General Electric, Starbucks and American Express make ‘Most Ethical’ list
General Electric, Starbucks and American Express are among the 15 organisations to make it onto the ‘World’s Most Ethical Companies’ list for the seventh year running, while Patagonia and Rabobank have fallen off after six years. The annual list carried out by US-based think-tank, Esthisphere, highlights companies that outperform industry peers in ethical behaviour. First time recipients Visa and Sherwin-Williams also made Ethisphere’s 2013 list, which included 138 companies this year. (Environmental Leader)
Governance
Africa could create trillion-dollar food market by 2030
Africa’s farmers and agribusinesses could create a trillion-dollar food market by 2030, says a new World Bank report launched earlier this week. According to the Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness report, Africa’s food systems, currently valued at USD313bn a year from agriculture, could triple if governments and business leaders radically rethink their policies and support to agriculture, farmers, and agribusinesses, which together account for nearly 50 percent of Africa’s economic activity. (Ghana Business News)
Environment
Ecover turns ocean waste into bottles
Ecover and Closed Loop Recycling will begin using plastic collected at sea to create recyclable plastic bottles for the green cleaning product company. The companies say the plastic marine waste will be collected by European fishermen and sent to Closed Loop’s, London facility, where it will be repurposed into a new type of packaging. Closed Loop Recycling has already begun trials with Ecover to combine the recovered sea plastic with recycled high density polyethylene and sugarcane. Ecover says it will begin using the new recycled plastic in 2014. (Environmental Leader)
Shell, Exxon, Orlen and Total top chemical producers list
This week, ChemSec published the names of the companies that produce or import the 626 chemicals on the organisation’s ‘Substitute It Now’ (SIN) list. Oil companies Shell, ExxonMobil, Orlen and Total are responsible for introducing the largest number of hazardous chemicals to the EU market, according to information released by the European Chemicals Agency (ECA) following a lawsuit by NGO, ChemSec and legal advocacy group, ClientEarth. Last month, ChemSec added the 249 chemicals to its SIN list which names ‘substances of very high concern’, based on criteria established by the ECA, expanding it by 66 percent. ChemSec believes many of these compounds, which are still present in consumer products including detergents, paints and toys, are likely to face a future EU ban. (Environmental leader)
DR Congo seeks to open way to oil drilling in its national parks
The Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has drafted a bill that could allow oil companies to drill inside its national parks, putting it on a possible collision course with donors and conservationists. The impoverished Central African state is believed to have rich energy deposits, some of which may lie beneath Virunga National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site that is home to some of the world’s last mountain gorillas. Two oil companies, UK-based Soco International and French energy group Total, hold exploration licences that overlap with parts of the park- where their activities are restricted by law. (Business Day)
Diversity
Women still waiting for equality in the UK workplace
Women in the UK still face inequality in the work place, according to investigations by accountancy and consultancy giant PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC). Its research reveals that women in the UK are less likely to be in work, and more likely to experience lower job security and greater pay inequality, than their counterparts in other developed countries. The PwC Women in Work Index shows that the UK was ranked in 18th position out of 27 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2011 on five key indicators of female economic empowerment. (Independent)
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