Big Four rank high up on Corporate Responsibility Index
The Big Four have been recognised for its work on sustainable business achieving platinum standard in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index. PwC and KPMG led the way receiving the highest ranking of Platinum Plus, closely followed by Ernst & Young and Deloitte which received Platinum status.
Two leading multinational pharmaceutical companies are joining forces with a venture capital firm in a pioneering €150m investment fund designed to accelerate successful drug discovery. GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson will each contribute a quarter of the fund’s assets, matched by a further €75m from backers of Index Ventures, which will use its “asset-centric investment” approach to support experimental medicines rather than fledgling companies.
The National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) responded to environmental group World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) findings that Singapore has the largest carbon footprint per capita in the Asia-Pacific. The Index had examined the environmental performance of 22 Asian cities in eight categories including environmental governance, air quality, energy, and carbon dioxide emissions. The NCCS issued its response to “provide a better understanding of the facts.” It attributes emissions from goods to the country where they are produced, while WWF attributes carbon emissions from the goods to the importing country.
Commission imposes low duties on Chinese solar panels
The Commerce Department has decided to impose only small import duties on Chinese-made solar panels, rebuffing a bid by a handful of United States panel makers who said that they were being undercut and who sought stiffer penalties. The decision was hailed by United States companies that install solar panels and United States companies that export solar manufacturing equipment. The case has split the solar industry in the United States.
Renewable Resources, a Scottish solar company, has become one of the largest rooftop installers in the UK after fitting over 36,500 PV panels across 115 Sainsbury‘s stores in a matter of months. Among the 115 stores was Sainsbury’s flagship Ely store, which, as part of the retailer’s recently announced 20 by 20 sustainability plan, sources around 30 per cent of its energy from onsite renewables and uses half the amount of grid electricity as standard stores.
Nestle UK & Ireland has converted to 100% recyclable packaging on its Easter egg confectioneries by replacing rigid plastic with cardboard. The move is expected to save an estimated 726 tons of plastic waste going to landfill per year, based on a comparison of the weight of plastic used in 2008 to manufacture Nestlé’s Easter egg boxes, the company said. Nestlé said that the eco-packaging project, which removes all plastic packaging from all its eggs, took six years to complete, and that it is the first major confectioner to accomplish this task.
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