News

72% of Americans want changes to produce safety activities

18th Nov 2008 by Alex Briggs

72% of Americans want the federal government to establish new safety standards for the growing, harvesting, processing and distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables even if they increase costs, according to a national survey commissioned by the Produce Safety Project (PSP).
“Consumers don’t want the produce section of their grocery stores to be casinos where they roll the dice on their family’s health and safety,” said Jim O’Hara, PSP director.

Read more

The Seven Steps To Successful Business Continuity Communications

15th Nov 2008 by razchaudary

To successfully communicate with relevant parties during critical events, organizations need a system that can enhance their preparedness and contribute to the overall security of human, physical, and information assets.

This special report by the Varolii Corporation provides an overview of common steps organizations are taking in order to connect, protect, and account for their people, while enabling response teams and decision makers to coordinate a successful recovery and help protect assets and infrastructure—even such things as supply chain and key customer relationships.

Read more

TNT cites ISO 14001 as key to Environmental Performance

12th Nov 2008 by Alex Briggs

TNT UK/Ireland and their use of ISO 14001 as the key to their overall environmental strategy was the focus of a Sustainable Business Magazine article in the October edition.
TNT uses management systems to underpin their business, currently holding four certifications in the UK/Ireland: ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems) OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System) and Investors in People. TNT has reported significant competitive advantage from the achievement of verifiable environmental performance.

Neil Griffiths, director of health, safety and environment at TNT Express Services says: “In terms of business assurance, this is not just a tick in the box.”

Read more

Ethical Supply Chain Video Podcast Series Episode 2, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Interview

11th Nov 2008 by Alex Briggs

Frances Way, Supply Chain Project Director for the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), talked to us about the CDP’s Supply Chain Project. This is the second episode in a four part series. The interviews for this video podcast series were conducted at the Ethical Supply Chain Summit in Berlin.
Frances shared some of the key supplier insights that the CDP have gathered in their work with the world’s leading global brands, as well as the role that verification plays in the data that the CDP collect on global supply chains.
The video can also be found here via link.

Read more

ISO standards contribute to meeting World Food Day 2008 challenge

6th Nov 2008

World Food Day 2008 addresses what has been categorised by many as one of the greatest challenges of our time: climate change and its impact on food security.

Read more

What Price would you pay for green logistics?

6th Nov 2008

A new 3PL Logistics study says ‘green’ supply chains are essential for future business success yet the majority of logistics executives are unwilling to spend the money to make it happen.

Read more

World’s best CSR companies? Think again

29th Oct 2008 by Alex Briggs

This Salter-Baxter report on the world’s leading CSR reporting companies has led to increasing debate. With companies such as British-American Tobacco, Nestle and Shell at the top of the rankings, controversy is the order of the day.

Sir Jonathon Porritt, the chairman of the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, and founder of Forum for the Future, led the attack on the report,

When any company is systematically mispricing risks and systematically misallocating capital it makes no sense to talk about corporate responsibility. We’re going to have to face the fact some of the measures used to judge relative CSR performance are useless. They don’t help shareholders. They don’t help citizens. They don’t help the companies themselves.

Read more

AA1000 Assurance Standard launched

27th Oct 2008

AA1000 AS is an international sustainability assurance standard that can be linked to other dominant business audit and assurance standards. Sustainability assurance provides a comprehensive way of holding an organisation to account for its management, performance and reporting on sustainability issues.

Read more

Milk Scandal Spills over to Food Safety and Consumer Trust

14th Oct 2008 by Alex Briggs

This New York Times Media Group article raises the question “Is there more tainted food out there?”

The melamine scandal has heightened fears that the food business is racing ahead of the ability of governments to detect health-threatening contamination, whether accidental or deliberate.

Read more

A step forward in the development of sustainability assurance

13th Oct 2008

The global launch of AccountAbility’s AA1000 Assurance Standard (AA1000AS) 2008 will take place next week in London and be followed by numerous regional and country level launches beginning November 2008.
The new AA1000AS (2008) marks a step forward in the development of sustainability assurance. As these issues become increasingly important for businesses and their stakeholders a […]

Read more