Search

By Murray Bass

Liberia is a West African nation formed as an American colony by freed slaves in 1820. It became an independent nation in 1847 but remains one of the poorest nations in the world. The nation still suffers from the devastation of its civil war, which ended in 2003 and destroyed much of Liberia’s engines of economic progress, including those based on the investment of foreign capital. Liberia is perceived as very high risk for the investment of that capital. There is almost no local market for goods because there is almost no availability of spendable income.

The prospect of a reasonable return on foreign investment capital is close to nil. In a crazy sort of way, that fact is a positive aspect for the investment of philanthropic capital. The return on investment of philanthropic capital is not financial, but is the prospect of human development and the improvement of the human condition.

The people of Liberia are, for the most part, very deep in poverty. Even skilled labor can earn only a few cents an hour. Teachers typically earn about $40 a month. From a practical point of view, every Western philanthropic dollar invested in Liberia goes many times farther than the same dollar would invested in Europe or the United States. A common-sense approach to charity in Liberia is not to do things for them but rather to help them do things for themselves. That way more of the investment remains in Liberia. Over time, local capital can accumulate.

Liberia’s economic situation plays an important role in its current and planned development of citizen education. My own experience with education in Liberia illustrates this perspective well.

The logistics of philanthropy aren't always as easy as they sound

About two years ago I received an email from a woman named Brenda Moore. In response to the Ebola epidemic, Brenda formed an NGO called Kids Educational Engagement Project Liberia (K.E.E.P.). She asked for some educational supplies for Ebola orphans and other children who did not have access to education. The supplies she requested were extremely simple and cost about $1 per child.

My nonprofit, Tools of Learning for Children, was in time qualified as an approved agency for Feed the Children, which serves as a distributor for product donations from Western corporations. We were able to acquire about 15,000 composition books for K.E.E.P. at no cost. But we discovered, to our chagrin, that freight and shipping expenses to move the material to Liberia was far from free -- about US$4,000.

While there is an abundance of donated materials available that would fill the needs of K.E.E.P. and other NGOs on the ground, funds for freight and shipping have not been so abundant. At Tools of Learning for Children, we're careful not to ask for materials until we have the money to move them to places like Liberia. So it makes sense that building a freight and shipping fund has become a project of the highest priority for Tools. In addition to the composition books, we have also been able to supply simple educational materials for several thousand children.

On the ground: Improving education in Liberia

One would think that a nation’s capital would be affluent. Not so with Monrovia. This was confirmed on a face-to-face basis when I met with Odysseus Gbor, a Liberian pastor whose ministry is sponsored in part by a local church. Pastor Gbor runs a school-orphanage in Monrovia with 250 children, another school in Monrovia with 200 students, and a third school on the outskirts of the capital, also with 200 students.

The orphanage-school is staffed with 13 people, total payroll $500. He confirmed that they do not have the basic materials they need to teach children properly. We were able to connect him with Brenda Moore, and she has agreed to help him source such necessities.

Moving forward, K.E.E.P. plans to develop what they call “resource centers” across Liberia. These are to be seeds of learning for areas that have no access to schools.

Each resource center will have two classrooms, each housing 40 students. They'll be equipped with CD players, laptops, projectors and a portable sound system, allowing teachers to deliver state-of-the-art curriculum.

Classrooms would be available for community gatherings. And third room will house a library and computer facility with 15 computers -- where students and adults can access information and learn to use technology for research. The planned design also includes a storage area for the distribution of basic educational materials and first aid, as well as feminine hygiene items for young women so they are able to stay in school.

The planned design also includes solar panels with excess battery capacity to accommodate up to 180 rainy days.

Philanthropic investment can drive educational improvement

The estimated cost to build and wire one of K.E.E.P.'s 4,000-square-foot resource centers is about US$80,000. Total cost of the facility as described would be between $160,000 and $200,000, including equipment -- a doable figure if larger partners come on board. Totals also depend on the cost of the solar panel system. Most facilities in Liberia are powered by high-powered diesel generators, which remain an option to cut costs.

Yes, philanthropic investment dollars go a long, long way in the Liberian environment -- about $200,000 for a facility that would cost many times that amount in the Western world. Each resource centers as planned would have an annual operating budget of $10,000.

In short: Education occurs one individual at a time and tends be the basis for future growth. The very low costs of educational material per child provide huge rewards in the number of literate humans created. Investing in the development of humanity is a highly sustainable investment and a great reward.

Images courtesy of the author

Murray Bass is an 88-year-old blind author of weekly columns for the Fairfield Daily Republic. He formed a nonprofit, Tools of Learning for Children, 16 years ago to help young children learn to read.

I invite you to help us help K.E.E.P Liberia. If you want to make an investment, tell us how you want your investment used. Basic materials, freight and shipping fund, the development of resource centers, or for annual operating expenses. Email Murray Bass at mzb60@comcast.net.

Tools of Learning for Children is an American 501c3 non-profit. Corporation donations are tax deductible. We have no payroll or overhead except for the expense of a Post Office box. All volunteer.

by Antonio Pasolini — Friday evenings are traditionally a? time? when, in alcohol-friendly cultures, people get together with their workmates for a beer or two—sometimes, maybe more than that. For that reason, it’s also a good ?moment? to promote responsible drinking. United around that common goal, globally famous brewers Anheuser-Busch InBev, Carlsberg and Heineken have joined hands with a range of stakeholders to promote responsible drinking to help advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to prevent alcohol-related harm.

Launched last year, this second edition of Global Beer Responsibility Day on Friday 16th September finds that the brewers will tap (pun intended) the manpower of more than half a million employees in 76 countries across the world, engaging more than half a million retailers, 200 government partners and NGOs. It features a variety of educational programs including server and seller training, ID-checking programs and consumer education efforts, to name but a few.

The brewers estimate they will reach more than 700,000 consumers through this outreach action. To promote the initiative on social media, the companies have launched the hashtag #CheersResponsibly.

“As brewers, we are not only committed to brewing quality beers, but also to ensuring those beers are enjoyed responsibly. We’re excited to join together as an industry again this year to make an even greater impact on reducing the harmful use of alcohol,” said Carlos Brito, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s CEO.

For more information, visit the Worldwide Brewing Alliance. The organization was launched in 2003 to disseminate and exchange good practices and information on social responsibility, environmental sustainability and product integrity issues.

Image credit: WBA

Arkansas tech startup Picasolar won a $2 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy to bring its next-generation solar cell technology to market. The company is developing a new manufacturing process that reduces costs while producing a more efficient solar cell. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too.

The catch -- and there usually is one -- is that the company's secret sauce involves hydrogen, and the primary source for hydrogen today is natural gas. However, research on renewable hydrogen is developing apace. And if the timing works out, Picasolar's new solar solution could be a more sustainable one, too.

Picasolar's low-cost solar cell solution

To get that golden combo of high efficiency and low cost, Picasolar took a close look at the conventional process for boosting solar cell efficiency and manufacturing solar cells.

The conventional method involves physically depositing additives called dopants on a surface of solar cells, and then aligning a silver-based grid on top. That involves a lot of extra effort, precision and material, all of which contribute to a more expensive solar cell.

In particular, the conventional method uses a lot of silver. And silver is the next-most expensive material used in silicon solar cells, aside from the silicon itself, Picasolar says.

Picasolar's solution is something it calls the Hydrogenated Selective Emitter. It involves a one-step process in which the grid lines are put in place first. They act as a kind of mask to finalize the dopant part of the process. (Think silkscreening, and you're on the right track.)

That's where the hydrogen comes in. After the solar cell is completely finished, it is exposed to hydrogen. That creates an electric current which removes extra dopant in the areas between the grid lines, leaving a high concentration only under the grid lines, where it is needed.

Aside from its potential for more simple, less expensive manufacturing, the new process enables the grid lines to be spaced farther apart. That translates into a 15 to 20 percent reduction in the amount of silver needed. (The company's press materials say 15 percent, and its white paper estimates 20.) At the gigawatt scale, that savings runs into the tens of millions.

Fewer grid lines also results in a more efficient solar cell. Confirmed lab tests indicate an "absolute" improvement of 1 percent. That might not sound like much, but in solar efficiency terms it is a significant increment -- all the more so because it is achieved by lowering costs instead of raising them.

Arkansas is ready for the solar spotlight

As for getting a great idea off the drawing board and into the marketplace, Picasolar has that well in hand. Global solar giant Yingli Green Energy, through its U.S. subsidiary Yingli Americas, is sharing in that new $2 million Energy Department award.

The award comes from the Obama administration's SunShot initiative, which is aimed at bringing the cost of solar power down to parity with fossil fuels.

The new grant will help Yingli and Picasolar develop a pilot manufacturing project that will churn out 1,000 of the new solar panels.

Yingli's presence in Arkansas may come as a surprise to those of you familiar with the state's solar profile. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), Arkansas had about 24 companies in the solar industry as of last year, which together employed only 260 people. In 2015, the state ranked an unimpressive 40th nationally for installed solar capacity, with a total of only 20.1 megawatts.

However, that's about to change, big time.

In February 2015, the utility Ouachita Electric Cooperative partnered with Aerojet Rocketdyne, Southern Arkansas University-Tech and other stakeholders to develop a 12-megawatt solar farm. At the time of construction, it was the largest solar farm in the state.

The Ouachita solar farm went into operation in April of this year, but it won't be the largest solar farm in Arkansas for munch longer.

In April of 2015, the Florida-based company Entergy had its Entergy Arkansas branch announce the development an 81-megawatt solar farm. Grid connection for the behemoth facility is expected some time in 2019.

Wind energy has also been slow to blossom in Arkansas, and it looks like the state's residents will have to wait a while to see their first wind farm.

Early in 2015, Texas-based Dragonfly Industries International proposed to build Arkansas's first ever wind farm, but the project seems to have hit a serious snag.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Last year the global fishing industry was rocked by an Associated Press investigation that revealed endemic slavery throughout the seafood supply chain in Southeast Asia. Several AP reporters risked their safety, and even their lives, to investigate alleged human rights abuses on the Indonesian island of Benjina. The AP won its 52nd Pulitzer Prize while its work led to the arrest of 12 people and the confiscation of ships and equipment worth millions of dollars.

What started out as an investigative report on environmental problems caused by the seafood sector morphed into a series of stories that ended with the rescue of 2,000 men. These fishermen often worked for wages as low as 70 cents an hour -- if they received their wages as all. The series included heartbreaking stories of men who were kidnapped, including one Burmese man who was enslaved and separated from his family for 22 years. Consumers began to call for the boycott of the Thai fishing and shrimping industry, which became notorious for exhibiting the worst of these abuses.

Two AP journalists, along with the head of an NGO on the front lines of human trafficking in Southeast Asia, shared their stories with an audience at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's annual Sustainable Foods Institute on California's central coast.

"We confirmed things that we had been hearing for years about the conditions on these boats," AP reporter Robin McDowell said this week in California. "Stories had been coming out from runaway slaves and other men who had been rescued over the years. These men suffered through 20- to 24-hour shifts, beatings, murders, and not even docking on land for months, even years, at a time."

The problem, said Dr. Lisa Rende Taylor, founder and executive director of the Issara Institute, is a lack of systematic response to reports of abuse. Many ports have signs in several languages with information on how to report labor and human rights violations. But NGOs and international organizations such as the United Nations have no effective way to deal with this crisis.

"Even though these cases had been occurring in Southeast Asia for almost 20 years, these issues were treated as forced labor, sweatshop labor, as in what can occur in a factory or plantation," Dr. Taylor said. The result is that these cases were treated as individual abuses, and not as a widespread problem within the context of global supply chains.

Seafood's complex journey from ocean to table significantly contributes to human rights abuses, she explained. Supply chains within this sector are extremely complex. Many retailers can identify their top-tier suppliers and perhaps even the next tier. But often that fish or shrimp offered at a store may come from an importer. That importer likely purchased from a processor, which in turn purchased that seafood from a subcontractor, which again could have even procured it from another subcontractor. The outcome is a situation where even if a shrimp farm had legitimate labor practices, it could unknowingly purchase "trash fish" from trawlers staffed by forced or slave labor.

And barcodes or QR codes on cans of tuna or any other product should hardly give retailers and consumers comfort, Dr. Taylor insisted. Industries such as the garment and electronics sectors rely on third-party audits to assure stakeholders their goods are manufactured responsibly and ethically. But these are not effective in preventing the sales of seafood with ties to slave labor, Dr. Taylor said.

If only 1 to 5 percent of ships and factories are inspected, that leaves the door open to plenty of abuses elsewhere. Workers may also hesitate to reveal the true nature of their working conditions due to intimidation from ship captains. Furthermore, if businesses can schedule the audits, it is easy for a ship or seafood processing factory to put forth an appearance of an ethical workplace when the reality is far different.

"Audits don't find slavery," Dr. Taylor declared. "They just don't."

There is some hope on the horizon. More countries have tightened their laws on seafood procured by companies that use slave labor. In February, U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation to close loopholes in the 1930 Tariff Act, which for years allowed these abuses to go unchecked. Changes in the law ended an absurd legality that if there were a strong consumer demand for a product, such goods could be imported and sold in the U.S. markets. Such a porous law in part is what allowed shrimp, which was once an expensive delicacy a generation ago, to become a cheap source of food that could be found in just about every supermarket or big-box store in America.

That excuse is what the AP team of reports heard over and over again as they researched these human rights atrocities across Southeast Asia. "We heard over and over again that 'this is legal,'" said AP reporter Margie Mason.

So, what recourse do fishermen have if they find their wages are withheld, face unsanitary conditions due to lack of bathrooms, suffer physical abuse occurs or and are forced to work long hours without breaks? Dr. Taylor said smartphones are key to giving fisherman a lifeline to help if they need it. A worker may be intimidated from revealing their true experience to an auditor. But they can air their grievances on a smartphone app or even text on a 9-key phone. Dr. Taylor explained that captains on ships have no issues with smart phones.

Enlisting the use of smartphone apps may be a smart tactic now – if it is even possible to educate fisherman about their rights and the means available to them to report abuse. But if the world’s seafood companies and governments cannot or will not take action to protect fisherman in order to meet the world’s growing demand for seafood, we may very well see these abuses continue. In fact, the evidence suggests we are a long way from stamping out slavery in this industry, based on what has recently emerged in Hawaii.

Image credit: Leon Kaye

By Stacey Rago

Single days of volunteer service are exciting, moving, impactful and inspiring. Getting a team of employees out to paint a school, build a playground, or read with dozens of children is great. It’s offering help where there was none before, and it’s a wonderful way for companies to support work/life balance and give back to the communities in which their employees work and live.

But after a year or two of the ‘one and done’ volunteer events, many corporate employees hunger for more. Maybe the school they painted is now closed, or perhaps they simply wish they knew more about the challenges facing the people they helped. Human beings crave long-term relationships. But a single day of service can’t sustain that. To develop an enduring relationship, multiple points of connection are needed.

Here are six ways to move your corporate philanthropy from a one-night stand to a long-term relationship, and create deeper, more meaningful bonds between employees and the nonprofits their company supports.

1. Find the right partner

Your employees want to help solve societal problems, but they may differ on how to prioritize which to work on. Survey your employees to find out what impact they most want to make on the community, or otherwise make sure they understand why the company chooses to support its select nonprofits. If there’s a broad spectrum of interests, find a nonprofit that serves many different needs. Or focus on improving a certain community, rather than a specific issue area. Employee input into the partnership begets ownership, which ultimately begets connection.

2. Variety is the spice of life

Offer your employees an a la carte menu of ways to engage with your community partners. We love Will and Wendy Volunteer, who want to be a part of every fundraiser and volunteer event, but offering multiple ways to participate will increase the likelihood everyone in the office will find something that suits their interest, availability, and style.

Everything from a bake sale to planning a large fundraiser, from showing up weekly for an ongoing volunteer program to a one-time offering of a specific skill-set that may advance the cause – these are all great opportunities to engage and should be offered when possible.

3. Calendar it in

Just like Date Night, connecting with a nonprofit and its mission takes deliberate planning. Brainstorm at the beginning of your partnership, and put together a calendar of events that can be shared with your employees. You may even want to target different departments of the company based on when their workload is less hectic. Don’t ask the accounting department to volunteer in early April, but Operations might be sailing along smoothly that time of year and be eager to find ways to connect outside the office. Regardless of whom you invite, if it isn’t on their calendars, you can’t assume they’ll be there. Make Outlook your friend.

4. Ask! (aka "flattery will get you everywhere")

Not only is it harder to turn someone down when you ask them in person, but it’s also flattering to be personally requested to attend an event. Email is perfect for getting people information about a volunteer or fundraising opportunity, but it’s also easy to ignore. Assemble a team of enthusiastic staff members who will take the time to go from desk to desk, or make a few phone calls, to get people engaged. If someone tells me that it matters that *I* be somewhere, I am much more eager to commit, and to show up!

5. Communicate

If your employees help with a volunteer event or fundraiser, but never hear the impact of their work, they will lose interest. We need to talk to each other. Find out what they liked (and didn’t like) about their experience so you can continue to fine-tune your relationship with your nonprofit partner. Then share data and stories about the event so people know their efforts matter.

My favorite thank-you note from a volunteer event wasn’t written to me, but I’m grateful it was shared with me! It was from a 2nd-grader whose school our team gave a nice facelift – all the classroom walls were painted, line games were added to their blacktop playground, landscaping was planted, and murals painted in the hallways. She drew before and after pictures of her school on her thank-you note and added, “Our school was a hot mess until you came here. Thank you for making it look like new!” I want to be friends with that little spitfire…

6. Motivate yourselves and one another

As a parent, I was once told: “Find a way to get your kids to want to help you.” It was and still is brilliant advice! If you add an element of fun in a chore, kids are all in. As we get older, we still respond well to having more than one reason to commit to spending our time in a certain way. Provide an incentive, add music or costumes, or make it a competition (our personal favorite here at the Chicago Charity Challenge).

At the Chicago Charity Challenge, we help support companies that are interested in entering into a long-term philanthropic relationship by building year-long partnerships between companies and nonprofits. We want employees to know that they’re meeting the needs of the same group of people on multiple levels, not just on one day. Their sustained giving truly deepens their impact, and connects them personally to the recipients of service. These relationships are deeply fulfilling and help companies retain talented employees who care about others.

Stacey Rago is Executive Director of the Chicago Charity Challenge, the only philanthropically-motivated competition that inspires businesses and their employees to give back to the community and makes giving back a team sport. She welcomes emails at Stacey@Chicagochacha.org.

The number of people who go hungry in the United States is decreasing, albeit slowly. Attributed to the plethora of government-subsidized food and nutrition programs, reduced-price school meals, and nonprofit-funded initiatives to aid nearly 48 million food-insecure people (16.2 million of which are children), the USDA reports that 7.8 percent of children in this population were food insecure during 2015 -- down from 9.4 percent the year before.

A victory is hardly won here, however. When school is out, children who rely on school-time meals are at risk of having limited access to food. Thus, a strong emphasis on building bridges for families during the summer months has remained critical to filling the gap with healthy, inexpensive meals for kids.

Over the last six years, the PepsiCo has worked to address these challenges through the roll-out of its Food for Good program, which delivers breakfast and lunch to communities across the country. To date, Food for Good delivered over 6.5 million meals.

The program was conceived by PepsiCo associates and various community groups and subsequently rolled out in Dallas back in 2009. It has since expanded every year to new communities. Five days a week, the company loads freight trucks with pre-packaged meals and passes them throughout apartment complexes.

The program now operates in Little Rock, Arkansas; Denver; Detroit; Oklahoma City, Choctaw Nation and Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma; Nashville; St. Louis; and Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio, Texas. Locations are selected based on need, convenient and safe access for children, PepsiCo says. Requests and recommendations are also made directly from communities.

Meals are based on USDA food and nutrition standards for healthy and balanced servings, PepsiCo says. A sample breakfast menu includes a Quaker Chewy bar, ready-to-eat cereal, 1 percent milk, a piece of fruit, fruit juice, and a whole grain muffin. Lunch is comprised of a turkey or ham sandwich, fruit, fruit juice, carrot sticks and milk.

A diet catering to kids with special restrictions like food allergies, as well as vegetarian or vegan eating, is not yet available on the company's program website but could be on the action list for future iterations of the program.

Since its initial launch, Food for Good collaborated with partners like the YMCA, the USDA, Share Our Strength and local community nonprofit organizations to identify the most critical need in urban communities. Employees also get involved, volunteering their time to help organize and pass out meals.

What began as an intrapreneurial activity to mitigate issues afflicting poverty-stricken communities represents a larger trend of companies taking on the task to address real concerns that affect real people. This public-private-NGO partnership model adds to further example of how each entity can team together to rely on subject-matter expertise. For instance, PepsiCo’s proficiency in logistics and distribution is further enhanced by government data to pinpoint at-risk communities.

This year alone, the company delivered over 2.5 million meals and continues to think of creative ways to foster community engagement and success. For instance, PepsiCo and its partners provide supervised physical activities and games at their meal sites, giving kids who might not be in summer camp the opportunity to learn and play while getting access to food. The program also reports that more than 150 jobs are created each year within the communities they serve.

Images courtesy of Amy Chen

This article is part of a series of interviews with companies supporting the Rock the Green sustainability festival. Follow along here.

Welcome to our series of interviews with companies and organizations that are supporting the upcoming Rock the Green sustainability festival in Milwaukee on Sept. 17.  We’re asking companies to talk about their own sustainability stories, as well as to explain why they’re supporting the event — one of the most sustainable festivals around.

This week we chatted with Michael Bognar, an account manager at Groot Industries, a Chicago based waste management company who has partnered with Rock the Green.

TriplePundit: What's your company's definition of sustainability, and why is it important to you?

Michael Bognar: Groot Industries defines sustainability as meeting the needs of the communities we service while strategically planning how best to serve the communities of the future. As a locally operated 102 year old family owned business we have developed intimate relationships with the citizens of our communities over generations, servicing businesses, homes, and schools. Forging strong relationships within our communities helps Groot Industries remain a leader in reducing, reusing, and recycling the materials communities of the future will produce. By remaining ahead of the curve of ever-changing materials in the waste stream we are better able to service the places we live, work, and play, making sustainability important to everyone at Groot Industries.

3p: What are the most important sustainability issues your company deals with?

MB: Being a leader in the waste disposal industry, Groot Industries works to educate our clientele on the benefits of recycling services, thus keeping recyclables out of landfills where the materials will remain for many years. Vice versa, we also work to keep solid waste out of our communities’ recyclable streams, ensuring that the recyclables are easily handled at our separation facilities and able to be recovered and reused.

We also work as consultants to our communities to educate citizens on what things can and can’t be thrown out. Keeping materials like electronics, appliances, tires, batteries, volatile liquids and hazardous materials out of landfills ensures environmental safety and also allows us to reuse or dispose of them in an environmentally conscious way.

3p: Sustainable thinking is no longer just "nice to have", it's increasingly seen as a competitive advantage. Tell us how sustainable thinking is helping move your company forward?

MB: We have been leaders in sustainable thinking for four generations! Just within this generation, Groot Industries spearheaded the first curbside recycling programs in the communities we service, expanding them to our entire residential client base in 1986.

In 1989, we built the first Material Recovery Facility in the Midwest to separate and sort recyclables, saving enormous amounts of time and fuel in recyclable collection. A decade later we innovated, designing and building the first Single Stream Material Recovery Facility in the Midwest.

In 2005 we began decreasing our carbon footprint in the way we power our vehicles and by 2007 we became the first waste and recycling company in the Midwest to use BIO-diesel fuel in all of our residential, recycling, and commercial/industrial waste collection vehicles. Since then we have become the first waste disposal company in the Midwest to begin converting our fleet over to Compressed Natural Gas, 80% cleaner than diesel fuel and 10 times quieter when idling.

Between the facilities we operate and the vehicles we service communities with Groot Industries has been driving sustainable thinking, moving our company forward for 102 years.

3p: Rock the Green, the concert, is all about going for zero waste. How has your company reduced waste across your operations? Has it paid off for you financially?

MB: For us it is more about managing the waste and recycling streams we collect from our clientele, than specifically reducing our own waste – although we have made a massive effort to reduce emissions in the fuels we use while servicing our communities. Our goal is to educate our growing customer base as to what can and cannot be reduced, reused, or recycled. We do not own or operate a landfill because it conflicts with our vision of minimizing the waste stream. Our aim, like yours, is to recycle as much material as possible out of the many thousands of tons that we handle every day.

3p: Surveys show that employees are happier and more productive when they're engaged with a company's sustainability strategies.  How do you engage your staff to implement your sustainability plans?

MB: Our business is sustainability. Every employee knows that before they are brought on to the team and we work to coach them on the practices that makes Groot Industries a leader in sustainably handling our waste stream. It is our culture and our mission to educate our customers on more sustainable ways to treat used products and disposable items – and it starts with ourselves. Every decision we make takes this into account from the CEO to our customer service representatives to our drivers. Educating our communities is the ultimate way to keep our employees engaged in sustainability.

3p: In a nutshell, how will you be "rocking the green" in the coming 5 years?

MB: We will continue to build on and expand our “Green” infrastructure which can then help our company and our clientele continue to reduce and recycle material that would have otherwise been heading to a landfill. Among the things we plan on accomplishing within the next 5 years are putting more vehicles on the street that are powered by cleaner fuels, building new recycling plants so we can process more materials (including construction materials), and adding additional capacity to our single stream material recovery facilities. Our business, like yours, can be defined as “Rocking the Green” and we’re excited to continue along that journey with you.

 

The global meat industry says it is becoming more sustainable. More national industries have launched a sustainable roundtable or advisory board, and an international organization focused on sustainable beef will meet next month in Alberta. More food companies say that they are taking steps to ensure that their supply chains are mitigating their impacts on people and the environment. But according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the world’s largest producers, retailers and restaurant chains in the world are not doing enough to decouple the impacts of their business from deforestation.

In fact, the UCS report claims that the international beef sector is responsible for twice as much deforestation than palm oil, soy and wood products combined. Much of the ongoing destruction, says UCS, is occurring in South America, where rain forests rich in biodiversity are being cleared and converted into pastureland for cattle.

UCS estimates that tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 10 percent of all global warming emissions, with beef production the largest driver behind this forest loss, especially in South America.

Researchers evaluated 13 large companies on a variety of criteria. In turn they developed a scorecard that accounted for whether or not these companies have made zero deforestation sourcing commitments, how transparent their commitments actually are and the degree to which they have systems in place to monitor deforestation.

The results, insists UCS, show that even the companies that scored highest on this scorecard are still responsible for an excessive amount of deforestation. Walmart, McDonald’s and Mars Inc. may have made the most progress amongst the world’s largest companies, but UCS faults them for leaving loopholes in their commitments that allow for continued deforestation. The UCS study says these companies have an opportunity to lead even further if they are more public about their implementation and verification systems, and back them up with audits that are disclosed to their stakeholders.

And while the Amazon in Brazil often scores the majority of attention, UCS says the country’s savannah-like cerrado is also under siege. The gran chaco region, which is spread across Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, has also seen more of its forest fall to ranching and agriculture. The problem is particularly acute in Paraguay, where despite anti-deforestation laws that have earned the praise of NGOs in the past, the felling of forests to raise beef is going unchecked – and most beef produced in this inland country is exported.

A UCS analysis concluded that over the past five years alone, man-made fires and other deforestation processes led to the release of 1.45 billion metric tons of carbon into the air – the equivalent of the pollution emitted by 211 coal-fired power plants.

UCS has harsh criticism for the other companies it evaluated in this survey. Burger King, ConAgra, Hormel, Jack’s Links, Kroger, Pizza Hut, Safeway and Wendy have all been named by UCS for falling short on the public commitments they've made to stop deforestation within their supply chains.

In order to halt deforestation, UCS is calling for these companies to embrace public-private sector agreements that increase transparency and bolster local environmental laws. Earlier this decade, pressure from Greenpeace led to the G4 agreement, to which four of the largest meatpackers in Brazil agreed to take measures guaranteeing that they not purchase meat from ranchers who have had ties to deforestation.

While that agreement has its share of loopholes, the evidence suggests that it has helped to halted the pace of deforestation in the Amazon. But one problem in Brazil and other cattle producing countries is that many cattle are produced by ranches that have indirect ties to meatpacking companies. The nature of ranching is that while it is easy to monitor deforestation and other data from direct cattle suppliers, plenty of cattle are bought and sold, and moved and transferred, from ranch to ranch. And that is where the trouble often starts, as it is difficult for companies and their direct suppliers to gauge whether any environmental (or human rights abuses), have occurred or not.

To solve the problem, UCS is launching a campaign today that challenges these companies to decouple deforestation from their sourcing commitment. Saying that they are doing so is not enough: Companies need to guarantee that their beef has no links to deforestation, and can provide the data necessary in order to verify such claims, says UCS.

The NGO ran a similar awareness campaign in recent years that highlighted the global palm oil industry’s environmental impact. The result, says UCS, engaged millions of consumers with the result that 26 food companies agreed to purchase only responsibly sourced palm oil with no ties to forest destruction.

Image credit: Ilusona/Wiki Commons

CVS Health's offerings go well beyond the pharmacy counter and make-up aisle. The company also offers healthcare services. These MinuteClinics provide everything from vaccinations to examinations from healthcare practitioners. Call it the one stop shop for all your basic health care needs. Or as Larry Merlo, President and CEO of CVS Health, said in a letter to stakeholders contained in the latest CSR report, “Our company purpose is helping people on their path to better health and serves as the lens through which we make our business decisions.”

“Our purpose also guides us in ensuring that our corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments align with our enterprise growth strategy,” Merlo wrote. “This includes the work we do every day to make quality healthcare more affordable, more accessible, and more sustainable.”

The CSR report, the company’s ninth annual, lays out its three sustainability pillars: health in action, planet in balance and leader in growth. These three pillars shape both its strategy and the report.

Health in Action

MinuteClinics are a big part of CVS’ Health in Action pillar. They are walk-in clinics and, as of the end of 2015, there were over 1,100 of them. In 2015 alone, CVS Health added 85 new MinuteClinics. Billed as the largest provider of retail health care, MinuteClinics provide healthcare services to people and most services are available for less than $100, with over 80 percent covered by insurance. In 2015, there were over five million patient visits to the clinics.

MinuteClinics are a key component of a healthcare services landscape that is growing increasingly complicated and difficult to access. As the report acknowledges, demand for healthcare services “is exploding while, at the same time, [providers] are struggling to keep pace with the demand.” That prompted CVS Health to “consider how MinuteClinic can help fill the gap, beyond our traditional suite of services.” In 2015, the company added care for gastro-intestinal illness, muscular skeletal pain, and headaches. In 2016, it launched women’s health services, which includes contraception counseling and first-trimester wellness checks for pregnant women.

There will be a projected shortage of doctors by 46,000 to 90,000 by 2025, according to a study last year by the Association of American Medical Colleges. CVS Health employs nurses and nurse practitioners to work in its MinuteClinics but doctors supervise them, making good use of available resources in a constrained field. 

In order to meet the needs of rural customers, CVS Health has expanded the reach of its MinuteClinics through what it calls telehealth, which delivers healthcare services using electronic and telecommunications technologies. As the report puts it, “Our goal is to use technology to provide the same convenient, affordable and quality care offered in our MinuteClinic locations to an expanded group of patients." CVS Health conducted about 7,500 telehealth visits in 2015.

When CVS Health decided to expand its healthcare offerings, it needed to reassess its product portfolio on the sales side. While cigarettes are a lucrative product to sell due to their addictive qualities, there is a big disconnect between any company that positions itself as a healthcare provider and also sells tobacco products. In 2014, CVS Health took the step of removing tobacco products, including cigarettes, from its stores. The reason why the company decided to take the step is that the “sale of tobacco was inconsistent with our purpose of helping people on their path to better health,” according to the report. The removal of tobacco products from its stores has had a “measurable and positive impact on health.” A study commissioned by CVS Health and released in September 2015 showed that in states where CVS Pharmacy had a 15 percent or greater share of the retail pharmacy market, there was a one percent reduction in cigarette pack sales. The study also found a four percent increase in nicotine patch purchases in the same states. The study only covered an eight-month period.

Planet in Action

One of the first steps a company needs to take to address its environmental impact is figuring out its energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CVS Health has done both since 2008 and is taking steps to reduce its GHG emissions. To do so, it is focusing on energy efficiency in stores, distribution centers and office parks. The company has a substantial retail footprint with over 99 million square feet of retail space in 2015 so this is a great area of focus. The energy efficiency measures it has undertaken are paying off. In 2015, CVS Health achieved a 16 percent reduction in carbon intensity, surpassing its 15 percent carbon intensity reduction per square foot of retail space by 2018. It attributes those reductions to lighting efficiency upgrades, reduced demand for heating, and changes in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) electricity emissions factors (eGRID factors). These updated factors showed the electricity usage was less energy-intensive than had previously been thought. 

It makes sense for a company that provides healthcare services to reduce their GHG emissions. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that climate change affects health. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is projected to cause about 250,000 deaths a year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress. The direct damage costs to health from climate change are estimated to be $2 to $4 billion a year by 2030. In other words, reducing GHG emissions can result in better health and save money.

Leader in Growth

An important aspect of the third sustainability pillar of CVS Health is its supply chain. The company requires all of its suppliers to comply with its Suppliers Ethics Policy, which covers ethical standards. “In interacting with vendors/suppliers and potential vendors/suppliers, CVS Health is committed to following the highest ethical standards and complying with all applicable laws,” according to the report.

The purpose of the ethical standards is to keep interaction between vendors/suppliers and CVS Health employees above board. They range from permitted business meals and entertainment to payment for services. For example, the Policy states that CVS Health employees can accept “occasional, unsolicited, and reasonable business meals or entertainment from existing or prospective vendors/suppliers” if they meet certain requirements. Those requirements include that the vendor/supplier providing the meal or entertainment meets with the CVS Health employee, the value of the meal or entertainment is “modest as judged by local standards,” and the venue where they meet is “conducive to informational communication and includes or is contiguous to legitimate business discussions.”

It's clear that in CVS Health's 9th report the company has honed in on the material issues facing the company from a sustainability perspective. By including Health in Action in their reporting, the company is able to focus on areas where it has a positive impact on society, in addition to the environmental impact of it's footprint -- an important message.

 

Hawaii is renowned for its seafood quality, on the islands, across the U.S. mainland and abroad. Fish for sushi, the islands’ beloved raw poke dishes and, of course, for cooking that meets the Aloha State’s high sustainability standards all fetch a premium. The Obama administration’s recent expansion of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands national monument, which is now the world’s largest marine sanctuary, further enhances the state’s reputation for producing responsible seafood. Just enter the local Costco outlets, the Japanese-themed Don Quijote superstores or any local market, and you will find a steep premium on local fish compared to fish imported from Indonesia or the Philippines.

But now, the state’s seafood industry suffers from the same horrid reputation that blots much of the world’s fishing industry. An Associated Press investigation revealed that hundreds of undocumented fishermen are working on American fishing vessels in conditions that go beyond human rights abuses and could even be described as slavery.

The problem stems from labor laws applied to U.S. fishing fleets, weakened by loopholes backed by Hawaii’s powerful political figures over the years. Under American law, U.S. citizens must comprise 75 percent of the crew on commercial fishing boats flying under the American flag. But the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, in addition to current "ocean champion" Sen. Mazie Hirono, allowed exemptions to these rules when boats sail through Hawaiian waters.

The AP accused Hawaii’s $110 million fishing industry of reaping profits on the backs of poor workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and even tiny Kiribati. When they reach port, many of them are marooned in their boats in Honolulu around Pier 17, not far from downtown, the city’s hipster Kakaako district and the tony Ala Moana Shopping center.

While they are waiting for the next voyage, these men have almost no legal recourse. U.S. Customs requires the ships’ captains to hold their passports, and they cannot venture onshore anyway because they do not have a U.S. visa. Post-9/11 immigration laws mean these workers cannot enter the U.S. via air, so they often start their work after going through a recruiter and boarding at a foreign port.

Once they start work, days are marked by grueling hours – as long as 20 hours a day with only two 2-hour rests – yet their take-home pay after recruitment fees and other nickel-and-diming can plunge as low as $350 a month. Many are lucky if they can clear $5,000 in a year. Contrast those figures with the $28,000 U.S. citizens can earn as deckhands for a working what often amounts to only a few months. Up in Alaska, salaries for similar work can be has high as $80,000 annually, and even more in certain sectors such as harvesting Alaskan king crab. But for these Hawaii-based fishing crews, not only is the pay low, but the working conditions are often squalid and unsanitary.

The AP investigation comes at a time when Hawaii’s residents are struggling with the double-whammy of the state's high cost of living with a low-wage economy. Good paying jobs outside Hawaii's massive military presence are scarce. Police departments, including San Jose, California’s, recruit in Hawaii hoping to find future officers in a state where real estate rivals prices in Northern California and New York, without the lucrative salaries. And the state’s public education system is in a crisis as many teacher have thrown up their hands and left the profession because they cannot get by.

But few American citizens are willing to work on a boat away from shore for weeks at a time for low pay. The result is that void is filled by people from the world’s poorest countries, who end up living and working in conditions that become even worse as fishing companies find that legalities allow them to get away with these deplorable business practices.

Image credit: Leon Kaye