All Articles About Food, Beverage & Agriculture

BSR Insight Article: Sustainable Business Models: Time for Innovation

Imagine that when you buy a pair of jeans you’re offered an agreement to sign before you pay: “I hereby promise to cold-wash, line-dry this clothing item, and own it for at least three years or ensure it is given away for someone else to enjoy.” When you sign, you are rewarded instantly with a coupon for cash back. The rebate is the estimated financial value of the carbon-dioxide emissions you save by avoiding hot-water washing, and by machine drying your jeans over the lifespan of the item. The clothing company is able to provide this discount by aggregating its consumers’ carbon credits and selling them on the open market. This model provides financial incentives for both the clothing company and the consumer to alter behavior. Read more →

Posted: November 3, 2009 | Topics: Consumer Products, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Financial Services, Food, Beverage & Agriculture, Information & Communications Technology, Materiality, Media & Entertainment, Mining, Strategy & Integration, Water

BSR Insight Article: Indigenous People and Business: Meeting Expectations

Chris Nolan, Associate Director, Advisory Services

With 370 million indigenous people worldwide, international standards defining the basic rights of these people—including the ILO 169, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the International Finance Corporation's Performance Standard 7—are increasingly relevant for industries such as extractives, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. Read more →

Posted: October 13, 2009 | Topics: Civil & Political Rights, Community Engagement & Development, Consumer Products, Economic Development, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Food, Beverage & Agriculture, Health Care, Mining

BSR Insight Article: Not Just for Heavy Emitters: Why Climate Change Matters to Every Company

Marshall Chase, Associate Director, Advisory Services

Recently, BSR has fielded inquiries from a range of member companies asking how climate change is relevant to their business. The timing of these questions is obvious: With prospective climate change legislation and policy discussions in the United States and elsewhere, intensive international negotiations culminating later this year, and ongoing stakeholder interest, companies are scrambling to develop or boost their climate change strategies, assess their internal and supply chain emissions, and examine the potential risks and opportunities throughout their operations, value chain, and industry. Read more →

Posted: October 6, 2009 | Topics: Climate Change, Consumer Products, Energy, Environment, Financial Services, Food, Beverage & Agriculture, Information & Communications Technology, Media & Entertainment, Mining, Transportation

BSR Insight Article: Report Identifies Goods Produced with Child or Forced Labor

Faris Natour, Director, Human Rights

The U.S. Department of Labor's International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) identified 122 goods from 58 countries that are produced in violation of international labor standards regarding forced and child labor. Read more →

Posted: September 29, 2009 | Topics: Consumer Products, Food, Beverage & Agriculture, Human Rights, Mining

Case Study: Archer Daniels Midland: A Sustainable Supply Chain for Agribusiness

As one of the largest agricultural processors in the world—producing food, feed, and bio-energy products—Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) addresses one of the world’s most pressing challenges: meeting the growing global demand for agricultural products, while balancing the need to use such resources for food, fuel, or animal feed, and minimizing environmental degradation. Seeking guidance as it navigated these interconnected issues, ADM engaged BSR, beginning in 2007, to help the company align its supply chain management with best practices in social and environmental stewardship. Learn more →

Posted: June 1, 2009 Topics: Environment, Food, Beverage & Agriculture, Supply Chain