Responsible Production & the Circular Economy

Welcome to the Ray C. Anderson Foundation's Quarterly Newsletter

Each year our friends at Corporate Knights pull together a list of the 100 most sustainable corporations in the world. They base their assessment on an extensive analysis of the companies they study that includes a review of numerous facts and figures. CSRHub’s aggregation engine strives to determine a consensus of the perceived sustainability performance for the 17,000 companies we track by combining input from 500 different sources. It is satisfying to see that Corporate Knights’ more direct measurement and analysis approach aligns well with our methodology. Every one of the 100 companies on the Global 100 list had above average CSRHub ratings and the average overall rank was just below the 90th percentile.

Gaining as much value from the supply chain as possible while meeting consumer expectations for sustainably and ethically produced products is a difficult balance to achieve. To do so successfully, companies need to identify where threats exist across the supplier network and implement iterative mitigation strategies.

For years, utilities have struggled to define the more responsive operational systems and customer-centric performance models that would trumpet the arrival of Utility 2.0. Lacking a singular event marking the shift, it seems more likely a steady, incremental advance through technology deployments, analytics and a focus on customer engagement represents the path towards a continually evolving future state.

The 2017 AIAG Corporate Responsibility Summit is the leading event for manufacturing professionals to discuss sustainability issues, share best practices and network with like-minded individuals.

A large construction project in Mainz, Germany, recently used Xylem rental pumps for a drainage solution. The pumps were quickly delivered and provided reliable service.

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,/ “There followed after me to-day/ A youth whose feet must pass this way…/ He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;/ Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

Every year Merriam-Webster, the word authority, expands its dictionary. This year, I took particular notice of one of those new words: food insecure. It’s an important recognition of the 50 million Americans who struggle every day to get adequate nutrition (Source USDA) including 13.1 million children (source Feeding America).

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” With these words, Chris Maser, author of Forest Primeval: The Natural History of an Ancient Forest, and an old friend of mine, sums up the case for sustainable forestry. Forests are the lungs of the earth, home to a fascinating diversity of flora and fauna, the progenitor of natural medicines, and the source of fire and building materials upon which so much of civilization has depended. Over the past few decades, however, it has become clear that the earth’s forests cannot continue to be treated simply as resources for the taking, and that we must become active stewards of the forests to ensure their longevity. Allow me to take you on a short journey back.