Responsible Production & the Circular Economy

In the UK right now, there is a huge spotlight on the crisis being created in our seas by plastic waste. The reality of the situation is scary – and hard to ignore. Every single year, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our seas, endangering marine life and polluting our waters. And it’s not just marine life being affected.

Antea Group provides insights to help food and beverage companies gain a fresh perspective and find inspiration for their sustainability strategy.

When you take a bite of a hot slice of California Pizza Kitchen’s Mushroom and Green Onion pizza, you’re surely not thinking of mushroom farms, organic soil and sustainability.

Next time, perhaps you will.

What you might not know is that those mushrooms, and the farmers who grow them at the Pennsylvania-based Mother Earth Organic Mushrooms, are part of an awesome cycle of care that supports organic farms throughout the East Coast. Nestlé values the farm’s high-quality mushrooms, their rich flavor and the nutritional boost they provide — but we also seek out partners like Mother Earth to create shared value that goes beyond the products we create.

This is the quarterly newsletter for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, a private family foundation that seeks to promote a sustainable society by supporting and funding educational and project-based initiatives that advance knowledge and innovation in sustainability.

Since the first day that I started working in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the late 1980’s – under the wise tutelage of Reynold Levy, then president of the AT&T Foundation – I both learned and asserted that the purpose of any good corporate philanthropy or CSR program was to find the intersection between societal needs and the business interests of the company and to create real impact for both -- paying attention to a company’s various stakeholders and conducting your business in a responsible manner with an eye on the long-term value for business and society.

SCS Global Services (SCS), a leading food safety training center and third-party certification body, and AgSafe Food & Farms, a nonprofit organization providing worker health and safety education and services, are pleased to announce their new partnership. Through complementary and new joint education, training, and service offerings, the two organizations will provide even greater support for growers, packers, distributors, and farm labor contractors, addressing critical issues impacting worker safety, health, human resources, and food safety.

Nowadays, “plastic” can sound to some like a four-letter word. That is not entirely without reason. Mismanaged waste, of all kinds, too often is ending up at the side of the road, in fields and meadows, meandering through our streams, choking our waterways and entering our oceans. We can all agree that this is simply unacceptable.

HP states that diversity is imperative for good business. “We invest in improving representation by minorities and women within our supply chain and encourage diversity in suppliers’ own workforces,” it said. “Just like our employees, diverse suppliers bring unique experiences and perspectives that strengthen our business, support innovation in our supply chain, and enhance local economies.”

Following a robust assessment process, CBRE UK Ltd., the world's leading real estate advisor has been awarded the National Equality Standard (NES). CBRE is the first property services provider to achieve this accolade and the 22nd UK company overall.

The UK National Equality Standard was developed by business for business and sets clear equality, diversity and inclusion criteria against which companies are independently assessed. It is supported by EY, the Home Office and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was involved in its development and launch and the standard is now utilised globally.

I recently had the opportunity to join over 800 Rotary members from 30 different countries at Rotary’s Presidential Peacebuilding Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The conference was focused on Environmental Sustainability and Peace, the first of six Peacebuilding Conferences to be held in different locations around the world on Rotary’s core focus areas. I was invited to share some of Timberland’s corporate responsibility best practices on a session entitled “Business of Sustainability.” Beth Keck, former Senior Director at Walmart and member of the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group, facilitated the conversation between me and Bruce Karas, VP Environment, Sustainability Coca-Cola.