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Supply Chain
Investors urged to put pressure on companies over supply chain risk
Investors should put pressure on private companies over environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in their supply chains and develop monitoring procedures, according to a new report from the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) network. At an event launching the guide – Managing ESG Risk in the Supply Chains of Private Companies and Assets – PRI policy and research director Nathan Fabian said ESG issues were “a core part of the fiduciary responsibility of an investor”. The PRI guide advises investors to ask companies detailed questions about supply chain complexity, how ESG issues are embedded into contracts, and how people internally are trained in managing specific ESG risks. (CIPS)
Health & Nutrition
Kellogg’s UK to cut sugar in kids’ cereals by up to 40%
Cereals giant Kellogg’s is to cut the amount of sugar in its three top selling children’s cereals in the UK – Coco Pops, Rice Krispies, and Rice Krispies Multi-Grain Shapes – by between 20% and 40% by mid-2018, amid pressure on food firms to cut sugar levels to combat obesity. Kellogg’s will also stop selling its ‘Ricicles’-brand cereal, and end on-pack promotions aimed at children on Frosties. Kellogg’s UK’s managing director Oli Morton said the company recognised that “people are eating too much sugar at breakfast and throughout the day”, adding that “taste and health have to go hand in hand”. In March, officials at Public Health England called on food firms to cut sugar by 20% by 2020, and by 5% this year. A sugar tax on the UK soft drinks industry has already been announced and will come into force next April. (BBC)
Energy
Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity a year than Ireland
Bitcoin’s “mining” network, which is responsible for verifying transactions made with the cryptocurrency, uses more electricity in a year than the whole of Ireland, according to statistics released by Digiconomist. At those levels, it means the network consumes five times more electricity than is produced by the largest wind farm in Europe and that each individual bitcoin transaction uses almost 300kWh of electricity – enough to boil around 36,000 kettles full of water. Although power consumption of other payment networks is harder to isolate, one of Visa’s two US data centres reportedly runs on about 2% of the power required by bitcoin. The astronomical power draw is a facet of how the bitcoin network protects itself against fraud through the use of specialised computers work through extremely power-intensive computing problems. (Guardian)
Corporate Reputation
Google faces mass legal action in UK over data snooping
Google illegally gathered the personal data of 5.4 million of iPhone users in the UK, according to a collective lawsuit – Google You Owe Us – led by a former director of the consumer group Which?, Richard Lloyd. The lawsuit alleges Google’s tactic breached the UK Data Protection Act by bypassing the default privacy settings on iPhones to track the online behaviour of Safari users and using the data to target content between 2011 and 2012. Google said it didn’t believe the case had “any merit” and “will contest it”. The internet giant has already paid millions of dollars in the US over the Safari security bypass in 2012. Mr Lloyd has secured £15.5 million in backing from Therium, a company that funds litigation and has previously backed group claims such as for the Volkswagen emissions scandal. (Financial Times*)
Amazon criticised over high number of warehouse ambulance call outs
Amazon has defended its health and safety record after an investigation revealed that ambulances were sent to its main Scottish warehouses on hundreds of occasions in the last three years, including 43 occasions in 2016. It was reported that workers at Dunfermline had been threatened with firing if they took four days off sick, even if they had a doctor’s note. Thousands of extra temporary staff have been drafted in to cope with workers regularly walking up to 15 miles a day during a shift to get orders ready. Emergency calls included suspected strokes, convulsions and chest pains, as well as the fall-out from industrial accidents, falls and cuts. (Scotsman)
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