Cutting African cancer rates, taking ownership of consumer goods packaging and why Fairtrade works
Cervical cancer prevention in Africa
The government of Rwanda has partnered with healthcare giant Merck (known as MSD outside the US and Canada) and Qiagen, a Dutch provider of sample and assay technologies for molecular diagnostics and research, to establish Africa’s first national cervical cancer prevention programme.
In Rwanda there are more than 2.7 million women aged 15 or over. Cervical cancer has afflicted more women in Rwanda than any other cancer.
During the programme’s first three years, Merck will donate 2m doses of the HPV vaccine Gardasil to the Rwandan government (if untreated, HPV can lead to cervical cancer). Qiagen will provide 250,000 portable HPV screening tests designed to reach women lacking access to medical care, as well as training to administer the tests.
After this period Merck will provide Gardasil at a discounted price, made available to vaccination programmes in Gavi-eligible countries. Gavi is an international body, supported by the WHO and Unicef (among others), with the mission to improve health in developing countries through immunisation. Qiagen will also make its HPV tests accessible at reduced cost.
Merck and Qiagen first announced their joint HPV screening and vaccination programme in September 2009, committing to donate 5m doses of Gardasil and 500,000 HPV tests to developing nations. Rwanda is the first to receive the donation.
“Over 85% of cervical cancer cases occur in the world’s poorest countries, having an impact on the women affected, their families and their communities,” says Dr Mark Feinberg, Merck Vaccines’ chief public health and science officer. “We hope this initiative provides a helpful model for other resource-limited countries to consider as they work to develop their own programmes.”
Dell’s mushroom packaging
Dell’s packaging is growing. Literally. The American computer maker is turning to mushrooms to make a new breed of sustainable packaging material.
Dell is the first to utilise this mushroom-based packaging technology as a substitute for Styrofoam and polyethylene frequently used to protect packaged items.
The technology uses agricultural waste products such as cotton, rice and wheat chaff, which are then placed in a mould and inoculated with mushroom spawn for 5-10 days to grow the new material – which, by the way, doesn’t require added energy to produce. The programme is supported by the US’s National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture, among others.
The pilot programme will ship Dell’s PowerEdge R710 server, and the plan is to move to other heavy products such as desktops soon thereafter.
Dell has had a bamboo packaging programme in place since 2009, which is best suited to cushioning lighter products such as phones and notebooks.
The company is working to cut 9,000 tonnes of packaging material and boost the sustainable content of its cushioning and packaging by 40% come 2012.
Recycling responsibility starts at home
CSR advocacy organisation As You Sow has proposed shareholder resolutions with giant packaged goods companies Procter & Gamble and General Mills to assume financial responsibility for their post-consumer packaging collecting and recycling initiatives, and to take the lead in the US’s public policy debate on the issue, particularly in the 27 states that do not yet require recycling by law.
According to a 2009 report by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the energy required to produce, use and dispose of products and packaging accounts for a whopping 44% of the US’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
P&G and General Mills have already spent millions of dollars on extended producer responsibility (EPR) programmes outside the US, under regulations that require them to pay for their post-consumer waste to be collected and recycled. This enabled 32m tonnes of packaging to be recovered in 2009 and prevented 25m tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. According to As You Sow, neither company is taking such steps on its home turf.
“Increased recycling of packaging will yield strong environmental benefits, leading to more efficient use of materials, reduced extraction of natural resources and lower greenhouse and air and water pollution emissions,” says Conrad MacKerron, As You Sow’s senior director for corporate responsibility. “When companies know they are responsible for end-of-life packaging, they have a great incentive to design packaging from less toxic, more easily recyclable materials.”
It would also relieve states of the heavy financial burden of collecting and disposing of these goods.
Coca-Colaand Nestlé Waters are already pushing for EPR legislation at the state level in the US and have committed to recycle at least 50% of their PET plastic, glass bottles, and cans in the next few years, largely as a result of As You Sow’s advocacy efforts.
“Recycling is often viewed by CSR as old-school, old fashioned issue,” MacKerron says. “Our view is that materials design and recycling policies are a core part of a company’s stewardship programme, and without it they can’t claim to have a comprehensive programme.”
Fairtrade is good business
Retailers with the Fairtrade label affixed to their wares are likely to see a boost in sales, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and London School of Economics.
The six-month study analysed coffee sales in 26 stores of a major US grocery chain, and found that sales of the two most popular bulk coffees increased up to 13% when they featured the Fairtrade label.
The study also demonstrated that a substantial segment of consumers would pay up to 8% more for a Fairtrade item, though there are still consumers for whom price remains the overriding factor.
“Brands and retailers may thus be able to win market share and boost sales by offering more Fairtrade certified goods, either targeted to particular segments and priced at a premium, or marketed more generally at regular prices,” the report states. “The tests suggest that there are plenty of citizen consumers ready to vote with their shopping dollars to support Fairtrade when it is offered as an option.”
Avon commits to 100% sustainable palm oil
Avon is making headway as the first cosmetics company to offset 100% of its palm oil use through GreenPalm certificates. In so doing, palm oil producers earn a premium for employing sustainable practices, which encourages others to follow suit and helps to increase supply.
The Avon “palm oil promise” is part of the company’s larger environmental commitment. In 2010 Avon launched Hello Green Tomorrow, a movement aimed to rouse its loyal consumer base to serve as a “global green army”, and help end deforestation through advocacy and fundraising in more than 50 countries. As part of its pledge, Avon has also joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Avon’s goal is to buy at least 80% of its palm oil and derivatives from RSPO suppliers by 2015. Currently, the world is still short of supplies. “There is particular difficulty with the specialty derivative materials for which suppliers are very limited, and they are not members of RSPO, meaning companies such as Avon have little leverage,” says Todd Arbogast, vice-president for sustainability and corporate responsibility at Avon Products.
Avon is a $10.5bn company with businesses in more than 100 countries. In 2010 it used about 13,000 tonnes of palm oil and palm kernel oil.
“Even if the individual action does not itself solve the problem, such as Avon’s impact on palm oil, it will be a contributing factor to finding a solution and can serve as a leadership example for other companies to act in a similar fashion,” says Arbogast.
Unilever’s Canadian renewables rush
Unilever, owner of a plethora of popular consumer brands including Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, and Lipton’s Tea, has become Canada’s biggest commercial buyer of renewable power.
Through its new partnership with Bullfrog Power, Unilever will buy about 59,000MWh a year (generated by wind and hydro facilities), which will cover 90% of its Ontario operations and cut emissions by 7,544 tonnes of CO2 annually.
Unilever has held the top spot on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index’s Food & Beverage sector for 12 years running. This latest move fits under Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan, which was launched in November 2010 and looks to curtail Unilever’s environmental impact by increasing alternative energy use, cutting CO2 emissions, sourcing materials more sustainably and reducing waste and water usage.
Through its new deal with Bullfrog Power, Unilever is well on its way to achieving its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% (based on 2008 levels) and source 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Sweet bottling
Shampoo just got a little cleaner with Pantene’s new 100% sugarcane-based plastic packaging, making it the first in the hair products industry to employ the technology.
The company says sugarcane-derived plastic consumes at least 70% less fossil fuels than petroleum-based plastic.
According to Randall Chinchilla at Pantene, the company elected to adopt this plant-based packaging to address growing consumer demand for sustainable products that, according to company research, must also deliver on performance and be equally priced. The initiative will also help steer Procter & Gamble (Pantene’s parent company) towards its goal to replace 25% of petroleum-based plastic with renewable materials by 2020, and ultimately switch to 100% renewable or recycled materials for all its products and packaging.
The new bottles will be used for the Pantene Pro-V Nature Fusion line, which will launch in western Europe first, with the goal of going global by the close of 2013. Pantene plans to use the lessons learned from this two-year pilot to determine potential expansion to other lines.