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Our Commitment to the UN Global Compact

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As we draw the calendar year to a close, we are delighted to share with you how we, as approved and active participants of the United Nations Global Compact alliance, have maintained our commitment to the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative and applied their principles in very tangible ways across our day to day business.

As part of our commitment, we submit an annual report on what we are doing that illustrates our activity in applying these principles, which we detail below:

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Letter of Continued Support from CEO, Anthony J.…

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The New Age of Sustainability

“A very interesting period in history where the responsible business world is running ahead of the politicians” – Paul Polman, Unilever CEO.

Governments and institutions around the world have been tackling the issue of global sustainability for several decades, however these efforts are now reaching a turning point. Businesses have also been helping drive initiatives for a more sustainable planet and will soon become the most critical players in providing solutions as we edge closer to a more sustainable reality.

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Sustainability as a business value has transformed since becoming an issue of global significance. Rather than fitting sustainability into existing business frameworks and the model of the economy, there is now recognition that social and environmental issues will directly impact the global market with potentially catastrophic consequences.…

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All Eyes on Agriculture

“Emerging nations have great hunger and meeting this growing demand for food will require great investments to strengthen agriculture and make it more productive.”

Marc Garrigasait, President and Director of the Panda Agriculture and Water Fund, 2016

The growing demand for food across emerging economies is a point of great interest for the world’s largest institutional investors. Sovereign wealth funds are expected to drive a four-fold increase in agriculture investments over the next decade to a total of $240 billion.

A study of the world’s most lucrative Sovereign Wealth Funds by the Esade Business School, KPMG and Icex-Invest found that the current trends in the agricultural investment space point towards an impressive rise in asset allocation from $60 billion to $240 billion in the last decade. …

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Accomplishing Full Sustainability in Waste Management

“Through a move towards stable or declining populations, denser and better-managed cities consuming fewer resources, and greater equity and use of technology, we can bring peak waste forward and down. The environmental, economic and social benefits would be enormous.”

Dan Hoornweg, Perinaz Bhada-Tata and Chris Kennedy, Authors of “Waste Production Must Peak This Century”

The habits of consumers and the rising demand for new products is becoming a serious problem due to the ever-increasing amount of waste that is polluting and degrading the planet’s ecosystems.

A new report from the World Bank’s Urban Development department forecasts a 70% global increase in urban solid waste by 2025, rising from more than 3.5 million tons per day in 2010 to more than 6 million tons per day by 2025.…

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A Bright Future for Business in Brazil

For investors interested in Brazil the past few months have been exciting. The Temer administration continues to implement significant policies to increase investments and productivity in the country. Regulatory agencies have been transformed to improve governance and budget independence, there is a newfound prevalence of negotiation over once draconian labor legislation and the country’s famously protectionist tax system is in the process of being completely redesigned. For the first time in four years, the Central Bank has begun a rate-cutting cycle in October that trimmed its benchmark-lending rate to 14% from 14.25%. The Brazilian government has even launched the first package of 34 new infrastructure concessions that span across the agriculture, energy and transportation sectors.…

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The Organic Revolution in Cuba

Whether you praise or vilify the late Fidel Castro’s legacy in Cuba, there is no denying one of the country’s greatest achievements – organic agriculture. Forced to turn towards sustainable farming for self-sufficiency, the transition has ensured a safe, nutritional and environmentally friendly food system that is the subject of envy to many around the world.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1990s completely destroyed Cuba’s ability to feed itself. Within a year the country had lost 80% of its trade as well as an impressive 1.3 million tons of chemical fertilizers. Unable to import the machinery, fuel or petrochemical crop care inputs than allowed the country to produce cheap food at an industrial rate, a significant percentage of the population almost immediately began suffering from malnutrition.…

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How to Build a Food System that Safeguards Global Health

The global food system is in need of a significant overhaul. Modern agriculture must provide greater quantity and quality of food for everyone at a time when population pressure is rising and our resources are diminishing. Fortunately for us this incredible challenge also represents a profound opportunity and we are committed to driving the innovations necessary to revolutionize the agricultural system.

Few challenges facing the world today match the scale and severity of global food security. Up to 5% of food production capacity is lost every year due to the impacts of a changing climate and arable land degradation, while an incredible 30% of food ends up in landfills.…

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Why Zika’s Emergency Status Downgrade is Bad

In a declaration of defeat, the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer considers Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Although this may seem like good news, this decision in fact reflects the severity of Zika’s rapid transition from obscurity to a permanent threat to human health. The disease now joins the ranks of HIV, XDR-TB, Ebola, Marbug, Dengue and an exhaustive list of other killers that have spread around the world in record time.

The escalation in severity has been remarkable. First documented nearly seventy years ago, Zika was originally considered harmless. 80% of those originally infected demonstrated no physical symptoms.…

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Alarming Levels of Glyphosate Found in Popular Foods

Towards the end of the 19th Century Ireland’s vast potato fields became infected by an invasive fungal disease and caused the death of one million people. Another two million were forced to leave the country.

We avoid such agricultural catastrophes today with the help of pesticides, a range of synthetic and natural chemicals that control insects, weeds, funguses and bacteria that have that ability to threaten global food security. Now an essential part of our food production system, breakthroughs in synthetic crop care enabled us to sustain our growing populations with increased efficiency and at a lower cost. Only now are we discovering how food and global health has become more vulnerable as a result.…

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The Opportunity in Climate Action

Since the US President-elect Donald Trump was chosen, hundreds of governments around the world ranging from superpowers such as China to small-island nations such as the Maldives have convened in Morocco to reaffirm their support for the 2015 UN COP21 Paris Agreement.

According to some of the world’s most renowned environmental scientists, if humankind does not reduce their greenhouse gas emissions life on Earth will become increasingly volatile, unpredictable and dangerous. With continued temperature rise, water stress, ocean acidification, land degradation and crop losses experienced around the world today, the stakes for our environment are at an all time high and we need immediate action.…

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