Whole Foods labels GM foods, Gucci gets certified and coal use increases
Whole Foods to launch GMO label
Whole Foods Market will be the first American grocery chain to require its suppliers to identify products containing genetically modified ingredients with a GMO label by 2018.
The decision was made in response to a growing number of customers pressing for more information about the source of their food. While 60 countries have enacted GMO labelling laws, the US and Canada have no such labelling requirement.
Whole Foods Market already offers 3,300 non-GMO products from 250 brands, more than any other North American grocery retailer.
“This is a complicated issue, and we wanted to give our supplier partners enough time to make this change,” says Walter Robb, the company’s co-chief executive. “Fortunately, many of our suppliers are already well on their way to moving to non-GMO ingredients and a good number are already there. While five years is the deadline, we know there will be progress much sooner and we plan to announce key milestones along the way.”
Global coal use trends
The United States is decreasing its demand for coal, according to the latest figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
According to the EIA, coal made up 36% of US electricity in the first quarter of 2012, down nearly nine percentage points since the same period in 2011 as a result of cheaper gas prices. While it’s good news for the environment, it’s not great for American coal producers, as the EIA is predicting cuts and layoffs, particularly in the Appalachia region.
Contrastingly, China’s coal demand showed a sizable boost. In fact, China accounts for 47% of global coal consumption due to the country’s 200% increase in electricity use since 2000.
Additionally, the IEA’s latest annual Medium-Term Coal Market Report shows that while China primarily sources its coal domestically, American coal exports to China are steadily growing, with a 107% increase from 2011 to 2012. China has subsequently ousted Japan as the world’s largest coal importer.
Looking to Europe, the IEA report shows that while some European countries decreased their individual demand for coal, increasing coal demand from the UK, Spain and Germany (due to price fluctuations) raised Europe’s coal use in 2012 overall. However, the IEA predicts that growing use of renewables, retirement of coal plants, and more balanced gas and coal prices will cut coal consumption in most of Europe over time.
By 2017, the IEA predicts that the world will consume 1.2bn more tonnes of coal a year than in 2011, with coal approaching oil as a primary global energy source.
Gucci’s deforestation-free handbag line
Gucci is making headway as the first company to launch a zero deforestation leather handbag collection, in collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation and Rainforest Alliance (RA).
The luxury fashion house sought out RA’s assistance in using leather that did not contribute to deforestation, which was ultimately sourced from RA-certified cattle ranches in the Brazilian Amazon. Each bag is also accessorised with a passport that details its full supply chain journey from ranch to consumer.
“Agricultural conversion for cattle production is the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon,” says Sabrina Vigilante, director of strategic initiatives at the Rainforest Alliance. “Gucci’s new line sets a shining example in the fashion industry, demonstrating that leather can be produced in a way that benefits the environment and farming communities, while promoting the humane treatment of livestock.”
The Rainforest Alliance is also working with a number of other retailers and brands seeking leather from traceable and certified sources.
Gucci’s new handbag line was produced for the Green Carpet Challenge (GCC), led by Livia Firth, co-founder of retailer Eco Age, which challenges high-end designers to make eco-friendly clothing and accessories. These handbags will be the first products to don the GCC brand mark, a new symbol of sustainable achievement.
“Today more than ever before customers want to be associated with brands that are thoughtful and responsible,” says Frida Giannini, Gucci’s creative director. “Through our sustainability, humanitarian and philanthropic actions we would like Gucci to not just be synonymous with ‘made in Italy’, but also made with integrity. This project with the Green Carpet Challenge was conceived to show how we can be pro-active on environmental issues by raising awareness and demonstrating action on the subject of deforestation.”
Coffee industry unites to fight hunger
In an effort to fight seasonal hunger in coffee growing countries, five major players – Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Starbucks, Counter Culture Coffee, Farmer Brothers, and Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers – have joined forces to create the Coffeelands Food Security Coalition (CFSC).
The CFSC’s pilot programme will launch in the Jinotega region of Nicaragua, which produces 60% of the country’s coffee. The coalition has partnered with global humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps and Nicaraguan non-profit group Aldea Global to help 150 women and their families improve farming and business techniques, create additional sources of income, and enhance collaboration with local government during “the thin months” that follow the harvest – a period that can span anything from three to eight months.
According to Rick Peyser, director of social advocacy and supply chain community outreach at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, the coalition’s short-term goal is to shorten the region’s long window of food insecurity. Long term, Peyser hopes to build the coalition’s membership and potentially add new projects that help combat food insecurity.
“This coalition is the first time that competitors in the specialty coffee industry have supported a project focused on improving the quality of life for coffee farming families together in a pre-competitive manner, other than disaster relief,” Peyser says. “A clear need was identified, and the coalition’s members stepped up together to support efforts to help families overcome seasonal hunger.”
Financial data app’s flying start
As reported in EthicsWatch last month, a new free iPhone app called BizVizz helps American consumers review public corporate financial data with a simple snap of a brand logo. And it’s had a successful start.
The idea was born out of rage, says founder and filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein. While shooting a documentary about a GM manufacturing town working to recover from the auto plant’s shutdown, the city council voted on the sly in favour of a $9m incentive package for a medical company to set up shop in town, in exchange for the promise of job creation.
“The risk wasn’t what made me seethe so much as the way the city council and town leaders acted in the dark, subverting transparency by never disclosing the results of a third party audit of the company or holding a public hearing despite the fact that taxpayers were footing the bill,” says Lichtenstein.
Consequently, Lichtenstein partnered with a digital design firm and the Independent Television Service to create BizVizz and shine a light on what he calls the “trifecta of corporate accountability”: taxes, government subsidies and campaign contributions. The app currently reveals data from 300 companies and covers 900 different brands, and is quickly growing.
In its first three weeks the app surpassed the initial goal of 5,000 users and is fast approaching 30,000. The hope is that with a fun and easy-to-use interface, the app will incite users to participate in corporate accountability campaigns and support relevant legislation.
BizVizz has also partnered with a host of organisations such as Citizens for Tax Justice, Sunlight Foundation, and Good Jobs First to source the corporate data, and with like-minded groups such as Tax Justice Network USA and consumer group US Pirg to help get the word out.
“Alone the app is not going to get corporations to change their behaviour,” Lichtenstein says. “But I think it’s potentially a powerful tool to generate more interest in corporate accountability through the coverage it gets, and to be integrated into the work other organisations are doing to move the meter on corporate accountability.”
Corporations support gay rights
More than 200 American companies including Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Starbucks have filed an “amicus” brief with the US supreme court in favour of banning the Defence of Marriage Act, a law enacted in 1996 by Bill Clinton, when president, that defines marriage as the legal union of a man and a woman for all federal purposes.
The supreme court considered oral arguments in March challenging the Defence of Marriage Act. Currently, same-sex couples who are legally married in the US are still denied many of the federal benefits granted to heterosexual married couples.
The companies filing the “friend of the court” brief said that the act “impairs employer-employee relations and other business interests,” including “an unnecessary cost and administrative complexity”. For example, businesses often administer dual systems of benefits and payroll, and institute parallel systems of benefits for employees lawfully married to same-sex spouses to work around the act’s limitations, creating a weighty and costly administrative burden.
“Domestic partner benefits have been an important part of the work experience for our partners in the US,” says a Starbucks spokesman. “Starbucks is proud to be one of several leading employers as an amici in this case. We hope the court will agree with our point of view. We made this decision through the lens of humanity and our commitment to embracing diversity.”
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