Companies Pledge $140 Billion Toward Resolving Climate Change
More than a dozen leading U.S. companies have committed to investing a total of $140 billion in new funds to combat climate change in a White House-organized effort.
Corporations rush to make zero-deforestation commitments, but is it working?
Tropical rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate as they're converted into palm oil plantations and other commodity forests. It's hoped that corporate zero-deforestation pledges are helping reverse that…
Indian fabric giant adopts forest policy
One of the world's largest fabric makers for the fashion industry today announced a policy to exclude fiber produced at the expense of endangered forests, reports Canopy, an environmental group…
The best of the worst: fossil-fuel extractors pave the way for the low-carbon revolution
At the end of last year, the world got some good news on the green business front concerning a very unlikely set of participants. A recent market review revealed that…
Norwegian insurance giant blacklists palm oil companies
Fire burning on an oil palm plantation in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Storebrand, one of Norway's largest life insurance and pension savings companies, has sold off holdings in…
Mining companies must turn to recycling as demand for metals grows
Demand for metals is likely to increase tenfold as developing economies surge ahead, putting severe stress on the natural environment, a new report from the United Nations Environment Program (Unep)…
What if companies actually had to compensate society for environmental destruction?
The environment is a public good. We all share and depend on clean water, a stable atmosphere, and abundant biodiversity for survival, not to mention health and societal well-being. But…
Amazon: the world’s greatest rainforest or internet giant?
When you see the word "Amazon", what's the first thing that springs to mind—the world's biggest forest, the longest river or the largest internet retailer—and which do you consider most…
Dunkin’ Donuts to adopt palm oil policy
Oil palm plantation in Borneo, with rainforest in the background Doughnut and coffeehouse giant Dunkin' Donuts has agreed to source 100 percent of its palm oil under the Roundtable on…
Is APP deal a sign of a changing forestry sector?
Asia Pulp & Paper's Anti-Deforestation Pledge: Sign Of A Changing Industry? Indonesian Dipterocarp rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest paper…
In search of conflict-free tin from the Congo
This is a guest commentary by Mike Loch, the Director of Supply Chain Sustainability at Motorola Solutions. Loch is on traveling in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of…
Oil company Perenco endangering ‘uncontacted’ indigenous people, says Peru
A Perenco boat in the Amazon. Photo courtesy of David Hill. The company hoping to exploit the oil deposits slated to transform Peru’s economy has been declared to be endangering…
Whole Foods bans ‘red’ fish from its stores
Octopus will no longer be available at Whole Foods as the fishery has several sustainability problems. Photo by: Bigstock. Whole Foods has announced it will be the first grocery chain…
Asia Pulp & Paper loses another customer: Danone
Batang River and rainforest in Sumatra. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. French food company, Danone, has suspended all purchases from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) following a Greenpeace investigation that…
More big companies disclosing impacts on forests
Largescale clearing of Amazon rainforest for soy fields in Brazil. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. More companies are reporting on the impact of their operations on global forests, finds a…
Levi’s new forest policy excludes fiber from suppliers linked to deforestation
Editor's note: this story has been corrected since originally posted. See the box below for details. Rainforest in Sumatra Levi Strauss & Company had issued a new policy that will…
McDonald’s joins sustainable palm oil initiative
McDonald's Corp. has officially joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body that sets criteria for improving the social and environmental performance of palm oil production. The move…
Activists protest Australian forest destruction from top of the Sydney Opera House
A series of actions protesting forest destruction in Australia led to seven arrests last week. Led by a new NGO, The Last Stand, the activists targeted Australian retail giant Harvey…
Asia Pulp & Paper to undertake human rights audit
Paper products giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) will undertake a human rights audit across its Indonesian operations. The move, which APP says is an acknowledgment of a recent United…
Taking corporate sustainability seriously means changing business culture
Clare Raybould at the Auckland Zoo where she volunteers. Photo courtesy of Clare Raybould. As more and more people demand companies to become sustainable and environmentally conscious, many corporations are…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Indigenous communities in Peru ‘living in fear’ due to deforestation, drug trafficking
- Indigenous community in Peru losing forests to timber, drug, land trafficking
- Bolivian protected areas hit hard by forest fires
- The protected area that isn’t: Bolivia’s Ñembi Guasu beset by fires, farms, roads
Oceans
- ‘It was a shark operation’: Q&A with Indonesian crew abused on Chinese shark-finning boat
- Fishers in Flores Sea opt to limit harvest of overexploited sea cucumbers
- As shark numbers plummet, nations seek ban on devastatingly effective gear
- Illegal bottom trawling widespread inside Mediterranean marine protected areas
Amazon Conservation
- To be effective, zero-deforestation pledges need a critical mass, study shows
- Indigenous youths lured by the illegal mines destroying their Amazon homeland
- U.N. report calls for the ban of mercury trade and its use in gold mining
- Following the impacts of palm oil alliance: Violated regulations and penalty proceedings
Land rights and extractives
- To replace Western food imports, Cameroon gives community lands to ‘no-name’ agro-industry
- Indigenous youths lured by the illegal mines destroying their Amazon homeland
- About 72% of gold miners poisoned with mercury at artisanal mining sites in Cameroon
- ‘We go in and take Indigenous lands back from cattle ranchers’: Q&A with activist Pablo Sibar
Endangered Environmentalists
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders
- Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial
- In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
Conservation Effectiveness
- Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows
- ‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal
- Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Tunnel collapse at dam project in orangutan habitat claims yet another life
- Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
- Indonesia’s grand EV plans hinge on a ‘green’ industrial park that likely isn’t
- Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’
