Moves from Puma, European Union and all the latest from other brands in corporate responsibility and sustainability this month.


Called to account


Sporting goods firm Puma has secured what it calls a “corporate reporting breakthrough” by publishing the first part of an environmental profit and loss account. The company claims to be the “first global business to put a true value on the natural resources used [in] and the environmental impacts” of its operations.
 

According to the audit, the cost of Puma’s activities, and those of its suppliers, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, was €94.4m. The company will further develop the profit-and-loss account by calculating other environmental impacts, such as waste and its impact on land-use, and social impacts, and balancing these against factors such as job creation and tax payments. Puma added that the exercise would help it “mitigate the footprint of Puma’s operations and all supply chain levels”.
 

Carrying the can
 

Coca-Cola says it will continue to use the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in the linings of drinks cans, despite shareholders’ calls for an alternative to be found. The substance has increasingly come under scrutiny from regulators, because of concerns that it can damage the development of very young children.
 

BPA has been banned from infant feeding bottles in the European Union, but Coca-Cola says it is integral to “the only commercially viable lining systems for the mass production of aluminium beverage cans”, and that “reliable scientific evidence” had shown it to be safe in drinks cans. Groups representing about a quarter of Coca-Cola shareholders said the company should do more to find substitutes for BPA, but the company turned down requests to publish more information on its BPA strategy.
 

Cover blown
 

Spanish banks financed the manufacture of cluster bombs that have been used in Libya to attack forces fighting to topple Colonel Gaddafi, according to the NGO Banktrack and Spain’s Setem Ethical Finance. The weapons were manufactured in 2007 by Spanish firm Instalaza, before a 2008 Spanish government decision to ban cluster ammunition. Some of Spain’s main banks gave financial backing to Instalaza: Cajalón, Caja España, Caja Mediterráneo, Bankinter, Ibercaja, Banco Popular, Sabadell and La Caixa. Spain is a party to the 2008 Oslo convention, under which cluster bombs should be phased out, because of the long-term damage done to civilians by lethal “bomblets” spread over a wide area.
 

On the card
 

Chemicals giant BASF has come up with a solution to the problem of mineral oil residue migrating into food from recycled packaging: put a layer of “barrier” chemicals on it. The company says it has tested four barrier solutions with a Swiss food safety agency, and proved them safe for “every type of food packaging, including paper, cardboard and film”. Concerns about mineral oil migration previously led companies such as cereal maker Jordans to abandon recycled card.
 

Higher standards
 

Levi Strauss & Co has set out what it calls a “new apparel standard of social, economic and environmental sustainability” for its suppliers, to take effect from May 2012. The company’s plan is to align its purchasing with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, by requiring suppliers to meet criteria that will help eradicate extreme hunger and poverty, improve maternal and child health, combat disease, promote gender equality and ensure environmental sustainability.


However, Levi said there were limits to what it could do. It has no plans to upgrade its supplier compliance and monitoring programme, and will not back higher wages because of the pressure of operating “in a globally competitive economy”.
 

Stainless steel
 

The world’s biggest steel producer, ArcelorMittal, published its 2010 corporate responsibility report in May, saying it had spent $347m on energy-saving and environmental projects during the year, up from $224m in 2009. The company has also published a human rights policy, and made strides in workplace safety, with a reduction in working days lost to injury.


However, it has made little progress against a target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per tonne of steel produced by 8% by 2020 compared with 2007, with emissions in fact rising slightly compared to the baseline. ArcelorMittal by itself is responsible for an estimated 0.7% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The company’s 2010 net profit was $2.9bn.
 

Slow burning fuel
 

German motorists are steering clear of high bioethanol fuel because they are suspicious that it will cause engine damage, and don’t believe it offers real environmental benefits, a survey has shown. The fuel, known as E10, was introduced this year after German authorities raised the maximum amount of permitted biofuel in gasoline from 5% to 10%. According to the survey, carried out by the German Petroleum Industry Association, 39% of motorists who knew their cars were E10 compatible had tried the fuel, but only 26% said they would do so again. Policies are needed to foster acceptance of biofuel, association says.
 

Low biofuel demand
 

Europe’s largest biofuel plant, the Ensus facility on Teesside in theUK, is to be mothballed during the summer. The plant, which was opened in February 2010 by a group of former ICI managers, can produce 400m litres of bioethanol a year, but production will be suspended because of low demand and competition from cheap American biofuel, which is heavily subsidised. No jobs will be lost in the shutdown, and Ensus expects to reopen after two to four months.
 

Fall from grace
 

One of Wall Street’s wealthiest investment managers faces up to 20 years in jail after being found guilty by a New York court in a rare insider-trading prosecution. Billionaire Raj Rajaratnam was found to have illegally obtained privileged information from a host of companies, including Goldman Sachs, Google and IBM, which he then used to make bumper profits for his Galleon hedge fund. “Rajaratnam was among the best and the brightest,” the attorney for the Southern District of New York says. “Yet he let greed and corruption cause his undoing.” Rajaratnam will be sentenced at the end of July.
 

 

 



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