… 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 … entire palm oil value chain, from growing seedlings and managing over 450,000 hectares of plantation lands to running extraction and refining mills and marketing its own brand of … would spur other companies and environmental groups to embrace higher standards. But in 2013, obstacles to this goal remained. The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an …
… 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 … as would-be oil palm growers set fire to rainforests and peatlands to clear them forplanting. The demand for palm oil had skyrocketed from 1990-2010 and crude palm oil (CPO) … many environmentalists believed that the agreement represented a breakthrough. The events of 2015 suggested otherwise, forcing businesses, NGOs and sympathetic government …
… 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 … meet ambitious goals, looking to reduce waste in its and its suppliers' operations. In the energy area, the company was hoping to receive 50% of its energy from renewable sources by …
… on Climate Change (GC3), a group charged with creating a comprehensive climate strategy for the State of Connecticut. As of September 2016, Garcia remained undecided about a key element of that strategy – nuclear power plants. There were strong proponents and opponents of nuclear energy on the GC3 and Garcia was weighing each side’s arguments before announcing his own …
… 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 … hidden role it plays in the global economy. And, as fires set to clear land for palm oil plantations blazed in Indonesia throughout the fall of 2015, covering the region in haze, … literature, news articles, and reports, and to particularly relevant sections of the Yale School of Management’s (SOM) palm oil case. These materials can be read on their own, …
… In early 2014 Alcoa announced that Ford's F-150 pick-up trucks, the best-selling vehicles in the U.S., would use … body construction from aluminum. Alcoa spent $300 million expanding its Iowa factory and 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 …
… 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 … the solar equipment and sometimes this meant restructuring activities so that solar energy could power a client’s needs. From his field research, Hande realized early in … beyond its current geographical areas in Karnataka and Gujarat. Whatever its direction, the strategic choices the company made at this point in its evolution would be crucial to …
… 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 farmers to be able to plant the following season. Settlements for weather damage not only made it possible for … 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 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 … to produce strong returns. In 2010, the company announced Ambition AXA, a five-year strategicplan to grow the company. The plan called for harvesting slow-growing businesses … 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 …
… 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 … However, the failure of Copenhagen required the new carbon finance industry to reassess its plans. The lack of international consensus could change the nature of the European scheme as … as the cornerstone of its long-term business strategy, but the firm was also investing in energy-conscious real estate and private equity to continue its goal of "creating wealth …