Danone and Mars launch €120 million fund for smallholder farmers
Danone and Mars, two of the world’s largest food multinationals, yesterday announced their intention to invest €120 million over the next decade in an investment fund aimed at increasing the productivity of smallholder farmers. The Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming will make between four and five investments per year, averaging around €3-5 million each. The projects, which will span Africa, Latin America and Asia, will focus on low-tech, sustainable farming practices that are easy to adopt and quick to scale. The fund will initially prioritise key crops in Mars’ and Danone’s product lines that are dominated by smallholder production. “It is good to see major companies recognise that smallholder farmers are bearing the greatest risks in value chains” says Irit Tamir, policy advisor for anti-poverty group Oxfam, adding that appropriate investment in small-scale farming can potentially be a “great way to attack hunger and poverty”. (The Guardian)
Responsible Investment
OECD report marks “important milestone” for impact investing
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) this week launched a report that sets out ideas for an international framework for defining and measuring social impact investment. The report, building on the work of the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce, has three key purposes – to provide a framework for assessing the social impact investment market, to focus on the need to build a bigger evidence base and to highlight the importance of further international collaborations. It finds that while momentum is gathering around social impact investment globally, the market varies significantly from country to country. Sir Ronald Cohen, chairman of the UK’s social investment bank Big Society Capital and chairman of the G8 Taskforce, described the report as an “important milestone”: “Our challenge, having proved the case for impact investment is clear… is to bring it into the mainstream,” he said. (Pioneer Post)
World’s biggest sovereign wealth fund dumps dozens of coal companies
The world’s richest sovereign wealth fund removed 40 coal mining companies from its portfolio in 2014, citing the risk they face from regulatory action on climate change. Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), worth $850 billion and founded on the nation’s oil and gas wealth, revealed a total of 114 companies had been dumped on environmental and climate grounds in its first report on responsible investing, released yesterday. The companies divested also include tar sands producers, cement makers and gold miners. As part of a fast-growing campaign, over $50 billion in fossil fuel company stocks have so far been divested by 180 organisations on the basis that their business models are incompatible with the pledge by world governments to tackle global warming. But the GPFG is the highest-profile institution to divest to date. “Our risk-based approach means that we exit sectors and areas where we see elevated levels of risk to our investments in the long term,” said Marthe Skaar, spokeswoman for GPFG. (The Guardian)
Circular Economy
Sprint offers $5000 to students who find innovative ways to recycle smartphones
This week, Sprint, the American telecommunications company, launched a new challenge inviting students to come up with innovative and profitable ways to give new life to old smartphones or their components – for the chance to win $5,000 to turn their business plan into reality. The competition is open to teams of undergraduate and graduate students who are members of non-profit Net Impact’s 155 collegiate chapters across the United States. To participate, students will develop and submit a product concept and business pitch using second-hand smartphones and accessories provided by Sprint and wireless distributor Brightstar. The Smartphone Encore Challenge is the newest initiative in Sprint’s corporate sustainability programme, demonstrating its commitment to reclaiming devices. Last year, Sprint’s end-of-life buyback and trade-in programme bought back more than 3 million phones from customers, of which more than 80 percent were resold as pre-owned devices. (Triple Pundit)
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