Sustainability Factsheet

September Commentary

Environmental

• Unilever published a press release claiming it has achieved “100% renewable electricity across five continents” (North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe), with its factories, offices, R&D facilities, data centres, warehouses, and distribution centres “now powered by 100% renewable grid electricity.” They also noted that the amount of carbon emissions it produces per tonne of goods has halved compared to 2008.

• PepsiCo announced that it’s planning to reduce the amount of new plastic they use in their drinks portfolio by 35% by 2025.

• Microsoft committed to start reporting more information on its scope 3 emissions (which covers “indirect carbon emissions” i.e. emissions by its suppliers for manufacturing, for operations such as employee air travel, or emissions related to consumer use of their devices).

• Intuit has said that it will be relatively easy for the company to become carbon neutral by 2030, so it will pursue another goal: using its 2018 carbon emissions number as a baseline, they will try to remove carbon emissions by 50x that amount by 2030 though helping “employees, customers, partners, and communities” to reduce their emissions.

• L’Oréal announced that it is committed to reducing its absolute amount of scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030 (vs. 2016). To help achieve this goal L'Oréal says it will reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions for all its industrial, administrative and research sites by 100% by 2025 (vs. 2016).

Social

• New Reckitt Benckiser CEO Laxman Narasimhan spent his first few days in the job in China, where he announced the company will donate $10m between now and 2025 to a foundation related to its infant nutrition business in China.

• The latest issue of Diabetes Therapy published results from a study by Novo Nordisk on the impacts of diabetes on sufferers’ families. The study found that:
  • 64% of family members of people with diabetes are worried or anxious about the risks of hypoglycaemic episodes.
  • 75% of the non-diabetic respondents that were helping their relative with diabetes to manage low blood sugar said they spend less time on, or completely miss out on, other activities such as hobbies.

• Microsoft announced that it will make a $60m low-interest 15 year loan to the King County Housing Authority in Washington state to enable the purchase of five residential apartment complexes by the Authority.

• As the pharmaceutical industry grapples with 2,500 lawsuits alleging they helped fuel widespread opioid addiction in the US, Allergan, Endo, Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries are said to be exploring the possibility of settling the cases by participating in the bankruptcy case of Purdue Pharma. It would reportedly allow the companies to be released from liability completely by contributing money into a trust established through the bankruptcy plan. The litigation is reportedly one of the largest and most complex of its kind in US history and it involves cities, counties, Native American tribes and other communities seeking to recover money to pay for medical costs and expenses incurred in providing care for babies with opioid dependence. There is precedent for this; in 2014 Walmart participated in Blitz USA's bankruptcy plan and paid $162m in exchange for a release of liability over dangerous plastic cans made by Blitz USA and sold in its stores.

Last Month RRI Change

• Australia’s financial regulator ordered an investigation of PayPal this month amid concerns the software has been used by sex offenders to purchase child abuse material from Asia. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) demanded an external auditor investigate "ongoing concerns" about breaches of the country's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. A PayPal Australia spokesperson said, the review was prompted when the company realised it had not been fully reporting international payments in line with its obligations. "These reporting obligations are important protections in the international fight against financial crime and the misuse of payment platforms, which PayPal takes very seriously," they declared in a statement. The company clarified that the audit was not in response to the discovery of child sex exploitation connections.