Sustainability

ATLANTA — Coca-Cola’s has appointed Santander UK plc CEO Ana Botín to the company’s board of directors.

Santander UK plc is one of Britain’s leading personal financial services companies and a subsidiary of the Santander Group, the largest bank in the Eurozone.

San Francisco -- Although most of the 16 electronics retailers scored by the Electronics TakeBack Coalition received an “F” grade, three companies – Staples, Best Buy and Office Depot – were deemed to have effective recycling programs.

More than half of the retailers failed the Coalition’s assessment, including Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Sam’s Club and Sears.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS employees cleaned up nearly 25,000 pounds of trash from shorelines across the country in partnership with Ocean Conservancy, a leading organization that educates and empowers citizens to take action on behalf of the ocean. 

The CVS Caremark Shoreline Cleanup, a national environmental employee engagement campaign, raises awareness of the connection between clean waterways and health. 

By Victor Wulc, [email protected]

Washington, D.C. -- A first-of-its-kind document could go a long way toward cementing the sustainability relationship between retailer tenants and their shopping center landlords.

CHICAGO — Cargill, an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services, has unveiled an assessment tool that identifies, prioritizes and quantifies risks and opportunities in its supply chains so improvements can be made to them.

New York -- The U.S. Green Building Council’s membership has voted to adopt the next version of its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification system.

The new update, LEEDv4, will launch this fall at USGBC’s annual Greenbuild convention. It has been expanded to include more building sectors, such as data centers, warehouses and distribution centers.

Another LEED v4 change includes allocating about 20% of all points to optimizing energy performance over the ASHRAE 90.1-2010.

A five-year plan spearheaded by Walmart, Gap and other U.S. retailers requiring factories in Bangladesh to be inspected within a year is under fire, according to a Bloomberg report.