… in biofuel. This wide range of uses has stimulated cultivation and oil extraction; annual global production has increased more than nine-fold since 1980. By the 2000s, palm oil had become the 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 …
… 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 … Nutella to avoid palm oil, she inadvertently highlighted the hidden role it plays in the global economy. And, as fires set to clear land for palm oil plantations blazed in Indonesia … was placed under increased scrutiny. In addition to being used as a cooking oil, it is in our cookies, our shampoos, and is used as a biofuel. As a versatile plant with efficient, …
… 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 … Wilmar, Musim Mas, Golden Agri (GAR), Cargill, IOI, and Bunge accounted for over 90% of the global trade. While these trading companies were vertically integrated (they own about 15% …
… a small band of meteorologists, physicists and chemists began conducting observations and building models linking an increase in CO2 and other gasses in the atmosphere to the general … fuels, these models implied that human activity was a contributor to this increase in global temperature. During the 1980s, the models drew more scientific adherents as … 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 …
… the December 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen would 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 … when a panel of scientists concluded that greenhouse gas emissions were contributing to global warming. Over the next 11 years, the panel - formally convened as the United Nations …
… A global leader in the insurance and asset management business, AXA had risen to the top ranks … 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 … Inside AXA in 1990, the company created AXA Atout Coeur ("Hearts in Action") to encourage and support community engagement by employees, and in 2001 it established the Group’s …
… 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 …
… 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 … both the investment cost for energy-efficiency upgrades and the subsequent cost savings. Source Yale Center for Business and the Environment Areas of Focus Sustainable Finance and …
… 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 … an ill-fated attempt to scale-up during the early 2000s, SELCO created a franchised dealer network, seriously hurting the company financially and deviating from its mission to help … how the company might expand. The company decided to institutionalize its design process by building an innovation center. SELCO also added products that provided energy solutions …
… boost. While the proposed wind farm was located in an area with abundant wind resources, absent a creditworthy off-taker the project would not have been able to line up … 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 … In the energy area, the company was hoping to receive 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2015, even in a period of rapid growth, increasing its square footage in Mexico by …