Responsible Production & the Circular Economy

Across the globe, about 50 percent of CO2 emissions are tied to materials — goods that often produce a significant amount of physical and financial waste. The United Nations estimates that the 41.8 million tonnes (Mt) of electronic waste generated in 2014, for example, included 16 Mt of copper and 300 tonnes of gold, plus other precious metals such as palladium. This material had a combined value of $52 billion.

General Motors today announced an expansion of its industry-leading landfill-free program as all of the company’s manufacturing plants in Canada, Mexico and South America now recycle, reuse or convert to energy all waste from daily operations. With the addition of 27 newly certified facilities, General Motors has 142 manufacturing and non-manufacturing landfill-free facilities globally — more than any other automaker.

Consider these three recent developments: California emerged from drought in April 2017, fewer companies reported impacts associated with water scarcity, and the average freshwater intensity of companies in the MSCI ACWI Index dropped by 15 percent between 2015 and 2016. While these are positive short term signals for investors concerned with water scarcity, 2017 was also the most costly in U.S. history for natural disasters.

The Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility (TLFF) today announced its inaugural transaction, a landmark US$ 95 million Sustainability Bond to help finance a sustainable natural rubber plantation on heavily degraded land in two provinces in Indonesia. The project incorporates extensive social and environmental objectives and safeguards. Planted areas will serve as a buffer zone to protect a threatened national park from encroachment.

Access to wood fuels for cooking must be considered when formulating policy to deal with food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers who advocate expanding the effort to improve wood-fuel systems and make them more sustainable.

A project in Uganda, funded by ACIAR and run by the World Agroforestry Centre, is empowering smallholder dairy and honey farmers to control their own community development by gaining access to high-value markets.

Domtar Corporation today announced improvements to its award-winning supply chain transparency tool, The Paper Trail® (www.domtarpapertrail.com), offering customers a deeper look into the company’s products and the people and places behind their manufacture.

As one of the fastest growing value-added labels in modern grocery history, the Non-GMO Project Verified label has tapped into one of the core memes of the current zeitgeist – the quest for authenticity. As food and agricultural technologies advance with ever increasing speed, so too, it seems, does the demand for simplification, a harkening back to the way things were. Finding themselves in the middle, brand owners and food manufacturers are now reexamining their suppliers and production operations to determine how best to meet this demand.

Trucks filled with dense pulp and paper sometimes struggle with weight restrictions. Lighter personal care products often have the opposite problem, completely filling the trailer despite rules that allow more weight. Learn how Domtar's commitment to sustainability touches every corner of the business, including the open road.

Some think of the technology as disruptive, but at its current level of maturity, AI is really more of a “foundational technology,” says Brian Tessier, vice president of global supply chain innovation at Schneider Electric. You could place it on the maturity curve near blockchain, he says.