Businesses Make the Case for Biodiversity at WSSD
Business and Biodiversity was the focus at the IUCN Business Day at the WSSD.
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GRI Releases Corporate Reporting Guidelines at Summit
Amidst increasing worldwide calls for improved corporate accountability, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) released its 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines at the World Summit in Johannesburg. The guidelines provide a standardized, consistent and thus comparable framework for companies to measure and report on their environmental and social performance. They are designed to complement financial reporting standards. This is the third version of the Guidelines – the result of two years of testing and revision by hundreds of stakeholders from around the world. Representatives from business, social and environmental advocacy groups, accountancy associations, labor, government, the investment community, and others participated in working groups and pilot tests to identify indicators and related content to include in the Guidelines. The 2000 version represents significant development of social and economic indicators, and a cross-referenced table to help readers compare reports more readily. The concept of reporting in accordance with the Guidelines is also new. This requires higher levels of transparency, coverage, and structure than informal reporting. Companies can use a range of reporting options that allow them gradually enhance the quality of their reports. Reports now require a signature from the board or chief executive attesting to a “balanced and reasonable” report. About 200 […]
Highlights from the WSSD
SustainableBusiness.com's wrap-up of the World Summit - Brazil & Canada score the most points. Russia comes in second. U.S? Last.
Organics Industry Prepares for Oct. 21 Curtain Up
October 21 is a watershed day for the U.S. organic industry – it is the day the National Organic Program (NOP) goes into effect. Any business involved in organic products should be preparing now to take advantage of the publicity and use it as a unique opportunity to promote the organic movement. Beginning October 21, only companies that are certified by U.S. Department of Agriculture accredited certifiers will be able to carry the official USDA organic label. “This will legitimize organics to a degree that we’ve never known before,” says Theresa Marquez, sales and marketing director for Wisconsin-based Organic Valley Cooperative. Every company, hopefully, is getting ready now,” says Nancy Hirshberg, vp for natural resources, environment and organic products at Stonyfield Farm in Londonberry, NH. “For Stonyfield, this is a key moment and a key opportunity,” she says. Stonyfield, a leading organic dairy products manufacturer, plans a media and in-store promotional campaign that ranges from placing coupons valued between $50-100 on its yogurt lids to detailed information about NOP on its website. Hirshberg views October 21 not only as a great marketing opportunity, but as a historic moment in helping people understand the connection between “the environment and the food […]
Key Websites:Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
August 26 – September 4, 2002 Johannesburg, South Africa Most of the talk about the World Summit on Sustainable Developmet (WSSD) focuses on what’s NOT going to come out of it. But if you take a moment to look at the agenda and the groups behind it, you’ll see how far we’ve come and how fascinating a conference this will be. Yes, we at SustainableBusiness.com believe in seeing the good side and in holding the vision of where we’re trying to go. This is a path we’re on – and although it’s fraught with land mines and twists and turns – we are on the path toward sustainability.The Official Website for the Summit: [sorry this link is no longer available]Ongoing conference coverage, background and every other bit of information possible: International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Portal to the Summit: http://www.iisd.ca/wssd/portal.htmlThe Earth Times: http://www.earthtimes.orgIn addition to the Conference Agenda, there will be a series of parallel events: Civil Society Global Forum: www.worldsummit.org.zaBusiness Forum: [sorry this link is no longer available]Local Action Moves the World: [sorry this link is no longer available]Building Sustainability: http://www.earth-summit.net/Science & Technology Forum: [sorry this link is no longer available]Water Dome: [sorry this link is no longer available]Parliamentary […]
America's
Hydrogen is quickly becoming the funding vehicle for a new round of nuclear plants and carbon sequestration, warns Mike Nicklas, Chair of the American Solar Energy Society.
Golf Courses:Lessening the Environmental Impacts of Design, Development & Operation
The design and of golf courses involves a wide range of environmental issues. Here's a checklist from The Green Hotelier.
World Bank Draft Policy on Forests Does Not Safeguard Primary Forests
The World Bank is in the final stages of review of its long awaited draft policy on forests. The proposed policy represents a severe weakening of the existing Operational Policy on Forests of 1993. Its planned provisions are unacceptable because they lack proper safeguards and pose a high risk to the forests and forest peoples who will inevitably be harmed when Bank projects go wrong.They call it a “safeguard policy”, but according to Forests.org, the World Rainforest Movement, and Environmental Defense, among others, the policy flies in the face of demands of civil society and ignores the advice given to the Bank by its own Technical Advisory Group. It fails to address the main causes of deforestation the Bank identifies as globalization, and economic liberalization, and poor governance. It relies on market forces or marketing arrangements to address deforestation. Large-scale timber export and carbon sequestration projects are the likely beneficiaries. Yet there is no evidence to date that these projects can be effective in promoting environmentally sound and socially equitable development.The proposed policy opens the doors to Bank extractive investments in all types of forests except those Bank bureaucrats deem to be “critical forests”. The only mention of participation is […]
Dean Buys White Wave for $189 Million
by Joseph LewandowskiOn May 10, White Wave founder Steve Demos stood before a standing room-only crowd in a packed New York City hotel ballroom and delivered the message he’d waited nearly 30 years to pitch: Operating a business dedicated to the principals of right livelihood and sustainable agriculture can deliver not only spiritual fulfillment, but big-time profits.Two days before, Demos announced that Dean Foods, the giant Dallas-based dairy and beverage company, had purchased White Wave for $189 million.For Boulder, Colo.-based White Wave, the purchase means the company will have the financial and physical resources to put more of its soy products – primarily its Silk soy beverage – into more consumers’ homes. Dean will provide cash and expertise to expand marketing and manufacturing. The company’s 120 dairy and manufacturing facilities scattered throughout 38 states will provide much-needed production facilities for Silk. Currently, White Wave can’t meet consumer demand.Demos started making organic tofu in 1977 in Boulder and built the company into a powerhouse that last year generated $125 million in sales, mostly attributable to Silk. But White Wave didn’t have the money to keep up with national demand and maintain its market lead in the soy milk category.Dean, which bought […]
Don't Stereotype Business:Clean Energy Companies Ready to be Part of the Solution
Mike Marvin, President of the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Energy, reminds us that the Johannesburg Summit is the continuation of a process that began 10 years ago, not an end in itself.
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