Sustainability

Oakville, Canada - Tim Hortons has released its fifth annual Sustainability and Responsibility Report, highlighting the company's 2014 performance results. Key accomplishments in 2014 include:

• Introduced Calorie Aware menu boards across Canada to highlight breakfast products under 350 calories.

• Increased the number of farmers who participated in the Tim Hortons Coffee Partnership Projects to a total of 4,830 farmers.

New York - H&M is number 32 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) National Top 100 list of the largest green power users. H&M is using nearly 172 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which is enough green power to meet 100% of the organization's electricity use.

Chain Store Age recently had the chance to speak with noted consumer trend expert Faith Popcorn, founder and CEO of marketing consulting firm Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, about steps McDonald’s can take to reverse its struggling fortunes. Popcorn’s insights come on the heels of McDonald’s reporting a 33% year-over-year drop in profits for first quarter 2015.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better
According to Popcorn, McDonald’s vast size is not necessarily an asset anymore.

Family Dollar Stores Inc. has announced the passing of Mark R. Bernstein, a member of the company's board of directors, on April 27.

New York -- The deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry, as reported by The New York Times, has led to finger-pointing and lawsuits aimed at a group of retailers.

New York -- High-profile retailers can make a high-impact difference when they use their clout to do good.  

Case in point: Ann Inc., parent to Ann Taylor and Loft, donated more than $4.3 million to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to fund groundbreaking cancer research. The brands parlayed successes from the 2014 spring and fall campaigns and have brought the company's total corporate donation to $22.3 million in the past 10 years.

The old expression, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” was taken to heart at Whole Foods where a recent fundraising campaign will provide loans to help people improve their lot in life.

Whole Food held concerts and craft fairs and thousands of small events that raised $4.6 million with the goal of alleviating global poverty. To achieve such a lofty mission, the retailer isn’t donating money to food banks to provide hand outs, but rather using the dollars to fund a microlending campaign.

London - J Sainsbury PLC is increasing transportation productivity through enhanced accuracy. Sixteen Sainsbury’s depots are using an integrated transport management system from Paragon Software, which integrates Paragon’s planning optimization with wireless communications to enhance the accuracy and execution of each day's complex transport plans.