Tag: United Nations

The Financial Impact of Ecological Debt

Calculating the financial cost of climate change is no easy endeavor. While the impacts of rising temperatures on the foundations of the global economy are well documented, the financial implications remain to be fully understood.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has calculated that helping nations cope with climate impacts will cost the world half a trillion dollars annually by 2050. According to the London School of Economics, climate change is expected to cut the value of the world’s financial assets by $24 trillion by 2050 in the worst-case scenario. The best-case scenario, if efforts are successfully made to build a greener economy, will lead to the loss of only $2.5 trillion.…

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Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Global Prosperity

“We have reached a turning point. Agriculture and biodiversity have often been regarded as separate and even conflicting concerns, yet they are inextricably connected. Agriculture is by nature a major user of biodiversity, but it also has the great potential to contribute to its protection.”

– María Helena Semedo, Deputy Director of the UN Food & Agriculture Organization, 2016 –

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In a world on the verge of its Sixth Great Extinction, hundreds of politicians and businesses representatives gathered at the latest United Nations COP13 Forum in Mexico to determine how biodiversity can be prioritized and maintained through socially responsible business practices.…

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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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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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The Vastness of 21st Century Agriculture is Falling Short

Our global food industry sustains more people, with increased efficiency and a lower cost than any other period in human history. The problem is that big food continues to have an astounding influence on global health and the environment.

Through agricultural innovation and industrialization, the majority of the global food supply has now found itself under control of a select few major corporations around the world. The increase in efficiency is nothing short of impressive. The fact that California-based Earthbound Farm can harvest 10,000 pounds of lettuce per hour using a crew of only 12 people is simply astounding, especially considering that not so long ago this same production capacity would have taken a 40-person team the entire day.…

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Charting the Rise of Biopesticides in Modern Agriculture

Agriculture has reached a crossroads. In order to survive and thrive in this new millennium we need to revolutionize our production methods to ensure a secure, accessible and long-lasting food supply for everyone.

Feeding the world in a safe and sustainable manner is a considerable challenge, especially with a rising global population, significant arable land degradation and crop yields starting to show a decline. The primary obstacles to sustainable food security today are the combination of these factors combined with an economic model and thought system, nurtured throughout the industrial revolution, that views social progress as the ability to produce at maximum capacity and at any financial or environmental cost.…

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