2Sustain

Over the past few years, I have used this blog to promote the message that businesses can do well by doing good. It’s a message that I’m passionate about, and in fact, I’ve been advocating for conservation and sustainability for well more than two decades now. I’ve worked with a variety of organizations, including World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, American Forests and Fundacion Natura, Ecuador’s leading conservation group, and in the early 1990s I also helped formulate corporate sustainability strategies for companies such as Eddie Bauer and Timberland.

Again and again, I’ve seen how sound CSR policy translates into solid business success, and that’s precisely why the title of Aneel Karnani’s recent Wall Street Journal article, The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility, caught my eye.

In sum, Karnani’s basic premise is that CSR efforts are either irrelevant or ineffective. “The idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed,” he writes . . .

. . . and I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn that I whole-heartedly disagree. (more…)

The newly updated Climate Counts scorecard, released earlier this month, reveals that over the past year businesses have made some improvements with regard to sustainability issues. However, huge differences remain between sectors, and it appears that, in general terms, industry as a whole is failing to meet the climate challenge. Taken altogether, Climate Counts Executive Director Wood Turner describes the results as “disappointing.”

Here are a few of the details: (more…)

Earlier this month, the Procter & Gamble Company announced that it will be using renewable, sustainable, sugarcane-derived plastic on selected packaging in its beauty and grooming product line. The company says it will be piloting the new packaging globally over the next two years, with the first products expected to be on store shelves in 2011.

The new sugarcane-derived plastic is made using an innovative process that transforms sugarcane into high-density polyethylene (HDPE) –a plastic commonly used for product packaging. The new packaging   remains 100 percent recyclable in existing municipal recycling facilities, and represents a significant step forward in sustainable packaging because it is made from a renewable resource –unlike traditional plastic, which is made from non-renewable petroleum. (more…)

NSK, a manufacturer of motion and control products, released its new corporate environmental policy last week. The policy outlines NSK’s pledge to conduct business in a manner that protects human health, prevents pollution and protects the environment, and it also outlines how employees and suppliers are encouraged to participate in the company’s efforts.

NSK, which is headquartered in Tokyo, has been recognized among the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations.

In the announcement last week, NSK said that in 2009 employees in the United States contributed to environmental savings of: (more…)

Dole Food Company, Inc., the world’s largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables and the leading producer of organic bananas, announced that Bananito, a Dole farm located in Costa Rica, has received a ‘Plan A’ farming award from British retailer Marks & Spencer.

Earlier this year, Marks & Spencer announced plans to become the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015, and the company uses its Plan A farming award to recognize and promote farmers and growers who are taking steps to improve the sustainability of their business. This year, the application process was open for the first time to non-UK farmers.

Bananito is an 850-hectare Company-owned farm that has produced bananas since 1989, and it supplies Marks & Spencer as well as other customers. According to the Dole website, all of the 589 workers at Bananito receive at least the minimum wage, with the average being 92 percent above the minimum. Dole also provides workers with affordable housing, medical programs, education opportunities, training programs and other “social wellbeing” services. (more…)