Responsible Production & the Circular Economy

FedEx announced the online release of its 2017 Global Citizenship Report (GCR), which details how the company connects the world responsibly and resourcefully.

Today’s infrastructure, with its aging roads, bridges and ports, is arguably the largest hurdle for alternative fuels and the energy sources of tomorrow. Efficiency, technology and scale are also major barriers to the wider adoption of green energy.

Today, during Walmart’s annual Milestone Summit, the company launched a sustainability platform inviting suppliers to join Walmart in committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their operations and supply chains. Dubbed Project Gigaton, this initiative will provide an emissions reduction toolkit to a broad network of suppliers seeking to eliminate one gigaton of emissions, focusing on areas such as manufacturing, materials and use of products by 2030.

When you think about the many ways that technology has shaped your life, what comes to mind first? Maybe it’s faster communication, or lifesaving healthcare. But what about fruit salad? It’s easy to forget, but with today’s complex food supply chains there are some surprising technologies behind many of our favorite meals—even the simple things we enjoy every day.

“At first folks thought that FedEx and EDF were an odd couple. Together, we’ve demonstrated that sustainability is good for business.”

As Director of Supply Chain at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Jason Mathers helps companies cut pollution, greenhouse gas emissions—and

Whole Foods Market, America’s Healthiest Grocery store®, will celebrate the opening of its much anticipated Newark, New Jersey, location on Wednesday, March 1.

Certification of seafood products, including tuna and shrimp, began in 2014, and the volume of imports of such products grew more than 350 percent last year to more than 1.2 million pounds (500,000 kilograms), said Fair Trade USA, a California-based nonprofit group. The first company to offer fair trade seafood harvested from U.S. waters will have scallops on the market this month.

With four locations and a variety of workshops and community events, the Toronto Tool Library is a pioneer of the lending and sharing movement. In April 2016, the Toronto Tool Library team raised the bar again when they launched the Sharing Depot, Canada’s first Library of Things, where members can borrow sporting goods, board games, camping equipment, children’s toys and party supplies for $50-$100 per year.

Answering the call for increasing energy self-reliance, a grassroots electricity-sharing model is emerging. “Community microgrids,” comprising community-owned or subscribed solar PV and other renewable energy sources, offer participants and surrounding consumers the security of energy resilience in times of grid failure and protection from energy price increases driven by volatile energy markets.

At Fair Trade USA we have long worked with a diverse range of stakeholders to deliver on our mission to empower farmers and workers around the world.Recently a new ally, the Sustainable Coffee Challenge, has emerged to help build a shared space for organizations to come together, share lessons and build a vision for coffee to become the world’s first sustainable agricultural commodity.