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(Image: Goldman Sachs headquarters in Battery Park, New York. Goldman is just one of several major investors to take a public stance on climate change this past week.)

For the global economy to decarbonize quickly, there is no substitute for political leadership from the top. Nevertheless, investors and other financial stakeholders are positioned to hold the torch until national governments come up with a more aggressive position on climate change.

A group of more than 600 investors called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies during the COP25 climate talks in Madrid last week. The talks concluded in a shambles, but the pledge to act has continued to grow.

Investors are concerned about stranded fossil fuel assets

Though the world's two largest investors, BlackRock and Vanguard, are not part of the group of 600, it's still a financial powerhouse. UBS Asset Management and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) are just two of the big-ticket investors on the roster. 

These investors clearly anticipate that stronger climate legislation is inevitable, and they want more clarity on the risks involved in clinging to fossil fuel investments. “One of the biggest worries for investors is the treatment of ‘stranded assets’, such as oil, coal and gas reserves, which could become unusable depending on climate legislation," reports Billy Nauman of The Financial Times.

A push for more disclosure 

As with many aspects of decarbonization, transparency is a key issue in the area of stranded assets. The group urges the adoption of risk disclosure platforms through the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

The Task Force is supported by Mark Carney of the Bank of England and is chaired by U.S. businessman and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg. It aims to develop voluntary and “effective” financial disclosure platforms that provide investors, lenders, insurers, and other stakeholders with accurate information about the risks associated with climate change.

The work of the Task Force is also aligned with the organization Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), a sustainable finance organization backed by the United Nations.

Financial stakeholders take a stand for climate action

The odds of avoiding catastrophic climate change are still good, if the pace of decarbonization picks up. However, accelerating the decarbonization trend means that nations will, eventually, adopt stronger climate policies. 

In what could be a harbinger of things to come, last week Reuters reported that Switzerland is considering legislation to pull the Swiss central bank—and its $800 billion in assets—out of fossil fuel companies.

That should be a warning sign. But Nathan Fabian, chief responsible investment officer for the PRI, told The Financial Times that only a few companies have positioned their assets to prepare for a more aggressive decarbonization timeline. For example, almost 2,600 firms have signed on to PRI’s guidelines, but Fabian estimates that only about 2 percent of them have prepared accordingly.

Still, there are signs that the collapse of the Madrid talks has galvanized the financial community.

On Monday, the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow filed a shareholder proposal with ExxonMobil and co-filed another one at Chevron, asking the companies to align with the Paris Agreement by decarbonizing their value chain, not simply by improving energy efficiency in their operations. Among other stakeholders, the filings were backed by the Church Commissioners for England, which manages the Church of England’s endowment fund.

In a press statement announcing the filings, As You Sow cited other financial stakeholders pressuring the two companies. That includes the organization Climate Action 100+, which represents 370 global investors with more than $35 trillion in assets.

Climate Action 100+ is coordinated by the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change, U.S.-based Ceres, the Australia-New Zeland Investor Group on Climate Change, and the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) in addition to PRI. And it includes the Church Commission and the New York State Common Retirement Fund among members.

In another interesting development, on Sunday the financial heavyweight Goldman Sachs announced a set of measures aimed at stepping up the decarbonization of its stake in the global economy.

As reported by CNN, that includes a 10-year, $750 billion funding commitment for projects that involve decarbonization and inclusive growth.

The bank also pledged not to finance drilling in the Arctic, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. It's also the first major American bank to rule out funding new thermal coal mining and coal power projects.

Look for more major announcements from leading financial institutions as we move into 2020.

Image credit: Thomas Dimson/Flickr

(Image: A group of youth activists protest in favor of indigenous rights and climate action at the COP25 climate talks in Madrid.)

Even as scientists issue dire warnings about the impacts of climate change, many still seem to view it as an amorphous threat that doesn't relate to them. 

"Risks are most salient if they apply to you,” Robert Lempert, a principal researcher at the nonprofit public policy think tank RAND, told Wired last fall. Lempert put that notion to work as lead author of the fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment, which broke down potential climate impacts by region—in part to attract attention from lawmakers, Lampert said.  

Fridays for Future, the youth climate action movement launched by Greta Thunberg, takes a similar approach in a new social campaign aimed at raising awareness of "local warming."

"Despite scientific evidence, decades of diplomatic summits and repeated calls for action, some people still do not believe that climate change is real, and impacting us today,"  the group said in a press statement. "However, it seems that more people are willing to accept that change is afoot when confronted with it at a local level."

To bring the conversation home, Fridays for Future redesigned vintage tourism posters to reflect how destinations would look under current climate scenarios. 

This grim view of future travel is not so far off base. In November, Venice experienced its worst high-tide flooding in over 50 years. California wildfire seasons continue to break records. And top tourist destinations from the South Pacific to the Arctic Circle are already being impacted by climate change. 

The local context theory also has data behind it. In the U.S., 67 percent of people worry climate change will harm future generations, but only 42 percent think it will harm them personally. In New Zealand, people living near a coastline are more likely to accept climate science. And in the U.K., concern about climate change rose alongside perceptions that "it is already having an impact" in the country.

The images also call to mind research published by Climate Central this fall, which indicates the impact of rising sea levels may be more widespread than previously thought. As reported in the New York Times, entire regions could all but disappear by 2050—including Southern Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City; most of the Shanghai, China, metro area; and almost all of Mumbai, India.

Youth activists say, "We won't be silenced"

The campaign follows historic action from the activist group during U.N. climate negotiations in Madrid last week. On Wednesday, Dec. 11, hundreds of youth climate strikers commandeered the main stage at the COP25 climate talks, demanding greater ambition from developed nations. 

When security tried to usher youth activists away, they staged an impromptu sit-in. It was an unprecedented public stance in what are usually highly regimented proceedings, as shared by teenage Scottish climate activist Dylan Hamilton on Twitter: 

Ultimately, more than 300 people—including indigenous leaders and youth activists—were pushed out of the event space. "People were bullied & kicked," an account affiliated with Fridays For Future Germany tweeted on Wednesday. "Then we were kettled on the street & refused to get back in – but we won't be silenced!"

Those words proved prescient, as protesters took to the streets around the world again on Friday, Dec. 13, and 16-year-old Thunberg was named Time magazine's Person of the Year. 

Image credits: John Englart/Flickr, Fridays for Future, Dylan Hamilton/Twitter and Jake Blucker/Unsplash

The Ocean Cleanup has returned with its first plastic catch from the Pacific Ocean. The Dutch nonprofit aims to rid the ocean of 90 percent of its plastic by 2040—partly by targeting ocean garbage patches, or gyres, the largest being the Pacific Garbage Patch located between Hawaii and California. 

The plastic capture happens via a passive system that includes a 2,000-foot cork floater designed to mimic a coastline, along with a skirt extending 10 feet below the surface and a parachute anchor. Winds, waves and currents all help the system move faster than plastic, retain an arched shape to keep the capture inside and remain flexible during storms. 

The first haul of 60 bags, sized 35 cubic feet, included both the massive and the minute, from commercial fishing nets to microplastics one millimeter in size. Once fully scaled, the nonprofit estimates that its fleet of passive collection systems could halve the size of the Pacific Garbage Patch every five years. 

One would think cleaning the ocean would be enough responsibility for a small nonprofit, but The Ocean Cleanup has ambitious plans for its catch. On the heels of completing its first mission to the Pacific, the organization announced plans to create “attractive, sustainable products” from the plastic it collects and use the proceeds to fund future cleanups. 

Product specifications have not been released, but the organization told Fast Company the infrastructure to clean, sort and recycle the plastic is now in the works. 

The impact of collecting and recycling garbage patches

The problem of these garbage patches may seem remote and even irrelevant to daily human life and business, but these growing patches are not so far removed from our daily lives.

Generally speaking, plastic pollution costs the world at least $13 billion a year in lost tourism due to plastic on beaches, impacts to the fishing industry, ecosystem degradation and other damages. The World Economic Forum estimates that two-thirds of the world’s fish stocks have ingested plastic. These plastics, as well as their toxins, can harm and kill wildlife. 

On a larger scale, the free-roaming accumulation of plastic affects ecosystem services on which global economies rely. Loss of biodiversity threatens the stability of ecosystem services like food provision, water purification and carbon sequestration.

One recent study found a 1 to 5 percent annual reduction of marine ecosystem services due to oceanic plastic pollution in 2011, equivalent to a loss of $500 billion to $2.5 trillion.

Pollution becomes a solution — certified ocean plastic products

The Ocean Cleanup’s first novelty products are slated to come out in September 2020. And they'll have plenty of company in the marketplace, as an increasing number of companies claim to use plastic recovered from the ocean. 

Some of these are legitimate, but others are not—and as of now, there’s no way to tell. Quality assurances provider DNV GL has developed a standard and definition for ocean plastic and will certify all of The Ocean Cleanup's products.

“Welcoming the first catch of plastic on land is the moment we have been looking forward to for years,” Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, said in a press statement. “I believe we can use this trash to turn a problem into a solution by transforming this unique material into a beautiful product. As most people will never go to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, through these products, we aim to give everyone the opportunity to take part in the cleanup.”

Meanwhile, the nonprofit is preparing a new design, System 002, for its next phase of plastic collection. 

Image credit: The Ocean Cleanup

As the largest hotel on the West Coast, the Hilton San Francisco prepares well over 1 million meals for guests and conference attendees every year. That's a whole lot of chicken marsala, cesar salad and vodka rigatoni. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of the food it purchases and prepares goes to waste due to inefficient use, poor storage and stock management, and customer plate waste.

For hotels such as Hilton, throwing away food presents serious financial, environmental and social concerns. 

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, between 30 and 40 percent of the nation’s food supply goes to waste. This adds up to 133 billion pounds or $161 billion worth of food. Experts say an estimated 40 percent of the total comes from consumer-facing business, including restaurants and hotels. What’s more, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) predicts that about 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions could be eliminated if food waste were brought to zero. 

Hilton takes action to reduce food waste 

Following a pilot at 50 hotels, including in San Francisco, Hilton will expand its food waste reduction program to all North American properties, the company announced this month.

Hilton says the move is part of a strategy to halve food waste in its hotels by 2030. Its program is based in part on the WWF and American Hotel and Lodging Association’s Hotel Kitchen Toolkit, which provides resources to help hotels use food wisely and dispose of leftovers in a sustainable way. 

For Hilton, the pilots resulted in a number of innovations, the company said, from “no-waste” catering menus to thoughtfully designed buffet presentations. The pilots also illustrated that producing less food requires an integrated approach involving hotel management, catering, purchasing, services and events, but can help to streamline menu planning and reduce over-production. 

In terms of numbers: Pilot hotels in the Americas diverted more than 6 million pounds of food waste from landfills in 2019, an equivalent of more than 11,000 megatons of carbon emissions, according to Hilton. The Hilton San Francisco, for example, reduced food waste by purchasing locally-sourced and in-season products, working with “imperfect produce” sources, and using the whole product wherever possible.

Following the guidance of the Hotel Kitchen Toolkit, the company donates any remaining viable food to local shelters and agencies. For any food that cannot be donated, Hilton composts it, saving approximately $7,000 per month in waste hauling fees, the company says.

(Image: Hilton plans to scale food rescue and donation alongside its efforts to reduce food waste.)

Helping address food insecurity 

By donating surplus food, Hilton is also tackling food insecurity in the United States, which effects an estimated 41 million Americans, including 13 million children. 

Through the expanded program, each Hilton hotel in North America will be expected to set a food waste diversion and donation goal for 2020 and report their progress. Hotel management can select organizations to work with from a directory of food donation and diversion partners from across the country, as well as connect with one another to share best practices. 

With additional local donation initiatives in place once the program is fully rolled out, Hilton expects to donate nearly 100 tons of food in 2020, enough to feed nearly 160,000 people.

This builds on existing food donation partnerships. The Hilton San Francisco provides nearly 2.5 tons of food to Food Runners annually. The Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas donated nearly a ton of food to Three Square over the past year. And the New York Hilton Midtown donates regularly to the Rethink Food Program. Hilton says it plans to expand its donation efforts globally in the future. 

Hilton is not alone 

A number of other hotels are also rolling out the Hotel Kitchen Toolkit—and seeing results. 

Marriott, the largest hotel company in the world, tested the Toolkit at 10 of its properties and is now rolling it out globally as part of its goal to halve food waste by 2025.

Speaking at Bloomberg’s second annual The Year Ahead: Luxury summit last month, Denise Naguib, vice president of sustainability and supplier diversity for the hotel giant, confirmed that food waste will be a major focus of its environmental strategy in 2020. “If we are going to tackle major issues against climate change, we need to tackle food waste,” she said.

Hyatt is also launching the Toolkit at its 875 hotels around the world, with each required to put in place a food waste management plan in support of the company’s goal to reduce food waste by 40 percent by the end of next year. Already, the hotel has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of hotels reporting donation of excess food, and it is testing an app that facilitates selling surplus food at a discount toward the end of a meal period.

Hyatt also found that simple adjustments can yield big results. Through its participation in the initial pilot, the Hyatt Regency Orlando reduced food waste at buffets by introducing cylinders and dispensers to control portion sizes, decreasing serving dish sizes, and using buffet servers with adjustable tray heights that give the impression of always being full. 

Results add up

In the pilot phase alone, participating hotels saw at least a 3 percent reduction in food costs while using the Toolkit, and more than 90 percent of hotel staff surveyed said they want to take action to reduce food waste, according to WWF and the Association. 

From a total waste perspective, participating hotels reduced food waste by 10  to 38 percent in the first 12 weeks. If scaled across the industry, experts predict the Toolkit could eliminate half a million tons of waste within a year. 

Now that’s a lot of fettuccini alfredo and tiramisu.

Image credits: Kelly Jean and Vernon Raineil Cenzon via Unsplash; Hilton Hotels

Jose Cuervo plans to introduce biodegradable straws made from agave fibers left over after tequila-making. In 2020, millions of these straws will be rolled out at bars, restaurants and events across North America as a new way to sip margaritas and the like.

The creation is part of the duly named Agave Project, which aims to celebrate this storied Mexican ingredient and find more ways to use it. Through the project, in-house innovators and conservationists have created a guitar, surfboard and even car parts using upcycled agave fibers.

A sustainable alternative to plastic straws

Jose Cuervo's design replaces about a third of the polymers used in a traditional straw with an agave-based alternative. Compared to paper and metal straws, the agave-based product has a mouthfeel that's similar to a traditional straw. And it won't dissolve in your drink as paper straws tend to do. Still, the agave straws decompose up to 200 times faster than their plastic counterparts and can fully biodegrade within five years in landfill conditions, according to Jose Cuervo.

The biodegradable straws also utilize more of the agave plant than just what is needed to produce tequila, taking better advantage of a plant that takes about six years to mature before being harvested. The tequila-making process generates thousands of tons of pulp, which distillers can recycle as fuel or compost. With this new process, the company can also upcycle the fibrous pulp into straws.

Furthermore, biodegradable plastic alternatives like these reduce air pollution and save energy by minimizing dependence on petroleum-based polymers. When plastic is produced, it emits toxins like benzene, xylene, carbon monoxide, ozone, particulate matter, and many other fumes that pollute the air and lungs. And the oil extraction and fossil fuel refinement needed to make plastic release their own toxic gases and carcinogenic vapors into the environment. The production of agave straws, however, doesn't require harsh chemicals or oils, reducing pollution and improving efficiency.

A drop In the bucket?

Agave straws are just one more step toward reducing plastic waste and the negative byproducts of its production. Scientists estimate there are 8.3 billion plastic straws littering shorelines worldwide, harming wildlife and disrupting ocean ecosystems.

A biodegradable alternative could reduce this staggering number. But straws only make up a small percentage of the more than 8 million metric tons of plastic that float into the ocean each year.

Although the biodegradable straws are a positive change, the initiative is arguably only a drop in the bucket of a much larger problem. In fact, alcohol production itself leaves a major carbon footprint: Every bottle of alcohol produced equates to roughly 6.3 pounds of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere on average. This makes distillation the No. 1 contributor to a spirit's carbon footprint. 

The power of small

But the public isn’t likely to give up stiff drinks any time soon, so several distilleries are searching for new ways to reduce their negative impact on the environment. Some convert their spent grain into animal feed while others locally source their grain or use food waste to produce spirits. 

For its part, Jose Cuervo says it’s leveraging agave to support community development in Tequila, Mexico, providing agave fibers for local businesses to use in their products and funding other community efforts through its foundation. 

While every company works individually to reduce its footprint, their efforts combine to create change. So, even though a simple biodegradable straw may seem like an insignificant change, this small difference—when paired with many other small efforts—could, over time, culminate to create lasting change.

Image credit: Jose Cuervo

*This story was updated on 12/19/2019

(Image: At least 20 new models will join the Chevrolet Bolt in GM's electric vehicle portfolio by 2030, the company claims.)

The COP25 climate talks in Madrid proved a major disappointment to those hoping that governments would agree on an aggressive course of urgent action. Nevertheless, some bright spots emerged outside of the official sessions. One of those came from General Motors, which announced a major new electric vehicle battery partnership last Thursday.

GM and climate action: It’s complicated

The GM battery announcement was welcome news from a climate action perspective, considering that the company seemed to be driving in exactly the opposite direction earlier this fall.

In October, GM joined Toyota, Hyundai and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in support of the Donald Trump administration’s effort to challenge California’s strict zero-emission tailpipe regulations in court. The stance earned GM a big thumbs-down from environmental advocates.

Toward a national zero-emission vehicle plan

GM’s position on zero-emission vehicles is not so cut and dried, though. In a statement timed to the legal action, GM claimed it still supports a vigorous, national zero-emission standard to replace the patchwork of state regulations.

With a national plan in place, GM predicts at least 7 million electric vehicles will be on the road by 2030. That figure only includes long-range electric vehicles, not gas-electric hybrids with limited range.

As for whether that is meaningful talk or just talk, the company’s track record on clean power does indicate serious intent.

GM is a founding member of REBA (the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance), aimed at helping businesses add 60 gigawatts of clean power by 2025. GM has committed to an RE100 goal of sourcing 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, and it partnered with the public utility Consumers Energy to implement the first “green tariff” in its home state of Michigan.

With the help of three virtual power purchase agreements in 2018, GM also has 416 megawatts of renewable energy in its fold, far exceeding its initial goal of 125 megawatts. 

The company also gets high marks for energy efficiency and waste management among advocates. Among several recent honors for its green power efforts, last September GM won a Green Power Leadership award for direct engagement on renewable energy projects from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Driving electric vehicle costs down

With all of this in mind, GM’s recent battery announcement comes into sharper focus.

The company says it will enter into a $2.3 billion joint venture with the leading energy storage firm LG Chem to build a massive new electric vehicle battery plant in northeastern Ohio.

The partners aim to drive down the cost of an electric vehicle battery by achieving economies of scale all along the value chain, in addition to deploying the latest high-efficiency manufacturing processes.

That laser sharp focus on cost is significant, because the high cost of today’s battery technology is the defining factor in the price of electric vehicles compared to conventional cars.

Battery costs are falling rapidly, and projects like the new GM-LG partnership will help bring the cost of an electric vehicle down to parity with conventional cars.

Another significant part of the partnership is the accommodation of emerging technology. Battery technology is improving and transforming, and the plant aims to assimilate new designs as they come through the pipeline.

To keep the innovation flowing, the partnership includes an agreement to work collaboratively on new approaches that continue to drive down the cost of electric vehicle batteries.

In addition to reducing the cost of batteries, improvements in range and lifecycle will also help to make electric vehicles more appealing to the next generation of car buyers.

Without a national policy on vehicle emissions, it's up to consumers to consider new choices

In another interesting move, GM appears to be putting some friendly pressure on car buyers to consider electric vehicles over gas or diesel by introducing electric alternatives alongside new releases from its conventional models.

For example, GM is investing heavily in conventional pick-up trucks, but it also says it will introduce electric versions in 2021.

Last week, Reuters cited Cadillac president Steve Carlisle, who confirmed that Cadillac—a GM brand—is still planning to introduce a “large electric SUV similar to the Escalade.” However, Carlisle also said that Cadillac may continue to offer conventional models “depending on consumer demand.”

Presenting car buyers with a choice is pretty weak tea compared to an aggressive national zero-emission standard that would set benchmarks for manufacturers and provide incentives (and disincentives) for car buyers.

Nevertheless, without strong public policy, it’s up to car buyers to drive the national market for electric vehicles. The technology is in hand, and the nation’s charging station network is strong and growing.

In the coming years, businesses looking to replace fleet vehicles of all types—economy, luxury and light-duty trucks—can also put their climate action money to work by choosing electric.

Image credit: General Motors

Though the United States may pull out of the Paris climate agreement, U.S. business leaders are moving full speed ahead with their own efforts to tackle carbon emissions.

Earlier this month, nearly 30 companies with operations along the U.S. Gulf Coast kicked off what organizers call a first-of-its-kind industry initiative that will work across sectors to reduce emissions. 

The Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative includes companies with operations in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. They pledged to meet on a quarterly basis to learn from one another, work to scale decarbonization strategies, build cross-industry capacity, and forge policy recommendations based on empirical results. 

“There is tremendous industrial activity in the Gulf Coast Region supporting a strong economy,” said Andrew Mangan, co-founder and executive director of the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development (USBCSD), which brought together the companies along with New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. “At the same time, companies want to avoid putting more carbon into the atmosphere. They are interested in learning different strategies, techniques and ways they can work together to leverage greater carbon reduction.” 

Participating companies include AEP, AmerisourceBergen, Armstrong Flooring, Bank of America, BASF, Dow, Entergy, Honeywell, Ingersoll Rand, Shell, the Southern Company, Tierra Resources, Total and Toyota.

Accelerating the shift to a low-carbon emissions economy 

Organizers say the Collaborative will explore strategies to accelerate the shift to renewable energy, increase land-based carbon sequestration, and employ carbon capture, utilization and storage. They'll also look to modernize equipment and share best practices on how to finance efficiency upgrades. 

“For any individual company and certainly for the region as a whole, there will be no single carbon reduction strategy,” Mangan told TriplePundit. “A number of different strategies must be utilized, and corporate climate leaders will need to work with other functions within their companies—including procurement, finance and legal— to develop and implement strategies.” 

Energy company Entergy came to USBCSD earlier this year with the idea that led to the Collaborative, Mangan said. The company, which provides electricity to 2.9 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, was the first U.S. utility to cap carbon emissions voluntarily way back in 2001. The company is also a strong advocate for national action on climate change and an economy-wide price on carbon.

“If we can bring the collective power of this group and examples of the projects that come out of it to bear on developing good policies, they are much more likely to become reality,” said Chuck Barlow, vice president of sustainability and environmental policy for Entergy. “The result will be greater net benefits to our communities and our planet.”

While USBCSD will facilitate the Collaborative, Mangan stresses it will be business-led. He hopes it will lead to similar collaborations elsewhere, such as the Great Lakes region. 

The Collaborative comes on the heels of a new report by the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, which recommends that companies seek out opportunities to work across sectors to reduce carbon emissions. “Decarbonization will move faster and more efficiently if more oars are rowing in the same direction,” the organization noted in the report.  

The report urges companies in climate-critical sectors to ramp up investment in the technologies and workforce needed to decarbonize the economy, and to work with investors to shift long-term capital from higher-carbon to lower-carbon resources, products, and business models. 

Image credit: Adam Reeder/Flickr

Niman Ranch is known for its sustainable and humane practices. The network of 740 independent family livestock farms and ranches is 100 percent third-party Certified Humane and has led industry change for years. 

“I want to see sustainable farming practices and the humane treatment of animals," founder Paul Willis told Food Tank. "Moving that direction is something that is inspiring.”

It may come as a surprise that a company with such a strong and tested mission is owned by poultry giant Perdue Farms. The companies merged in September 2015, and despite some criticism, the partnership is proving a success in many ways. 

New relationships drive positive change at Perdue

Skeptics weren’t coming out of left field. Unlike Niman Ranch, Perdue does not have a long history of humane animal husbandry. The fourth largest chicken producer in the U.S., Perdue has a troubled reputation when it comes to how it has treated its stock. 

In Jim Perdue’s own words, “We had been focused more, as a traditional poultry company, on the end products that you see on the market, not so much on what’s happening on the farm, not so much on the farmers.” The Chairman of Perdue and Willis shared the growth this merger has offered both brands during the 2019 Food Tank Summit in New York. 

Until recently, Perdue company policy required farms to breed and raise their chickens using methods many have called abusive, unnatural and objectively unhealthy. Finally, in 2016—half a year after acquiring Niman Ranch—the company presented an animal welfare policy that promised to guarantee certain freedoms for Perdue chickens, amongst which are “freedom from hunger and thirst” and “freedom from pain, injury or disease." 

Perdue said his company has continued to grow and change for the better. It was the first major poultry producer to eliminate antibiotics from the chicken it sells, a destination Perdue said took 12 years to reach. Today, the company is one of the largest producers of organic chicken in the world, and it's in the process of retrofitting its chicken houses with natural light and opportunities for exercise. 

Are Perdue and Niman Ranch an exception to the rule?

Acquiring small, sustainable brands is nothing new for major multinationals. Earlier this year, CDP analyzed the 16 largest publicly-listed consumer goods companies and found that 75 percent had acquired a brand with values like Niman over the past five years.

Purpose-driven acquisitions have more than quadrupled over that time, with recent examples including Plum Organics and Campbell Soup Co., Method and SC Johnson, and Annie's Homegrown and General Mills. 

Even earlier, in 2007, Clorox acquired Burt’s Bees. In a conversation at the State of Green Business Forum shortly after the acquisition, Don Knauss, then CEO of Clorox, said the move was fundamental to the company's shift toward taking sustainability seriously. 

Knauss listed three essential components to getting sustainability right after acquiring a green business, one of which was “get out of your comfort zone,” citing company conversations with the Sierra Club. 

At Food Tank, Perdue described similar talks company executives had with animal welfare groups after buying Niman Ranch. These meetings now happen every summer, he said, emphasizing how big a leap that was for his industry. 

Initially, there was some tension around the table, Perdue said. But everyone was aware that action at Perdue could be a tipping point for the entire industry, a power already demonstrated when the company eliminated antibiotics and competitors followed suit. 

Is there a formula for a sustainable brand acquisition?

Compatibility of culture was top of mind as Willis offered his own thoughts on what made his company’s merger with Perdue successful.

“There were other potential buyers of Niman Ranch that I really wouldn’t have been happy about," Willis said. "What I came to find out more about later was Perdue is a family-owned business. That’s different than a publicly-traded company. I didn’t realize initially how much different that was. It makes a great deal of difference. It’s not just bottom-line driven.”

Family ownership and “looseness” of culture shone through how Perdue decided to embrace the ranch, experts observed in the Harvard Business Review. “There’s a formula that makes a company successful—culture, values—and you have to let those stay in place," Willis added. "They’re successful for a reason. Why Purdue-ize them? Because that’s not necessarily going to make them successful in the future.”

He also touched on Perdue’s strides to improve the way it raised chickens before the acquisition: Going antibiotic-free and organic were already in progress.

And Perdue was already noticing the benefits of raising healthier chickens. “We had just gone organic, and we had noticed that the organic chickens were different than the conventional—different in quality, tenderness,” Perdue explained

While Niman Ranch has gained capital, a new facility for harvest and infrastructure, Willis also points to the bigger impact he can now have on the way Americans eat. The fourth-generation hog farmer now sits on Perdue’s Animal Care Steering Committee, a group that didn’t exist before Niman Ranch joined the Perdue family. 

Jim Perdue, however, believes his brand got the long end of the stick, and he agrees that Perdue has more growing to do. “We’re learning more from them than they are from us.”

Image credits: Pixabay and Pexels

As is often said, the most sustainable item is one that already exists. Fortunately, resale and re-commerce are booming in the retail segment, and a host of major brands are already involved. To help you lighten the footprint of your holiday shopping this year, we rounded up where to find secondhand gifts that your friends will actually like (you're welcome).  

Related: TriplePundit's Sustainable Holiday Gift Guide

REI

Most outdoor enthusiasts are familiar with REI's quarterly garage sales. But if you don't live near an REI store (or aren't brave enough for those lines stretched around the block), the outdoor gear brand has you covered. 

Back in 2017, it linked up with Yerdle—a California benefit corporation that designs collection and resale platforms for major brands—to bring its famous sales online. (Yerdle also powers re-commerce for several other names on our list, including Patagonia and Eileen Fisher.) Expanded again earlier this year, REI's secondhand shop includes hundreds of gently used items—from outdoor apparel and footwear to tents, sleeping bags and backpacks. 

Patagonia

Patagonia sells gently used outdoor gear and clothing for men, women and children in its online Worn Wear shop. In November, the certified B Corp expanded its foray into reuse and re-commerce with the ReCrafted collection made from goods deemed too damaged to be sold in its secondhand store. Each ReCrafted piece is one of a kind and as durable as new. 

Better World Books

Every purchase at online used book seller Better World Books supports literacy initiatives in the U.S. and around the world. The company donates a book for every book purchased through partners like Books for Africa and Feed the Children, and it has raised more than $28 million for libraries and literacy initiatives since 2003. 

Taylor Stitch

Casual apparel brand Taylor Stitch offers a buyback program for its old garments and resells them online for a fraction of the price of buying new. Along with the gently used items in its Restitch shop, the brand creates workwear from garments too far gone to resell. 

Eileen Fisher

B Corp fashion brand Eileen Fisher has collected more than 1.2 million garments since launching its take-back program over a decade ago. Gently used items are resold in the Eileen Fisher Renew shop, while well-worn pieces are remade into new designs as part of the Resewn Collection. 

Etsy

Along with handmade goods, Etsy's marketplace features thousands of vintage and secondhand items—from vinyl records and housewares to toys and games—shipped from independent sellers around the world. Every Etsy shipment is carbon neutral, and the company plans to be powered by 100 percent renewable energy and send zero waste to landfill by the end of next year. 

Kidizen

As well as an online marketplace for independent sellers to create and run their own boutiques for children's clothes, Kidizen is a community for moms to connect with one another. Shop online, or use the app for iPhone or Android. 

The North Face

The North Face launched its re-commerce platform, The North Face Renewed, in 2018 and has since helped more than 37,000 pounds of used outdoor clothing find a new life.

The brand's parent company, VF Corporation, is eyeing re-commerce as a key trend in the apparel space and plans to launch similar platforms across its family of brands, which includes Vans, Timberland and Dickies.

The Renewal Workshop

Like Yerdle, the Renewal Workshop manages the infrastructure that allows major brands to resell secondhand items online. It works with companies like The North Face to run reuse shops on the brands' own websites and also sells used items in its own shop. You'll find apparel from labels like Prana, Indigenous and Mara Hoffman, as well as backpacks and luggage from Eagle Creek.  

Arc’teryx

Arc’teryx offers buybacks for gently used outdoor apparel and sells it online at steep discounts, freeing up space in people's closets and finding a new life for durable goods. 

Comma

In a slightly different way to buy used, this curated subscription box service features vintage menswear and accessories shipped monthly or quarterly. The boxes come in varying sizes—from two to six items per box—and are tailored according to a lifestyle survey to make sure no one ends up with stuff they don't want. 

A Curated Thrift

Like Comma, A Curated Thrift is a clothing subscription box for vintage and secondhand items for both women and men. Decide how many items go into the box, and choose from several styles to suit every taste. 

Image credits: REI/PR Newswire and Kidizen

On April 3, 2016, the world woke up to revelations in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper illuminating the murky use of offshore financial services and shell companies, which some individuals and companies were using to minimize their tax liabilities.
 
The Panama Papers, as the multi-country investigation became known, provided sensational stories involving politicians, rock stars and royalty. But what it also laid bare was the scale o tax avoidance on the part of global businesses, often in ways that are entirely legal.
 
Tax income is essential for governments to fund infrastructure and services—and support sustainable development both at home and internationally. Corporate taxes contribute to the wellbeing of the people in the country where they are paid and are a key means for companies to contribute to the local economies where they operate.
 
Yet serious questions have been raised over how the country-by-country taxes paid by multinational companies relate to the locations where they do business. Transparency to all stakeholders about a company's tax management approach, how much they pay and where they pay it is therefore highly relevant from a sustainability standpoint.
 
By any estimate, the scale of the financial cost to governments caused by corporate tax avoidance is very high. Research from UNU-WIDER puts it at US$500 billion each year in lost revenue, while according to the IMF, the figure is up to US$600 billion, with low-income economies disproportionately affected.
 
What this emphasizes is that non-transparent tax practices make it difficult for companies to show how they are meeting their societal obligations. And that includes to governments, the environment and the communities where they produce, store, or sell their products and services.
 
While businesses typically release some tax information, accessible data on how much tax companies pay—and where—can be difficult or impossible to find. When it is available, it is often technical, aggregated and based on country-specific legal frameworks.
 
As a result, there have been growing calls—from investors, governments, civil society, the media and the public—for tax transparency, including comprehensive and comparable disclosure on a country-by-country basis.
 
It was against this backdrop that in 2017 the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the independent entity that oversees the development of the GRI Standards, of which I am the chair, appointed a Technical Committee of experts to create the first global reporting standard on tax transparency.  
 
This multi-stakeholder group included international experts on tax. The draft Standard they developed then underwent global consultation, including a 90-day public comment period earlier this year, to gather views from all interested parties. That process emphasized the widespread demand for better information on the taxes multinational corporations pay, especially from investment institutions.
 
Just two years on from the standard being first proposed by the GSSB, GRI launched the new Tax Standard last week. Published on Dec. 5, it is freely available for any organization to use to disclose their taxes in a transparent way that adheres to global best practice.
 
Adoption of the GRI Tax Standard—and widespread organizational reporting of tax strategy and country-by-country tax payments—will enable an open debate between reporting organizations, government, the public, and civil society about tax policies and practices within jurisdictions. For example, it can contribute to discussions about how tax revenues can promote sustainable development.
 
The scale of initial backing for the new GRI Standard is very encouraging. We have seen major investors, industry bodies, civil society activists, charities, trade unions, and many other groups from around the world voice their support for the Tax Standard and the greater transparency it seeks to achieve. To highlight just a few supporters: asset managers Royal London and Hermes, Accountancy Europe, Oxfam, the U.N.-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, global union federation Public Services International, and civil society groups such as the Tax Justice Network and FACT Coalition.
 
As the turmoil that resulted from the Panama Papers shows, more openness on tax transparency is necessary if we are to start to rebuild public trust in companies, strengthen corporate accountability and facilitate the informed dialogue that stakeholders rightfully demand. I believe GRI’s Tax Standard can enable a significant and progressive step forward in that journey.

Image credit: Philipp Birmes/Pexels