A Week of Inspiration and Insight at the Business Fights Poverty Global Summit 2021
It was inspiring to witness the extent of our collective energy and expertise at the Business Fights Poverty Global Summit 2021. This five-day event, held from 21-25th June, brought together over 80 speakers with more than 1000 registered participants to celebrate the successes of our members; share insights and lessons learned; and build our resilience. […]
Leveraging the Power of Small Agricultural Businesses to Address Climate Change and Gender Inequity
Globally, women farmers struggle to access land, credit, and training and bear a heavy double burden of farm and household responsibilities. These gender inequalities pose a serious risk to women farmers in the face of climate change. Growing evidence shows that women’s limited access to farm assets, services, and decision-making power makes them more vulnerable […]
Taking a people-centred approach to climate action in cotton farming
While the clock ticks every second, the global climate continues to change… Humankind has faced the brunt of unprecedented climatic events in the past decade. As the impending harsh future looms large, it will be a difficult environment for humans and businesses, unless collective steps are taken to build an equitable and resilient future, in […]
Activists Propelling us Toward Climate Justice
As I follow the news related to climate change these days, one Native American proverb has been ringing in my ears, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Faced with the growing threat of climate change, from heatwaves and frequent wildfires to rising sea levels, we are […]
VIDEO: How can companies better integrate their social and environmental agendas
Dr Sally Uren is the Chief Executive at Forum for the Future, a leading international sustainability non-profit, working with business, governments and civil society to accelerate the shift toward a sustainable future. In this session, Dr Sally explained how businesses can better integrate and embed social and climate innovation across their operations. Also, she listed […]
Where are children and young people in business’ action to tackle climate change?
Children are powerful. In recent years, we have witnessed their strength courage and resilience, as they have spoken up time and time again about how climate change is affecting their lives. How it is affecting their futures. From leading protests calling on world leaders to act on climate change to writing to companies to adopt […]
Digital Dividends in Plastic Recycling
Plastic is an integral and valuable part of the global economy, and is used in thousands of products that add comfort, convenience and safety to our everyday lives. It supports innovation in medicine, lightens cars and airplanes (saving fuel and, therefore, emissions), extends the life of fresh food and delivers clean drinking water to billions […]
Why 2021 presents an opportunity to build back better and take action on big societal issues like climate change
2020 was a year full of uncertainly. Not only did the pandemic affect our health and personal lives, it also fundamentally challenged our political, social, and economic norms too. Most notably though, the impact it had on how many of us think about tackling the big issues like climate change was huge. So, despite the […]
Texas, Climate and Equity
As a retired nurse, I am passionate about the health of my local community in Pleasantville, a neighborhood in Houston, Texas. I have seen first-hand how deep inequities impact on people’s lives, most recently in the face of a devastating winter storm that led to rolling blackouts that left about 4 million people across the […]
Business and Climate Justice: Putting People at the Centre of Climate Action
Climate change is affecting us all, but the most severe impacts are being felt by the most vulnerable people, who contribute least to the causes of the problem. Existing inequities – due to factors such as gender, race and income – exacerbate the risks to people’s lives and livelihoods. Inequity also affects people’s capacity and […]
It’s time to scale up regenerative agriculture: a win-win for farmers, food companies, and our environment
Conventional farming is one of the world’s greatest drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss, and we’re running out of time to reverse its adverse effects. But there is good news too: the largest study ever done on sustainable farming supports the idea that regenerative agriculture could be the answer to turning it all around. […]
Unleash the Accountant Warriors
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair When Upton Sinclair went undercover in Chicago’s meat packing district to depict the abhorrent conditions under which workers had spent their days at the beginning of the last century, an uproar followed leading to […]
A fair trade: putting farmers first in the fight for climate justice
The 22 February marked the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, the annual celebration of all things Fairtrade. It’s a time when individuals, companies and groups across the UK come together to share the stories of the people behind our food and products, and explore how trade justice can be part of the solution to the many […]
A just transition is undermined by a disconnect between human rights and climate issues
Human rights and climate change are increasingly understood as issues that are inherently linked. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, stated earlier this year that the climate crisis presents the biggest threat to our survival as a species and is already threatening human rights around the world.[1] Similarly, any action taken to achieve a low-carbon economy […]
What are Green Skills?
The need to transition towards more environmentally sustainable modes of production and consumption has become imperative, for developed as well as for developing countries. Sustainable Development Goal 9 includes the target of upgrading infrastructure and retrofitting industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial […]
Unlocking the power of data for sustainability systems
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” runs the old business adage. Conversely, good metrics and data can help you make better management decisions, develop effective strategies and monitor progress. Measuring sustainability, though, isn’t easy. While it may be simple enough to quantify the financial performance of a producer, a supply chain business, an economic […]
Kicking our addiction to plastics
The demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) in response to this year’s COVID-19 pandemic has seen single-use plastic waste soar across the globe. The use of face masks in China alone is 12 times higher than pre-pandemic levels, with people getting through 116 million a day in February. If the whole world were to use […]
Clearing the Air in Darfur
Feeding your family and keeping warm are basic human needs. But in North Darfur, indoor pollution created by smoke from the firewood and charcoal used on household stoves is a major cause of death for women and children. 90% of households rely on wood and charcoal for their fuel. It’s expensive to buy and produces […]
What we need to transition to a circular economy
Circularity has become a trending topic in the business world in recent years. The climate crisis has woken us up to the urgency of moving away from a linear economy towards one that designs out waste and keeps products and materials in use. Earlier this year, 50 CEOS signed a letter to the Financial Times […]
Renewable energy investments can boost the Caribbean’s sustainable recovery: Innovative financing approaches
Unlocking an economic boost by investing in renewable energy can be a pillar of the COVID-19 recovery, but will require significant work to align actors across the sector. From a technical point of view, financial mechanisms and instruments can be designed to de-risk projects and the region can expand its ability to attract investment dollars […]