• increase the value recovered from solid waste before its responsible disposal;
• maintain a litter free environment around our restaurants by conducting regular litter patrols
Purchasing - focusing on procurement to:
• Work in partnership with environmentally responsible suppliers to minimize the resource use and pollution associated with our products and operations;
New Restaurants - focusing on the development of new restaurants to:
• minimize the impact on the environment of local communities;
• minimize the environmental impact of construction itself;
• reduce the environmental impact of building materials and increase the energy efficiency of the restaurant design;
Our Employees - focusing on training, and communicating with our employees to:
• increase the environmental awareness and relevant skills of all who work for McDonald’s;
Communications - focusing on communicating our environmental policy and procedures to:
• increase the environmental awareness of our suppliers and our customers;
• improve liaison with local communities and their representatives.
Administration - focusing on our office-based activities to:
• improve energy efficiency and office recycling schemes and to reduce the impacts associated with business travel and travel to work.
BMW Group
Responsibility for our Environment.
We are all responsible for sustaining and protecting our natural environment. The BMW Group is called upon to conduct responsible and sustainable environmental policies, which are also
Economically viable. This is an obligation we have taken upon ourselves through our competence as a manufacturer of highly technological products and as an employer of a highly qualified workforce around the world. To this end, we strive to reconcile the interests of people and nature, technology and progress with the right of future generations to an intact environment.
These BMW Group environmental guidelines are the basis of how we conduct our daily operations:
1. Objectives.
We use resources in a responsible and efficient manner, and hereby undertake to protect our environment for the long term. All Divisions of the BMW Group are guided by the international environmental charter (ICC Charter for Sustainable Development), signed by BMW AG, and the principles outlined in Agenda 21.
2. Corporate commitment and responsibility.
Responsibility for environmental protection lies with all members of the Group. Our managers and executives, in particular, are called upon to implement these Environmental Guidelines, motivating our employees through their own example to act in the same spirit and assume the same responsibility.
3. Responsible implementation of objectives.
We will consistently review the success of our environmental protection measures and make further improvements as necessary. In our Group operations, we comply with laws, regulations, official standards and directives. Wherever the technical, scientific and managerial know-how for reducing environmental impact can achieve economically viable standards, which exceed those, required by law, we will apply such know-how accordingly.
4. Group-wide environmental protection.
In the areas of development, design, production, the operation of facilities and when conducting other activities, we use appropriate technical and economic means for conserving resources and minimizing the environmental impact. It is of particular importance, when introducing new production processes and methods, to consider their environmental compatibility in the context of technical, commercial and economic decisions. BMW Group’s objective is therefore, as stated in the ICC Charter, to take into consideration the efficient use of energy and raw materials, the sustainable use of renewable resources, the minimisation of all adverse environmental impact and waste generation, and the safe and responsible disposal of residual wastes. We implement environmental management systems in order to assess in advance all significant environmental aspects.
5. Emergency precautions.
In the event of an emergency, our first priority is the protection of health and the environment. We maintain contingency plans for emergencies and other incidents, making allowances for effects extending beyond our facilities. These contingency plans are consistently updated to reflect latest developments.
6. Vehicle compatibility with the environment. Being fully aware of our responsibility for human health and our natural habitat, we consistently apply advanced technology to enhance safety and to minimize exhaust emissions, noise emissions, and fuel consumption. Through the optimum design of our products we ensure that any environmental impacts are kept to a minimum. We further support this process by providing information to our customers regarding the use and maintenance of our vehicles.
7. Recycling.
In order to avoid waste generation, we are developing solutions for recycling old vehicles, applying these technologies systematically. Our objective is to promote recycling optimized product design and to make use of secondary raw materials. This effort decreases overall consumption of energy and resources in production and operation while completing the cycle for the reuse of materials.
8. Alternative propulsion concepts.
In our quest to preserve resources and improve the environmental compatibility of our vehicles, we are developing alternative propulsion technologies, which are constantly improved and upgraded. We are also committed to the development of infrastructure aimed at the production and distribution of alternative energy sources required by these vehicles.
9. Mobility for the future.
By jointly planning and cooperating with all areas of politics, society and government administration, the BMW Group is able to offer perspectives for the future where mobility and responsibility for the environment no longer represent a contradiction in terms. We are therefore developing transport concepts and technologies with the overriding objective of maintaining mobility without undermining the quality of life.
10. Suppliers.
With regards to efficient use of resources and the sustainability of our environment, we consider ourselves responsible to include our suppliers in these corporate objectives and to therefore encourage and promote this environmental policy. Our suppliers are required to adhere to relevant BMW Group norms and standards pertaining to product environmental performance. In order to ensure that the integrated environmental compatibility of our processes is maintained, we expect our suppliers to introduce and maintain effective environmental management systems.
The Body Shop
How do they insure their products are responsibly sourced?
In 1987, The Body Shop launched Community Trade. One of the first examples of fair trade, Community Trade has numerous benefits for our company, our customers and our suppliers. Through trading we can offer our suppliers a stable, long-term income. We can access some of nature’s finest ingredients, which are grown and harvested by expert local farmers. Many of these ingredients are grown using time-honoured techniques, helping to preserve a traditional way of life. In the process, Community Trade allows our suppliers to build better futures for themselves and their communities.
Wherever possible, we seek to use Community Trade ingredients in our products. Over the past two years, spending on Community Trade ingredients, gifts and accessories has risen from £6.4m to £7.4m. We now work with over 25,000 farmers and producers worldwide who supply us with 20 of our naturally derived ingredients and over 60 different gifts and accessories.
By 2010, we aim to use wood from responsibly managed sources, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), wherever possible.
The devastating environmental effect of palm-oil plantations on deforested land has been well documented. That’s why, as members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), we’ve worked to create new standards designed to help protect natural biodiversity and workers’ rights. We are proud to say that all of our 7.5m soaps sold annually are now produced using palm oil sourced from a plantation that is successfully audited in line with RSPO regulations.
We ask all our suppliers to sign the Code of Conduct which supports our Ethical Trade Programme, developed to improve conditions for all workers in the supply chain and to uphold their human rights. This code is strictly enforced and monitored to ensure standards are met regarding child labour, discrimination, and employee pay, hours and working conditions.
We’re committed to using responsibly sourced ingredients wherever possible, and working with the communities and people who supply us.
How are they minimizing their impact on the environment?
As a global business, they strongly feel the need to be proactive in the battle against climate change.
They are constantly seeking new ways to improve our business practices and reduce our carbon footprint. In many of our stores, refits are rolling out that will improve our energy efficiency. New lighting, including store signs that have been successfully trialled, will help to reduce our energy use. We've introduced energy-awareness training for all our store staff and have also reduced our air travel.
We’ve also made great strides in sourcing renewable energy wherever possible to run our offices, warehouses and stores around the world. In the UK alone, 65 per cent of our stores are on renewable energy contracts.
As long-term advocates for reducing waste, we’re now introducing plastic bottles made from 100 per cent recycled material. Our aim is to make all our PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles from this plastic – a staggering 30m bottles a year.
In 2008 we replaced all our carrier bags with 100 per cent recycled and recyclable paper bags. We still offer our Community Trade Bag for Life made from 100 per cent organically grown cotton. We’ve also increased the recycled content in our gift packaging.
How do we ensure that our products and their ingredients aren’t tested on animals?
The Body Shop has always believed passionately that animals should not be used for cosmetic testing. We have never tested our products on animals. Similarly, we insist that all our suppliers have not tested their ingredients on animals for cosmetic purposes.
We comply with the strict requirements of the Humane Cosmetics Standard created by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. Our policy and standards in this area were praised by the BUAV in 2008. In the same year we won the RSPCA Good Business Award for a second time, for our commitment to animal welfare.
We’re incredibly proud of our dedication to this issue, and our global campaigning against cosmetic animal testing. The EU banned animal testing for finished cosmetic products in 2004, and for ingredients in 2009.
We also fund organizations that campaign for increased research into animal testing alternatives.
How do we make our customers and employees feel good about them?
We believe that true beauty comes from confidence, vitality and inner wellbeing. We strive to use imagery that doesn’t play on women's insecurities, and to bring you products that enhance your natural beauty and express your unique personality.
Our philosophy is that looking good stems directly from feeling good. Where legislation allows, we encourage our employees to learn new skills through our Learning is of Value to Everyone (LOVE) initiative. By funding a range of training courses, events and health treatments, we aim to enhance our staff’s sense of wellbeing.
Another way to feel good? Doing good. It’s one of the reasons we have a global volunteering policy for all our staff, offering a minimum of three paid volunteering days a year. Our passionate and tireless staff have jumped at this chance to make a difference, working with charities such as The Aldingbourne Trust, which helps people with learning difficulties, and Children on the Edge, which supports the rights of children across the globe.
Starbucks
We've always believed in a better cup of coffee.
We've always believed in buying and serving the best coffee possible. And it's our goal for all of our coffee to be grown under the highest standards of quality, using ethical trading and responsible growing practices. We think it's a better cup of coffee that also helps create a better future for farmers and a more stable climate for the planet.
Starbucks bought 385 million pounds of coffee in 2008. Seventy-seven percent of that – 295 million pounds – was responsibly grown and ethically traded, meeting Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ ethical sourcing principles for coffee.
By 2015, our goal is to buy 100 percent of our coffee this way. We're working every day with farmers in coffee-growing countries to make this possible. Last year, our ethical sourcing principles for coffee impacted more than one million farmers and workers.
10 years of partnership with Conservation International.
For more than a decade, Starbucks and Conservation International (CI) have been working together to help farmers grow coffee in a way that's better for both people and the planet. CI helped us develop our buying guidelines for environmentally, socially and economically responsible coffee. And now we're working together on a new climate change initiative that takes conservation beyond coffee farms to the surrounding landscapes.
Better growing methods means better coffee.
We're always working to build the supply of coffee available for purchase under our Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ principles. One of the main ways we're doing this is by working hand-in-hand with farmers in coffee-growing communities.
The Starbucks Farmer Support Center we opened in Costa Rica in 2004 allows our team of agronomists and quality experts to be in the field, working directly with farmers to develop and use more responsible methods to grow better coffee, to help improve the quality and size of the harvest – and ultimately earn better prices for it.
In 2008, we expanded our on-the-ground presence in Africa, hiring a director of agronomy to oversee the new Farmer Support Center in Rwanda. We also remain committed to opening a Farmer Support Center in Ethiopia in the future.
Working with farmers and coffee-growing communities.
In addition to our work with Conservation International and Starbucks ethical coffee buying guidelines, here are some other ways Starbucks is working with coffee-growing communities:
· Supporting farmers with small-scale farms and who grow Fair Trade coffee
· Paying the prices that high quality coffee commands
· Buying Certified Organic coffee
· Helping conserve wildlife and biodiversity in Africa's coffee regions through the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)
· Investing in a better future for farmers through loan programs
· Involving our partners and customers in our work with coffee farmers in Costa Rica with Earthwatch Expeditions (additional information can be found on their website: http://www.earthwatch.org/expedition)
Beyond Coffee
We are taking what we've learned through our work with coffee farmers and applying it to other products.
Our Goal:
100% of our coffee will be responsibly grown, ethically traded.
Although we've reached 75% of this goal, the remaining 25% will by far be the hardest. Reaching this goal will require work to bring more existing farmers into our Shared Planet program, and identifying new farmers for participation. We opened the new Farmer Support Center in Rwanda to help our expansion of SSP coffee in Africa, an important step in our journey.