Burger King reviews palm oil sourcing, Nestlé’s better cuppa, and European companies caught behaving badly in the US

Burger King bins palm oil producer

American fast food chain Burger King has joined a handful of food retailers and cut its ties with PT Smart Tbk, a producer of palm oil and subsidiary of Sinar Mas, which has repeatedly been censured for unsustainable practices.

On its Facebook page, Burger King says the results of an independent report conducted by Control Union Certification and BSI Group “raised valid concerns about some of the sustainability practices of Sinar Mas’s palm oil production and its impact on the rainforest”, and are therefore “inconsistent with our corporate responsibility commitments”. Burger King will use another producer to supply the 176 stores that used PT Smart Tbk.

Greenpeace has been particularly vocal about Sinar Mas’s practices, accusing the company of destroying Indonesian rainforest, peat land and wildlife habitat, and calling for an industry-sweeping boycott of the company.

In response to Burger King’s announcement, Sinar Mas has conducted its own external audit to evaluate these claims. Apparently, the findings turned out to be quite accurate but, they claim, “exaggerated”.

Sinar Mas has admitted wrongdoing but says: “This must be put into context. We have made clear that where mistakes were made, we have taken the necessary action to ensure that this is not repeated.” Let’s see if other food retailers agree.

Nestlé’s new sustainability initiative

Nestlé, the world’s biggest coffee company, is ratcheting up its commitment to sustainable coffee by more than doubling its investment in sustainable practices, adding $490m to its existing $200m commitment by 2020.

The newly launched global initiative, Beyond the Cup: The Nescafe Plan, “brings Nestlé’s actions in coffee farming, production and supply, and consumption under one umbrella, with the goal of optimising the coffee supply chain”, says Laurie MacDonald, vice-president for corporate and brand affairs at Nestlé USA.

The plan seeks to increase the company’s sustainable sourcing practices by doubling the amount of Nescafé coffee it purchases directly from farmers to 180,000 tonnes by 2015. This “green coffee” will meet Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C) standards and help support roughly 170,000 farmers and their families.

By 2020 Nestlé will also source 90,000 tonnes of its Nescafé beans from farms that meet the more rigorous Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) and Rainforest Alliance certification standards.

Additionally, Nestlé will distribute roughly 220m high-yield, disease-resistant coffee plantlets to farmers by 2020 to help enhance their yield and profitability – not to mention help Nestlé secure a more reliable supply of beans.

The plan also seeks to reduce energy use in factories by 20% and bring water consumption down by 30%. And how’s this for resourceful: all factories will use spent coffee grounds as fuel.

Nestlé already has programmes in place that, with the help of its partner non-governmental organisations, provide on the ground assistance to coffee farmers to improve their sustainable coffee growing practices. This massive influx of funds will no doubt help expand and increase the programmes’ reach and efficacy.

“Sustainability in the mainstream coffee sector will only become a reality if companies take responsibility for supporting sustainable coffee production in its social, economic and environmental dimensions – and act accordingly,” says Diego Pizano-Salazar, chairman of the 4C Association’s executive board. “With one of the most important companies in the sector setting the example, we expect more to follow.”

eBay boxes it better

eBay is taking the idea of recycling to heart and, more specifically, to the box. The company is launching a pilot programme featuring 100,000 “eBay boxes” that encourage reuse by sellers and buyers alike.

How, you ask? Well, this is no ordinary box. This heavy-duty box uses 100% recycled and FSC-certified materials and water-based inks. The box also contains a designated spot within for each sender and recipient to write where their boxes have been, and features a panel with green packaging tips.

Through this type of peer-to-peer encouragement, eBay hopes its boxes will have significant environmental-saving results. The company estimates that if each of the 100,000 boxes is reused five times it could save roughly 4,000 trees and 9.1m litres of water. Plus, at the end of its lifecycle the box is fully recyclable.

The concept came out of eBay’s annual innovation expo, where eBay employees across all company divisions submit prototypes for new products that will benefit both buyers and sellers. This year, over 250 employees competed, and the eBay box came out on top.

eBay says: “The eBay box is our latest effort to make our marketplace a little greener, our buyers and sellers a little happier, and our community a little closer to one another.”

Parisian metro to heat public housing

Parisian metro passengers might soon feel a little less hot-and-bothered on their daily commutes. The heat generated by passengers in the Rambuteau metro station in central Paris could soon be used to heat a row of public housing flats.

This energy savvy project was thought up by Paris Habitat-OPH, France’s largest public housing agency, and is currently in the design phase. The basic engineering behind the project is that heat generated by metro trains and passengers will be funnelled through a series of pipes to heat water, which will make its way up to the flats’ under floor heating systems.

Alas, we’re not likely to see this unique configuration take off in many other parts of Paris. This particular block of flats happens to be conveniently connected to the subway via an old stairwell that can be fitted with piping to warm the flats. In other cases, city authorities would have to spend a great deal of money constructing tunnels to connect other metro stops with the buildings above.

There is also the additional logistical issue of ensuring a fully secure and sanitary system, which requires serious engineering ingenuity. For example, the dust that will be swept up by the metros could easily slow down the system and would require regular (and therefore costly) maintenance to avoid damaging the mechanics.

But there is still hope. If Paris Habitat can sort out all the technical kinks, engineering firms will likely be chosen by the end of the year and construction could begin by early 2011.

Facebook’s energy complaints

Facebook’s friends are getting less friendly upon hearing that the company is building a new data centre that will predominantly rely on coal-powered electricity.

Over 500,000 people and counting have expressed their concern over Facebook’s decision to build what some predict will be the world’s largest data centre. Based in Portland, in the US state of Oregon, the centre will be powered by utility company Pacific Power, which uses coal to generate 67% of its electricity.

Greenpeace’s executive director, Kumi Naido, wrote an open letter to Facebook’s chief executive asking the social network to act as a leader on climate change in the IT space and phase out the use of coal power and, instead, use its purchasing power to support renewable energy sources.

Facebook was quick to respond via the comment section on Greenpeace’s website (how fitting), stating that its new data centre will actually be one of, if not the most, energy efficient data centres in the world. For example, the dry and temperate climate in Oregon enables Facebook to forgo the use of chillers in its new data centre, reducing energy consumption and minimising its overall carbon footprint.

But that response didn’t quite cut it for Greenpeace, stating “the public still expect[s] and demand[s] more leadership from such an innovative company that is playing an important role in bringing the world together”.

European company abuse in US

In a new scathing report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) exposed the underbelly of several European multinationals that have been caught mistreating workers in their US operations.

The 128-page report – A Strange Case – looks at how European multinational firms have made deliberate attempts to prevent their US employees from exercising their right to freedom of expression, including worker organising.

Examples include DHL’s management threatening and discriminating against workers who attempted to organise; Tesco management attempting to suppress employee conversation about unions; and Sodexo threatening and firing workers who sought to form a union.

HRW says that while these companies profess to abide by international labour standards, they are able to get away with this behaviour because of the US’s “woefully inadequate laws to protect workers”.

“The behaviour of these companies casts serious doubt on the value of voluntary commitments to human rights,” says Arvind Ganesan, director of the business and human rights programme at HRW. “Companies need to be held accountable to their own stated commitments and to strong legal standards.”

The report findings were generated from interviews with workers, employee legal testimony, company documents, findings of US labour law authorities, and communication with company management.

J&J’s $200m commitment

Health giant Johnson & Johnson has pledged $200m in funds and medicine to improve the health of about 400 million women and children in developing nations.

The Every Mother, Every Child programme is a five-year initiative aimed to advance the United Nations Millennium Goals by significantly reducing illness and death in women and children by 2015.

The programme consists of new initiatives such as Mobile Health for Mothers, which will use mobile phone technology to send important messages to help educate new and expectant mothers on proper health habits in poor communities worldwide.

The initiative also builds on J&J’s current programmes and research, including treatments for intestinal worms in children, research and development of new medicines for HIV and tuberculosis, and safe birth programmes.

“Our company’s credo stresses the importance of giving back to the community,” says J&J chief executive Bill Weldon. “We want every woman and every child, in every country, to know that they belong to that community and that we dedicate ourselves and our resources to their good health.”

The programme was launched in advance of this year’s UN Millennium Goals Summit in New York.



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