Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Sustainability on the rise, But Key Stakeholders Remain Skeptical

October 17, 2012

Corporations that have pushed hard this last year to improve their performance in sustainability may now face a new challenge - a growing skepticism among professional investors, supply chain officials and recent higher education graduates. Such are the results of the 2012 Sustainability Leadership Report, now in its second year, which analyzes real vs. perceived sustainability performance for 100 leading global brands that collectively represent 16 percent of the world's economic output.

UPS to Deploy Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles in Baltimore, Atlanta

October 16, 2012

UPS

UPS plans to deploy 40 new hydraulic hybrid vehicles, half in Baltimore and half in Atlanta.

Record Amounts of Plastic Packaging Collected and Recycled in 2011, Report Finds

October 15, 2012

NAPCOR

The total number of U.S. polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic containers and bottles collected and recycled in 2011 is a record, according to a report from the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR).

Report Analyzes Total Sustainability Impacts, Market Outlook for Commercial Transportation Fuels

October 12, 2012

BSR

A report from BSR is designed to help large-scale fuel purchasers make viable decisions that lessen impacts to the environment and society and enhance economic growth and development.

Assessing and Balancing Trade-offs in Supply Chain Optimization

October 12, 2012

Chet Chaffee, Vice President, Life Cycle Assessment, FirstCarbon Solutions

Optimizing supply chain operations to cost less and be more effective has long been a top priority for businesses. Now, companies must consider new sustainability measures such as carbon. Identifying, tracking and managing supply chain emissions is quickly becoming essential to optimization efforts, with the primary goal of detecting inefficiencies in fuel, electricity and water consumption and then correcting those inefficiencies to help eliminate waste and reduce costs. But improving one benchmark in an optimization effort may adversely impact another. It's rare that everything aligns perfectly.

EC to Monitor Carbon Emissions from Shipping, But Critics Say Measure Is Insufficient

October 10, 2012

Maritime Executive

The European Commission has announced that it will propose, in early 2013, measures to monitor, verify and report on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping. This measure will apply to all ships calling at EU ports and could also be the basis for a global approach towards cleaner shipping.

Wider Acceptance of 'Green' Buildings Requires Better Documentation of Benefits

October 8, 2012

Environmental Leader

Wider financial, environmental and social benefits need to be documented for green building if it is to maintain the growth seen in the past decade, according to research by McGraw-Hill Construction.

European Emissions Law Flies Into Heavy Flak from U.S. Senate

October 3, 2012

The New York Times

Just before its break, the U.S. Senate quickly and quietly passed the "European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011," the latest attempt to exempt American airlines from paying fees imposed by the European Union to cover the greenhouse gases their planes emit while flying to and from European airports.

The Cutting Edge of Supply-Chain Sustainability

October 1, 2012

SupplyChainBrain

Dan Cassler, assistant chair of the Information Logistics Technology Department at the University of Houston, offers an update on supply-chain sustainability - and details both the benefits and pain to be derived from such efforts.

Campaign Builds Steam to Keep Wind Protection Tax Credit

September 27, 2012

Environmental Leader

Starbucks, Johnson + Johnson, Sprint and 16 other companies have sent a letter to Congress, urging elected officials to extend the wind production tax credit (PTC) before it expires at the end of 2012.