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In This Issue
Editor's Note
Eco-Rating Electronics Products
Today, more than 400 eco-labels compete for customers’ attention on a variety of products and services. The labels are aimed at helping consumers make better product choices. But are they providing useful information that will change consumer behavior?
This week, Vijay Kanal and Virginia Terry examine these questions and more as they look at developments in eco-labels in the wireless industry. They also explore what more could be done to overcome current challenges with labeling schemes.
We also give you a preview of France’s updated CSR reporting law and share highlights from a new report by Ma Jun, who was just awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize for “bringing unprecedented environmental transparency and empowering Chinese citizens to demand justice.” His latest report—written in conjunction with five environmental organizations—looks at the apparel industry’s contribution to water pollution in China.
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In Depth
Eco-Rating Electronics Products: Has the Time Come?
By
In the past several years, the number of eco-labels for products and services has grown dramatically. Nonetheless, easy-to-understand, consistent, and comparable information about the environmental impacts of products is not readily available to consumers. Based on work BSR recently completed in the electronics industry, we examine some of the successes and challenges still to overcome in eco-labels.
Read more →
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Spotlight
France to Update CSR Reporting Law in May
With France poised to renew its CSR reporting law next month (it will apply starting January 1, 2013), it’s a good time for companies with operations in France to consider how the changes could affect them. Later this year, BSR will publish a paper on the implications of the new law. In the meantime, here’s a primer: What the law will cover: Article 225 updates France’s 2002 New Economic Regulation, which requires reporting on 32 social, environmental, and governance indicators, including employment figures, waste management, and anti-corruption practices. The new law calls for six new indicators: diversity and equal opportunity, climate change, stakeholder relations, social and environmental issues in procurement, consumer safety and health, and human rights. Which companies the law will affect: The law applies to all business entities with more than 500 employees and €100 million (approximately US$131 million) in revenue that have operations in France—including corporations (SAs) and publicly traded partnerships (SCAs). Other entities—most notably LLCs (SARLs) and wholly owned subsidiaries (SASs)—are not affected by the current draft of the law, but this portion of the law is under review.
Toolbox
Report Calls on Global Apparel Companies to Address Water Pollution in China
By Julia Robinson, Communications Associate, BSR
Five environmental organizations—including China’s Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, founded by Ma Jun, who was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize on Monday—sent letters to the CEOs of 48 apparel companies, calling on them to address wastewater pollution and the inefficient use of water in their Chinese supply chains. According to the groups’ “Cleaning Up the Fashion Industry” report (available in Chinese, with an English press release, and an English version of the report forthcoming), the Chinese textile industry, which accounts for half of the global total, lags “way behind” other industries in the reuse of water and produces close to 2.5 billion tons of wastewater and other pollutants every year. Fifteen companies responded to the letter, and seven of them had already initiated remedial measures. The report culled data from more than 6,000 textile company records collected since 2006. BSR’s Sustainable Water Group, which focuses on responsible water use in the supply chain, recommends that companies use public data and share best practices with industry peers to conserve and reuse wastewater. _Read the summary from Ma Jun’s session at the BSR Conference 2011._
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