Sales of fairly traded products have bucked the trend of decline in the UK retail market to grow by 12% in the last year. The value of Fairtrade products sold through shops reached £1.32bn in 2011, compared to £1.17bn in 2010, according to figures from the Fairtrade Foundation, as it launches [...]

It wasn’t for aesthetics alone that Nike this week introduced a running shoe here with a lacework upper that looks more sandal than trainer.  The dirty secret of shoe manufacturing is that it creates waste. A lot of waste. Some of it harmful to the environment.  Nike, Adidas and others are increasingly developing products [...]

How “green” is your smartphone? AT&T’s new program will rate the environmental impact of devices in its portfolio. The Eco-Rating program will launch later this year, and the rating will be noted on the packaging of each AT&T device. In a YouTube video posted Wednesday, Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, devices, of AT&T Mobility [...]

Apple has told prominent environmental activists in the U.S. and China that it will soon allow independent environmental reviews of at least two suppliers’ factories in China, the activists said. The reviews come as Apple (AAPL) faces rising criticism about toxic pollution and factory injuries at overseas suppliers’ factories. Environmental examinations would [...]

Nokia recently raised its voice on the issue of conflict minerals by publishing a policy that spells out its stand. The Finnish phone maker joins other consumer electronics companies in the corporate responsibility of avoiding conflict minerals in their supply chain. “We are concerned about the link between illegal extraction and trade [...]

A group of nearly 100 leading pension funds, asset managers, banks and other institutional investors have today written to the chief executives of the world’s largest 415 public companies urging them to accelerate efforts to deploy cost-effective emission reduction measures. The letters form part of the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) Carbon [...]

Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest China-based contractors, has boosted its workers’ wages by around 25% after been subjected to inspections by a US labour rights group. Foxconn, which is owned by a Taiwanese group, reported that it has boosted wages by a quarter in the wake of Apple instigating inspections by [...]

Today, 13 pharmaceutical companies, the U.S., U.K. and U.A.E governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and other global health organisations announced a new, coordinated push to accelerate progress toward eliminating or controlling 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by the end of the decade. Uniting efforts with NTD-endemic countries, partners pledged to [...]

Apple, the computer giant whose sleek products have become a mainstay of modern life, is dealing with a public relations disaster and the threat of calls for a boycott of its iPhones and iPads. The company’s public image took a dive after revelations about working conditions in the factories of [...]

A group of US investment institutions have filed shareholder resolutions at 40 companies calling on them to report on their spending on direct lobbying and lobbying via trade associations. The group wants greater transparency on how companies influence regulation and law-making. Backers of the initiative include investors such as the $134bn (€104bn) [...]