Top U.S. retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. are battling to limit a new federal law that could force them to report whether their store-brand goods contain minerals from war-torn Central Africa. The requirement, part of the Dodd-Frank financial law passed in July, aims to pressure companies to spurn so-called conflict minerals—tin, tantalum, [...]

Have you been to Times Square lately? You may have seen this Best Buy billboard. At first glance, it looks like just another billboard made out of funky bric-a-brac, but look a bit closer and you’ll notice that it’s made out of old electronics, including VHS players, bulky computer monitors, and all sorts of other [...]

The refrain of a popular children’s song —‘‘the morewe get together the happier we’ll be’’ — may sound like a simplistic formula for solving the complex challenges of climate change and sustainability. But if any area is ripe for collaboration, it’s ‘‘green’’ innovation. ‘‘We all want to save the planet, and the problems are bigger [...]

Marks & Spencer and Wal-Mart are driving the ethical agenda for the retail sector, according to a report published by Covalence, a Switzerland-based company operating an ethical quotation system. The Covalence Retail Industry Report 2007 refers to Marks & Spencer as a “proactive leader, appearing in many positive news items.” Wal-Mart is said to be [...]

Marks & Spencer and Wal-Mart drive the ethical agenda of Retailers, which has been dominated by environmental issues in 2006-2007, states a report released by Geneva-based ethical reputation research firm Covalence, Covalence Retail Industry Report 2007. Marks & Spencer is a proactive leader: it appears in many positive news items and maintains a remarkably low [...]