… 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 …
… 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 …
… products we buy. However, it is not something that consumers can easily spot or screen for. When, in June 2015, France’s Ecology minister, Segolene Royal, called on her country to … alternative to other vegetable oils, production pressures have led to undeniable environmental and social impacts on both global and local scales. The most notable of those impacts stem from …
… taste, its beauty. Illy also has a dream that someday soon the coffee market might be transformed into something approaching the market for wine. Where connoisseurs discuss the fine points of various origin coffees and blends, where customers are willing to pay a premium for the finest examples of the coffee-making art, and the growers, roasters and baristas …
… 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 …
… (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 …
… In early 2014 Alcoa announced that Ford's F-150 pick-up trucks, the best-selling vehicles in the U.S., would use … planned another $150 million on facilities in Tennessee to meet the demand generated by the Ford contract. The aluminum industry's growing success in the automotive sector reflected … the response of auto manufacturers to the increasingly rigorous fuel economy standards for U.S. vehicles and consumer preferences for high mileage vehicles. To meet those …
… 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 …
… Most environmentalists had hoped that the December 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen … finally produce a workable, global scheme to reduce greenhouse gasses in the environment. Unfortunately, the conference produced little concrete action and most agreed that the final … gas emissions were contributing to global warming. Over the next 11 years, the panel - formally convened as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - issued …
… to the greenhouse effect was underway and could have potentially devastating consequences for the ecology of the planet. Since automobiles were a substantial contributor of CO2 to … and the government. While consumers generally indicated that they liked the idea of an environmentally friendly automobile, they did not want to give up the performance they had … more efficient diesel engines on the U.S. market. Meanwhile, international efforts to prevent global warming had accelerated. A series of UN-sponsored conferences, bringing …