- Committment
- Effort
- Incident
- Payments
- Relief
Scattered but useful Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability resources
"The true power and resilience of our business was reflected in our ability to meet or exceed our long‑term growth targets for the third year in a row and add a billion incremental unit cases in volume—the equivalent to adding a market the size of Japan" (pg 6)
"Set new global targets to improve water efficiency and reduce carbon emissions within our systemwide operations. Our goals are to improve our systemwide water efficiency 20 percent by 2012 and to grow our business but not our systemwide carbon footprint, reducing our emissions in developed countries by 5 percent by 2015. Both goals will be compared to a 2004 baseline"
"Estimates show that over the next 12 years the worldwide population will grow by more than 800 million people. In addition, 1 billion new people will have entered the middle class, and nearly 900 million people will have migrated to urban centers. That means more consumers with more money, who have the ability to purchase more ready‑to‑drink beverages"
The Coca-Cola Company states its commitment to adopt sustainable business practices regarding the safeguarding of the environment and support to communities. The report mentions that since the adoption of the "Workplace Rights Policy" launched in 2007, more than 175 assessments and training sessions worldwide have been conducted.
Most of the sustainability claims are related to the environment but there is no mention, for example, of which standards the Coca-Cola Company will adopt in selecting new partners.
Despite the fact that I'm pleased to see a growing concern for communicating sustainability practices to the shareholders, I have to say that I'm concerned about the lack of homogeneity between growth considerations and sustainability claims. The latter seem to be relegated to merely accessory sticky notes. This disembodiment contradicts the vision of CSR as a philosophy that needs to guide every aspect of a company's operations.
"is a visualization of the words used for two topics in the latest results from Google News. One topic is coloured blue, the other red, and the associated words are coloured and positioned based on how highly they are associated with the two topics".The two topics I selected were profit and social responsibility and here are the results:
From today, the 1st of September, the EU will start the phase-out process of 100W incandescent bulbs. The journey will continue in 2011 when 60W bulbs will be phased out and in 2012, when it will be the turn of 40W and 25W bulbs.
This is very good news considering that the efficiency of the new generations of bulbs has progressively increased. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) use between 65% and 80% less energy for the same light output compared to incandescent bulbs.
The main concern that has been raised is the presence of small amounts of mercury in the more efficient and promoted CFLs. Now, who really knows how to dispose of mercury? Where did you put your old broken thermometer?
I've done some quick internet research and found out that in the UK for example the lamps should be taken to the closest
Civic Amenity site (Household Waste Recycling Centre). These sites are provided for householders [...] Access is limited and controlled by the relevant Local Government body and if you are a business you should contact their Waste Management Unit to check if it would be possible to use their CA site facility.
As mentioned in one of my previous posts, the disposal of such commonly used items (including batteries) should be easy and convenient, otherwise people will just throw the occasional lightbulb in their general waste.
Some also raised the question of affordability; the new fluorescent bulbs are priced at significantly higher rates, but the increase in efficiency and durability should easily cover the price gap.
Patiently waiting for LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to get cheaper...