to eliminate 8. 5 million pounds of
packaging from going into land-fills. In the United Kingdom, Kraft
Foods recently began selling Kenco
coffee in refillable bags, as opposed
to glass jars, using 97 percent less
packaging material by weight and
less energy in the packaging conversion process.
This company (No. 2 in The 2010 DiversityInc Top 5 Regional Utilities as well as
No. 10 in The DiversityInc Top 10
Companies for Supplier Diversity)
has successfully integrated sustain-
ability throughout its Tier I supply
chain in a formal policy detailing
green-operating practices. The ini-
tiative includes green-performance
scorecards to ensure accountability.
“We’re eager to share our expertise
and experience in sustainable and
green practices in a way that will
help diverse suppliers lower their
operating costs, improve their effi-
ciency and increase the value they
are bringing to their customers
and prospective customers,” states
a PG&E diversity leader. “Green
operations are a competitive
advantage now and will soon be a
table stake for bidders in corporate
supply chains.”
PG&E’s strategy: to partner
with local organizations to provide
minority-owned businesses a robust
educational program, helping them
more fully participate in the green
economy. One of its suppliers,
Okinite Co., has already created a
cable that eliminates additional con-
struction during installation, saving
6,310 metric tons of greenhouse-gas
emissions annually (the equivalent
to taking 4,424 cars off the road).
No. 18 in the 2010 DiversityInc Top 50, Procter & Gamble recently
rolled out its “future friendly”
advertising campaign devoted to
educating consumers on sustainable topics such as energy and
water conservation and waste
reduction. P&G should know: Since
2002, the company has reduced
water consumption by 52 percent,
energy use by 48 percent and the
disposal of waste by 53 percent.
What Do Consumers Care About?
Supporting labor rights
Building understanding/respect for other cultures
Supporting human/civil rights
Disaster relief
Equal education opportunity
Alleviating hunger/homelessness
Reducing poverty
Improving quality of healthcare
Protecting the environment
Source: Edelman goodpurpose™ Consumer Study, Nov. 2009
91%
89%
87%
86%
86%
85%
83%
81%
81%
For more on corporate sustainability, visit
www.DiversityInc.com/sustainability
In collaboration with CARE, for example, Walmart Foundation recently introduced a women’s-empowerment program to provide
2,500 women factory workers in
Bangladesh’s apparel sector skills-development and literacy training.
Initiatives such as this improve
workers’ standard of living, indirectly benefiting their families and
communities. Walmart estimates
that this effort will have a positive
impact on an additional 12,500 to
15,000 people. Environmentally,
Walmart announced earlier in
the year that it has set a goal to
eliminate 20 million metric tons of
greenhouse-gas emissions from its
global supply chain by the end of
2015—the equivalent of taking more
than 3. 8 million cars off the road for
a year. I
