Sustainability Watch
We put the latest CSR moves under the microscope.
Sustainability Watch – Child labour in cocoa production
14 December 2011
Nestle's plan to partner with the Fair Labor Association in investigating the use of child labour in its cocoa supply chain could raise the bar in terms of corporate accountability regarding this long-running problem. Ben Cooper reports.
Sustainability Watch - local sourcing
10 November 2011
Last month's Sustainability Watch featured comments by renowned food policy expert Professor Tim Lang casting doubt on the suitability of the supermarket distribution model for providing locally sourced food. In the second part of this Sustainability Watch, Ben Cooper discusses the local sourcing challenge with Bob Gordon, head of environment at the British Retail Consortium.
Sustainability Watch – Mercedes Tallo, Rainforest Alliance
30 September 2011
The news that Maltesers is to become a Fairtrade brand underlines both the continued growth in the ethical market and how this increasing consumer appeal has not been lost on marketers. Speaking with Ben Cooper, Mercedes Tallo of the Rainforest Alliance discusses the importance of partnering with big brands and argues that the huge growth in ethical certification reflects tangible improvements in supply chains rather than a desire on the part of brands to look good.
Sustainability Watch – Peter McAllister, Ethical Trading Initiative
25 August 2011
Partnerships between industry and non-industry stakeholders should in theory represent the gold standard in terms of providing meaningful solutions to complex problems. But they are not immune from criticism. Ben Cooper met with Peter McAllister, executive director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, to discuss the challenges ahead and how ETI is evolving to meet them.
Sustainability Watch – PepsiCo finds health drive hard going
31 July 2011
PepsiCo's UK and Irish arm has made slower progress in its bid to boost sales of healthier products than it might have hoped. Ben Cooper examines how the company has reported its performance against the 27 commitments announced last year and the reaction it has received.
Sustainability Watch – Celeste Clark, Kellogg
27 June 2011
The marketing of breakfast cereals to children has become a delicate issue for food manufacturers like Kellogg. As a result, responsible marketing commitments feature prominently in the company's sustainability strategy, as Kellogg chief sustainability officer Celeste Clark explains.
Sustainability Watch – GM under scrutiny
31 May 2011
In spite of considerable public and political concern, not to mention vigorous campaigning, the GM industry has proved adept at deflecting criticism, steadfastly continuing to plough its own furrow. However, Ben Cooper writes, going forward the agricultural biotech sector may have to answer searching questions about what it has so far failed to deliver.
Sustainability Watch – Lodewijk Hijmans van den Bergh, Ahold
28 April 2011
Netherlands-based food retail group Ahold has recently committed itself to a range of sustainability targets. Speaking with Ben Cooper for this month's Sustainability Watch, Ahold's executive vice president and chief corporate governance counsel, Lodewijk Hijmans van den Bergh, expands on the company's approach to sustainability and the need to balance ambition and pragmatism.
Sustainability Watch – Corporate responsibility: what's in a name?
31 March 2011
In this month's Sustainability Watch, Ben Cooper wrestles with the nomenclature of corporate social responsibility, with a little help from Nestlé chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.
Sustainability Watch – Eco labelling
28 February 2011
The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has just published research into environmental labelling which suggests a footprint-based omni-label for food is a long way off. Ben Cooper asks Dr Tom MacMillan, executive director of the Food Ethics Council and one of the report’s authors, where this leaves the debate over food eco labelling.
Sustainability Watch - Dairy and the modern diet
31 January 2011
The launch of the WWF's Livewell Plate brings the relationship of sustainable food production and nutrition into sharp focus. The same issue was being discussed last week at a conference hosted by Dairy UK, the British dairy industry association.
Sustainability Watch - Andrew Kuyk, Food and Drink Federation
22 December 2010
Industry environmental strategies can be accused of greenwash, of lacking transparency and of having more to do with enhancing a lobbying position than genuine engagement. As the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) publishes its third sustainability report, Ben Cooper spoke with Andrew Kuyk, the FDF's director of sustainability, about the organisation's Five-fold Environmental Ambition sustainability strategy and the value of such industry platforms.
Sustainability Watch – Karen Hamilton, Unilever
26 November 2010
The launch last week of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan sees the Anglo-Dutch food-to-deodorants group once more setting the pace on corporate sustainability. Ben Cooper spoke with Karen Hamilton, Unilever’s vice president for sustainability, about the new strategy and how its ambitious targets set the plan apart from corporate rhetoric.
Sustainability Watch - Mark Murphy, Cargill
29 October 2010
US-based agro-food giant Cargill published its 2010 corporate responsibility report this month. Mark Murphy, who oversees corporate responsibility within Cargill’s corporate affairs department, spoke with Ben Cooper about the company's achievements and how Cargill's approach to sustainability is evolving.
Sustainability Watch - Consulting the index
30 September 2010
This month saw the annual review for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and the half-year review of the FTSE4Good index. The fact that this may have passed largely unnoticed by many in the business world, let alone by a wider public, is not perhaps surprising. Both indexes suffer from a problem which those championing corporate social responsibility (CSR) know only too well, that of being viewed by the mainstream investment community as peripheral or at worst irrelevant.
Sustainability Watch – Ben Eavis, Sainsbury’s
31 August 2010
Corporate sustainability is seen by sceptics as too often being 'more talk than action'. In this month’s Sustainability Watch, Ben Eavis, head of corporate responsibility at Sainsbury’s, spoke with Ben Cooper about how the various steering groups, reporting processes and stakeholder discussions at Sainsbury's facilitate action rather being an end in their own right.
Sustainability Watch – Jeff Hogue, Danisco
30 July 2010
If tackling environmental problems is about finding new solutions to make damaging production and consumption a thing of the past, linking sustainability with product development is a must. Jeff Hogue, vice president of corporate sustainability at Danisco, spoke with Ben Cooper about how the Danish ingredients specialist is making innovation a key pillar of its sustainability strategy.
Sustainability Watch – Megan Hellstedt, Delhaize
30 June 2010
Building links with all stakeholders is seen as a vital component in any corporate responsibility strategy but companies vary both in their readiness and their success in doing this. Megan Hellstedt, director of corporate responsibility at Delhaize Group, spoke with Ben Cooper about how its collaborative culture and devolved business model helps the Belgian-based retail group’s sustainability efforts.
Sustainability Watch – Sylvain Cuperlier, Dole
28 May 2010
Earlier this month, Dole Food Co. announced the creation of an office of corporate responsibility and sustainability “to build on its existing environmental initiatives at company-owned farms around the world”. Ben Cooper asked director of worldwide corporate social responsibility Sylvain Cuperlier why he feels Dole’s approach to corporate sustainability represents a good model and why the recent organisational changes have further strengthened the company in this area.
Sustainability Watch – Dennis Treacy, Smithfield Foods
30 April 2010
Being responsible for championing the sustainability strategy of one of the largest meat processors in the world may appear to many an unenviable task. But Dennis Treacy, recently named senior vice president of corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer at Smithfield Foods, relishes the challenge and believes the company has a good story to tell. He spoke with Ben Cooper about his appointment, the company’s achievements to date and future goals.
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