Tag Archives: sustainability
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, [...]
Lessons from . . . Pond Scum?!
Humans are wired to understand and respond to threats like a lion chasing us down. Climate change, population growth, and other stressors happen too slowly for our minds to get around. Furthermore, doubling rates always seem extremely slow – until it’s too late: pond scum with a doubling rate of one day, would starve the life out of a pond just one day after the pond was only 1/2 covered…
Can goats help your green initiatives succeed like this?
Its pretty common to want to start your environmental initiatives with activities your colleagues will see and feel and even participate in. Something like recycled paper in the copy room. That can be a success – people get inspired, they notice they can make a difference, and they start having ideas about how to contribute more.
What McDonald’s did wrong, and Wal-Mart does better
by Caroline Rennie
McDonald’s could be doing smart, community-building work that builds brand value. But they’re not. Here’s what they’re doing – and what Wal-Mart’s doing better.
The story:
Nigel Haskel, a minimum wage, 21 year old employee, sees a man start beating a woman in the McDonald’s he works in. He intercedes on the woman’s [...]
What will happen to your costs when ecosystem costs are priced in?
by Caroline RennieLate last year the US Department of Agriculture announced they were forming a new high level office of “EcoSystem Services and Markets” to determine the cost of depleting and the value of protecting, nature’s services. What exactly does that mean?
A few years ago the UN assessed the value of the stuff nature [...]
Lobbying: a proven way to lose money?
by Caroline Rennie
The International Energy Agency estimates that coal companies ought to be spending $2 billion a year for ten years on clean coal technologies, and Credit Suisse suggests they should be spending at least $1.5 billion. Actually, coal companies are spending a fraction of that on development, and half again as much in [...]
Is government really setting your environmental agenda?
by Caroline Rennie
I don’t think so.
Business is.
Let’s take a look at Bisphenol A to see why.picture source: tree hugger(referring to Ontario’s ban on BPA in baby-bottles)
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a monomer used in the production of polycarbonate plastic, among other applications. It is also an endocrine mimic – affecting our bodies as if it [...]
Retailers & Fortune’s Accountable 100
by Caroline Rennie
AccountAbility, which provides Fortune Magazine with the list of top 100 companies with respect to sustainability, has recently come out with its 2007 assessment. While the list is dominated by oil and energy companies – the companies that clearly have the greatest need to position themselves well – it also includes [...]