The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seems to be very switched on when it comes to investment and determined to do the right thing. They have a suitably global view of what the “right thing” seems to be and to an outsider appear to be relatively free from the effects of lobbying from some of the more extreme political views in the States.

This video animates Bill Gates’ presentation at the G20. He outlines the need for smart investment in countries that need help in order to encourage global economic growth. Help others to help yourself.

In Pure Spirit

Do you have any views of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their tactics? Is my assessment above incorrect?

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Fonterra is also the target of the Dutch arm of Greenpeace.

Greenpeace’s beef with Fonterra is over the company’s use of palm kernel. The pressure group points out that the harvesting of the palm kernal fuels rainforest destruction and this leads to the removal of the endangered orangtans’ habitat.

To make their point, Greenpeace have paid for this video and advert.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think?

My concern is that people won’t see the connection between orangutans and milk.

Greenpeace has a microsite up at www.greenpeace.org.nz/fonterra.

In stark contrast to UK’s health and safety laws check out this “death slide” made by workers in Bolivia.

This is their way home.

Please be aware that this video is a clip from Current TV’s Deadliest Journeys which is being distrubute as part of a promotion campaign.

In Pure Spirit

Would you even consider a slide like this as a way home?

These are Bolivian coca workers. Even if the coca is far trade the workers and their families may still take this sort of risk. Does it make you think twice about chocolate?

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Fast food powerhouse KFC has donated $3,000 to the American town of Chattanooga to help repair potholes in the road. In exchange for the money the road repair crews use chalk sprays to mark the repairs as “Refreshed  by KFC”.

Until the temporary chalk logos wear off over time they act as advertisements for KFC. This has enraged the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who approached Chattanooga with a counter offer.

PETA offered Chattanooga $6,000 and vegetarian lunches for the road crew. In exchange PETA wished to chalk the repairs with a caricature of KFC’s Col. Harlan Sanders and the phrase “KFC Tortures Animals”.

The offer was used by Chattanooga offices. A spokesperson for May Ron Littlefield said in an announcement, “We are not going to place ourselves into the middle of an argument between PETA and the KFC Corp.,”

PETA’s demands were described as “awkward”.

Spokesperson for PETA, Nicole Matthews, responded, “We want Chattanooga residents to know what their road repairs really cost,” said Nicole Matthews, PETA spokeswoman. “It’s the lives of around 360 million chickens.”

It it estimated that the $3,000 from KFC will be enough to repair almost 500 potholes.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Are KFC taking advantage of towns with an offer like this? Or is this a healthy form of advertising where  every commercial message has to accompany an effort that builds the community.

What about PETA? Have they been treated badly b Chattanooga or did they expect this rejection? Was the rejection part of PETA’s publicity campaign?

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Iain Hildreth, Director of Marketing at the trainline, said in this YouTube video that the sheep seemed to be enjoying themselves. Farmer Michelle Waterman, in the same video, explains that these sheep are used to wearing the jackets. It wasn’t made clear how long sheep wear show jackets for and how long they’ll wear the trainline jackets for each day.

The Met Office five day weather report for the area suggests temperatures will be between 16 degrees centigrade and 18 degrees centigrade.

The jackets have been placed on sheep outside the Dorking train station. Hildreth has said that sheep elsewhere in the country might also be given the trainline jackets to wear if this first trial goes well.

Advertising agency DLWK created the TV campaign for the ticketing website which also features sheep.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? A clever marketing activity? Is this a good way for farmers to raise money without relying on the supermarkets?

Or is it cruel to make animals wear jackets as we approach the summer? Is it unethical to use animals like this in the first place?

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Flying Blue is the loyalty program from Air France and KLM. It was created in 2005 when the two airlines merged together and merged the Fréquence plus frequent flyer program with the Flying Dutchman frequent flyer program.

Kenya Airways, Air Europa, Aircalin and Northwest Airlines also make use of Flying Blue.

The frequent flyer program has four levels of membership. At the top there is the Platinum level (equivalent to SkyTeam Elite Plus), below that there is Gold (equivalent to Sky Team Elite), then Silver (Sky Team Elite) and the introductory level is Ivory (Basic).

Platinum, gold and silver are highly tradable precious metals. Ivory is not. It’s illegal to trade in new ivory. Elephants are hunted and killed in a horrific ivory black market.

The question is – should Air France and KLM be handing out loyalty cards which imply some sort of exclusivity, collectability and value in ivory?

It should be noted that Flying Blue cards are Natura Card’s by Selp. These cards are 85% made of yearly renewable resourcesand designed to be as green as possible.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Is it an over reaction to be concerned about Air France and KLM’s use of ivory in their loyalty program or are merged airlines really setting a bad example here?

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Ethisphere’s committee included government officials, professionals and attorneys from over the world and went through an in-depth analysis of all semi-finalists. The website examined companies on their corporate citizenship and responsibility; corporate governance; innovation that contributes to public well being; industry leadership; executive leadership and tone from the top; legal, regulatory and reputation track record; internal systems and ethics/compliance programs.

The list of winners included companies like Dell, Google, Intel, Cisco but also Honeywell International and The aerospace Corporation who both listed in the category “Aerospace and Defense”.

Honeywell International is the company that the famous Honeywell Project was created to oppose. From 1960 to 1990 the Honeywell Project campaigned against (what was then) the Honeywell Corporation in order to persuade them to drop their weapons manufacturing business.

In September 1990, Honeywell spun off (most) of its military work into a new company called Alliant Techsystems. They deny the Honeywell Project influenced that decision at all.

According to Wikipedia, Honeywell is 44th in a list of US companies responsible for air pollution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency lists Honeywell as the worst offender of Superfund toxic waste.

The 2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies (in alphabetic order) are:

• Accenture
• Accor
• Aflac
• American Express
• AstraZeneca
• Avaya
• Baxter International
• Becton Dickinson
• Best Buy
• BMW
• Caterpillar
• CH2M Hill
• Cisco Systems
• Cleveland Clinic
• CRH
• Cummins
• Danone
• Dell
• Duke Energy
• Dun & Bradstreet
• Eaton Corporation
• Ecolab
• Flint Hills Resources
• Fluor
• FPL Group
• Freescale Semiconductor
• Gap
• General Electric
• General Mills
• Google
• Harris Corporation
• Henkel
• Holcim
• Honeywell International
• HSBC
• IKEA
• Intel
• International Paper
• John Deere
• Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Johnson Controls
• Jones Lang LaSalle
• Kao
• Kellogg Company
• Marks & Spencer
• Marriott International
• Mattel
• McDonald’s
• Milliken
• Nike
• Nippon Yusen Kaisha
• Novartis
• Novo Nordisk
• Novozymes
• Oracle Corporation
• Patagonia
• PepsiCo
• Petro-Canada
• Pitney Bowes
• Premier
• Rabobank
• Ricoh Company
• Rockwell Automation
• Royal Philips
• Safeway
• salesforce.com
• SC Johnson & Son
• Sempra Energy
• Sodexo
• Sompo
• Standard Chartered Bank
• Starbucks
• Statkraft
• Stonyfield Farm
• Stora Enso
• Svenska Cellulosa (SCA)
• Swiss Re
• Symantec
• Target
• Ten Thousand Villages
• Texas Instruments
• The Aerospace Corporation
• The Hartford Financial Services
• The Principal Financial Group
• Thomson Reuters
• Time Warner
• T-Mobile
• Toyota Motor
• Trader Joe’s
• Unilever
• United Parcel Service
• Vodafone
• Waste Management
• Westpac Banking Corporation
• Weyerhaeuser
• Wisconsin Energy
• Xerox
• Zappos.com

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Does this reward suggest that Honeywell have turned the corner and are now trying very hard to defend the environment and corporate ethics or does this bring the award into question?

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Today Continental Airlines demonstrated the first ever biofuel flight for a commercial aircraft in North America.

The plane in question was a 737-800 with CFM International CFM56-7B engines. The goal of the flight was not just to demonstrate that such a flight was possible but to record and analyse important data the unique flight generated.

“This demonstration flight represents another step in Continental’s ongoing commitment to fuel efficiency and environmental responsibility,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Kellner. “The technical knowledge we gain today will contribute to a wider understanding of the future for transportation fuels.”

However, this is not a true biofuel flight – not if you were hoping that the plane would be running soley on biofuel. In fact, one of the two engines on the plane will use %100 traditional fuel. The second engine will use %50 biofuel and %50 traditional fuel.

Don’t be disheartened by that relatively low percentage of biofuel as Continental Airlines engineers have calculated that this change alone will result in a significant decrease in carbon emissions.

Furthermore this strain of biofuel has  been designed so that acts as a ‘drop-in’ fuel. This means that neither the aircraft nor the engines need any special modification to use the biofuel. Many aircraft around the world could, in theory, be able to use the fuel.

Biofuels have become controversial since they are seen as taking away valuable food materials or even adding to deforestation. Many people argue that it is better to use food to feed the poor rather than convert it into biofuel to allow the rich to travel.

The biofuel in the Continental Airlines flight, however, is a second generation biofuel which avoids these problems. Second generation biofuels are often made from algae or jatropha plants taken from sustainable and managed specialist farms.

A company called Sapphire Energy was responsible for providing the improved fuel to Continental.

“The simple combination of sunlight, CO2 and algae to produce a carbon-neutral, renewable fuel source has the potential to profoundly change the petrochemical landscape forever,” said Jason Pyle, Sapphire Energy CEO. “Today’s flight puts us one step closer to moving away from fossil fuels and energy dependency, and with no impact on the transportation infrastructure, food sources or the environment.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you this today’s demonstration flight be Continental Airlines is a step in the right direction?

Is this a real effort to find an environmentally friendly sustainable fuel? Or is this just a publicity stunt?

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