The UK public is among the least concerned in the world about climate change, according to the latest MORI research study.
Despite dire warnings of rising sea levels on many costal towns and cities across the UK, for many British people climate change appears as a distant and long-term threat. Compared to most other countries, the UK’s geography, resources, and resilience to adverse climate events do make it difficult to envisage how everyday life in Britain could be affected by the issue.
However, what the survey’s respondents did not consider is the international dependency created by our global economy. The products we consume on a daily basis are largely produced abroad, using raw materials and resources sourced internationally.
Events overseas in recent months have caused serious impacts on supplies of products to the UK. For instance, last year supplies of air-freighted produce from Kenya stopped during the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano eruption. The earthquake in Japan forced Honda UK to halve its production in Swindon because of part shortages. The political crisis in Ivory Coast resulted in a cocoa embargo, affecting cocoa supply chains worldwide. These events have revealed how dependent our lifestyles are on foreign countries’ climatic and political stability.
Looking at the future, climate change impacts such as rising sea levels in South Asia or drought in the Mediterranean will affect consumption patterns and could create significant risks for the UK economy.
The implications for policy are clear, but what does this mean for businesses? Mainly, that action needs to be taken today to ensure the security of supply of all key materials for tomorrow. This involves identifying the level of risk and exposure across the supply chain, and devising risk-reduction plans. It also includes working in partnership with suppliers abroad, focusing not only on mitigation, but also on adaptation.
Finally, businesses also have a responsibility to educate consumers about product’s sources through greater traceability, which will help the public understand the reality of global climate change risks for this country.
Myriam is a consultant at Corporate Citizenship. Email her at Myriam.galopin@corporate-citizenship.com to discuss responsible sourcing, stakeholder engagement and community investment.
Rolls Royce Group takes pole position in annual reputation study
Rolls Royce Group is the most reputable company in the UK, according to the UK RepTrak(tm) Pulse 2011 study published on April 6 by global business consultancy Reputation Institute. The study revealed an overall improvement in the reputation of UK businesses with those attaining higher scores out-stripping those with lower scores by over two to one. Consumer Products was the best performing sector and domestic appliance manufacturer Dyson placed second of the 194 companies ranked. The annual report is based on over 10,000 interviews with consumers across the UK and gauges public attitudes to corporations based on seven dimensions: products & services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance. The energy sector, which includes British Energy, Shell and BP, ranked lowest. Meanwhile, the banking sector, which has come under scrutiny in the wake of the financial crisis, improved its sector score by 5%, although no bank featured in the top 50 companies listed.
Australian public consultation on plain packaging of tobacco products
Australia’s goal of having the world’s toughest tobacco promotion laws in place by 2012 moved closer in April, when it released the plain packing design that all cigarette manufacturers will be forced to adopt as part of new legislation. The government wants all cigarette packets to be logo-free in a dull green colour displaying graphic images of smoking-related diseases. “The only thing to distinguish one brand from another will be the brand and product name in a standard colour, standard position and standard font size and style,” said Nicola Roxon, health minister. Big tobacco companies have lobbied hard to block the changes since Canberra announced its plain packaging plan in April 2010. The Australian unit of British American Tobacco said the UK, Canada and New Zealand had considered plain packaging “But it has never been put in place due to concerns over the legalities of such a move and the potential for huge growth in illegal black market tobacco.” It warned that mandatory plain packaging could infringe international trademark and intellectual property laws.”What company would stand for having its brands, which are worth billions, taken away from them?” said a Sydney-based BAT spokesman.
Contact: Australian Government; Department of Health and Ageing www.yourhealth.gov.au
Organic sales down in 2010, reveals Soil Association
Sales of organic products fell 5.9% to £1.73 billion in 2010 with the rate of decline slowing significantly throughout the year, according to the Organic Market Report published by the Soil Association. The outlook for 2011 is cautiously optimistic, although spending on organic products has fallen for two consectutive years now, from a peak of £2.113 billion in 2008. The Organic Market Report shows that shoppers spend more than £33 million a week on all things organic, and that 86% of households now buy organic products. Dairy products and fresh fruit and vegetables are the most popular categories, accounting for 30.5% and 23.2% of sales respectively. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer anticipate modest growth for 2011, while Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and the Co-operative predict level sales year-on-year.
According to an international survey by Ipsos MORI, energy security is the leading environmental issue for Britons, over and above climate change. Other leading issues listed by the British public are waste management (48%); overpopulation (41%) and global warming / climate change (25%). Of the 24 nations polled across the globe, Britain is in the bottom third in terms of concern around climate change. Twice as many people in India and Japan rank climate change as one of the most important environmental issues, highlighting the challenge facing UK policymakers and climatologists. Lower placed nations include South Africa (23%), China (21%), Poland (19%) and Russia (9%). In contrast the British are in the top three nations most concerned about energy security, behind Sweden (58%) and Germany (56%).
US Department of Argiculture promotes biobased products with label
The US Department of Agriculture has put its stamp on 60 products ranging from soap to carpet to engine oil in a bid to drive consumers to products made with biobased materials. Through its Biopreferred programme, the USDA has identified more than 5,000 biobased products in the past eight years for federal agencies to give purchasing preference to. In January this year it launched a certification programme so companies could benefit from a label on products to show their biobased content. The first round of labels went to companies at the beginning of April, showing the percentage of a product and its packaging from renewable plant, forestry, animal or marine materials. It is intended to both catch the eyes of consumers and also make it easier for federal purchasers to find bio-based goods.
P&G and Recyclebank to strengthen recycling in the US
On April 11, P&G Future Friendly announced a partnership with Recyclebank to reward people for taking everyday conservation actions. The partnership aims to inspire residents throughout the US to adopt recycling practices while rewarding households for reducing waste. Recyclebank motivates consumers to live more sustainable lifestyles – including increasing household recycling and reducing home energy usage – with Recyclebank Points that are redeemable for discounts and deals from more than 3,000 local and national businesses. The more everyday green actions consumers take, the more points they can earn. In addition to sponsoring this rewards platform, Future Friendly will also provide Recyclebank members with opportunities to earn points through online educational content via the Recyclebank Learn & Earn platformme, highlighting methods to save energy, save water and reduce waste within their homes.
Company unveils unique plan to celebrate earth day
MXenergy, the US based independent energy provider announced that during Earth Week (April 18 – 22) it would give all new customers free carbon offsets for one year.”Since our inception, we have had a true commitment to the environment and the issue of sustainability,” says Jeffrey Mayer, MXenergy President and CEO. “Earth Day is the perfect time to share that commitment with our new customers. Homeowners can know their energy usage for the year is carbon neutral and that they are saving money as well.” While MXenergy will pay for carbon offsets for new customers for one year, the company hopes that customers will continue to offset their eneergy use themselves after free offsets finish. The carbon offsets are used to support Valley Wood, Inc. of Columbus, Georgia, a certified offset aggregator with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) that manages over 300,000 acres of sustainable forest land.
US watchdog groups claim CBS ‘EcoAd’ Programme is greenwashing
In the US, consumer and environmental groups sent a formal complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, asserting that the ‘EcoAd’ programme recently launched nationally by CBS/EcoMedia is in violation of federal law and the agency’s ‘Green Guides’. In the complaint, the Center for Environmental Health, Rainforest Action Network, Friends of the Earth and Ecopreneurist told the agency that the CBS ad programme, which offers advertisers the use of an ‘EcoAd’ symbol ‘…may deceive viewers … and create an unfair advantage for companies and products participating in the programme.’ The group added ‘labels that can be bought for the price of a TV ad threaten to further erode consumer confidence and diminish the value of legitimate environmental practices. If CBS fails to provide a clear explanation on each ad about exactly what the digital green leaf means and who gets to participates in their Eco-Ad programme, their programme is just more greenwash.’ CBS claims that the ads are a ‘sustainable media’ effort, since a percentage of the revenue CBS brings in from EcoAds will be donated to local environmental projects. But the EcoAd programme is available to any advertiser, regardless of the companies’ or products’ environmental record or performance.
Contact: Center for Environmental Health www.ceh.org
Research reveals increased consumer demand for fair trade certified-labelled products
Fair Trade USA has reported new findings which confirm that the prominent appearance of the Fair Trade Certified label increases sales among coffee-buying consumers. To investigate the topic of consumer demand for Fair Trade products, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the London School of Economics, conducted a six-month research study in partnership with a prominent US grocery retailer. The team examined purchasing behaviour among actual consumers at 26 stores and key findings show that the Fair Trade Certified label alone has a large positive impact on sales, and that sales of the two most popular bulk coffees sold in each of the 26 test stores increased by up to 13% when labelled as Fair Trade Certified. The study also revealed that a substantial segment of consumers are willing to pay up to 8% more for a product bearing the Fair Trade Certified label.
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