FIFA launches new carbon offset campaign for 2018 World Cup
FIFA, the international governing body for football, is teaming up with the UN to encourage fans to offset their carbon emissions ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Ticket holders are being asked to join an online campaign which will see FIFA offset 2.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for every signature received. This is calculated as the average emission per fan travelling from abroad to the tournament. As an additional incentive, all fans who make the pledge will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win two tickets to the World Cup final in Moscow. FIFA has already committed to offsetting its own emissions from the tournament, but tackling emissions from the millions of fans who travel to attend games is more challenging. The new campaign follows-on from FIFA’s programme to offset some of the estimated 1.1 million tonnes of carbon emissions from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. (Climate Action Programme)
Waste
Singapore’s first zero-waste grocery store to open
Singapore’s first zero-waste grocery store, called UnPackt, is about to launch with the store’s goods to be sold without any packaging and customers encouraged to bring their own containers. Dispensed in self-serve gravity bins to reduce food waste, dried food and cleaning supplies are to go on sale first, with plans to introduce fresh fruit and vegetables once sales volumes pick up. Goods will be priced lower than regular high street items, since they are packaging-free. The store is running a recycling scheme where cleaned containers can be donated and used by customers who visit the store without their own. Customers can also buy reusable containers at the store. Co-founded by former business executives Florence Tay and Jeff Lam, UnPackt is a social enterprise that aims to spread the zero-waste message and make packaging-free shopping more accessible in Singapore. The store will also hire staff from two of Singapore’s most disadvantaged groups, seniors and single parents. (Eco-Business)
Governance
KPMG faces rare shareholder protest over General Electric and Wells Fargo audits
KPMG is facing the prospect of a rebellion from shareholders in two of its oldest and highest profile clients, Wells Fargo and General Electric, over its role auditing the companies. The two titans of US industry and banking are facing calls to end their decades-old audit relationships with the firm – professional services firms that are now part of KPMG have audited Wells since 1931 and GE since 1909. However, KPMG’s role has come under scrutiny at Wells and GE, both of which are under investigation by regulators after a series of mishaps. Glass Lewis, the shareholder advisory service, has recommended that investors in Wells vote against retaining KPMG as the bank’s auditor. At GE, both Glass Lewis and ISS, another advisor, have called for a vote to replace it. Shareholders in US companies, whose votes are not binding, rarely rebel over audit contracts. Yet the influence of ISS and Glass Lewis makes such a revolt a possibility at Wells and GE. (Financial Times*)
Corporate Reputation
YouTube reveals it removed 8.3 million videos from site over 3-month period
YouTube says it removed 8.3 million videos for breaching its community guidelines between October and December 2017 as it tries to address criticism of violent and offensive content on its site. The company’s first quarterly moderation report has been published amid growing complaints about its perceived inability to tackle extremist and abusive content. YouTube, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is one of several internet companies under pressure from national governments and the EU to remove such videos. It said the report was an important first step in dealing with the problem and would “help show the progress we’re making in removing violative content from our platform”. YouTube said 6.7 million were first flagged for review by machines rather than humans; of those, 76 percent were removed before they received a single view. Google has promised to have more than 10,000 people working on enforcing its community guidelines by the end of 2018, largely as human reviewers focused on YouTube. (Guardian)
Supply Chain
Fortune 500 companies join AFF, GreenBlue on Forest Sustainability Tool
Mars, McDonald’s, Staples and several other companies have signed upto support the American Forest Foundation (AFF), GreenBlue, the US Forest Service and Esri in the development of a new forest sustainability tool. The digital mapping tool, called Forests in Focus, will complement forest certification by assessing the sustainability of family-owned forests, which make up more than a third of all forests across the US.. To provide a comprehensive view of family forestland, Forests in Focus will aggregate data from multiple sources, including from the US Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), which includes status and trends in forest area and location and more. The program will help companies that source wood fibre from family woodlands ensure that their supply has been generated sustainably. “Collaboration and innovative technology solutions are essential for companies such as ours to better understand how we can support the sustainability of forests.” said Rachel Goldstein, Global Sustainability Director at Mars. (Sustainable Brands)
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