2Sustain

The nonprofit advocacy group Mercy for Animals launched an undercover investigation into McDonald’s egg supplier Sparboe Egg Farms and found cruel conditions. Hidden-camera video from the investigation showed a number of abuses, including:

• the use of battery cages, which are banned in California, Michigan and throughout the entire European Union,
• workers burning off the beaks of young chicks and callously throwing them into cages, some missing the cage doors and hitting the floor and
• rotted hens, decomposed beyond recognition as birds, left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption.

In a statement, McDonald’s described the behavior on the video as “disturbing and completely unacceptable.” (more…)

Last month, the athletic apparel company PUMA announced its first “environmental profit and loss statement.” PUMA’s CEO Jochen Zeitz explained the decision by insisting that, in order to remain profitable, companies must integrate into their business models the true costs of relying on nature.

PUMA’s move is an example of “corporate ecosystem valuation,” the process of businesses making strategic decisions by assigning a financial price to both ecosystem degradation and the services that ecosystems provide. For example, clean water and forests provide services like erosion control, CO2 absorption, and food.

But, why would companies consider adding a value to resources like water or timber? After all, these are not line items an analyst typically finds on a balance sheet. Data from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) tells part of the story: (more…)

Taking a page from Walmart’s playbook, the Procter & Gamble Company has launched a supplier environmental sustainability scorecard and rating process to measure and improve the environmental performance of its key suppliers.

The new scorecard is the result of 18 months of close collaboration with P&G’s Supplier Sustainability Board, which includes more than 20 leading supplier representatives from the company’s global  supplier network.  It will assess suppliers’ environmental impact and encourage continued improvement by measuring energy use, water use, waste disposal and greenhouse gas emissions on a year-to-year basis.

It’s worth noting that P&G also took the additional step of making the scorecard “open code,” so that any interested organization can use it. According to a press release, that’s all part the company’s effort to create an initiative that can have far reaching cross-industry impact. In fact, P&G is encouraging its suppliers to use the scorecard within their own supply chains. (more…)

A new quarterly report from Boston-based AMR Research shows that the down economy, brand threats, and product quality failures continue to be the key challenges facing global supply chains today.

Specifically, lower consumer spending ranks as the number one supply chain risk this quarter, according to 37% of the companies that participated in the AMR Research survey. 35% of respondents identified product quality failures as the second top risk. Volatile energy prices came in at number three.

(more…)