Corporate Reputation
Olympic medal pollution protesters disrupt Rio Tinto meeting
The annual meetings of two of London’s biggest mining companies Rio Tinto and Anglo American were disrupted by environmental protesters and unionists from around the world yesterday. Protesters, some wearing gas masks, gathered outside Rio Tinto’s annual meeting near Parliament to highlight claims of “life-threatening” air pollution from mines producing metal for the London 2012 Olympic medals. A coalition of unions, including the United Steelworkers and Unite, also called on the International Olympic Committee to drop Rio Tinto as its official medal provider over claims of ill treatment of some of its miners.
The Guardian p30 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/apr/19/olympic-medal-pollution-protesters-rio-tinto?INTCMP=SRCH
Corporate Responsibility Magazine reveals its 13th annual “100 Best Corporate Citizens List”
Corporate Responsibility Magazine has unveiled the 13th annual “100 Best Corporate Citizens List”. The list documents more than 320 data points of disclosure—harvested from publicly available information in seven categories: environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance, and philanthropy. The top 10 ranked include: Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co., Microsoft Corporation, Intel Corp. Johnson Controls Inc., Accenture plc, Spectra Energy Corp., Campbell Soup Co., and Nike Inc.
Just means http://www.justmeans.com/press-releases/Corporate-Responsibility-Magazine-Reveals-its-13th-Annual–quot-100-Best-Corporate-Citizens-List-quot-/8738.html
Sustainable Development
CARE and Cornell University launch partnership to advance sustainable food systems
Cornell University and the global humanitarian organisation CARE this week launched a partnership to advance sustainable food systems to improve food security, stimulate economic growth and adapt to climate change by merging Cornell’s cutting-edge research in economic development and sustainability with CARE’s experience fighting poverty around the world.
CARE http://www.care.org/newsroom/articles/2012/04/CARE-Cornell-Initiative-Food-Security-Sustainability-20120417.asp?s_src=redlink_news_04_19_09p&s_subsrc=tw
Environment
Asia’s largest solar field switched on in India
The west Indian state of Gujarat is flipping the switch on Asia’s largest solar power field as part of its 600 megawatt solar energy addition to India’s power grid. The Gujarat Solar Park can supply 214 megawatts of electricity, making it larger than China’s 200-megawatt Golmud Solar Park. The project gives a serious boost to energy-hungry India’s renewable energy ambitions. Overall, India wants renewables to account for at least 15% of its energy capacity by 2020, up from 6% of today’s 185 gigawatt capacity.
Business Week http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9U82HSG2.htm
Global EfW boom could see market value rise to $80 billion
The value of the international waste-to-energy market could top $80 billion by 2022 as analysts forecast accelerated growth for the sector over the next decade. According to a new report from Pike Research, demand for thermal and biological waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies will reach at least $6.2 billion in 2012 and grow to $29.2 billion by 2022. Population growth, rapid urbanisation, rising levels of affluence and resource scarcity will help fuel this demand, according to researchers.
Edie http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=22290&title=Global+EfW+boom+could+see+market+value+rise+to+%26%2336%3B80bn+
Coca-Cola champions personal carbon budgets
Coca-Cola has been working on a new study with the Carbon Trust designed to find out how consumers would cope with a personal carbon ration, and how businesses can help better inform them of their environmental impact. The soft drinks giant will today unveil the results of the study investigating how people might respond to personal carbon allowances that limit how much they are allowed to emit and how carbon labelling on popular products could help change purchasing habits.
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