Sustainability

As part of its ambitious 2025 sustainability goals, Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials has created a new portfolio designed to enable customers choose products that can help to make a positive environmental impact.

Today, at GreenBiz18 in Phoenix, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released a new report, compiling data from the Reporting Exchange that offers a closer look into the reporting landscape of the United States and Canada.

Andy Kessler made some interesting points in his piece, “Stocks Weren’t Made for Social Climbing." Chiefly, we at CECP: The CEO Force for Good, agree with his emphasis on the importance of profits. The issue is how you get there and how to create sustainable value, not just short-term gains. When he suggests that to invest in socially motivated companies, one is passing up gains, he proceeds from a false dichotomy. Properly realized, the value proposition of a corporation—its outputs, its employee and community relations, its returns, and, yes, its philanthropy—are not linear; they are circular.

Last week the team went to the EDIE Sustainability Awards 2018. We were proud to be a finalist for the employee engagement and behavioural change category for our Sustainable September campaign. Unfortunately we lost out to Virgin Atlantic Airways (Congratulations to them!) but we are still very proud of the recognition and excited to continue in our progress towards our 2025 Sustainability goals as a corporation! Sharene Katsoulas, Isabel Gonzalez Jungblut, Jenny Wassenaar

Building a smart city is easy to envision, but it can be challenging to implement. From questions about financing and stakeholder engagement to technology advocacy and information technology (IT) governance, there is a lot to consider after you’ve made the decision to enable data to make your community more livable, sustainable and connected. After the overarching vision and strategy are set, making smart cities real often starts by implementing a series of smaller changes that contribute to the overall transformation.

Mirvac has turned their new Sydney headquarters at 200 George Street into a living lab outfitted with sensors that collect building data on everything from vibrations to façade temperature. The space reflects the group’s passionate curiosity in sustainable, healthy buildings – and their desire to transform knowledge directly into action. We spoke to both Sarah Clarke, Group General Manager, Sustainability and Reputation and David Palin, Sustainability Manager who explain how continuous learning, transparency, and trust are helping them stand out as leaders in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting.

Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR), a world leader in creating comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments, has been named to the 2018 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations Index by Corporate Knights. Corporate Knights, a Toronto based media and investment advisory company, released the 2018 index at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Think tank and advisory firm SustainAbility focuses on helping companies lead the way to a sustainable economy. We spoke with Sarah Volkman, Manager at SustainAbility, who told us that integrating sustainability into core business strategy is the best way to drive change.

American Express today announced that it is one of over 100 companies from ten sectors to join the inaugural 2018 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). Launched today, the reference index measures gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community support and engagement, and gender-conscious product offerings.

The insights uncovered in Black & Veatch’s 2018 Strategic Directions: Smart Cities & Utilities Report demonstrate a growing awareness among communities and utilities that modern, digital infrastructure such as data collection networks, infrastructure automation and advanced communication systems are the key components of today’s smart city initiatives. It is only through these systems that cities and utilities can optimize operations to realize the promise of the smart city – and create a sustainable future.