… Harish Hande and the company he founded, SELCO, provide solar electricity for lighting and power to India's poor. For the work of his company, Hande has received numerous recognitions; he is frequently cited as one of the top socialentrepreneurs in India and an example for the entire developing world. The road to SELCO’s …
… In 2014, the four largest palm oil trading companies signed an agreement to end deforestation, development of peat lands and exploitation of locals not only with their own … to mill, refine, and export the substance. However, oil palm cultivation had created social tensions as many rural inhabitants claimed that large plantation companies had … many environmentalists believed that the agreement represented a breakthrough. The events of 2015 suggested otherwise, forcing businesses, NGOs and sympathetic government …
… Like many countries, Australia has a large existing building stock that is responsible for a substantial percentage of its greenhouse-gas emissions. Given that it will take … Financial institutions are reluctant to lend when any claim that they might make in the event of a default is junior to the property mortgage holder. This is why the Environmental Upgrade Agreement (EUA) plays an important role. The EUA is a deal structure …
… most heavily traded edible oil in the world. Golden Agri Resources (GAR) has been in the forefront of this palm oil boom in Indonesia. Founded in 1996 by the influential Widjaja … the world’s leading exporter of crude palm oil. The palm oil boom, however, concerned environmentalists. Palm oil plantations had been carved out of precious rainforest and peat … targeted a GAR customer, Nestlé, with a report and a provocative video that went viral on social media sites. Nestlé quickly bowed to the demands of Greenpeace and dropped GAR as a …
… oil company PEMEX had to find ways to implement this policy. Nevertheless, in spite of efforts by various government agencies as well as PEMEX, by mid-2014 no ethanol had been … makers looked at the country's energy supply, they expected that substituting bioethanol for some portion of gasoline fuel would meet a number of the country’s needs. First, it could help extend the country’s supply of crude oil. The country's demand for gasoline was growing, but the production of crude oil from the country's shallow-water …
… financial backing, buy and erect the turbines, and begin generating electricity by 2010. For Walmart de México, becoming the wind farm’s off-taker accomplished a number of important … electricity at below the rates charged by Mexico’s state-controlled utility, shaving costs for the famously thrifty retailer. In addition, the project allowed Walmart de México to get … Walmart de México consumed in Mexico in 2010. The wind farm was just one part of the efforts Walmart de México was undertaking in the sustainability area. The company had pledged …
… public policy and grow his company's bottom line. Under Immelt's leadership, GE launched an environmental business initiative called "ecomagination" in 2005 that was rooted in four … GE's operations and improve energy efficiency its facilities by 2012; To keep the public informed about ecomagination targets, progress and results. Along with the four commitments … Jonathan Lash, who announced his support of the initiative at an ecomagination launch event in Washington D.C. Other environmental groups - particularly those that had fought GE …
… hail insurance, the most common policy in agriculture. In years when crops were damaged before they could be harvested and sold, crop insurance provided resources that allowed … expertise and decades of weather-related data to estimate the frequency of major weather events. It was widely acknowledged that climate change was likely to increase the frequency … the effect of climate change on crops. The company was proud of being in the forefront of social responsibility and sustainability issues. Company officials participated in …
… had to decide how it was going to respond and how much it was willing to invest in its efforts to grow in the U.S. In Europe, the supply-constrained market during 2007-10 had … with some of the continent’s leading developers of solar projects. Trina supplied modules for a number of large, signature projects, developing a strong track record. Now, the … Japanese module maker Sharp had bought Recurrent Energies and its pipeline of projects. Before that, the world’s largest module maker, First Solar, had bought a large developer. …
… (CR) as well. In 2014, the French-based insurer led the industry on a number of corporate social responsibility and sustainability indexes. Not content to rest on these laurels, AXA … the business. AXA’s business had grown rapidly over the previous decades. The company was formed in the 1980s through the merger of a few mid-sized French insurance firms. From the … new metrics was a tall order, but would be another step to establishing CR inside AXA. Eventually, the company aspired to produce an “integrated report” that would define the …