2Sustain

Kraft Foods, IGA, American Express, and Xerox Corporation have teamed up to help build four high performance, sustainable schoolhouses in the City of Phoenix.

Each of these Green Schoolhouses will be a 5,000 square foot stand-alone, multi-purpose classroom facility that can be used for traditional educational instruction during the day, after-school programs, and community meeting space on evenings and weekends.

And, each will be designed to target a specific K-12 student demographic:  The Loft for high schools students, The Studio for middle schoolers, The Safari for elementary school students, and Tierra Verde, a multicultural K-12 facility. (more…)

Unilever, one of the world’s largest buyers of palm oil, has eliminated one of the links in its palm oil supply chain.

The company has stopped all purchases of palm oil from the Indonesian company PT SMART after a Greenpeace report alleged the supplier engages in illegal deforestation and peatland clearance in Indonesia.

The Greenpeace report, “How the palm oil industry is cooking the climate,” didn’t single out Unilever. It also calls on Nestle and Procter & Gamble, to stop sourcing palm oil from irresponsible suppliers.

And, in doing so, it vividly underscores just how difficult it has become to ensure integrity in your supply chain. After all, Unilever, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble are all members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). From Greenpeace: (more…)

A new staff report to the California State Lands Commission reveals that most of the state’s 40 ports and shipping hubs surveyed are not prepared for the rise in sea level expected because of climate change.

The 62-page document, “A Report on Sea Level Rise Preparedness,” cites research that projects sea level to rise 16” by 2050 –and a whopping 55” by 2100.

Obviously, an increase in sea level of this magnitude would have widespread consequences for California, where nearly half a million people, thousands of miles of roads and railways, major ports, airports, power plants and wastewater treatment plants are at risk from a 100-year flood event as a result of a 55” sea level rise, according to the California Climate Change Center. (more…)

Tompkins Associates is developing a new podcast series to help you advance sustainability initiatives at your company.

After all, as Jim Tompkins, President and CEO of Tompkins Associates and host of the series, says: (more…)

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Michael Lamoureux, the doctor of Sourcing Innovation. Sourcing Innovation is one of the leading supply management blogs that brings you best practices, education, and innovation in sourcing, procurement, and supply management on a daily basis.

When you hear sustainability, you probably start thinking about carbon, GHGs, PCBs, HFCs, lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ether; or about child labour, health and safety, freedom of association and representation, reasonable working hours and fair wages, and equality; or about solar panels, wind mills, water turbines, tree farms, and organic foods. Typically anything but your supply chain technology platforms. And that’s a problem.

This isn’t to say that your chemical, corporate social responsibility, and environmental concerns aren’t important. After all: (more…)