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Corporations pledge sustainability at Rio+20

People observe the “Burned Tree Park” exhibition at the People´s Summit in Flamengo park in the framework of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Microsoft and other firms attending the Rio+20 business forum are falling over each other to prove their corporate responsibility credentials, but critics remain skeptical about their commitments.  About 1,000 business chiefs from around the world are attending a four-day Corporate Sustainability Forum, organized by the Global Compact. The Compact, a UN initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to respect human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption principles, has 7,000 corporate participants in 135 countries. Scores have already responded to a call to do the right thing and commit to actions and partnerships that advance progress along the forum’s six core themes. These are energy and climate, water and ecosystems, agriculture and food, social development, urbanization and cities, economy and financing. Sunday, US technology titan Microsoft announced plans to achieve net zero emissions for its data centers, sofware development centers, software development labs, offices and employee air travel by boosting energy efficiency and buying renewable energy. “We said we would be carbon neutral starting July 1,” Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s chief environmentalist strategist, told a press conference. This would be achieved in part through offset, meaning balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference. More…

News selected by Covalence | Country: Brazil | Company: Microsoft, ArcelorMittal, Netafim, Dupont, Eskom, US Duke Energy | Source: Phys.org

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