2Sustain

Ethisphere has released its 2010 list of the World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies, and again this year, I was struck with the U.S. Ethisphere Institute’s findings which  show, quite clearly,  that it does pay to be ethical.

As the graph below illustrates, even during a recession, the “WME Index” (which includes all publicly traded 2010 WME Companies) beat the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500.

The World’s Most Ethical Company designation is awarded to those companies that have leading ethics and compliance programs, particularly as compared to their industry peers, and this year Ethisphere found 100 companies that made the cut. 26 companies are new to the 2010 list; 24 companies dropped off from the 2009 list. (more…)

With a nod to World Water Day yesterday, PepsiCo has announced a new set of commitments aimed at providing access to safe water to three million people in developing countries by 2015. In addition, the company says it is will continue to promote greater water-use efficiency across its operations and to source water in ways that respect communities and ecosystems.

In 2007, PepsiCo set a global goal to reduce water consumption by 20 percent per unit of production by 2015. To date, the company has achieved a more than 15 percent improvement in water use efficiency as compared to the company’s 2006 baseline. PepsiCo has also: (more…)

Have you been following the latest green shipping debate in the supply chain blogosphere? Essentially, it’s a conversation centered on Maersk Line and the eco-friendly shipping initiative called “slow steaming.”

Last summer, Maersk was named Sustainable Shipping Operator of The Year in recognition of the efforts the company has made in reducing the environmental impact of its business operations. In particular, Maersk proved that the two-stroke engines on its container vessels are able to run continuously at low loads ensuring a more flexible and energy-efficient vessel operation.  According to Maersk, this “slow steaming” results in a 10-30 percent reduction in fuel and CO2, and for a post-Panamax container ship, that amounts to annual savings of about $1 million, while reducing CO2 by 10,000 tonnes and fuel by 3,500 tonnes.

“Whenever we are able to cut fuel consumption we achieve two things at the same time: We lower our emissions of greenhouse gases and we save costs. Super slow steaming enables us to reduce costs with the additional advantage of benefiting the climate and without diminishing our service. This really has a lot of potential for us,” Robert Kledal, Vice President and Head of Products in Maersk Line, said in a press release. (more…)

Two Tomorrows, an international sustainability consultancy, rated the sustainability efforts of the world’s 10 largest companies in the  food and beverage sector, and Unilever came out on top.

The new Tomorrow’s Value Rating has Unilever in first place, Nestle in second and Danone in third. Rivals Pepsi and Coca-Cola are in fourth and fifth places respectively.

The complete results are available here. (more…)

PepsiCo wants to reduce the carbon footprint of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice.

A year ago, the company partnered with the Carbon Trust to conduct a lifecycle analysis of its orange juice and discovered that the largest single source of carbon emissions  –approximately 35 percent — was fertilizer use and application for the growing process.

So now, Tropicana, in tandem with one of its long-time growers, SMR Farms in Bradenton, Fla., is launching a groundbreaking pilot program to determine whether using innovative, alternative fertilizers could significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with the agricultural production of oranges. If successful, this change could reduce the total carbon footprint of Tropicana Pure Premium by as much as 15 percent.

Two lower-carbon fertilizers will be tested. (more…)