“If something isn’t given a value, people tend to waste it. Water is our most useful resource, but those using it often don’t even cover the costs of its infrastructure,” said Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke, speaking in Stockholm for 2012 World Water Week, which concluded Friday. 

The key issues this year: water and food security, followed by partnerships, tools and data. The water-food-energy triangle was key at the 2011 Bonn Nexus Conference, but the key the difference this year, according to an essay penned by David Grant, SABMiller's senior director of water risk and partnerships, for the Guardian, “was the progression of the issue from a broad theoretical concept to actually seeing practical examples of how it is being both experienced and addressed on the ground.”

Grant added, “It has been encouraging to hear of projects being implemented that not only demonstrate understanding of the link between the issues but also the recognition that we can no longer tackle resource challenges in silos.” But will they go far enough, soon enough? Promoting and monitoring sustainable water practices with partners along the supply chain is vital, as Nestlé's CEO argues.Continue reading...

UPS trucks are big and square for a reason: it's the design that fits the most parcels. But that constraint isn't stopping the quick-delivery giant from doing everything it can to make its iconic fleet of brown vans more streamlined.

"When fuel prices got real high and totally out of hand about four years ago, I took my engineering group and said, 'We've seen the peaks and valleys of fuel pricing, and we're going to take a stand here and get serious about developing technology that brings something into place to help with fuel consumption," Dale Spencer, UPS's director of maintenance engineering, told brandchannel.

So in a new gambit, UPS has introduced composite materials to replace certain metal components in a test that lightens the trucks by 900 pounds and boosts fuel efficiency by 40 percent. UPS is purchasing 150 composite-body vehicles in a pilot program to test the materials' durability, repair qualities and structural strengths. These are the same types of materials that have shown up on the Tesla sports car and new Boeing Dreamliner passenger jet. Continue reading...

UPS is one of only 10 U.S. corporations to receive an A+ for superior transparency from companies registered with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) .

"One of the guiding principles to UPS's sustainability strategy is our commitment to transparency," UPS Chairman and CEO Scott Davis wrote in the organization's just-released 2011 Sustainability Report. "We are disclosing more information than ever... We have reported our five-year progress, successes and challenges. Now, we are focused ahead." 

The report shows that UPS exceeded four of seven key sustainability goals established for 2011 including employee safety, auto accident frequency, aircraft emissions and full-time employee retention.Continue reading...

The importance of eco-ratings to consumers is a lesson that Apple recently learned, after getting heat for dropping out of the US federal EPEAT registry, and quickly recommiting to submitting its devices for EPEAT ratings. Now AT&T will is making its eco-ratings on branded postpaid mobile devices available in-store. 

AT&T's Eco Rating scale (which was announced in February) measures mobile products according to criteria including hazardous substances, environmentally preferable materials, energy efficiency, end of life take back and environmentally responsible manufacturing. 

"AT&T's eco-ratings give consumers product information they want," said Jeff Bradley, SVP, Devices, AT&T Mobility. "Consumers want the best and fastest devices while being able to make an empowered choice about environmental impacts of the device. Our eco-ratings accomplish just that."Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble is only in the beginning stages of what could be a long turnaround effort under CEO Bob McDonald. One promising step announced today: P&G is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help the consumer packaged goods giant make serious strides towards its sustainability goals.

The company announced that it will be working with the EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory "to develop new tools to optimize sustainability improvements in manufacturing facilities, and their associated supply chains."

The collaboration will focus on the pillars of P&G’s long-term environmental sustainability vision, announced in September of 2010: "Powering its plants with 100% renewable energy; Using 100% renewable materials or recyclate for all its products and packaging; Having zero consumer or manufacturing waste going to landfills; and Designing products that delight consumers while maximizing the conservation of resources."Continue reading...

Coca-Cola has been busy debunking a viral video hoax (above) that it was planning to roll out globally a biodegradable plastic bag packaging shaped like its iconic contour bottle now being tested with cash-conscious consumers in Central and South America. Sorry, folks — no such test, no such plans, at least that it would confirm.

Outlets including Beverage Daily reported and then corrected, fooled by a supposed statement from the company that the new bottle-shaped bag delivers "the full Coca-Cola brand experience, without costing the consumer a cent more. They get greater value from their purchase, and we recover our famous branding, keeping Coca-Cola distinguished from all the other drinks."

An actual statement from the company clarified that the video is hoax, noting: "The company currently distributes Coca-Cola in Central America countries in cans, plastic PET and glass. While Coca-Cola is always looking for new and better ways of satisfying customer demand, we do not comment on potential new ideas until a decision about their implementation is real."

One sustainable move it could confirm this week: a new system to purify and re-use industrial-process water that could improve the company's water-use efficiency by up to 35 percent, "contribute to growth and local economic development opportunities, further support local communities, and reduce its water footprint," as the company said in a press release.Continue reading...

Apple has pulled out of EPEAT, a global non-profit eco-rating service sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and will no longer label its electronic products according to their environmental impact as a result.

In stating its disappointment at the move, EPEAT noted that its certification program is "more than simply a product rating – it is also a community effort by all interested stakeholders to define and maintain best practice in environmental sustainability for electronics."

Tech Week Europe sees it as "a setback to Apple’s green campaign and may have come about because of difficulties in dismantling and recycling new MacBook products."Continue reading...

Siemens, #8 on Interbrand's 2012 Best Global Green Brands ranking, released this video today highlighting its renewable energy solutions. The description: "In times of increasingly complex challenges for sustainable energy supply, Siemens provides a leading portfolio of economically efficient solutions for renewable power generation to address the changing requirements of generations to come."