Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
development in all its policies and operations, and expects similar from its suppliers.
The organization is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and is
one of the main sponsors of WWF Finland. Indeed, the WWF is an adviser to the
Roundtable, working closely to ensure that this renewable energy source is sourced
sustainably. It should be noted that the WWF and palm oil production continues
to be subject to continuous scrutiny and often fierce criticism. For Greenpeace many
of the companies that subscribe to the Roundtable have taken few if any steps to
avoid the worst practices, such as wholesale forest clearance and the continuing
eradication of the orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger, associated with the industry.
Their campaigns have produced considerable negative publicity for many well-
known companies, including Nestlé, Proctor & Gamble, Neste Oil, Unilever, Tesco,
Cadbury and Colgate Palmolive, many of whom are associated with Wilmar
International which controls 45 per cent of the global palm oil trade. As a result of
this persistent campaigning, and perhaps triggered by Greenpeace International's
report
Licence to Kill
(Greenpeace International, 2013), which demonstrated that
the expansion of palm oil and pulpwood plantations was responsible for the
destruction of over two-thirds of the habitat of the critically endangered Sumatran
tiger, Wilmar International announced in December 2013 that it would now pursue
a No Deforestation policy and that by the end of 2015 it would no longer buy or
sell oil from companies that are involved in forest destruction.
There is no shortage of models, of management systems, frameworks, guidelines,
toolkits, manuals, books, academic readers, and training and coaching opportunities
offering advice to organizations wishing to become socially responsible and environ-
mentally sustainable (McDonagh and Prothero, 1997; Mellahi and Wood, 2002;
Dunphy
et al
., 2003; BITC, 2006; Hitchcock and Willard, 2006). Two of the most
significant are The Natural Step (Nattrass and Altomare, 1999) and the SIGMA
Project (2003). Neither is there a shortage of media-friendly business gurus and
futurists who see economic and business lessons being delivered in the fast-developing
world of cyberspace. Chris Anderson (2006) sees the Internet as offering an infinite
number of niche opportunities for all types of businesses to satisfy the most arcane,
and potentially the most ecologically sensitive, of consumers' needs and wants. For
others, the Net may simply create unlimited and unconstrained consumer demand.
If you look hard enough you can buy virtually anything on the Internet. Tapscott
and Williams (2007) see the Wikipedia phenomenon as prefiguring new forms of
economic arrangements and production processes characterized by collective intel-
ligence, social collaboration and self-organization. 'Wikinomics' is the future and the
Chinese motorcycle industry is a sign of things to come. The Internet is also giving
many people the opportunity to be more professional in the way they interact with
each other and with larger collectivities such as big corporations. InnoCentive is a
Web forum of about 1.5 million full-time, retired and amateur scientific experts.
A company can post its requirements on the forum, offer payment (usually less than
US$100,000) and immediately tap into this community of 1.5 million scientists
spread over 170 countries. In 2004, Prize4Life, a non-profit group established by a
group of Harvard Business School graduates and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
offered a US$1 million prize for the successful identification of a biomarker for
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In 2006, Netflix, a mail-order movie company,
offered US$1 million for an algorithm that will perform 10 per cent more effectively
