Industry News Roundup May 2012

May 25, 2012

Finance & Banking

Investor initiatives will push sustainable investment at Rio+20

In the run-up to Rio+20, the CEOs of 20 financial institutions, including UniCredit, Standard Chartered and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), have made a commitment to support the preservation of ecosystem services. The 'Natural Capital Declaration' (NCD) is a commitment to integrate natural capital criteria into financial products and services, developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). Meanwhile, Aviva has convened a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition (CSRC) of more than forty global institutions with approximately $2 trillion of funds under management, which has called for new rules requiring large businesses to report on material environmental, social and governance issues.

Justmeans

The Guardian

Goldman Sachs plans $40 billion clean energy investments

Goldman Sachs will today announce plans to invest $40 billion in clean energy projects over the coming decade, after identifying the sector as one of the biggest opportunities to emerge since it started investing in emerging markets more than a decade ago. The bank plans to channel client money and a smaller amount of its own funds towards investment and financing in solar, wind, hydro, biofuels, biomass conversion, energy efficiency, energy storage, green transportation, efficient materials, LED lighting and transmission projects. Goldman Sachs economists believe demand for these technologies is set to take-off as countries with large manufacturing sectors such as China and Brazil look to cut their emissions.

Business Green

 

Natural Resources

Mining firms face scrutiny over Congo deals

UK MPs have launched an investigation into the involvement of British-connected shell companies and London-listed mining groups in opaque deals to acquire prime mining assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one of the poorest countries on Earth. The MPs' interest in DRC's natural resources emerged as Glencore, the commodity trader whose 2011 flotation made six executives billionaires, faces calls from the campaign group Global Witness to explain investments in the country it has made alongside Dan Gertler, an Israeli businessman and close friend of DRC's president, Joseph Kabila.

The Guardian

Bonsucro sugar ethical certification scheme grows

The Bonsucro scheme, which ensures that production of sugar and ethanol from sugarcane meet environmental, social and business standards, is set to grow sharply as the industry moves toward sustainable practices. Bonsucro certification, which began in June 2011, is currently the only major certification scheme for sugar production. It currently covers around 1 million tonnes of cane production, testing mills owned by companies including Bunge, Copersucar and Raizen on labour rights and environmental criteria.

Reuters

Textiles & Apparel

Puma parent PPR to expand groundbreaking environmental accounting to all brands

French apparel company PPR announced it will expand the environmental accounting process it performed for its Puma brand across its entire group of brands, which includes Gucci, Stella McCartney and Yves Saint Laurent. Puma's Environmental Profit & Loss Account (EP&L), completed last year, was a first-of-its-kind attempt to monetise the value of ecosystem services used across a company's entire supply chain. Puma found that cost to be €145 million for the year 2010. PPR says the group EP&L will help in identifying new opportunities across the supply chain to enhance the sustainability of PPR's products.

Sustainable Brands

Nike reduces lead times through lean manufacturing

Nike has reaped the benefits of moving to 'lean' manufacturing, which it defines as 'better manufacturing' that saves on waste materials and time. The sportswear company's latest Sustainable Business Performance Summary explains how Nike has worked to eliminate waste, lost time and lost material from its processes as part of its sustainability agenda, and states that factories which adopted the lean approach showed 50% lower defect rates and 40% faster delivery lead times than those that didn't.

Supply Management

Technology

Microsoft to go carbon neutral

Global software firm Microsoft has announced that it aims to go carbon neutral from July 2012 by purchasing carbon credits, and also plans to set its own carbon price. In a blog announcing the move, Microsoft chief environmental strategist Rob Bernard wrote that despite making good progress on reducing Microsoft’s carbon footprint in recent years, the firm’s management realised it needed to do more in the face of "the alarming scientific data on climate ". To provide incentives for all Microsoft divisions to keep their carbon emissions down, the firm is introducing a carbon price – based on current market prices for carbon credits – so that every department will have to pay directly for its carbon emissions from its own budget.

Eco-Business

Apple plans green power for US data centres

Apple plans to power its main US data centre entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms. The consumer electronics manufacturer has announced that it will build two solar array installations covering 250 acres, among the largest in the industry, and also has plans for similar installations at other data centres. "I'm not aware of any other company producing energy onsite at this scale," Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said. Greenpeace, which has targeted Apple as well as Amazon and Microsoft with clean energy campaigns, saluted the decision.

Reuters

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