Sustainability

Sustainable Brands® kicks off its pan-European conference SB’17 Copenhagen today at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. Over 350 business executives from 25+ countries are convening today to continue the conversation on Redefining the Good Life, or how business can meet evolving consumer demands and continue to deliver value for their customers.

"The" voice of authority for many board members and C-suite executives is The Harvard Business Review. Sustainability pioneer and influential thought leader John Elkington in the current "HBR" talks about the practice of "issues framing" at the highest levels of the corporation, and suggests (to leaders) that to change our usual way of perceiving, prioritizing and investing time/effort/money, that "re-framing" for social change is the wave of the future.

Most people aren’t thinking about the journey that coffee makes from a farm half a world away to the cup in their hand, but as a sustainability professional, I just can’t help myself. You can call it a blessing—or a curse.

As consumers continue to lose trust in business*, companies are being held to higher standards for disclosing the ingredients in their products. Building on its legacy and leadership in ingredient transparency, SC Johnson will come together with a panel of experts from Harvard University, GlobeScan, Marks and Spencer plc and Edie.net for an interactive discussion on the opportunities and challenges for transparency and how it affects consumer trust.

The Carlsberg Group has been awarded for the communication and integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in its 2016 Sustainability Report, at the Danish CSR Rapporteringsprisen 2017.

The judging panel praised the clear connection between Carlsberg's sustainability programme and selected SDG’s for which it can effectively contribute towards, alongside the steps that will be taken to impact them.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) released the first global standards for sustainability reporting a year ago. In this video, GRI Chief of Standards Bastian Buck speaks about the uptake of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, one year after their release.

Sustainability reporting has a foundational role in how Codelco, a Chilean mining company, conducts business. We interviewed Paul Maidstone, Corporate Director, Environmental Compliance at Codelco, who is convinced of the power of non-financial reporting in the development of companies, countries and regions.

National Geographic Photographer Annie Griffiths addressed the audience at the BSR Conference 2017 with a speech about how photography can be a powerful tool for telling stories.

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith addressed the audience at the BSR Conference 2017 with a speech highlighting the need for the technology sector to think about embracing technology as a cause to protect people.

Recyclable waste may literally pave the way to a sustainable future. Around the world, an increasing number of urban planners and engineers are utilizing recycled garbage and turning it into viable, environmentally friendly infrastructure.

In 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash, recycling and composting about 87 million tons of it, equivalent to a 34.3 percent recycling rate. That’s a lot of waste just waiting to be converted into efficient, environmentally-sound structures and systems that can help cities flourish.

From unavoidable potholes on freeways to wobbly bridges over lakes in the Midwest, updating America’s aging infrastructure with eco-friendly materials derived from trash is a win-win.