2Sustain

Last month, SC Johnson released its 2011 annual public report, 360 Degrees of Greener Choices.

This year’s report marks the 20th year SC Johnson has publicly shared information about its goals, efforts and progress, and it also reflects the company’s “360-degree” framework and commitment.

The 360-degree approach involves understanding the entire product lifecycle from beginning to end. It starts with reducing impacts within the company’s supply chain, continues through manufacturing, reducing packaging and making products more recyclable. The circle is completed by helping drive greener choices for consumers through education and engagement.

In the 2011 SC Johnson report, the company says it has met –and in many cases, far exceeded –all of its sustainability objectives for 2011. Highlights include: (more…)

Brooks Sports, Inc. released its first corporate responsibility (CR) report earlier this month.

Brooks Sports, parent of leading running brand Brooks and women’s active lifestyle brand Moving Comfort, aptly titled the report Running Responsibly and is using it to:

• highlight the company’s environmental and social performance in 2009 and 2010 and
• outline challenges and key focus areas for the future.

Among the sustainability achievements, Brooks has:

• modified materials used in the manufacture of the vast majority of Brooks shoes. For example, virtually every component of the Cascadia 6 has an environmentally-friendlier feature, such as materials made of recycled content, soy-based foams and water-based inks and adhesives.
• reduced packaging materials needed and waste generated in the manufacture of its shoe boxes.
• reduced the use of hazardous substances in the manufacturing process. I n 2010, Brooks listed 193 chemicals on its restricted substance list and actively tracked 67 of the highest risk substances. All 49 of Brooks’ footwear component and material suppliers, and contract factories have enlisted in its Restricted Substances program to help make Brooks products as safe as possible.

With regard to factory and supplier performance, Brooks: (more…)

Cisco has released its seventh annual corporate social responsibility report, which outlines the company’s accomplishments and efforts in five areas: governance and ethics, the value chain, Cisco employees, society and the environment.

This year, Cisco supplemented its report with input from 25 external global CSR stakeholders who came together via Cisco TelePresence to provide feedback on the company’s CSR reporting process, performance and emerging issues.  According to Cisco, this input resulted in a more navigable report format, increased transparency on supply chain and governance issues  and added detail about how Cisco’s products and solutions are helping its customers meet their energy and environmental goals.

Here are a few environmental accomplishments highlighted in the report:

• Nearly 20,000 Cisco employees use Cisco Virtual Office to extend the company’s network into their homes, permitting high-speed access to voice, video and data applications and reducing green house gas (GHG) emissions by telecommuting one or more days each week.
• Cisco is on track to meet its commitment to reduce all Scope 1, 2, and business-air-travel Scope 3 GHG emissions worldwide by 25 percent absolute by CY12 (from a CY07 baseline).
• In FY11, Cisco conserved approximately 16.9 million kWh of energy and avoided 7,400 metric tonnes of CO2e emissions by investing $1.9 million in energy conservation projects. Twenty-six percent of Cisco’s global energy use was from renewable sources.

With regard to responsible sourcing and the value chain: (more…)

Recent research by KPMG found that even though corporate responsibility reporting has reached an all-time high among the Global Fortune 250 (G250), many of the reports lack rigor.

Now, another new study offers an even harsher critique.

After analyzing more than 4,000 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, rankings and surveys published by companies worldwide over the past 10 years, researchers at the University of Leeds and Euromed Management School (France) found that most included significant errors, such as unsubstantiated claims, gaps in data and inaccurate figures.

In fact, out of 443 European Union companies featuring in the FTSE All World Index between 2005 and 2009, fewer than one in six reported greenhouse gas emissions that covered all corporate activities, while others were vague, failing to reveal precisely how the data applied to specific activities.

The research uncovered some glaring examples of misinformation. (more…)

In what’s being billed as the most comprehensive survey of corporate responsibility (CR) reporting ever published, KPMG found that CR reporting has reached an all-time high –but unfortunately, the reports lack rigor.

KPMG’s International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2011 reviewed trends of each of the Global Fortune 250 (G250), as well as 3,400 companies worldwide, representing the national leaders in 34 countries and 15 industry sectors.

The research showed that:

• Nearly all (95 percent) of the G250 companies report their corporate responsibility activity.
• More than half (64 percent) of the largest 100 companies (N100) in each country report –that’s up 11 percent since 2008, with developing nations showing fast uptake.

KPMG also compared CR reporting activity across different countries and found some significant differences: (more…)