A round-up of the latest business news, including Mars, Unilever and JLL.
Mars has partnered with renewable energy company Eneco to open a wind farm near Inverness, Scotland. The 20-turbine Moy facility has a capacity of 60MW and an annual output of more than 125,000MWh, enough to supply renewable electricity to Mars’s 12 UK sites. Mars already operates a wind farm in Lamesa, Texas, and is aiming to eliminate fossil-fuel energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions from its global operations by 2040.
Unilever’s latest progress report on its Sustainable Living Plan (SLP) reveals that, compared with 2008, the firm’s factories in 2015 sent 97% less total waste for disposal, emitted 39% less CO2 from energy, and abstracted 37% less water per tonne of production. The fast-moving consumer goods company also said its ‘sustainable living brands’ such as Knorr and Dove – which make products directly linked to a sustainable purpose and contribute to its SLP goals – accounted for almost half of its growth last year.
Property business JLL (formerly Jones Lang LaSalle) has announced that, in 2015, the first year of its UK sustainability strategy, the company reduced its energy use by 38% per employee against a 2012 baseline – the target was 10%.
Timberland has released its 2015 corporate social responsibility results, as well as CSR targets for 2020. Highlights in 2015 include using 453 tonnes of recycled PET in its footwear products. Its 2020 targets include sourcing half the energy consumed in Timberland-operated facilities from renewable sources, such as onsite wind and solar power.
Gatwick has been awarded triple certification by the Carbon Trust for reducing carbon emissions and water use, and improving waste management. Compared with 2012–13, absolute CO2 emissions declined 10% during 2014–15, while CO2 and waste per passenger fell 20% and 9.1% respectively. Recycling and reuse rates increased from 40% in 2014 to 49% in 2015. Meanwhile, Heathrow has become the first airport to simultaneously hold Carbon Trust certifications for reducing carbon emissions, water use and waste output, and for working with suppliers to do the same.
