Coca-Cola Enterprises investing £56 million towards vision for sustainable food and drink manufacturing
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has identified collaboration, effective data management and bridging the skills gap as key parts of a new five-step pathway to creating a sustainable ‘factory of the future’ in the UK food and drink industry. As part of an ongoing research project with Cranfield University, CCE has released a white paper on sustainable manufacturing, and launched a new £56 million operational investment plan to ‘accelerate its journey towards sustainability’. Steps along the ‘pathways to sustainability’ identified in the paper include anticipating the future through big data, improving nutrition to align with package and labelling ethics, and uniting rival companies with customers and society to create a holistic approach to reducing key footprints. CCE has already started crowdsourcing ideas from innovation platform OpenIDEO to encourage better domestic recycling habits, and is working with Keep Britain Tidy to launch research projects. (edie)
Report: Ford and General Motors ‘at risk of losing billions in emissions penalties’
A new report, analysing 15 of the world’s largest automakers with combined market capitalization of US$846 billion, has found that tightening regulations on emissions are having a significant business impact in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal six months ago. The report from CDP shows that seven other car makers potentially face up to US$4.8 billion in penalties for non-compliance on their fleet emissions. The two US car giants General Motors and Ford are the companies at most notable risk. “Six months on from the VW emissions scandal, today’s new investor research shows that too many companies still fall short in the light of stringent regulation and possible penalties on fleet emissions… By performing well in areas such as advanced vehicles and supporting low carbon regulation, manufacturers such as Nissan, Renault, BMW and Toyota are putting themselves in the fast lane for future growth,” said Paul Simpson, Chief Executive Officer of CDP. (CDP)
Employees
Major UK banks sign charter pledging to tackle gender gap
Several major UK banks including HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group along with the Lloyd’s of London insurance market have signed up to a new voluntary charter aimed at getting more women into senior roles in the finance industry. Harriett Baldwin, the economic secretary to the Treasury, hailed the charter as evidence that the voluntary approach was working, and could rule out the need for more prescriptive measures from the government. The charter contains a set of voluntary proposals, following recommendations by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the chief executive of Virgin Money. Gadhia rejected the idea of quotas, arguing that a one-size-fits-all approach would not work well in financial services, and left it up to individual firms to work out the practicalities of linking bonuses to progress on gender equality, and to whom this should apply. (Guardian)
Energy
Report: Household appliances accused of breaching energy efficiency standards
From LED light bulbs to dishwashers, a host of common household appliances are failing to deliver promised levels of energy and carbon saving. That is the conclusion of a major new study carried out by the UK’s Energy Saving Trust and MarketWatch, an alliance of European NGOs and consumer organisations, designed to test if manufacturers and retailers are complying with energy efficiency and labelling rules. MarketWatch independently tested 100 household appliances and electronic devices to see if they delivered stated levels of energy efficiency. It found 18 products were in breach of the rules, including a dishwasher that failed to wash properly on the default eco cycle, an LED light bulb that was 20 percent less bright than advertised, and a digital radio that used more than twice the stated energy in ‘off mode’. (BusinessGreen)
Environment
South Asia: 1.4 billion people facing ‘severe’ natural hazard risks, says Maplecroft
New data has revealed that 1.4 billion people in South Asia, 81 percent of the region’s population, are acutely exposed to at least one type of natural hazard and live in areas considered to have insufficient resources to cope with and rebound from an extreme event. The research, released by risk analysis and research company Verisk Maplecroft, highlights a lack of resilience to hazards across the region, especially in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. “This data highlights the scale of the task facing governments and business in mitigating the threats to populations and workforces from natural hazards in these high risk regions,” states Dr James Allan, Director of Environment at Verisk Maplecroft. “With overseas investment pouring into the emerging Asian markets, companies have an increasing responsibility to understand their exposure and work with governments to build resilience.” (Verisk Maplecroft)
COMMENTS