Post by account_disabled on Mar 4, 2024 22:55:41 GMT -5
Last month, Evian , the natural mineral water brand originating in France, launched a digital dashboard that allows consumers to track their progress towards key plastics targets. In an interview with edie , the brand's global vice president, Shweta Harit, said brands should no longer "hide anything" in their digital sustainability reports. Digital Sustainability Reports: Earth Day April 2021 was a busy month for the sustainable business community. In the United States, Joe Biden celebrated his first intern. In the UK, local election candidates touted their green credentials in a bid to secure votes. And, as always, Earth Day provided a platform for dozens of companies to make new environmental commitments and launch innovative products. Many environmental campaign groups have expressed skepticism about private sector involvement in Earth Day in the past. In fact, just a few years ago, ads seemed to focus on limited-edition products and non-science-based goals around tree planting or charitable giving.
Against the backdrop of the net-zero movement and COVID-19 recovery, the mood this year was different, with many companies outlining science-based climate commitments and resource targets that went beyond Ecuador Mobile Number List gimmicks. For the Evian water brand, owned by Danone, Earth Day was used to announce the company's certification as a B-Corp. In this interview, evian's global vice president, Shweta Harit, described how the decision was made because the B-Corp process helps companies adopt a "more holistic" approach to sustainability, combining actions on many environmental and social issues, at the same time transparency: "Becoming B-Corp felt like the next step, like the right thing to do, rather than something that's just there to inform consumers... At Evian, we don't have a sustainability team and then a brand marketing team." separate. Sustainability has to be part of everything we do. We have one expert who led the certification, but we all got involved… As a bottled water company, sustainability is absolutely integral to our future…. Our product is what the earth gives us.” Harit also provided details of the certification process, explaining that the assessment had to be done “piece by piece” in terms of business areas.
Across all subjects, evian achieved a weighted average score of 81.3 out of 200 B-Lab estimates that the average business would score 50.9 and requires companies to pass 80 to become certified. Awareness and commitment There are currently more than 3,500 certified B-Corps, with accredited brands in more than 70 countries. While membership has increased rapidly, the initiative is estimated to cover only 4% of companies globally. For Harit, part of the barrier to expansion is that there is no multinational certification yet. Evian's parent company, Danone, is helping to develop such a framework and hopes to be an early adopter. Several of its brands are certified, including. The same goes for Unilever, with certified brands like Ben & Jerry's and Pukka Herbs.1 Another barrier, Harit argued, is a lack of consumer awareness in some nations. I think the UK is leading the way and would love to see more initiatives like Ocado's aisle for B-Corp brands. That's when I think we'll see real change: when shoppers know how to find and buy from these brands. Shweta Harit, global vice president of Evian.