Personal care products used on a daily basis can contain chemicals that are harmful to our health. What’s worse – some people face greater risks to these chemicals than others either because they are more highly exposed or because they are more susceptible to their effects. Women of color unacceptably face greater exposure to toxic […]

Mark Brownstein co-authored this post. We’re hearing more oil and gas companies pledging to reinvent themselves for a new, low carbon energy era. This conversation is unfolding as those same companies grapple with massive impacts of the global pandemic, as well as competitive challenges from cleaner, often cheaper alternatives that had been gaining steam well before […]

Last week, Sephora released a report that shows how the company is bringing products with fewer harmful ingredients to the marketplace. Sephora set the industry standard for advancing safe products by becoming the first major specialty beauty retailer to issue a chemicals policy last summer. The new report details how Sephora, in partnership with EDF, […]

It’s an everyday scene in Southern California: a big rig hauling a metal shipping container from a port facility to a distribution center or rail yard. Last week, this old story got a new twist with a 120-mile emission-free haul featuring two shipping behemoths from Northwest Arkansas: Walmart and J.B. Hunt. Our nation’s two biggest […]

The net-zero greenhouse gas commitments made by companies – along with implementation of innovative technological solutions – is slowly shifting markets away from business as usual. As consumers, employees or investors, we need to ensure that this momentum can be leveraged to move to a 100% clean economy where all companies across the spectrum are […]

EDF announces the expansion of the EDF + Business program with the hiring of Andrew Baxter and Ratnika Prasad, both new members of the Harvard Leadership Fellows program. Andrew and Ratnika are joining EDF at a pivotal time, as we continue to build momentum among investors, corporates, and policymakers to eliminate oil and gas methane […]

Shopping online for sustainable products is nearly impossible. Companies can change that. The fact is, most businesses aren’t telling you enough about the impacts of the products they sell. Products might contain harmful chemicals. Rainforests could have been cleared in the making of the product. Or air and water might have been polluted during the […]

Animal agriculture companies are feeling the impacts of climate change. As warmer temperatures and extreme weather become more frequent across the U.S., so, too, will supply chain disruptions and risks to businesses large and small. Coupled with the challenge of recovering from the devastating global pandemic, the need for companies that source and sell beef, […]

The pandemic exposed just how vulnerable our country’s food system really is. Companies are battling to contain COVID-19 outbreaks at meat processing plants. At the same time, they are racing to shift operations to avoid empty supermarket shelves and millions of pounds of farm food waste — a result of changing consumption shifting from restaurants […]

Even before the pandemic, millions of consumer products were channeled through online platforms every day. Now, online shopping is at an all-time high, with total e-commerce spending in the U.S. hitting $82.5 billion, up 78% year-over-year. For context, it typically would have taken four to six years to see the current level of growth we […]

Before COVID-19 became an all-consuming global priority, business and investor attention to environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance was surging, and thought leaders like Alan Murray (no relation) were redefining corporate leadership to include addressing big issues like climate change, and putting purpose on par with profit. The Business Roundtable’s updated statement on the purpose […]

Ben Ratner and Tudor Pickering CEO Maynard Holt have a wide-ranging conversation about the investors/ESG, energy transition, flaring, methane and Environmental Defense Fund’s pragmatic approach. Ben’s segment begins at 14:28.

The post C.O.B Tuesday – a conversation about ESG appeared first on EDF+Business.

Momentum is building for federal support of truck electrification, and last week’s launch of the National Zero-Emission Truck Coalition is a great example of how federal incentives are urgently needed to clean up our air, create tens of thousands of jobs and solidify American competitiveness in the global zero-emission truck market. Organized by CALSTART, the ZET coalition […]

The post Some of the biggest names in trucking are calling for federal support of electric trucks and buses appeared first on EDF+Business.

The promise of stakeholder capitalism — that companies serve the interests of customers, employees, suppliers and communities in addition to shareholders — is being pressure-tested in real time. Social unrest, an unfolding pandemic, historic unemployment and the slower moving but no less devastating climate crisis have only intensified the scrutiny companies were already facing from […]

The post The bar for corporate citizenship has been raised. It’s time for the rankings to catch up. appeared first on EDF+Business.

Investor, employee and customer pressure on companies to help lead the way to a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future is at an all-time high. Their calls for leadership are only reinforced as the current administration continues to denigrate and divide, while the nation tries to recover from the devastation of COVID-19 and work for […]

The post Lyft commits to 100% electric vehicles by 2030. Here’s why it matters. appeared first on EDF+Business.

The COVID-19 pandemic has lifted the veil off of supply chains and shown that they aren’t soulless assembly lines of automatons that move things from here to there. They’re complex, connected and powered by people, and for every product shortage or plant closure caused by disruption to the supply chain, there are hundreds or thousands […]

The post Two things to do now to avoid supply chain disruption later appeared first on EDF+Business.

Natural gas flaring has been a long-time concern for the oil & gas industry. In a decarbonizing world and increasingly competitive energy industry, eliminating routine flaring is critical to minimize climate impact and curtail economic waste. As the Permian Basin witnessed a rapid growth in oil production over the past decade, the rate of routine […]

The post Tackling flaring: Learnings from leading Permian operators appeared first on EDF+Business.

Methane: Europe’s missing link for effective energy decarbonization About half of all internationally traded gas is consumed by Europe. The EU sources its gas from countries like Russia, the U.S. and Algeria, countries with sizeable methane emissions. This provides the EU with significant leverage when it comes to tackling emissions from the upstream segment, which […]

The post EU methane policy recommendations appeared first on EDF+Business.

We’re back with the last in a two-part series on prospects for ESG and climate investing between EDF’s Ben Ratner and Brian Rice, a portfolio manager at California State Teachers’ Retirement Systems, the world’s largest educator-only pension fund with roughly $243 billion under management. After exploring the importance of climate policy and net-zero corporate planning in the first Q&A, […]

The post CalSTRS investor: Access to capital will tighten for oil and gas companies sidestepping climate appeared first on EDF+Business.

As investors take a hard look at the U.S. energy sector during this time of volatility, natural gas flaring is one of the most important and immediate risks to manage. The eyesore of the oilfield, flaring natural gas destroys shareholder value and creates environmental, social and governance risk — exactly the kind of problem that […]

The post A zero flaring policy is long overdue, and investors can help make it reality appeared first on EDF+Business.