H&M encourages recycling with its first ever sustainability campaign
H&M, the high street fashion retailer, has launched its first ever campaign that focuses on behavioural change by encouraging consumers to recycle their unwanted clothes as it seeks to pave the way for “a sustainable fashion future”. The campaign, created to promote World Recycle Week, was launched today and will run for a week. During the campaign, H&M aims to collect 1,000 tonnes of unwanted garments from customers, across more than 3,600 stores worldwide. According to the brand, the initiative is one of the most extensive environmental projects it has ever undertaken and forms part of H&M’s long-term goal to “close the loop in fashion”. “This is the very first campaign from H&M that focuses on behaviour change. The campaign’s main function is of course to raise awareness and hopefully make recycling cool and interesting – we think it is. It is the first step towards a circular business model which is the way to a sustainable fashion future.” said Catarina Midby, UK sustainability manager at H&M. (Marketing Week)
Employees
McDonald’s offers UK staff on zero-hours contract the option to move to fixed hours
McDonald’s is revamping its employment policy in the UK, offering its UK employees working on zero-hours contracts the option to shift to fixed hours. The new contracts will guarantee a minimum of four, 16 or 30 hours per week. McDonald’s is one of the biggest users of zero-hours contracts in the UK. It has about 80,000 members on these contracts, which critics claim exploit workers. According to Paul Pomroy, CEO of McDonald’s UK, the move comes amid feedback from a staff survey in September 2015. Staff had said they were not able to get loans, mortgages or mobile phone contracts because their zero-hours contract did not guarantee employment every week. The fast foods chain will expand the offer to six restaurants in London and the east Midlands from May. The company plans to roll out the new policy across the country from the end of the year. (International Business Times)
Responsible Investment
Royal Bank of Scotland pulls back fossil fuel investments as green deals grow
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reduced its global lending by 70 percent to oil and gas companies and doubled its green energy loans in the UK to £1 billion a year. The move indicates a change of direction for the bank, which was until recently one of the world’s biggest financers of fossil fuels and has been repeatedly targeted by climate change campaigners. RBS said it was guided by environmental risks and would not finance any new tar sands projects. In December the bank ended its lending to mining companies whose sole focus is coal. “While this new direction of travel is welcome, it should be greeted with a degree of scepticism from the bank formerly promoted as ‘the oil and gas bank’.” said Fionn Travers-Smith, the campaign manager of Move Your Money, which has organised boycotts of RBS in the past. He said most of the biggest coal producers were highly diversified and that Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore, which have received more than $3 billion in corporate loans from RBS since 2004, were not affected by its policy changes. (Guardian)
Supply Chain
Report: Asian consumer firms have a low awareness of environmental and social business risks
A new report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has found that most major Asian consumer goods firms are lagging behind their western counterparts on making their operations and supply chains more sustainable. Similarly, their investors are also not paying enough attention to environmental risks. The report analysed sustainability and annual reports from 26 Asian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) firms to see how they managed the environmental impact of the three most important elements of their operations, namely water use, packaging, and ‘soft commodities’ such as palm oil, sugar, and meat. According to the findings, the low awareness was evident from companies’ lack of responsible practices such as sourcing certified sustainable commodities and implementing policies requiring a company’s suppliers to reduce their water use, among other things. “The FMCG sector’s vulnerability to extreme weather events and water and food crises emphasises the need for companies and financiers involved in the sector to better understand and manage such risks” said Ben Ridley, Asia Pacific head of sustainability affairs at Credit Suisse, which sponsored the WWF report. (Eco-Business)
Strategy
Adidas ‘strives for sustainability’ with new 2020 targets
German sportswear company Adidas has revealed how it plans to “create responsibility”, by unveiling numerous footprint reduction targets for 2020, which have been outlined in its latest sustainability report. Adidas has revealed new four-year goals that aim to tackle water and energy use at its own sites and in the majority of its suppliers, while new measures to reduce waste-to-landfill and carbon emissions have also been introduced. As part of the company’s sustainability report, Adidas has committed to reducing annual carbon reductions by 3 percent each year by 2020. In an attempt to curb water use, a new 50 percent reduction in apparel material water consumption has been set, while the company is also aiming to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by 50 percent. Adidas has also called on these suppliers to implement a self-governance system for audits and inspections, after the company cancelled operational contracts with three suppliers which failed to comply with ethical standards in 2015. A 2018 target to completely switch to sustainable cotton sources is also in place, with the company currently sourcing 43 percent of its global cotton from the Better Cotton initiative. (edie)
Image source: A H&M store in Downtown Montreal by Alexcaban / CC BY 3.0
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