Supply Chain
Co-op boycotts exports from Israel’s West Bank settlements
The Co-operative Group, the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer and its largest mutual business, has declared that it will no longer engage with any supplier of produce known to be sourcing from the Israeli settlements. The decision will hit four companies and contracts worth some £350,000. The Co-op stresses this is not an Israeli boycott and that its contracts will go to other companies inside Israel that can guarantee they don’t export from illegal settlements.
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/29/co-op-israel-west-bank-boycott?newsfeed=true
Corporate Reputation
Apple, Google could join Dow Jones index: Barron’s
The Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index is due for an overhaul, and new-tech giants like Apple Inc and Google have good arguments for joining the elite 30 companies at the expense of old-industry stalwarts like Alcoa Inc, Barron’s said on Sunday. The business weekly said the Dow has no timetable, but a new company or two could be added in the next year. According to Barron’s latest edition, the three most likely stocks to be replaced in the index are aluminum maker Alcoa, Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard.
Reuters http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/29/us-dow-barrons-idUKBRE83S0FG20120429
Environment
EU framework set to promote recycling best practice
Twelve EU regions are to join forces to develop a common framework in a bid to improve the consistency of recycling and recovery rates across Europe. The partnership project ‘Regions 4 Recycling’ (R4R) will run over three years and will formulate a methodology for waste data observation, selective collection and recycling rates that will enable participating regions to share best practice to improve their recycling performance. The initiative, which has a budget of €2.2 million, is being led by the Ile-de-France Region Waste Management Observatory (ORDIF) with ACR+ managing overall project communication and the Public Waste Agency of Flanders, OVAM, overseeing the technical component.
Edie http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=22354&title=EU+framework+set+to+promote+recycling+best+practice+
UN: Developing countries offer “staggering” clean tech opportunity
Businesses have been told they can take advantage of a “staggeringly large” market for renewable energy solutions in developing countries and help the UN achieve its goal of global universal access to energy by 2030. Reid Detchon, vice president of energy and climate at the United Nations Foundation (UNF), said at a briefing during last week’s Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in London that while the falling price of renewable technologies has boosted the renewable energy industry in industrialised countries, it has also opened up new markets for businesses and charities to bring solar panels and micro-hydroelectric turbines to remote rural areas.
Business Green http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2170812/-developing-countries-offer-staggering-clean-tech-opportunity
Shell says no to North Sea wind power
Shell will not be joining David Cameron’s crusade to attract private sector investment into creating a North Sea wind revolution, despite its commitment to turbines in the United States. Simon Henry, the company’s finance director, said Shell “can’t make the numbers” add up to justify building offshore wind farms. That contrasts with onshore turbines in America, where it controls almost 1GW of wind power. The British government should support an industry that is “already successful” – such as oil and gas – as much as chase a renewable power sector that is still trying to become profitable, Henry added.
Business Green http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2170908/shell-north-sea-wind-power
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