We offer five more examples of how businesses are seeking to take the first steps towards putting sustainability into action.
Nestlé: taking action to prevent deforestation – improving the company’s reputation
"For the first time ever, a global company is saying that it doesn't want its products to have a deforestation footprint, and it is taking action to live up to its words. This is the whole push behind The Forest Trust’s model-to get one end of the supply chain to take responsibility for what happens at the other end. This is a game-changer."
Scott Poynton, Executive Director, The Forest Trust
Nestlé is the first global food company to join the independent NGO The Forest Trust (TFT), and together they are developing a supply chain policy that is both environmentally and socially responsible. Nestlé will focus on the systematic identification and exclusion of companies owning or managing high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation, and on providing technical support to those who currently do not meet the requirements, but who are committed to achieving sustainability. Nestlé hopes to implement plans ensuring its palm oil comes from suppliers that are certified as sustainable by 2015.
Virgin Group: sustainable lifestyles – attracting responsible consumers
"We want our Virgin companies to provide responsibly produced, sustainable, low carbon services and products that are desirable easy to use and good value above all else so that our customers can enjoy their lifestyles safe in the knowledge that Virgin is acting responsibly on their behalf."
Stephen Murphy (group CEO) and Peter Norris (group Chairman)
Virgin Group’s Corporate Responsibility and Sustainable Development Report of April 2010 focuses on ‘making a credible contribution towards sustainable lifestyles whist meeting or exceeding the expectations of our staff, customers and stakeholders’. Virgin have developed a Product Story approach, asking each of its component companies to review its own sustainable development story, to meet four challenges: to emit minimal carbon and other greenhouse gases; to learn to use the planet’s finite resources responsibly; to strive towards poverty alleviation and the fair treatment of all individuals; and to offer products and services that enhance emotional and physical wellbeing.
London Hospital Food Project: The Royal Brompton – reducing waste in the public sector
"We want to serve food that is not only healthier for our patients but that is also purchased in a more responsible way, such as Fairtrade coffee and free-range eggs. Also, by increasing our use of local suppliers we can help to promote health by providing fresher, seasonal foods for our patients."
Mike Duckett, Catering Manager, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust
The Royal Brompton Hospital has been working with Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming and now procures 14% of its food from local and/or organic sources. Being able to offer appetising meals made with fresh ingredients not only has numerous health benefits, but also helps to minimise waste and tackle climate change by reducing transportation.
SABMiller: groundbreaking partnership approaches to water management – managing natural resources
"The risks to business are connected to the quality, cost and availability of water. But business does not face these risks alone – nor can it challenge them alone."
SABMiller CEO Graham Mackay
In November 2009, SABMiller, one of the world’s biggest brewers, and WWF launched the Water Futures partnership, designed to tackle water scarcity in a number of key countries. The partnership will develop ways of minimising the risks and explore water management, including reviewing all aspects of the supply chain and identifying risk hotspots, delivering measurable conservation impacts through improved management of freshwater ecosystems and sharing best practice with stakeholders at the global level to promote better management of water across the world.
Earth Capital Partners (ECP): renewable energy infrastructure investment – predictable long-term returns
"Renewable energy investment vehicles offer a stable long-term cash flow profile, with double digit annual rates of return and a low correlation to conventional asset classes and positive correlation to inflation. These are compelling characteristics in the current uncertain and inflationary environment."
James Stacey, Partner ECP; CPSL Senior Associate and Faculty member for the Climate Leadership Programme
The CPSL P8 Group is just one example that highlights the significance of climate change to long-term investment decision-making. Investment companies are responding to increasing investor demand for transparent sustainable investment products, which are an attractive investment risk, with both financial and sustainability benefits.
Globally, there is a huge investment opportunity in new renewable energy capacity, underpinned by the wider concerns of energy demand growth and energy security. Renewable energy investment vehicles can offer a stable long-term cash flow profile guaranteed by national governments (which is embedded in some national legislation) and with some investments benefiting from an index (inflation) linking.