50 per cent more fuel efficient than traditional stoves, producing one tonne less carbon emissions each year. The new stoves will be used by low income families from over 2,000 villages across Bangladesh. Over 150 new jobs will be created as local people will be trained to manufacture, market and install the stoves.
Jonathan Porritt, co-founder of Forum for the Future commented: “M&S led the world in becoming the first major retailer to go carbon neutral and has now reinforced that leadership by supporting UNICEF’s new carbon offset project in Bangladesh. This ticks literally all the boxes in terms of improved health, local economic benefits and reduced emissions of CO2. I sincerely hope that others will follow swiftly in their path.”
The project aims to qualify for ‘The Gold Standard’ carbon credit certification. The move by M&S is part of its Plan A (M&S’s eco and ethical programme) commitment to be a carbon neutral company.
