Failure to invest in green energy will cost jobs, investors warn
The European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, part of a global coalition of pension funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions, has published a new report stating that government policies worldwide to tackle climate change are so “inadequate and inconsistent” that jobs and pensions are being put at risk across the globe. The Group, who between them control an estimated $14 trillion of investments ranging from wind turbines and agriculture to property and manufacturing, said that without clear policies on renewable energy and global warming, investors are unwilling to invest their clients’ money. Stephanie Pfeifer, chief executive of the Group, said that “despite overwhelming scientific evidence that human activity is warming the planet with increasingly serious economic consequences, policymakers have failed to act with the level of urgency and clarity the problem requires.” (The Independent)
Kellogg CEO challenged on rainforest harm by activist
John Bryant, the chief executive of the US cereal producer Kellogg, found himself ear-to-ear with a shareholder activist on yesterday’s earnings conference call. Lucia von Reusner, who works for the US company Green Century Capital Management Inc., asked what Kellogg’s planned to do following allegations that a China partner, Wilmar International Ltd (WIL), had contributed to rainforest destruction. The US environmental group SumOfUs presented a petition at Kellogg’s head office asking the manufacturer to either address the issue with WIL or to end its relationship with the supplier. Mr Bryant reportedly dismissed Kellogg’s role in investigating the allegations, stating that as he did not know enough about Wilmar’s practices, the allegations are “something that the activists should really take up with Wilmar.” (Business Week)
Supply Chain
Google’s Brin gets teeth into lab-grown beef
Sergey Brin, the billionaire co-founder of US multinational Google, has put €700,000 into a Dutch research project into laboratory grown beef, which aims to find a sustainable alternative to livestock farming. Project leaders believe that in 10 to 20 years, lab-grown burgers will be on supermarket shelves. The investment enabled scientists to produce enough lab-grown meat fibres from beef muscle stem cells to make three burgers, of which the first public tasting was yesterday. Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University, who is leading the research, said that the world needed a new way to produce meat that was less demanding on environmental resources than traditional agriculture. Professor Post said he was talking to the food industry and Mr Brin about funding to scale up production and bring cultured beef to market. (Financial Times*; The Guardian)
Corporate Reputation
Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking
Two young children in the US have been banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a $750,000 settlement reached by their parents with US oil and gas exploration and production company Range Resources Ltd. The settlement, reached in 2011 but unsealed only last week, barred the children, then aged ten and seven, from ever discussing fracking. The family’s property was adjacent to major industrial operations: four gas wells, gas compressor stations, and a waste water pound, which the family said contaminated their water supply and caused burning eyes, sore throats and headaches. The parents told the court they had agreed so they could afford to move to a new home away from the gas fields and raise their children in a safer environment. (The Guardian)
Employees
Nine out of ten UK workers at McDonald’s tied to zero-hours contracts
The US fast food multinational McDonald’s has emerged as potentially the largest zero-hours employer in the private sector after admitting that it employs 90 percent of its entire UK workforce of 92,000 staff on the controversial contracts. The UK Institute of Directors (IoD), which represents 38,000 directors including several chief executives of FTSE 100 companies, has attacked the latest calls for a ban of zero-hours contracts, claiming the UK could be in the same situation as Italy or Spain without a flexible labour market. McDonald’s defended its position, stating that many of their employees “are looking to fit flexible, paid work around childcare, study and other commitments.” It has also emerged that UK franchises of the US fast food chain Subway employ hundreds of staff on zero-hours contracts. (The Guardian)
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