Responsible Production & the Circular Economy

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) today announced the release of its 2015 Sustainability Report at its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The Report reflects another year of progress in FCA's commitment to sustainable growth, which forms an integral part of the Group’s business strategy and has been recognized by the world’s leading sustainability rating agencies for several consecutive years.

We waste one-third of our food. That is, quite simply, a failing grade.

Washington’s Department of Ecology, released a study last month on children’s accessory products that contained concerning amounts of cadmium and lead. The chemical levels in the 27 different products tested were in violation of Washington’s Child Protection Act, which aims to mitigate hazardous proportions of chemicals and metals in child merchandise.

A mandatory certification process for Conflict Minerals in the European Union is critical. Any voluntary certification that is put in place leads to a grey area for compliance reporting, and the regulation will not serve its purpose.

Business needs another industrial revolution—one led by corporations like Phillips, selling light as well as bulbs, or Dell, creating a closed-loop recycled plastics supply chain to recycle computers back into new computers, or the Dow Chemical Company, recovering non-recycled plastics, and converting them into usable energy. While reducing waste is not a new idea, these companies understand the value of a circular economy at work, one in which resources are endlessly cycled back into supply chains, where waste simply does not exist.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a group of graduate students about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and my own career in social impact. The discussion was stimulating and the students asked probing questions. After the session, a young woman approached me and said that she would love to have a job like mine and change the world, to give away a company’s money to support worthy causes. My heart sank. In my experience, CSR can be a powerful force to transform corporate culture and align business activities with social benefit. While pure philanthropy remains an important component of CSR, the field has evolved beyond giving.

Dan Shoun, a Lake County, Oregon Commissioner, who spent 30-plus years with the USDA Forest Service, sees wood-based biofuel as a win-win model to curb wildfire risk, support communities and provide low-carbon fuel.

It’s no surprise that water is at the core of the United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), given its connection to health, climate change and resiliency. The SDGs seek to improve water quality and to substantially increase recycling and safe reuse globally by 2030.

Increasing the efficiency of water consumption at the industry level will help address these goals and also reduce scarcity issues. From using stormwater to flush toilets to installing low-flow nozzles where appropriate, conserving water will drive efficiency and also help companies save money. Here are some ways businesses can get started.