News

• The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy

  Wednesday 01 May 2013
  By now most companies have sustainability programs. They’re cutting carbon emissions, reducing waste, and otherwise enhancing operational efficiency. But a mishmash of sustainability tactics does not add up to a [...] Read more

• Innovation for Sustainability: Business contexts and drivers

  Friday 29 March 2013
  Business has entered a challenging new world full of opportunities for strategic innovation, and sustainability will be a major driver of these opportunities into the future. Let's look at some of [...] Read more

• Launch of the world’s first practitioner’s guide to the sustainable sourcing of agricultural raw materials

  Thursday 14 March 2013
  Seven global organizations, including the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative – SAI Platform, are launching today the world’s first practitioner’s guide to sustainable sourcing of agricultural raw materials. The guide is an [...] Read more

• Study asks: are plant-based diets environmentally friendly?

  Tuesday 12 February 2013
  A nutritious diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables might be healthier for humans but not necessarily healthier for the environment, according to a French study. After analyzing the eating [...] Read more

• SAI Platform is recruiting a Senior Communications Manager

  Thursday 31 January 2013
  The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform is the main food industry initiative supporting the development of sustainable agriculture worldwide. In 2002 Nestlé, Unilever and Danone created The SAI Platform, a [...] Read more

• Consumers, industry, government can all help to reduce 1.3 billion tonnes of yearly waste and losses

  Tuesday 22 January 2013
  Simple actions by consumers and food retailers can dramatically cut the 1.3 billion tonnes of food lost or wasted each year and help shape a sustainable future, according to a [...] Read more

• SAI Platform launches financial tool on farm sustainability

  Thursday 20 December 2012
  The Working Group Arable and Vegetable crops of SAI Platform has assigned Andersons Easterns’ Jay Wootton to develop and make a farmers tool to understand the relation of financial performance [...] Read more

• Africa gets its first farmer video-audio website

  Friday 30 November 2012
  A new website unveiled in Nairobi last week has generated a lot of interest for its unique feature of downloading audio and video files in multiple local languages. The concept [...] Read more

• International business, government and civil society leaders join forces in global forum for valuing natural capital

  Tuesday 06 November 2012
  International leaders from business, government and NGOs gathered in Singapore today to mark the launch of the new headquarters of TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) for Business Coalition [...] Read more

• Wal-Mart, in China, pushes suppliers down green path

  Friday 26 October 2012
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc has given global suppliers five years to comply with its environmental rules or risk being pushed off U.S. shelves at the world's largest retailer, expanding a sustainability [...] Read more

• Brazil's Rousseff enacts forest law in blow to farm lobby

  Friday 19 October 2012
  Brazil enacted a controversial law on Thursday meant to protect forests and force farmers to replant trees on scattered swathes of illegally cleared land totaling an area roughly the size [...] Read more

• Climate change threatens nature from coffee to Arctic fox

  Thursday 20 September 2012
  Climate change is a threat to everything from coffee plantations to Arctic foxes and even a moderate rise in world temperatures will be damaging for plants and animals in some [...] Read more

• Twenty more "Niles" needed to feed growing population

  Tuesday 11 September 2012
  The world needs to find the equivalent of the flow of 20 Nile rivers by 2025 to grow enough food to feed a rising population and help avoid conflicts over [...] Read more

• African farmers must do more to beat climate change: study

  Friday 07 September 2012
  African farmers are finding new ways to cope with droughts, erosion and other ravages of climate change but need to develop even more techniques to thrive in an increasingly uncertain [...] Read more

• U.N. body urges G20 action on food prices and waste

  Tuesday 28 August 2012
  The world's top farm producers in the Group of 20 countries must agree coordinated action to ease worries about food prices, the head of the United Nations food agency said [...] Read more

• August 22 is Earth Overshoot Day

  Wednesday 22 August 2012
  Today, August 22, is Earth Overshoot Day, marking the date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. We are now operating in overdraft. For the rest of the [...] Read more

• Building sustainable supply chains

  Wednesday 15 August 2012
  The impact of the media coverage of Foxconn on Apple should act as a stark reminder to companies to carefully analyse both their supply chains and how they engage them. Incidents, [...] Read more

• “Going, going…”: The long term sustainability impacts of short term focus

  Monday 23 July 2012
  Short-term thinking and acting has led to the current financial crisis, but has it precipitated a move to more long-term thinking in business & industry? This article discusses the tensions [...] Read more

• Sustainable Agriculture: Post RIO+20 Opportunities for the SAI Platform & Coca Cola

  Thursday 19 July 2012
  One of the hot topics at the recent Rio+20 Conference was sustainable agriculture. It is a topic that is particularly important to Dr Ernesto Brovelli who is the Senior Manager, Sustainable [...] Read more

• Impressive inventory of products and tools to help you in your sustainability journey

  Tuesday 03 July 2012
  We are proud to release a condensed overview of all of the products and tools developed by SAI Platform over the last years, to help you in your sustainable agriculture [...] Read more

• Accounting for pollution likely within a decade

  Friday 22 June 2012
  Corporate and government accounting will likely reflect environmental profit and loss within a decade, thanks partly to progress made this week at a U.N. conference in Rio de Janeiro, backers [...] Read more

• Let’s get serious!

  Monday 18 June 2012
  IUCN and the UN Global Compact are helping business in Rio get serious about biodiversity, boosting private sector efforts in conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services – the benefits we get from [...] Read more

• Standards and audit protocols added to ITC's Standards Map

  Tuesday 05 June 2012
  In an effort to respond to the information needs of its stakeholders, the Stan dards Map team is continuously adding new standards systems to Standards Map. The three latest additions [...] Read more

• No sustainable development without hunger eradication

  Friday 01 June 2012
  Sustainable development cannot be realized unless hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, FAO said in a policy document prepared for the Rio+20 Summit to be held in June in Rio de Janeiro. "We [...] Read more

• G8 commitment to keep food security high on global agenda

  Friday 25 May 2012
  "Agriculture is a powerful tool for reducing poverty and hunger. Events of recent years - such as food price increases, droughts, growing climate change impacts and other emergencies - have [...] Read more

• Super Weeds No Easy Fix For US Agriculture-Experts

  Friday 11 May 2012
  A fast-spreading plague of "super weeds" taking over U.S. farmland will not be stopped easily, and farmers and government officials need to change existing practices if food production is to [...] Read more

• Ten Years of Progress: 40 Food Companies Share Their Success Stories and Challenges in Achieving Sustainable Agriculture

  Friday 04 May 2012
  At the 10th anniversary of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, 40 leading global food conglomerates engaged in a fruitful and lively discussion regarding the environmental, economic and social well-being issues [...] Read more

• Proud to announce 2011 EFMD Case Writing Awards

  Thursday 26 April 2012
  Ralf Seifert, Aileen Ionescu-Somers and IMD alumnus Tania Braga have won in the prestigious EFMD “Supply Chain Management” category for their case Unilever Tea (A) and (B). Aileen notes that [...] Read more

• Stubborn Drought Expected To Tax Mexico For Years

  Thursday 22 March 2012
  A severe drought in Mexico that has cost farmers more than a billion dollars in crop losses alone and set back the national cattle herd for years, is just a [...] Read more

• Climate, Food Pressures Require Rethink On Water

  Tuesday 13 March 2012
  The world's water supply is being strained by climate change and the growing food, energy and sanitary needs of a fast-growing population, according to a United Nations study that calls [...] Read more

• SAI Platform and IDH launch green coffee PCR project

  Thursday 01 March 2012
  The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform Coffee Working Group and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) are glad to annouce the launch of a joint programme towards the development of [...] Read more

• Multinationals learning how to farm sustainably

  Tuesday 21 February 2012
  In order to reduce global poverty and sustain the prosperity of the expanding global middle class, the agricultural sector needs to become increasing efficient and environmentally sustainable. As the ‘Zero [...] Read more

• Soil Erosion Increasing Global Warming Threat

  Tuesday 14 February 2012
  Global warming will get worse as agricultural methods accelerate the rate of soil erosion, which depletes the amount of carbon the soil is able to store, a United Nations' Environment [...] Read more

• Why gender matters

  Thursday 02 February 2012
  The world cannot eliminate hunger without closing the gap between men and women in agriculture. With equal access to productive resources and services, such as land, water and credit, women [...] Read more

• EU Countries Face Legal Action Over Hen Cage Ban

  Tuesday 24 January 2012
  Thirteen European Union countries will be told on Thursday that they face legal action for failing to impose an EU ban on keeping egg-laying hens in battery cages by a [...] Read more

• 'Climate farmers' highlight green agriculture practices

  Tuesday 10 January 2012
  Breaking with an older generation of agricultural practices, a group of young European farmers is encouraging a shift to sustainable agriculture and hopes Brussels policymakers take note. The Climate Farmers campaigners [...] Read more

• Reindeer: not just for Christmas

  Tuesday 20 December 2011
  Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer may be famous for guiding Santa Claus through the night sky, but reindeer do more than just pull toy-laden sleighs—reindeer are an important food source and [...] Read more

• State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture

  Monday 12 December 2011
  By 2050, food production is projected to increase by about 70 percent globally and nearly 100 percent in developing countries. This incremental demand for food, together with demand from other [...] Read more

• EU Lawmakers Call For Action To Protect Bees

  Thursday 17 November 2011
  European Union lawmakers on Tuesday called for stronger action to protect Europe's bees, saying that the rapid decline in the bee population could affect the growth of important food crops. The [...] Read more

• Climate Change Making US Water Problems Worse: Expert

  Friday 28 October 2011
  Climate change and population growth in the United States will make having enough fresh water more challenging in the coming years, an expert on water shortages said on Wednesday, October [...] Read more

• Scarce Resources, Climate Biggest Threats To World Health

  Tuesday 18 October 2011
  The Earth's natural resources like food, water and forests are being depleted at an alarming speed, causing hunger, conflict, social unrest and species extinction, experts at a climate and health [...] Read more

• World hunger report 2011: High, volatile prices set to continue

  Tuesday 11 October 2011
  Food price volatility featuring high prices is likely to continue and possibly increase, making poor farmers, consumers and countries more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity, the United Nations' three [...] Read more

• Business opportunities in resource constrained world

  Thursday 22 September 2011
  In his opening address at the B4E Summit in London on Sept 22, Björn Stigson, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), outlined how businesses that operate sustainably can [...] Read more

• Regulating supply chain sustainability

  Friday 16 September 2011
  What would have been unthinkable only a few years ago is now the order of the day. With a swath of recent sustainability related regulatory initiatives adopted in the US and [...] Read more

• FAO's interview of SAI Platform's General Manager about Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture

  Wednesday 07 September 2011
  Peter-Erik Ywema is General Manager SAI Platform (Global). In the early nineties he was amongst the researchers that developed life cycle assessment as a tool to better understand real and [...] Read more

• Proud to announce the launch of SAI Platform's Argentinean Chapter

  Monday 29 August 2011
  On Tuesday the 23rd of August in Buenos Aires, was launched SAI Platform's second local Chapter: "Capitulo Argentina". Over 20 food and drink companies' representatives had gathered for that event, [...] Read more

• Nine new SAI Platform Members

  Thursday 18 August 2011
  We are proud to annonce that the following nine bodies have recently agreed to join our Platform: - ABP, one of the largest beef companies inEurope, slaughters and processes 300,000 cattle [...] Read more

• Business as usual is not an option in developing countries

  Tuesday 26 July 2011
  Inclusive business models aim to go beyond philanthropy and corporate social responsibility to find synergies between development goals and a company's core business operations. The world is experiencing a historic shift [...] Read more

• The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the new DNA of Business

  Friday 08 July 2011
  We just came across an excellent article from Wayne Visser, which explains the history of CSR (which is the one of a failure, the author argues), and its future (which [...] Read more

• Have your say on how to improve access to agricultural training videos by filling out our short survey

  Friday 01 July 2011
  The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) have asked Agro-Insight to implement the following [...] Read more

• Higher agriculture commodity prices here to stay

  Friday 24 June 2011
  A good harvest in the coming months should push commodity prices down from the extreme levels seen earlier this year. However, over the coming decade real prices for cereals could average [...] Read more

• Can India teach Europe to deal with drought?

  Monday 20 June 2011
  Europe is suffering from a record breaking drought, jeopardizing food production and restricting households’ water access. European governments have announced emergency plans and aid money to help farmers. As June 17 [...] Read more

• New Push on Sustainable Agriculture - The New York Times Blog

  Friday 17 June 2011
  This week the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations threw its weight behind a new push for sustainable agriculture in developing countries. While declaring that “we have no option [...] Read more

• UNEP, IFAD launch joint policy on sustainable agriculture

  Friday 03 June 2011
  Two United Nations (UN) agencies have teamed up to launch a new policy on sustainable agriculture – a crucial but often over-looked element in a low-carbon economy. The United Nations Environment [...] Read more

• Creating Shared Value Roundtable

  Thursday 26 May 2011
  Executives from 10 major corporations gathered in New York City to discuss the innovative ways that they are implementing shared value to meet simultaneous business and societal objectives. The candid [...] Read more

• Prince Charles Stresses Need for Sustainable Agriculture During US Visit

  Wednesday 04 May 2011
  Britain's Prince Charles has stressed the need for sustainable agriculture, saying it will be paramount to creating lasting food systems for the future. The prince, an environmental advocate, spoke Wednesday at [...] Read more

• Saving Bats Could Prevent Huge U.S. Farming Losses

  Friday 01 April 2011
  America's bats are dying in their hundreds of thousands due to a mysterious illness called white-nose syndrome, and efforts to save them could prevent billions of dollars in agricultural losses, [...] Read more

• Quenching the thirst of business - Sustainability innovations to preserve water supplies

  Tuesday 22 March 2011
  World Water Day, this March 22, reminds us that water is essential for life. It is also an opportunity for business leaders to reflect on how the world's most precious [...] Read more

• Google Backs Biomass Fuel Firm CoolPlanetBiofuels

  Monday 21 March 2011
  The venture capital arm of Google Inc has invested in a start-up that is developing technology to produce fuel from inedible biomass such as grass and wood chips. The process, deployed [...] Read more

• First Global Conference on Sustainable Agriculture in Australia

  Thursday 17 March 2011
  Sustainable agriculture is increasingly becoming a business priority for the global food and beverage industry. There is an emerging need for all participants ‘across the food supply chain’ to come together [...] Read more

• The Economist Special Report on Feeding the World

  Saturday 26 February 2011
  Answering the nine billion people question will require to face a wide range of technical and political challenges. The following are key ones addressed by this article: -As shown by the occurance of [...] Read more

• New sessions of SAI Platform-IMD Sustainability Master Class on May 3-4 in the US and June 6-7 in Switzerland

  Friday 25 February 2011
  Many of you have been asking when and where would be held the next Executives Training / Master Class on How to Embed Sustainable Agriculture Strategies in Companies. We are [...] Read more

• Investing In Greener Economy Could Spur Growth

  Tuesday 22 February 2011
  Channeling 2 percent, or $1.3 trillion, of global gross domestic product into greening sectors such as construction, energy and fishing could start a move toward a low-carbon world, a report [...] Read more

• Food Price Hike Drives 44 Million People into Poverty

  Tuesday 15 February 2011
  WASHINGTON, February 15, 2011 – Rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June as food costs continue to rise to [...] Read more

• Fertilizing grounds for change in Chinese agriculture

  Wednesday 02 February 2011
  China launched the decade with its first nationwide pollution census – the result of three years of data collection involving half a million staff. Agriculture, included for the first time [...] Read more

• Farming needs 'sustainable intensification' says report

  Monday 24 January 2011
  [LONDON] The quest to feed the world's rapidly growing population over the next 40 years needs a frontloaded approach to funding agricultural research, according to a report on food security [...] Read more

• How can we feed the world and still save the planet?

  Friday 21 January 2011
  Underinvestment and market failures have trapped many countries in a vicious cycle of low productivity and exposure to price hikes, says Olivier de Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the [...] Read more

• Principles and Practices for Sustainable Water Management in Farming Production

  Saturday 01 January 2011
  The Working Group on Water and Agriculture (WGWA) is proud to announce the publication of Principles and Practices for Sustainable Water Management at Farm Level. The document [...] Read more

• Measuring dairy farms’ overall sustainability

  Friday 17 December 2010
  SAI Platform’s Dairy Working Group is proud to announce the publication of its Discussion Paper on ways to measure dairy's overall sustainability. The document is intended to stimulate discussion with other [...] Read more

• Unilever launches ambitious sustainability plan

  Monday 15 November 2010
  Rotterdam, Unilever sets a very high benchmark for the food industry launching its Sustainable Living Plan - “small actions big difference”. The company has plans to grow, creating jobs and income [...] Read more

• Sustainability Report 2010 – Passionate About Growing

  Friday 12 November 2010
  PepsiCo UK to reduce by 50% its water use and carbon emissions over the next 5 years! Read about this and other ambitious projects of the sustainability journey PepsiCo UK is [...] Read more

• IDF, the FAO and SAI Platform launch new Carbon Footprint Guide and website

  Friday 05 November 2010
  ‘A Common Carbon Footprint Approach for Dairy: The IDF Guide to Standard Lifecycle Assessment Methodology for the Dairy Sector’ was launched at the World Dairy Summit in Auckland, New Zealand [...] Read more

• Showcasing industry efforts towards sustainable dairy

  Tuesday 26 October 2010
  Featured on the Dairy Sustainability Website, the Green Paper is an online catalogue of initiatives enabling organizations and individuals working in the dairy supply chain to showcase and share information [...] Read more

• SAI Platform's article on biodiversity in CBD's Oct 2010 Publication

  Thursday 21 October 2010
  The United Nations' Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) issued a special publication on Biodiversity in October 2010, in view of the United Nation's General Assembly. A SAI Platform [...] Read more

• How Brands can save biodiversity

  Thursday 02 September 2010
  An excellent presentation from Jason Clay, WWF, has just be released on the renounded website TED. Entitled “How Brands can save biodiversity”, the presentation explains why and [...] Read more

• Math Lessons for Locavores

  Thursday 19 August 2010
  Leesburg, Va.   IT’S 42 steps from my back door to the garden that keeps my family supplied nine months of the year with a modest cornucopia of lettuce, beets, spinach, beans, [...] Read more

• New Training to Embed Sustainable Agriculture Strategies in Companies

  Tuesday 20 July 2010
  SAI Platform and the well-known executives' training institute IMD have developed a break-through training for executives on ways to embed sustainable agriculture strategies in companies. The first of  a series of [...] Read more

• Heineken new member of the SAI Platform

  Wednesday 30 June 2010
  We are happy to announce that Heineken has joined the SAI Platform.Heineken, Europe’s largest brewer and world’s largest cider producer, owns and manages one of the world’s leading [...] Read more

• Integrating Sustainability and Innovation

  Thursday 20 May 2010
  Experts predict that today's population will increase by another 50% to reach more than 10 billion people by 2050. The demands on both the climate and the world's [...] Read more

• 3rd Conference on Sustainable Agriculture "The Art of Farming"

  Wednesday 07 April 2010
  On May 10, 11 and 12 we would very much like to welcome you in Brussels to the Third conference on Sustainable Agriculture, The Art of Farming.  The [...] Read more

• CropLife International Calls for Holistic Approach to Address Water Scarcity

  Monday 22 March 2010
  Access to plant science technologies and knowledge of best practices help conserve and protect water resources in agriculture Brussels, 21 March 2010 - With estimates of a 40% increase [...] Read more

• New Publication on Food Prices' Impacts on Consumers and Producers in DCs

  Friday 04 December 2009
  In August of 2008, as global financial markets panicked, observers of commodity markets witnessed the nearly simultaneous collapse of commodity prices, which had been nearing historical peaks. Since [...] Read more

• If words were food, nobody would go hungry

  Thursday 19 November 2009
  "THE world's attention is back on your cause." That was Bill Gates talking to agricultural scientists gathered recently to honour the late Norman Borlaug, father of the Green [...] Read more

• McCain Foods published its first Global Corporate Social Responsibility Report

  Monday 09 November 2009
  We are very pleased to inform you that McCain Foods has published its first Global Corporate Social Responsibility Report.  You can view it at McCain.com or click on the link [...] Read more

• Worldwide Dairy Industry Signed Global Declaration on Climate Change

  Friday 25 September 2009
  On 24 September, the dairy industry made history signing a Global Dairy Agenda for Action during the World Dairy Summit in Berlin, Germany.Signed by seven organisations on behalf [...] Read more