May 2012
24 posts
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Things Are Finally Looking Up for Fisker... →
Since Fisker Automotive rolled the Karma, a four-door luxury plug-in hybrid sedan with a price tag of $103,000, off of the production line in December, the California-based company has been plagued with problems. At the end of December, Fisker issued a recall because of a battery pack coolant leak that could have caused the Karma to short-circuit. A few weeks later, Fisker issued another recall...
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4 Things You Can Learn from the Craft Brewing... →
Craft brewing is an industry that is feel-good in more ways than one. Boasting more than $8.7 billion in total retail sales in 2011 from the nearly 2000 American craft breweries (the highest total since the 1880s, per theBrewers Association), the craft brewing industry proves that it is serious business. By creating a collaborative culture that emphasizes high quality products, the craft brewing...
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The Truth Will Out: The Power of Employees →
The following post is part of a CSRHub series focusing on 10 trends that are driving corporate transparency and disclosure in the coming year. To follow the discussion of each trend, watch for posts on the CSRHub blog every week. CSRHub (a 3p sponsor) – offers sustainability and corporate social responsibility ratings on nearly 5,000 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies. 3p readers get...
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Raise a Glass to Green Beer →
Earlier this month, Triple Pundit teamed up with The Can Van to better understand the connection between two of our favorite topics: sustainability and beer!
We had the unique opportunity to sit down and share a beer at the 29th annual Craft Brewers Conferencewith craft beer all-stars including Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Bison Organic Beer, and more. With each new industry professional we met,...
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Amazon.com Becomes the Latest Company to Leave... →
Some odd things have been happening at the intersection of voting, guns, climate change and cigarettes. Last week, retail giantAmazon.com joined a growing list of major companies that have severed their ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a lobbying group that has worked effectively on voting rights, gun use, and climate change issues. Also this month, the Heartland...
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BP Agrees to Major Pollution Cuts at Tar Sands... →
Back in the waning days of the GW Bush administration, the EPA approved a permit issued by the State of Indiana, long known for its laxity in environmental affairs, to BP, to expand a refinery used to distill petroleum from Canadian tar sands oil, one of the dirtiest forms of fossil fuel known to man. The permit had long been opposed by environmental groups includingNRDC and Sierra Club.
The...
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McDonald’s Shareholders Swat Away Resolution... →
McDonald’s shareholders yesterday overwhelmingly voted against a shareholder proposal that pushed the fast food titan to undertake a nutrition report of the company’s food products. The motion was submitted by Corporate Accountability International, a consumer advocacy group representing a shareholder concerned about obesity and other children’s health issues, on behalf of a shareholder.
...
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Los Angeles Becomes Largest US City to Ban Plastic... →
Last week the state of Hawaii introduced a state-wide ban on plastic bags, becoming the first US state to do so. In spite of significant loopholes, this is a very brave move as plastic bags cause untold environmental problems.
Now the city of Los Angeles has banned plastic bagsbecoming the largest US city with a ban. Although it is not the first California city to institute a ban, the inclusion...
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How a Cookstove Becomes a Carbon Credit →
Read more about this project
To make a cookstove into a carbon credit is one serious abstraction, isn’t it?
Take a region where charcoal is the cooking fuel of choice, switch it out for a cleaner burning fuel that doesn’t contribute to global warming quite so dramatically, then, somehow, track the whole thing accurately enough that it’s possible to measure the tons of emissions the switch...
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Americans Save $4.6 Billion Every Year Just By... →
There are obvious environmental and health benefits to cycling, however the financial rewards of cycling are coming to light with a new report from the League of American Bicyclists, Sierra Club, and National Council of La Raza (NCLR). According to them, cyclists in the U.S. save a whopping $4.6 billion every year on gas and transportation costs.
The report coincides with National Bike to Work...
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9 Reasons CleanStar Mozambique is Rio-Ready →
CleanStar Mozambique’s founders and investors have a crazy idea that they can make the lives of a few hundred thousand people in Mozambique a lot better, avoid climate-change inducing deforestation, and make money at the same time.
RP Siegel shared their six-point plan with us back in September, but in case you missed it, here’s the lowdown: pay farmers (who are otherwise sitting idle) to grow...
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The True Costs of Paper →
By Gerad Hoyt, docSTAR
The paperless office – at this point it’s becoming a little cliché. We’ve all heard for years about how in the near future our society and business will become totally paperless. The truth is, we’ll probably never be paperless due to the many areas where digital simply can’t match the tried and true paper and pen. However, many parts of our society are still consuming far...
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The Carbon War Room’s Top 10 Renewable Fuel... →
This is part three of a three part series introducing the renewable aviation fuel market in partnership with The Carbon War Room & reprinted from CCW Magazine. Read part one here, and two here.
In articles yesterday and Tuesday, we explored how no sector of the world’s economy is more ripe and ready for the Carbon War Room’s approach to emissions reduction than aviation.
Renewable fuels...
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The Avon Lady Comes to Mozambique, Hawking... →
3p Editor Jen Boynton is in Mozambique this week along with TreeHugger’s Brian Merchant to get the full story on a remarkable triple-bottom-line business model. Read on…
There’s no denying that charcoal cookstoves are a huge problem in Africa. Used to cook meals in many family homes, they contribute to massive deforestation to create the charcoal, which is expensive to buy, and when they are...
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CitiBank Shells Out $41M to Sponsor NYC’s Bike... →
This week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergannounced that CitiBank would sponsor the city’s new bike share program, Citi Bike, slated to roll out this summer. The five-year deal for a reported $41 million will allow the ambitious bicycle sharing program to operate without any taxpayer money or city funds. CitiBank, in return, will have all of the bikes emblazoned with its bright cobalt blue...
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How UN Peacekeeping Operations Save Money by... →
Reducing the environmental impacts of UN Peacekeeping operations not only benefits the environment, but saves money, according to a report by the UN Environment Program (UNEP). There are 16 missions currently being led by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), with 121,591 personnel. The personnel and their supporting infrastructure, the report points out, put stress on the local...
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Paying Attention to Risks Pays Dividends to... →
18th in a series of excerpts from the book The HIP Investor (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). See other articles in the series here.
How often do you listen to the quarterly earnings calls of your investments? How about reading the transcripts of those quarterly earnings calls at SeekingAlpha.com?
If you do, have you ever heard discussion of the risks associated with employee turnover, staff...
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Nike Challenges Customers to Design Their Own... →
Nike has just released its most recent sustainability report, and it is quite possibly one of the most compelling and engaging I have ever come across. Few corporate social responsibility reports keep me up past my bedtime: in fact, many hasten that hour. But Nike has launched an interactive sustainability report that educates, innovates and brings sustainability alive.
Not all of the news coming...
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Warby Parker: An Eyeglass Company with an... →
Last Friday I had an experience many of you may share: wandering around the optical shop after an eye exam, eyes blurry and cartoonishly dilated, looking at potential glasses for the first time. Though I could barely see, I saw something was extremely off: the prices of the glasses themselves. A basic level pair was going to run me $300! I wisely decided to wait until vision cleared enough to go...
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Seven Steps to Turning Your CSR Report into a Year... →
We’ve partnered with AHA!, a creative communications firm, to deliver this series on CR communications. Throughout the series, we’ll explore why your company’s CR communications plan should go beyond the CSR report and give you tools to keep communication flowing all year long. Read the rest here.
The corporate responsibility report is a beast.
First of all, it’s big. Virtually no area of your...
Seven Steps to Turning Your CSR Report into a Year... →
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Delta Air Lines Buys Oil Refinery… Can you Say... →
Now here’s something I was never expecting: Delta Airlines has apparently agreed to buy a Pennsylvania oil refinery from ConocoPhillips for $150 Million (plus $30 Million in government assistance for job creation). Once you get your head around it, it all makes perfect sense. Fuel is the largest expense an airline has. It’s also tremendously volatile and on a permanent upward trajectory. Why...
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Ford to EV Dealers: Meet Environmental... →
An environmentally friendly car dealership? Like “responsible drinking,” or “Walmart organic food,” that term at first may sound like an oxymoron. Ford Motor, however, is not only rolling out new electric vehicles (EVs), but has committed to greening its entire supply chain. This is just one example of the changes Detroit is undergoing as the Big Three rack up impressive quarterly numbers. For...
April 2012
11 posts
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AB InBev: A Lean, Mean, Water-Efficient Brewing... →
Last week Anheuser-Busch InBev released its 2011 corporate social responsibility report. This latest annual disclosure by the beer giant comes as brewing companies have been touting responsible drinking for years, and more recently they have been paying more attention to social and environmental responsibility.
For all beverage companies, water stewardship is of increasing importance as...
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Is It Time For Ronald McDonald To Retire? →
About 17 percent of U.S. children aged two to 19 years old are obese, and since 1980, the obesity rate among children of those ages has almost tripled. Clearly, childhood obesity is an epidemic in the U.S. Do fast food marketers share part of the blame? Consider that Ronald McDonald, that childhood icon, is one of the most recognizable mascots in the world. Some people are even comparing him to...
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Kellogg’s Commits to Sustainable Agriculture and... →
Kellogg’s released its annual corporate responsibility report to coincide with Earth Day. The iconic breakfast foods giant boasting a brand portfolio with which many of us have grown up is moving towards a more sustainable business model. While the company has a long haul ahead, improved farming methods and reduced water consumption are among key goals for the company this decade.
The change in...
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Interview: Hunter Lovins at Fortune Brainstorm... →
At this week’s Fortune Brainstorm Green conference, I had a chance to talk briefly with a long time colleague and inspiration, Hunter Lovins.
Hunter and I reflected on the nature of the conference and how the business case for sustainability is finally hitting home.
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Corporate Responsibility Magazine Releases “100... →
Yesterday Corporate Responsibility Magazinereleased its 13th annual “100 Best Corporate Citizens List” during a ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange. “The CRO” list is a diverse one, representing many sectors and a variety of companies from the Russell 1000.
“Top 100” or other rankings lists are always highly subjective, from college sports to “best places to work” to even the top colleges in...
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Final 3p UNEP Blogging Entries – Vote to Send a 3p... →
This is the second installment of the UNEP/TreeHugger blogging competition. The writer with the most votes will win a trip to cover World Environment Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012.
Three TriplePundit writers have made the finals of the competition. Here are their final posts. If you’d like to send a 3p author to Brazil, vote for these blog posts on the UNEP website before midnight...
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Mexico Passes Climate Law, Only 2nd in the World →
On Friday, Mexico’s House of Representatives passed a new piece of climate change legislation, making it only the second country in the world behind the UK and its Climate Change Act to do so, once it is approved by Mexico’s Senate. The law calls for reducing carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
When it is signed by the President and becomes law, the climate legislation will require the...
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Why Facebook Needs Women on its Board →
The following is part of a series by our friends at CSRHub (a 3p sponsor) – offering free sustainability and corporate social responsibility ratings on over 5,000 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies. 3p readers get 40% off CSRHub’s professional subscriptions with promo code “TP40″
As has been widely reported, Facebook – the social media company about to go public and possibly become...
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NGOs and Activists Tackle Rubbish on Mt. Everest →
Mt. Everest or Sagarmatha is “so high that no bird can fly [above it]” as the saying goes in Nepal. It takes a great amount of training and finances to make it to the peak of the highest mountain in the world. During a recent course in ethics, we Professor Lele discussed the famous HBR case study parable of the sadhu. In it, the author discussed the months he spent hiking through Nepal where he...
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Technology for Good: GE’s Manufacturing a Long... →
This is the last in a series of posts entitled Technology for Good: A Historical Perspective From GE. Last week, GE released all their annual reports in one interactive data visualization. This data viz pulls together 120 years of their annual reports, showcasing GE’s long-standing tradition of technology for good. Learn more about GE’s history of innovation and see GE’s new Data Visualization...
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Practices Make Perfect: 5 Aspects of Sustainable... →
10th in a series of excerpts from the book The HIP Investor (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). See other articles in the series here.
From our series so far, you should understand how human needs can be solved for profit, and the range of human impacts to measure numerically. Now, you want to ensure that the companies in your portfolio embed HIP (Human Impact and Profit) management practices.
As...
March 2012
33 posts
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Starbucks, Stonyfield Paying Their Own Recycling... →
Starbucks and Stonyfield are among the growing number of companies in the United States that are fronting some of the costs of their recycling efforts. Municipalities are cutting services due to budgets, and recycling programs are one program that can end up on the fiscal chopping block. But the trend for companies to take on recycling efforts on their own, generally described as “extended...
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Colgate-Palmolive Pledges to Reduce Water... →
Colgate-Palmolive is Giving the World Reasons to Smile, with the release of their sustainability objectives for 2015. The reported areas of focus are: promoting health, contributing to communities, saving water, and reducing climate and environmental impact.
As a corporation which does business in over 200 countries, is worth $15.6 billion and is the maker of numerous household name products in...
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Bill Gates on the Five Miracles Needed for Energy... →
Last Thursday, at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara, Bill Gates talked with several hundred CEO’s and corporate leaders about why and how he has accelerated his involvement in clean energy solutions.
“My foundation is committed to helping the very poor and to improving education. It is clear that if you want to help humanity, you have to get energy prices down,” he...
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Technology for Good: GE’s Evolution from Financier... →
This is the fifth in a series of posts entitled Technology for Good: A Historical Perspective From GE. Last week, GE released all their of annual reports in one interactive data visualization. This interactive data viz pulls together 120 years of their annual reports, showcasing GE’s long-standing tradition of technology for good. Learn more about GE’s history of innovation and see GE’s new...
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How Capturing CO2 from the Air Can Help Save the... →
Republicans aren’t alone in ignoring the climate threat. Visiting an oil pipeline in Cushing, OK, last week, President Obama said:
As long as I’m president, we’re going to keep on encouraging oil development and infrastructure, and we’re going to do it in a way that protects the health and safety of the American people.
He knows that’s impossible. Burning oil releases CO2, driving up the risk...
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Does a Tobacco Company’s Environmental Efforts... →
The British American Tobacco (BAT) recently released its 2011 Sustainability Report. The report shows that BAT met its targets for energy, water and waste ahead of schedule. BAT bills itself as the world’s largest tobacco group by global market share. It sells its brands in about 180 markets worldwide, and has over 200 brands in its portfolio. “We make the cigarette chosen by one in eight of the...
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Starbucks Mission to Increase Use of Reusable Cups →
Starbucks recently released its 2011 Global Responsibility Report which highlights last year’s progress toward meeting its sustainability goals. Last year, the company celebrated its 40th anniversary, making it fitting that in 2011 Starbucks achieved some progress when it comes to meeting its environmental and sourcing goals for the target year 2015.
When it comes to environmental stewardship,...
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Which Firms Should You Trust? →
9th in a series of excerpts from the book The HIP Investor (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). See other articles in the series here.
When HIP was first conceived, there were four elements: Health, Wealth, Earth, and Equality. The first Fast Company scorecard covering 21 of the 100 largest companies rated quantifiable metrics in each of those categories. However, when editor Bob Safian of Fast...
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How Measuring Health Can Strengthen the Bottom... →
5th in a series of excerpts from the book The HIP Investor (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). See other articles in the series here.
When coal-producing giant Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE) announced its sale to Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE: ANR) recently, it was the end to a long tumble downhill. Ten months earlier an explosion killed 29 of the 31 miners at Massey’s Upper Big Branch coal mine in...
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SXSW Interview: Jason Aramburu of Re:Char →
In case you missed South by Southwest last week, we’re working to bring the best sustainability thinking from the conference to you this week via some thought-leader video interviews conducted on the ground in Austin. View them all here.
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Harley-Davidson Embraces Sustainability, but Will... →
At the Green Energy Summit that took place earlier this month in its home city of Milwaukee, Harley-Davidson President Matt Levatich publicly touted the company’s sustainable business initiatives, calling them a core part of its business strategy. Although Harley-Davidson released Sustainability Strategy Reports in 2009 and 2010, and has been tracking greenhouse gas emissions since 2004,...
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Technology for Good: A Half Century of GE Solar →
This is the third in a series of posts entitled Technology for Good: A Historical Perspective From GE. Last week, GE released all their of annual reports in one interactive data visualization. This interactive data viz app pulls together 120 years of their annual reports, showcasing GE’s long-standing tradition of technology for good. Learn more about GE’s history of innovation and see GE’s new...
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McDonald’s Serving Local Chicken at London... →
McDonald’s has decided it will serve chicken sourced within the United Kingdom after all during this summer’s Olympics in London. The decision is a huge reversal two weeks after the Golden Arches said it would source most of the chicken served at its four Olympic venue restaurants from Brazil. The move angered some members of the London Assembly as well as advocates who charged that McDonald’s had...
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SXSW Interview: Jessica Scorpio of Getaround.com →
Part 2 of our series on GE's history of innovation... →
Because of GE’s innovation, electric light is an indispensable part of our daily lives. For 130 years the company has continuously innovated, making light both more accessible and efficient for consumers and businesses.