By Valerie Volcovici, Reuters WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – With the world on track to break the record for the hottest year in history, world leaders, business leaders, celebrities and activists have converged on midtown Manhattan for Climate Week and the U.N.’s Climate Action Summit, again focusing the world’s attention …
Kellogg’s Supplier Controversy in Indonesia Shows Palm Oil is Still a Problem
By Hans Nicholas Jong, Corporate Knights Pop-Tarts maker is the latest brand to freeze purchases from top palm oil supplier while activists call sustainability claims “empty rhetoric” Oil palm plantation in Indonesia. Photo by Ryan Woo/CIFOR via Flickr JAKARTA — U.S. food giant Kellogg’s is the latest major consumer brand …
Forget Lithium: are Zinc Batteries a Better Way Forward?
By Storm William D Gourley and Drew Higgins, Corporate Knights Finding a cheap, safe and abundant alternative to lithium batteries is the key to a completely renewable power sector. Zinc may be the answer. Hotter summers, drier forests, rising waters: climate change is not just a threat to our future, it’s hurting …
Beyond ‘Carbon Neutral:’ Refining Corporate Carbon-Credit Claims
By George Favaloro, Sustainable Brands With the explosive growth of the voluntary carbon market came concerns around carbon-reduction claims lacking clarity or being misleading. Several refined claims frameworks have emerged to bridge these gaps. Historically, companies relied on carbon credits to bolster claims of Carbon and Climate Neutrality; using these …
Study Shows Stronger ROI for Companies with High ESG Ratings
By Sustainable Brands Kroll analyzed data on over 13K companies across industries and found that those with better ESG ratings outperformed their peers with lower ratings; globally, ESG leaders had annual returns of 12.9% vs 8.6% for laggards. A new study by Kroll, a leading independent provider of global risk and …
GreenwashingCases Against Airlines in Europe, US
By Joanna Plucinska, Toby Sterling and Rajesh Kumar Singh, Reuters LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Airlines around the world are facing scrutiny from advertising and consumer agencies, regulators, and courts over allegedly making misleading claims about their sustainability efforts, sometimes dubbed “greenwashing”. While a civil suit lodged against KLM (AIRF.PA) in the Netherlands is one of the …
What Would Happen if the World Cut Meat and Milk Consumption in Half?
By Max Graham, Grist Agricultural emissions would fall by almost a third. But getting there wouldn’t be easy. Cows are often described as climate-change criminals because of how much planet-warming methane they burp. But there’s another problem with livestock farming that’s even worse for the climate and easier to overlook: To feed …
ISSB Urged to Prioritize Human and Worker Rights in Next Set of Reporting Standards
By Sustainable Brands The investor letter asserts that the financial materiality of human rights-related topics – and the critical role of human rights due diligence in identifying business risks – has never been clearer, and that ‘investors are in dire need of a unified social disclosure framework.’ A coalition of …
Introducing Resilience Science: A Visionary Shift for Corporate Strategy and Reporting
By Luke Heilbuth, Sustainable Brands Climate resilience is the ‘resilience of a company’s strategy and business model to climate-related changes, developments and uncertainties.’ This language is worth reflecting on, as it brings the concept of resilience science into mainstream business thinking. Background In June, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) issued its inaugural standards — IFRS …
Salesforce, Deloitte, WEF Calling on Startups Ready to Fuel Sustainable Aviation
Sustainable Brands The challenge seeks next-generation aviation solutions including alternative fuels and propulsion technologies; and innovations in feedstock, engineering, and physical and market infrastructure. Today, Salesforce, Deloitte and a coalition of aviation and energy companies launched a call for game-changing solutions to support the decarbonization of aviation. The Sustainable Aviation Challenge — supported by Airbus, Breakthrough Energy, Boom Supersonic, JetBlue …