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...

Puma, the German shoe and sportswear company that was founded in 1924 when Rudolf Dassler split out from his brother Adi’s Adidas, is betting big on Africa.

A new Wilderness Collection of apparel, footwear, and accessories is “inspired by the landscape and climate of the continent,” according to Ecouterre.com. The goods are also “primarily sourced and manufactured in Kenya in collaboration with Wildlife Works.”

More than 80 percent of the apparel will be made out of fair-trade cotton, with the goal of being 100 percent by next year, with 20% organic and African cotton making up the difference.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."

Citi released a video today promoting that in May, Citibank became the first bank in the world to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for 200 projects from the U.S. Green Building Council. The brand rose two places on Interbrand's just-released Best Global Green Brands ranking with the comment:

Citi Group improves on this year’s ranking by 2 spots, now sitting at #44. While the banking institution continues to navigate turbulent waters due to global economic conditions, Citi managed to increase the public’s perception of its environmental efforts, thus closing its perception/performance gap significantly since last year’s assessment. More recently, Citi joined forces with Google to finance a large wind energy center in California and embarked on a joint venture with SunPower to finance residential solar lease projects. The financial institution still remains in the latter portion of the ranking, partially due to its large-scale investments in coal industries, which contribute heavily to climate change effects.

Walmart's critics have beaten up on the company for a lot of things over the years — its environmental policies, the treatment of its female employees, corporate donations to conservative political groups. But now Walmart, apparently, has gone too far by advertising that it sells good steaks.

The chain was critiqued recently by a Phoenix-based blogger, for example, for "mak[ing] it appear" that diners of an upscale local restaurant, El Chorro, "were saying things about Walmart steaks like, 'It was one of the best filets I've ever had.'"

Such grilling aside, from Walmart's point of view, the marketing campaign to spread the work for its upgraded USDA Choice steaks has worked well. "It's been pretty amazing," Walmart CMO Stephen Quinn told Ad Age. "This one has really had a big impact so far."Continue reading...

As an official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic (that part, sadly, often gets left out), McDonald’s has already invested a lot of money to support the event, from building the world's biggest restaurant and to encouraging youths to get in the spirit and get moving. The next phase in this McOlympics: a £10 million responsive advertising campaign called “We All Make The Games.”

Leveraging multiple media channels, the plan is to document, replay and celebrate the people, moments, and emotions of the games in three phases:Continue reading...

It only makes sense that auto brands should figure heavily in the new Interbrand Best Global Green Brands ranking, with eight of the top 21 brands. Car makers and their petrol partners arguably contribute more to environmental stresses around the globe than any other industry — but they're also working about as assiduously as any business to offset some of that decidedly un-green footprint.

Toyota ranked No. 1 in Interbrand's new list not only among auto companies but among all companies. That's impressive but hardly surprising for a company that essentially invented the hybrid for the mass market and has taken its biggest steps over the last year, of any in the last decade, to extend the Prius franchise and make it more available and more attractive (with some creative marketing moves) to more consumers around the world.

By introducing a less expensive and smaller alternative to its regular hybrid, Prius c, and almost simultaneously a more capacious one, Prius v, Toyota has opened the possibilities of hybrid ownership to millions more people who are attracted by the sterling Prius brand.Continue reading...

PepsiCo today released this video highlighting its sustainability goals. Billed as "PepsiCo's recipe for the next billion" humans on the planet, the corporate video's tagline is "Doing More. Using Less." How?

By "growing more crops with less water, manufacturing with less waste and energy, and serving the needs of the next billion consumers. Our goal is to create snacks, beverages and foods that deliver the nutrition, hydration and enjoyment at the right moment across different needs, lifestyles and geographies." The video reiterates the company's "delivering more choices" and performance with purpose positioning, "doing right for people and the planet, innovating more choices while using fewer natural resources."

The video comes as PepsiCo was named #28 on Interbrand's 2012 Best Global Green Brands ranking, five spots behind Coca-Cola. Interbrand's rationale:Continue reading...