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The European Parliament has voted in favor of a jet-fuel tax to help offset the environmental impact of air travel. The consumer cost of the fuel tax would be up to about $75 per roundtrip flight within Europe. Also, as the European Union considers making airlines join the Union-wide cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse-gas emissions, Parliament suggested that the industry enter a separate, aviation-only emissions-trading system so carriers could not simply buy up rights from other sorts of companies while continuing to pollute. The parliamentary vote has no legal weight, but supporters hope it will influence future legislation. The aviation industry is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases, and flights within Europe are on track to triple by 2030.

Via: Grist Magazine
Link: The Times

Tens of thousands of gems are inspected and certified annually by the Gem Certification and Assurance Lab in a meticulous process that may soon bring profound change to the famously secretive diamond industry, which has long been averse to any measures that would give greater transparency to its dealings or allow auditing of the trade.

Although there is practically no way to test a stone retroactively to determine its origin, certificates like those from G.C.A.L. offer a guarantee for any recently mined stone that conforms to this worldwide agreement, called the Kimberley Process.

Link: New York Times

The Conversations Network launched a new channel this week: Social Innovations Conversations. There are already podcasts up about health issues in developing countries, the future of Africa, sustainability in the coffee industry, and more.

Social Innovations Conversations (SIC) is a product of the Stanford Center for Social Innovation and the Pittsburgh Social Enterprise Accelerator.

http://www.siconversations.org/index.html

From Body Shop to Green & Black's, smaller companies known for their ethical principles and counter-culture approach are being taken over by multinationals keen to establish credentials in the booming ethical market.

For consumers, those multinational names don't have quite the same ethical ring to them, although many shoppers remain unaware of the ultimate ownership of some of their favourite brands. For those who are, does the change of ownership really matter? And can a smaller company built on a different set of values really operate comfortably within a global corporation?

Link: The Guardian

Good summary article on how environmental nonprofits and companies are working together on CSR issues, from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/business/businessspecial2/17partner.html

Electronic waste recycling continues to become more and more mainstream, as covered in this article in the New York Times, part of a special on business and sustainability:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/business/businessspecial2/17ewaste.html

Interesting article at blog worldchanging.com about the implications of Wal-Mart stocking organic food.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004422.html

On March 17, 2006, renowned Corporate Responsibility experts David Vogel, professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and Jefferey Hollender, President and Chief Regeneration Officer at Seventh Generation, debated the business case for Corporate Responsibility in a pod cast entitled "Corporate Responsibility: Myth or Reality?". Net Impact’s Executive Director Liz Maw moderated. Click here to download the pod cast.

The company joined six others in the S&P 100 that publicly disclose their EEO-1 report, but Wal-Mart still faces shareowner action on union-busting and selling gems mined in Burma.

http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article1980.html

NEW YORK, April 12, 2006 - The research arm of a leading sustainable investment fund has produced a new report grading more than 1200 companies by their preparedness in terms of environmental and other CR issues, providing more evidence for a link between non-financial and financial performance.

Sustainable Asset Management's 2006 Sustainability Yearbook looks at 58 sectors, giving an analysis of their sustainability risks and opportunities, and sizing up whether individual companies are reacting. SAM then uses this research to make its own investments, as well as those on behalf of other "ethical funds".

SAM says it has been able to show a conclusive link between performance on sustainability issues and financial performance -- something of a Holy Grail for researchers in this area.

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=30810

The daily BrandIndex, which tracks public perception of more than 1,000 consumer brands, has found that the popularity of ethical beauty products chain Body Shop has slumped since it was sold last month to French cosmetics giant L'Oreal.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article356889.ece

The EU's industrial emission trading scheme has passed an important milestone. By 31 March all 12,000 or so participating companies should have submitted verified reports on their carbon emissions in 2005, the scheme's first year in operation. Up to 15% of firms could have missed the deadline, according to a leading verifier.

http://www.wbcsd.org/includes/getTarget.asp?type=DocDet&id=MTg3Nzg

Shortage of sustainable timber is holding up reconstruction in Aceh after the December 2004 tsunami.

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4193

Ethical Corporation publishes a special report on corporate responsibility in the media:

Trust in the media has fallen to a dangerously low level, and news organisations have still only just begun to think about what corporate responsibility means for them.

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4209

Nike Inc. and Hewlett-Packard have received the top sustainability reporting awards in an international competition sponsored by the Boston-based Ceres coalition and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=30771