2Sustain

In a move that strengthens the company’s commitment to corporate responsibility, Metro Inc. announced last week that it has adopted a sustainable fisheries policy for seafood products sold in its stores.

Starting in September 2010, Metro will stop selling a number of threatened species and will change its product labeling. By refusing to sell threatened species, the company says it hopes to help the recovery of fish stocks and the conservation of ocean diversity.

With annual sales of over $11 billion, Metro is a leader in the food and pharmaceutical sectors in Québec and Ontario, where it operates a network of more than 600 food stores and more than 250 drugstores. Walmart Canada announced a similar sustainable seafood policy last month.

Metro’s new sustainable fisheries policy involves  four key supply criteria: (more…)

Some are calling it “the world’s largest conservation agreement.”

On Tuesday, Canada’s leading pulp and paper companies, in unprecedented partnership with nine environmental groups, announced the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, which calls for ground-breaking environmental standards of forest management and conservation, protecting species at risk and action on climate change.

The historic agreement covers more than 72 million hectares of public forests licensed to FPAC member companies across Canada. It specifically recognizes the shared role that governments, industry and environmentalists play  in protecting and sustainably managing the Boreal Forest.

From the agreement: (more…)

Most Americans feel sustainable infrastructure developments are important investment, according to a new America THINKS survey from HNTB Corporation.

The survey polled a random nationwide sample of 1,064 Americans from April 1-7, 2010, and found that: (more…)

Researchers from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have released the Toxic 100 Air Polluters index, an updated list of the top corporate air polluters in the United States.

Based on the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) from industrial facilities across the United States, the Toxic 100 Air Polluters  index takes into account not only the quantity of chemical releases, but also the toxicity of chemicals, transport factors such as prevailing winds and height of smokestacks, and the number of people exposed. It provides access to this information on all firms operating in the United States, regardless of size.

In addition, for the first time, the Toxic 100 Air Polluters index includes information on the disproportionate risk burden from industrial air toxics for minorities and low-income communities. This makes it possible to compare corporations and facilities in terms of their environmental justice performance as well as overall pollution. For example, the findings reveal that minorities bear 65 percent of the air toxics risk from facilities owned by ExxonMobil, although minorities make up 38 percent of the U.S. population.

PERI researchers found that the top five air polluters among large corporations are: (more…)

According to a new Gallup poll, nearly half (48 percent) of Americans now believe the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated. That’s up from 41 percent in 2009 and 31 percent in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question.

Other findings in the annual Gallup Social Series Environment poll, which was conducted March 4-7 of this year, reinforce this discouraging trend and indicate that Americans’ global warming concerns are continuing to decline. For example: (more…)