Business

All modes of transportation are gradually being converted to electric propulsion and this includes watercraft. Driven by ominous increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions the move to decarbonize transportation through electrification is growing and while land and air travel get a lot of well-warranted attention, we also need to decarbonize vehicles that travel on water.  In recent years we have made major strides in electric cars, trucks, and buses as well as electric-powered aviation, but there are even greater opportunities to electrify watercraft because they are not as limited by space and weight as their air and land-based counterparts. Electrification is especially well...

Resistance to Donald Trump started shortly after he announced his intention to run for public office, but it was not until recently that corporate America finally stood up to him in earnest. Even before Trump won the Republican nomination, some powerful business leaders openly opposed him. Shortly after he was elected in 2016, many pundits predicted that Trump was a serious risk factor that should be countered by corporate America. This was followed bywarnings about the dangers of "Trump's defective judgment, psychological dysfunction and amorality". Early corporate resistance It did not take long for corporate leaders to realize that Trump's...

The coronavirus is a turning point that has changed the way we work. Remote working was already trending before the pandemic hit. However, the number of people working from home increased from 3.6 percent to 66 percent during the pandemic. The work from home trend has been facilitated by the proliferation of technologies related to telecommuting and videoconferencing. Working from home affords a number of benefits including reducing commuting time which decreases stress and lends itself to a better work-life balance.  It also cuts costs for both employees and companies.  Companies that support working from home can reduce the amount...

Whether as a defense against global pandemics or as part of a wider climate strategy companies are exploring ways of improving their supply chain resilience. Now more than ever companies need to increase their efforts to build more resilience into their supply chains so that they can quickly respond to changing demands and disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to supply chain vulnerabilities and this article reviews many of the lessons that have been learned as well as their implications for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.  The economic impacts from the coronavirus will be substantial. As explained in the...

The cornavirus pandemic has highlighted supply chain weaknesses that are causing food shortages. As explained in an FAO report, the global pandemic is threatening supply lines leading to concerns about food insecurity. "A protracted pandemic crisis could quickly put a strain on the food supply chains, a complex web of interactions involving farmers, agricultural inputs, processing plants, shipping, retailers and more," the report said. In a March paper the U.N. Committee on World Food Security (CFS) warned that Covid-19 will cause heightened instability in global food supply. The pandemic also prompted the Food and Land Use Coalition to issue a...

Harnessing Digital Solutions to Improve Product Sustainability and Supply Chain Transparency will take place on Tuesday April 21, 2020. Online events brought to you by EL and EMT. Registered attendees receive exclusive access to slide decks and/or custom white papers (provided by most clients). This webinar to understand how digital transformation can enable an organization to address these complexities through cross-functional collaboration, process optimization, and a management systems approach. Summary Stakeholder influence continues to pressure organizations to improve sustainability measures within their operations and across the supply chain. Investors, shareholders, customers, and regulatory bodies demand more transparency in how products...

Shame may be able to move us in a more sustainable direction, it may even be able to help us change the paradigm. There is reason to believe that we can leverage the little voices in our heads to do better. We may even be able to curtail our culture of over-consumption, make more responsible consumer choices, and better buying decisions. Change is difficult but is it precisely what we need if we are to succeed in addressing the climate crisis, ecological degradation, and biodiversity loss. Superficial changes will not suffice, what we need is a cultural change and shame...

In less than six months Amazon has gone from being a climate champion to a corporate villain. Despite an ambitious climate plan and renewable energy leadership employees are being threatened for demanding that the company do more. An employee letter that circulated in April gained the support of more than 7,500 Amazon employees. It called for a resolution demanding an aggressive climate plan. However, shareholders voted the resolution down in May. Around the same time Amazon updated its communication policy for employees requiring them to seek prior approval before speaking about the company in any public forum. Amazon has shown...

Thousands of companies joined millions people in the recent student led climate strikes on September 20 and 27. These strikes are an urgent call for governments to act on climate change. Some companies gave their employees paid time off to participate in the strike while others closed their doors. Well known corporate brands like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, Burton, and Lush Cosmetics shut down both their manufacturing and their bricks and mortar retail outlets. They also encouraged their employees and customers to attend the strikes. On September 20th more than 7,000 businesses and websites participated in a digital climate strike...

Leveraging action across supply chains is a critical part of efforts to address the climate crisis.  We are seeing tremendous growth in companies investing in sustainability and these corporations are helping to drive the transition to a low-carbon economy. Reports demonstrate that this is both an indispensable strategy to manage risk and an important part of cost cutting efforts. The financial and environmental benefits include energy and resource efficiency. According to a 2019 CDP/Carbon Trust global supply chain report, over the last decade some of the world's biggest purchasers have leveraged their buying power and demanded transparency from their suppliers....