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When the Kat has your tongue
Earlier this year, Greenpeace went after Nestle to stop using palm oil from Sinar Mas, a company in Indonesia. They made a revolting take-off on the Kitkat advertisement in which you see a guy taking a Kitkat, breaking off a row and starting to eat it. Except that it’s an orangutan’s finger, and blood spurts [...]
Does your brand have a soft underbelly?
In 1999 Ben & Jerry’s, the eco-groovy, socially active, in-your-face, counter-culture ice cream company was booming. They had expanded internationally from Japan to Holland, and had a reputation as being one of the most reputable companies in the US. One of the most reputable companies in the US?!?* This was a tiny Vermont-based ice cream [...]
EDF, Wal-Mart & Sunshine
Dominique Browning wrote an article about the positive environmental impact of Wal-Mart’s work and of their collaboration with EDF. That prompted these thoughts:
Wal-Mart is changing the global manufacturing system in a way that is greener as well as more demanding in terms of Human Rights and Labour, and – they are increasingly reporting on this [...]
Unilever delists supplier on environmental grounds
Unilever has delisted Indonesia’s largest palm oil company, Sinar Mas, after being shown evidence by Greenpeace that Sinar Mas was illegally destroying rainforests. While they were first presented the evidence two years ago, Unilever had sought to work with Sinar Mas to improve its performance. “Constructive engagement” having failed, Unilever took action to delist. Unilever [...]
Women’s International Input for COP15 Meeting in Copenhagen
The indigenous Peruvians have a saying that if you want nature to provide for you, you need to provide for nature.
We seem to have lost that feeling: We have set up society to focus on efficiency above everything: our society seeks to produce more using less- less labour, fewer materials, less energy… BUT while we [...]
Is your company about to lose the platform it’s built on?
In the beginning, tribes of people would supply themselves by following their food. Either fully or partially nomadic, they still went to the supplies, hunting and gathering and forming tools as they went along. Then they started to organise food through farming and animal husbandry, and over time established craftsmen to produce tools and goods, [...]
This company made their customers raving (green) fans
When I was little my grandmother insisted on buying her groceries at a small shop. We had to stand in line and wait to be served. And when it was finally our turn the old man whose store it was, would shuffle around gathering my grandmother’s order. The process was slow, and [...]
Bags and bottles – tapped out.
A sign of the times?
The other evening, I was in a Toronto restaurant (Cava, on Yonge street) – a hip tapas-type restaurant with an awesome wine list. The waiter came to take our order. He listened attentively, committed it to memory, helped us choose a suitable wine, and then said “can I suggest tap water [...]
My product’s a Zombie!
by Caroline Rennie
You may have seen the Monty Python film “The Holy Grail” – in which plague victims are collected and piled high on a cart for removal. One is being carried over his relative’s shoulder and you can hear a cry “wait! I’m not dead yet!”.
So it is with many products that have been [...]
Is CSR a fad?
Corporations are increasingly needing to focus on sustainability because, as Achim Steiner Head of UNEP recently said, we are “not just at Peak Oil, we’re at Peak Everything”. Which means that reycling materials at a product’s end of life, becomes a strategic form of materials sourcing, not just a “do gooder” activity. Furthermore, many businesses [...]