Industry News Roundup January 2012

January 16, 2012

Finance

Dutch pension giant excludes Wal-Mart and PetroChina

ABP Investments, the largest Dutch pension fund and one of the most influential institutional investors in the world, has excluded US retail giant Wal-Mart and Chinese oil company PetroChina. ABP said it has it sold its stakes in the companies and excluded them from its investment universe over their non-compliance with United Nations’ Global Compact principles. The exclusions come despite efforts by the fund to get the companies to change their behavior, ABP said.

http://www.responsibleinvestor.com/home/article/dutch_pension_giant_excludes_wal_mart_and_petrochina/
Brazil to Launch Environmental Exchange

Led by a former UK-based entrepreneur and carbon trader, Rio de Janeiro’s new market, Bolsa Verde do Rio, will allow for the trading of environmental assets. Among other innovations, the market will seek to address the controversies surrounding the forest code, allowing farmers to trade credits gained by meeting vegetation requirements on their property. Backed by state and city governments, it is believed that the market will further solidify Rio’s economic resurgence.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0e443a46-298f-11e1-a066 00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ibxe2oHD

Textile / Apparel

Patagonia Registers as First California ‘Benefit Corporation’

Patagonia has become the first of several companies to register in California as a ‘benefit corporation’. The new status legally requires such companies to integrate defined social and environmental principles into their corporate structure. “Patagonia is trying to build a company that could last 100 years,” said Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. “Benefit corporation legislation creates the legal framework to enable mission-driven companies like Patagonia to stay mission-driven through succession, capital raises, and even changes in ownership, by institutionalizing the values, culture, processes, and high standards put in place by founding entrepreneurs.”

http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/33565-Patagonia-Registers-as-First-California-Benefit-Corporation

Food & Beverage

Coke Steps Up Drive for Plant-based Bottles

Coca-Cola has partnered with three bio-tech companies to accelerate the development of plant-based plastic bottles for its product line. Since 2009, Coca-Cola has saved the equivalent annual emissions of more than 100,000 metric tons of CO2. Coca-Cola’s progress marks a significant stride in bringing sustainable packaging to the global commercial scale.

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2133200/coke-steps-drive-plant-bottles

Natural resources

Gas Boom Has Youngstown (Ohio) Making Steel Again

Despite possible US nationwide regulations on fracking, a $650 million mill is coming to life in Ohio thanks to the natural-gas drilling boom. The development is anticipating bringing 200,000 jobs and $22 billion in economic output in Ohio by 2015. Thanks to the boom, there is a bid for natural gas manufacturing plants that would return manufacturing opportunities to a region of the United States that has seen a dearth of jobs since the economic recession. As the complications over fracking continue to be debated, development will go in the heartland of America.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/youngstown-opens-mills-again-as-states-jockey-for-fracking-jobs.html

Partnership

Disappearing Barriers between Business and Nonprofits Driving Innovation

Faced with a changing social and economic landscape, business and nonprofits are coming together to find innovative solutions to complex societal challenges, and learning from one another in the process. There are many different approaches and ideas that are breaking down the barriers between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors–but several key themes are beginning to emerge that bring clarity to these trends.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679040/the-disappearing-barriers-between-business-and-nonprofits-are-driving-innovation

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