Paper firm APP admits to ‘accidentally’ clearing Sumatran forest
Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), the world’s third-biggest paper company, has reported an accidental breach of its moratorium on deforestation. The company pledged in February to end the “clearing of natural forest” after NGO campaigns and defections by customers including Xerox, Danone and KFC. However, following allegations by Indonesian NGOs, APP has admitted that 70 hectares of forest has since been cleared on Sumatra. Although the clearing was part of a community development program mandated under Indonesian law, APP says the decision to honour the two-year-old agreement was a mistake. “We remain steadfastly committed to our Forest Conservation Policy and all of its commitments,” wrote APP sustainability chief Greenbury. (Guardian)
Rankings and awards
Skills and job creation take top spots in responsible business awards
Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has been named ‘Responsible Business of the Year’ at Business in the Community (BITC)’s 2013 Responsible Business Awards, with London construction company Lakehouse receiving ‘Responsible Small Business of the Year’. Many of the winning and commended companies have a focus on developing employable skills through their corporate responsibility strategies: Jaguar Land Rover encourages young people to seek jobs in engineering, while Lakehouse has invested £667,000 in apprenticeships and trainees over the past financial year and given training to more than 300 recruits. Other awards were given to retailer Marks and Spencer for its employee wellbeing programme, and DIY chain B&Q for its customer engagement initiatives. (Financial Times*)
Innovation
GM and Honda team up to make fuel cells mainstream
General Motors (GM) and Honda have agreed to work together on a concerted push to bring affordable hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles to market before the end of the decade. The two companies, which together have 1,200 fuel cell related patents, yesterday signed a “definitive master agreement” to co-develop new technologies. Hydrogen fuel cells could potentially power clean vehicles whose only emissions are water vapour, but the costs of the technology have so-far remained high. The two companies hope that exchanging expertise, economies of scale and combined sourcing strategies will make fuel cell vehicles more affordable. (Business Green)
Nike unveils sustainability app to help designers
Nike has launched an app to enable designers and product creators to make informed decisions about the environmental impacts of the materials they choose. The ‘Making’ app ranks materials used in clothing based on four high impact areas – water, chemistry, energy and waste – enabling users to make direct comparisons between material choices. It is powered by data from Nike's own materials sustainability index, drawn from over seven years of materials research and analysis. The company worked with the London College of Fashion to collect additional insight and feedback from students during development of the app. (Edie)
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