Tesco softens pensions blow after flood of staff complaints
Tesco has been forced to offer concessions to furious staff after the supermarket’s plans to close its final-salary pension scheme triggered a deluge of complaints. The company will still shut the scheme but has improved the contributions in the new scheme that will take its place. Tesco staff are swallowing a pay freeze this year, while rival Sainsbury’s recently announced a 4 per cent pay rise for its shop-floor staff. Originally, Tesco bosses had hoped to pay just 5 percent of staff salaries into the scheme, compared to 11 percent previously. But following pressure, the company will match between 4 percent and 7.5 percent of salaries paid in by staff. During the 90-day consultation, which closed earlier this month, more than 60,000 visits were made to the Tesco pension website, 27,000 calls were made to its helpline and 3,000 comments were made by staff. Letters with the final decision were sent to staff last week, with its personnel chief, Alison Horner, admitting: “Your clear preference is to keep the existing defined benefit pension scheme – and not to close it.” (The Independent)
Strategy
Tesla excels consumer reports rating system and branches into sharing economy
Tesla Motors is charging forward with a new partnership with home-sharing startup Airbnb and a record-breaking variant of its Model S, the P85D. The Tesla Model S P85D earned a rare overall test score of 100 out of 100 points in the Consumer Reports’ rating system, setting a new benchmark for a perfect overall score. Tesla has also created a new partnership with Airbnb to install Tesla EV charging stations at select rental locations, starting in California. So far, there are 15 “Tesla-ready” homes listed on Airbnb. Tesla will give at least 100 selected Airbnb hosts the $750 charging station for free, but hosts will have to cover the installation costs, which are up to $900. To be eligible, Airbnb hosts must list an entire home, have had more than five bookings, and have an average rating of 4+ stars. Tesla owners will be expected to pay about $10 for a night’s charge. (One News Page, Sustainable Brands)
Policy
Growing fear around Indonesia’s new palm oil subsidy undermining no-deforestation push
With the demand landscape for Indonesian palm oil set for a seismic shift due to a huge new government intervention, experts are wondering how true to its mandate of bringing sustainability to the sector the policy will prove to be. Key decisions about the nascent Crude Palm Oil Supporting Fund (CPO Fund), whose initial parameters were outlined in a May presidential decree, have yet to be made, including whether it will carry environmental safeguards to prevent the destruction of important ecological landscapes in the country losing more forest than any other. It is also unclear how the money in the fund, whose vast resources have already started to be derived from a new levy on palm oil exports, will be divided between its two central mandates: helping farmers increase their yields and subsidizing biodiesel. The fear going around is that the subsidy, if haphazardly administered, could undermine a growing movement to stop deforestation and land grabbing for palm oil. (Eco-Business)
Supply Chain
General Mills vows to slash emissions 28 per cent across entire supply chain
Multinational food giant General Mills has set itself an ambitious target to slash carbon emissions throughout its entire operations and supply chain, mobilising over $100 million of clean tech investment in the process. The firm announced it will aim to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent “from farm to fork to landfill” over the next 10 years. They further pledged to invest more than $100m in energy efficiency measures and clean energy capacity across its value chain, while simultaneously developing new partnerships with suppliers to improve the sustainability of its agricultural products. In addition, it said it is aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of its packaging and boost the climate resiliency of farms in its supply chain. Ken Powell, chairman and chief executive of General Mills, said the company and the planet depended on it playing its part in mitigating environmental degradation, “For 150 years, General Mills has served the world by making food people love,” he said in a statement. “Our aim is to be around for another 150 years.” (Business Green)
Responsible Investment
Investors urge businesses to quit climate-unfriendly EU lobby groups
Institutional investors worth nearly $70 billion have called on nine major companies to cut ties with EU lobbying firms known for undermining climate policies. Coordinated by Share Action, the funds targeted multinationals over their links with Business Europe and other trade associations known for regressive positions on climate change. They wrote to chiefs of BHP Billiton, BP, EDF, Glencore, Johnson Matthey, Procter and Gamble, Rio Tinto, Statoil and Total, asking them to reconsider their memberships. Arne Lööw, head of corporate governance at a Swedish national pension fund, was a signatory to the letters. “We believe it is important that investors put pressure on companies who are financing associations seeking to undermine climate legislation,” he said. European oil companies in particular have taken pains in the past year to present themselves as part of the solution to rising emissions. That is partly in response to investor pressure, as pension providers, insurers and sovereign wealth funds try to clean up their portfolios. (RTCC)
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