Wal-Mart Mexico to Promote “Green” Products / Wal-Mart de México promoverá productos “verdes”
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009Walmart stores across Mexico and their suppliers* have launched for “Earth Month” (April 16 to May 3) an aggressive environmental awareness campaign in the press, radio and television promoting sustainable products and showing that purchasing them does not hurt the customers’ budgets. “At Wal-Mart de México we work hand-in-hand with our suppliers to encourage them […]
Coke Donates R$20 mil. to Sustainable Amazon Foundation
Friday, February 6th, 2009Coca-Cola Brasil has just donated R$20 million to the Sustainable Amazonas Foundation (Fundação Amazonas Sustentável – FAS) to promote forest conservation in Brazil’s Amazonas state and improve the quality of life for around 2,000 families living in those forests. The Coke donation matches funds from the state government, Bradesco bank and Banco do Planeta for […]
A Cempre for Colombia
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008When I started research on the first edition of my book on waste and recycling policy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) back in 1997, one of the first places I turned for information was Brazil’s Business Commitment to Recycling (Compromisso Empresarial para Reciclagem – Cempre). It was still located in Rio de Janeiro […]
A Mexican Code on Food/Beverage Advertising to Children
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008Recently the food and beverage industry in Mexico agreed on Code of Self-Regulation on the Advertising of Food and Beverages Directed at Children (Código de Autorregulación de Publicidad de Alimentos y Bebidas dirigida a Público Infantil – PABI). The code of conduct, signed by companies representing about 70% of advertising in Mexico in the sector […]
LAC Water Center Created / Crean Centro del Agua para ALC
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008Temas Note: While the idea of a center focussed on water and sanitation issues in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region generally appeals to me, I have to ask why in this form, in this locale, and with these sponsors? Doesn’t the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) already have a Pan American Center for […]
Giving LAC’s First Plastic Packaging Law Teeth
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007An interesting thing happened over the last two weeks. Well, interesting to people like me who’ve been following the packaging waste debate for decades, at least. Environment enforcement officials for Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state “blitzed” supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro city — first on 19 October in the well-to-do Leblon section, then on 23 […]
Protecting the Mesoamerican Reef
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007Another one from the backlog queue! A few hurried notes to myself from the beginning of December, then lost in the holiday shuffle. But the recent posts on the WWF-Coca-Cola freshwater partnership and WWF’s agreements with agricultural producers in Honduras reminded me of this one still lurking in the queue. Hopefully better late than never. […]
What the WWF-Coke Freshwater Partnership Means for LAC
Wednesday, June 6th, 2007On the face of it, this is good news for a couple of reasons. First off, I applaud that a huge water user (176 billion liters worldwide in 2006) and consumer such as Coca-Cola has decided to increase their water use efficiency, recycle the water they use in manufacturing whenever and wherever possible, and to […]