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Unilever CEO Paul Polman’s Plan to Save the World
Step out of the frigid drizzle into Unilever’s factory outside Liverpool in northern England, and the brightly lit, automated assembly line gleams in stark contrast to the gloom outside. Thousands of bottles shoot down a conveyor belt with a click-clack sound, in a streak of bright purple. Look more closely, and there is an important detail. The new bottle is squatter than the older, taller style on another assembly line, with a smaller dispenser and a label explaining that this version of Comfort brand fabric conditioner is good for 38 washes, rather than the 33 of the last-generation package. The message is clear: Customers need to help save one of earth’s most precious resources—water.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
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ImpactAssets Releases Annual IA 50 Impact Investment Fund Showcase
ImpactAssets has released its 2016 impact investing showcase, the ImpactAssets 50 (IA 50), a free online resource for investors and financial advisors. The sixth annual list provides a diversified overview of fund managers representing private debt and equity investments that deliver social and environmental impact as well as financial returns.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
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Investors Are Pouring Money Into Conservation Efforts (It’s Actually A Great Investment)
From sustainable "blue economy" projects to restoration projects for wetlands, streams, and animal habitats, conservation-related projects have been drawing a significant amount of investor money in recent years. Investments that produce a financial return and a "measurable environmental result" climbed 62% from 2013-2015, a new report found, indicating that traditional divisions between conservation, philanthropy and for-profit finance may be withering.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- blue economy, ESG, impact investing
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How Wealthy Private Investors Might Save Climate Research
President Trump has made sweeping changes in his first week in office. Scientific research—specifically environmental programs—have seen a huge hit. The new administration quietly froze all Environment Protection Agency (EPA) grants, as well as ordered a gag order on any employees from going public about it.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- public policy
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Social Business Roundup: Scrutinizing a $30M Cookstove Study, the Limits of Silicon Valley and TV from the Sun
A $30 million study looking into using liquified petroleum gas in clean cookstoves has some 'stovers' heated up, why apps won't stop pandemics and why the time may be right for solar TV. It's all in our weekly roundup of social business news.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Tags
- solar
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Australian project to improve water delivery in urban slums gets $27m funding
Prof Rebekah Brown, the director of the Sustainable Development Institute at Melbourne’s Monash University, has been awarded a $14m research grant by the Wellcome Trust’s Our Planet Our Health awards in the UK. A further $13m from the Asian Development Bank would cover infrastructure and construction costs.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
- Tags
- public health, research
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Tools of the Recycling Trade Include … Tricycles
Lagos has a trash collection problem. A very big one. When Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola heard about it, she thought it represented a business opportunity. So she started a recycling firm, Wecyclers, which shuttles recyclable materials from homes to processing centers on a fleet of tricycles. In this Q&A, she talks about how she got the idea and where she hopes to take it.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
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Could Fiduciary Standards Be Lowered to Encourage ESG?
Groom Law says the strong push in international bodies such as the European Commission and OECD to encourage pensions to take into account environmental, social, ethical and governance (ESG) factors could spill over to the United States.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing