Google Glass, which was withdrawn from production on January 19, is now being trialled in the US for use within healthcare to allow paramedics to transmit live audio and video to hospitals. The programme, launched at The Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and trialled by MedEx, allows real time footage to be sent directly to a hospital tablet or desktop where doctors can see the patient through the paramedic’s eyes with the ability to zoom in on any abrasions or injuries.
The programme was approved after two and a half years of negotiating
Speaking in a demonstration video at the Chicago Auto Show, Michael Pieroni, MedEx Director of Operations, described the ease with which paramedics can relay the information to doctors. He said: “We are able to work on our patients hands-free, we don’t have to touch the glasses at all, they [doctors] see and hear exactly what we see and hear.”
The programme was approved after two and a half years of negotiating between Google and the Illinois Department of Public Health, and involves 10 new critical care ambulances to be introduced as WiFi hotspots to support the Google Glass technology. Prior to this, paramedics in the field would communicate with hospitals through a two-way radio or mobile phone but doctors can now receive critical visual information before the patient arrives.
The real time visual assessment Google Glass offers is particularly advantageous for trauma, burns, cardiac arrests and strokes where a quick response is crucial. Pieroni added: “It saves time, it can help diagnose things faster and in our business minutes can be brain cells, can be heart cells, time is everything.”
Snapchat’s potential $19bn appraisal will make it the third most valuable tech start-up in the world, following in the colossal footsteps of smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi, and cab hailing app, Uber. “We believe that messaging apps are revolutionising the tech industry and these platforms are becoming ecosystems in themselves – and Snapchat is definitely on its way to be one among those,” says Tarun Pathak, Senior Telecoms Analyst at Counterpoint Research.
The smartphone app, which was launched in 2011, allows users to upload pictures and videos that can only be seen by recipients for a matter of seconds. The majority of Snapchat’s audience is a younger crowd, with great appeal among tech-savvy teenagers. This consumer base has begun to broaden, with a reported figure of over 100 million users per month.
Snapchat’s potential $19bn appraisal will make it the third most valuable tech start-up in the world
Snapchat has started tuning into this powerful reach by posting adverts, which in line with its content, can only be viewed for a short burst if clicked on. Unlike other social media platforms, the firm has maintained that it will not use demographic information for target advertising.
In January, Snapchat launched Discover, a section which offers original content on a daily basis from a wide range of influential media outlets, such as National Geographic, CNN, Yahoo News, Cosmopolitan and EPSN; a clever strategy to further the app’s appeal while also bringing in advertising revenue.
“The trend of recent announcements shows the potential of Snapchat in expanding its reach across multiple areas and being a horizontal platform for a wide range of communications that will keep up its growth momentum and challenge the likes of Wechat and Whatsapp,” Pathak tells The New Economy.
Similar to the story of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Snapchat was created by CEO Evan Spiegel, 24, while studying at an Ivy League university. Spiegel also left before graduation in order to focus on his entrepreneurial ambitions. The tales of the two tech billionaires were to become more closely aligned when Zuckerberg offered $3bn for Snapchat in 2013. Spiegel declined the offer, after which he successfully obtained funding from 23 investors and valued the company at $10bn in 2014.
Spiegel’s instincts of the growing value of Snapchat appear to be on the money, as evidenced by the firm’s continuing rapid growth and the app’s recent modifications. With numerous new markets to reach, the potential for further expansion looms for the young start-up.
The annual Global 500 Report, published by Brand Finance, announced Lego as one of only 12 companies to receive a top score of AAA+ on the Brand Strength Index and attributed its success to the Lego Movie, which has generated more than $500m in sales, as well as “the creative freedom it gives children” and the nostalgia it provides to adults.
Disney scored last place in the ranking
BSI is calculated by a number of factors and the Danish toy company scored highly on familiarity, loyalty, promotion, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation and has been labelled as an “artistic medium in its own right”. Disney scored last place in the ranking, with Coca-Cola taking ninth place and Rolex securing seventh place.
In contrast, Ferrari dropped from its long held top position to fall to tenth position with the Global 500 Report stating that Ferrari’s racing team have now failed for several years to secure an F1 title and that “the sheen of glory from its 1990s golden era is wearing slightly thin”. Despite this Ferrari is still seen as a strong brand following its recent value growth. Speaking in a statement David Haigh, Brand Finance CEO, said: “Ferrari is still in a strong position and its brand value has actually increased 18% this year to $4.7 billion. The new strategy to capitalise on the brand will certainly drive short term value but over-exploitation risks lasting damage.”
While Google and Microsoft are attempting technology-industry dominance in India, some question whether local tastes will ever be aligned with these global brands.
The New Economy: Nigel, Europe of course is struggling, trying to contain the Google, the Amazons, the Starbucks, entering into the marketplace and monopolising their power. Now if Europe is struggling, why would you think that developing democracies would be able to fare far better? Nigel Eastwood:When we look at the Indian consumer, it is completely different to that in the West. You cannot mandate what goes on for an India consumer, you can’t say that one size fits all, the strategy that works in the West will work in the East. It’s wrong.
There’s got to be equality in the market, India has got to be made attractive for foreign investors
You’ve got to look from the Indian consumer perspective and take their glasses off and look at the world. That’s what Google and Microsoft may be getting wrong, and I think that’s going to be their key challenge moving forwards.
The New Economy: Now you’ve invested in a product that could be rivalled by WhatsApp. What’s to say that WhatsApp won’t wipe you out of the marketplace? Nigel Eastwood:We run a brand in India called Nimbuzz. It’s got 200 million subscribers in 210 countries. A huge proportion of those are in India. What’s different to the other businesses in the instant messaging service arena are it’s made in India for Indians.
The New Economy: So with this unique insight, tell me exactly what is different about the Indian marketplace than perhaps here in Europe. Nigel Eastwood: You’ve just got to look at the Indian consumer psyche for a moment. Whether you’ve got one rupee in the bank or ten crore in the bank, you will still try to avoid paying that one rupee. People in the West, when they come into India, don’t really realise that, and they think that their products and services will just be adopted because it’s the best thing that’s happened in more developed markets. It’s wrong. The thinking has got to change, the paradigm has got to be spun 360.
The New Economy: But of course WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. Facebook dominates in terms of tech favourites amongst the locals who are using the product, so they’re able to tap in to a certain consciousness. Who’s to say that Facebook isn’t going to invest in the same way to make sure that they are doing just that with WhatsApp? Nigel Eastwood: When I look at the landscape, there’s a lot of companies out there spending huge marketing dollar on acquiring customers, and I think that’s sort of vanity. You know those vanity metrics, when we look at 600 million subscribers and 100 million monthly active users. How engaged are they are the platform? I’ve actually paid for you to be my customer. What’s more, sanity is seeing customers that have enduring relationships with you and brand tie-in.
The New Economy: OK, but you’re not just competing with the Facebooks of the world. We’re looking at investors from Japan, China, very much wanting to take advantage of the momentum that’s being built in a Modi India. So tell me about those investors, what are they looking to invest in? Nigel Eastwood: Well I think what they are looking for are to form great strategic partnerships with gazelle-like businesses that are actually catering to the huge appetite for the internet of things in India today. So companies like ourselves that are forming new-world platforms.
I formed a platform called My Digital Life which looks at WiFi, it looks at social messaging and all its different realms, and looks at fixed-line consumer broadband and SME broadband, and brings it into a cohesive platform. That’s quite an attractive proposition. So I guess investors looking into India aren’t looking to follow another company. It’s not another ‘me too’ business that they’re looking for, it’s for a ‘follow me’ business that they’re looking for.
The New Economy: India’s in a unique place, we see a government now in place that very much is encouraging investment, but what would ever happen to these foreign investors if Modi switched and became increasingly protectionist. Is that a fear of yours? Nigel Eastwood: Yes it could be a challenge. It would be very, very foolish for the Modi government to do such a strategy.
The New Economy: But the Modi government is not a singular entity, he has to compete with aspirations of local governors as well. Certain governors are more progressive than others. So how do you think he should really contain or bring some sort of medium between all of them? Nigel Eastwood: There’s got to be equality in the market, India has got to be made attractive for foreign investors, and Mr Modi’s just got to simply manage those people that have a contrary view. Without that, the GDP growth in India is juts not going to be achieved. There’s huge infrastructure challenges, railways, roads need to be built, fibre-optic backbone, that needs public private partnerships, and direct foreign investment can help to address that.
The New Economy: Now of course you are very much immersed in the tech field. What’s going to be the next great venture, and where is it going to take off in India? Nigel Eastwood: So I believe a Google Fiber -like business could well win in India, and that’s what we’re trying to achieve ourselves. We’re creating last mile connectivity in all different areas, using a mix hybrid of technologies, of WiFi and social messaging and fixed-line connectivity. So that’s where to hockey stick growth is going to come from for connecting Indian consumers.
The New Economy: And what’s going to be the centripetal effect of India establishing its presence? What are the neighbouring countries going to do, are they going to emerge equally as great? Nigel Eastwood: I believe so, I mean as a business we’re very focused on India-like countries, such as Myanmar, maybe Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, those near countries that have got similar user norms, needs and wants as India. I think they will start to emerge, and what I truly believe is that in future people will look to India to see what can be achieved, not look to the West, not look to Silicon Valley, but be looking to India to see what really can be achieved in the future.
The New Economy: OK, well lots of excitement, I’ll be watching. Nigel Eastwood thank you so much for joining me today. Nigel Eastwood:Thank you.
Research published by the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) warns of underinvestment in dementia research due to the phenomenal cost. Eli Lilly and Pfizer have seen potential drugs fail, losing hundreds of millions of dollars, but the report cautions the economic and social costs will be far greater if funding is lost.
This situation is described as a funding fatigue among donors and drug companies
Financial and scientific challenges have meant that between 1998 and 2012 there have been 101 failed attempts to develop breakthrough drugs, with the last one introduced more than a decade ago. This situation is described as a funding fatigue among donors and drug companies, who have been cutting their number of active central nervous system programmes in half, thanks to “repeated and costly failures”. A massive change in funding is needed with experts predicting a huge increase in cases expected within a decade.
Speaking in a statement, Professor The Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH, said: “The social and economic burden of dementia is clear enough today. Yet the future costs to societies and economies will be enormous without significant intervention now to change the course of this global disease”.
The cost of care for the 44 million global dementia sufferers hit an estimated $604bn and the number of sufferers is expected to rise to 135 million by 2050. With the cost of healthcare in the US predicted to reach $1trn by 2050, the prevention of dementia, often dismissed as a common cause of aging, is believed to be the best way to lessen this social and economic burden. The report included private investment as one of a number of new funding options for dementia research, warning that “in the absence of major breakthroughs, dementia will move from a major health challenge to a global economic crisis”.
When Steve Jobs rejoined Apple Inc in 1997, having previously been ousted from the company, the firm was 90 days away from bankruptcy and, having suffered more than $1bn in losses in the last four quarters, its prospects were dim. On January 27 2015 Apple made history by reporting a profit of $18bn and became the first company worth $700bn. But as iPhone sales carry it into the history books, it has also become a company that seemingly favour iteration over innovation.
The US technology giant netted its profit, up by 37 percent, in its first fiscal quarter and sold 74.5 million iPhones in the three months to December, up by 30 percent. This growth was fuelled by record revenue from the performance of the App store as well as sales from the Mac and the iPhone, the latter of which sold 34,000 devices an hour from October to December. Apple’s impressive results caused their shares to rise by more than 5 percent but were met with a storm of questions regarding the future of such a successful global company and how long it can continue its winning streak.
Apple’s potential Achilles’ heel lies not with its ability to create a successful product, but with its ability to create a product that can top their past feats
Toni Sacconaghi, Senior Analyst at Bernstein Research, estimated in a data report that ‘iPhone contributed 100 percent of revenue growth in Q4 and has contributed ~ 105 percent of revenue growth over the last 12 months’. There is growing belief that Apple’s growth may be too reliant on the iPhone’s seven-year production line, to the point where it is driving a significant amount of the company’s revenue growth. In terms of creating a truly innovative product Apple is lagging behind companies such as Samsung who led phablets to the market. Apple appears to be taking fewer risks by focusing on reaping rewards from the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and prioritising margins, which were 39.9 percent in their fourth quarter, over innovation.
Apple is cashing in on the success of the newest iPhone models in the growing Chinese market. Research from Canalys has shown a huge popularity of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in China led Apple to take first place in the Chinese smartphone market. It overtook locally produced Xiaomi for the first time despite the average selling price of an Apple handset being almost double that of its nearest competitors. Historically sales in China have been weak but were up 70 percent year on year and came in at $16.1bn after Apple released their new bigger screened smartphone model and launched a deal in December to access China Mobile’s estimated 760 million subscribers. According to research by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech one-quarter of Chinese consumers who purchased an iPhone, in Apple’s financially successful quarter, were acquiring their first smartphone compared to 16.5 percent for the same period in 2013, this shows a wealth of untapped potential in the oriental market where Apple are likely to continue to see a surge in iPhone sales as phablet popularity grows.
The results for the first quarter of 2015 showed that Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones, 21.4 million iPads and 5.52 million Macs. These numbers show a substantial increase year on year but the noticeable slump in iPad sales continued to disappoint, falling 22 percent in 2014 from a year earlier. The iPad, Apple’s latest innovative product, was labelled groundbreaking at the time of release in 2010, but with sales falling it is unlikely the release of the iPad Air 2 will create as much hype among consumers who seem increasingly drawn to phablets. Apple has yet to convince consumers that their iPads need replacing more than every three years and, with sales expected to slow this year, the product doesn’t yet generate a fan base to rival that of the iPhone. Speaking to The New Economy, Kerem Arsal, Senior Analyst at Analysys Mason, said: “Apple knows that the iPad is suffering both from a cannibalisation from PCs and phablets, and from a lack of end-user incentive to replace the product – for good and bad reasons – and it will be paying a lot of attention to this product in 2015 to ignite a new spark like iPhone 6 did for its predecessor.”
The thinner, lighter and bigger screened iPhone 6 acts as an answer to phablet users who love Apple products. The new device gives consumers exactly what they want and its huge profits have somewhat lessened the fall of the iPad. But there is growing concern that Apple will not see a similar rush to purchase the next upgrade as the iPhone increases in size and closes the gap between the size of tablet displays. The iPhone’s improved attributes have won a religious following and record-breaking sales but the device seems to be as thin and as light as it can possibly get. While sales are booming there is an inevitable limit to the success Apple can achieve from the product, and the consumer will soon start to look for the next best thing.
In an interview with The Australian Financial Review Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari, said: “I think Apple has a dreadful problem. There is a thing called the ‘innovator’s bonus’ where you can get an extraordinary margin based on your innovation. Even though the fast followers can match your features, you get known for being the innovator, so your brand has a better image. That bonus used to have a half-life of about eight years. I think that has now shrunk to four at most. If they don’t continue with some remarkable innovation, then pretty soon their ability to charge premium prices for their products will go away.” Bushnell believes this innovator’s bonus could see the tech company crash back down to earth.
Apple currently takes 93 percent of the profits in the smartphone industry and iPhone sales show there is still room for further growth but the company’s upcoming releases may have a tough time competing. The Apple Watch, the company’s first brand new product since the iPad, is due to be released in April and its launch will be a deciding point in the future of Apple’s innovative streak. Apple needs it to be a success to boost the company’s third quarter, which will not benefit from Christmas or the Chinese New Year but Sacconaghi added that Bernstein Research see the Apple Watch being ‘only a modest contributor’ to revenue growth’. Writing for M&C Saatchi Mobile, James Ellis, mobile strategist said: “Despite the optimism and promise it has shown, the market for a digital watch may be limited. Some forecasts estimate 30 million units sold in the first year – quite limited demand when contrasted with the iPhone.”
Apple’s potential Achilles’ heel lies not with its ability to create a successful product, but with its ability to create a product that can top their past feats. Speaking to The New Economy, Mark Skilton, digital expert at PA Consulting Group, said: “iPhone 6 was an uncharacteristic strategy for Apple, emulating the Samsung phablet. The Asia market will continue to grow and the prediction is that Apple will continue for the next decade, expanding existing product lines to saturation point in these markets. With Apple product releases looking less innovative than in the past, the stock market is looking to the next 1 to 5 years.” The Apple that once revolutionised industries with its inventive technology appears to be buying time on the monumental popularity of the iPhone but, while annually iterating the same product with new updates and high price-tags may work in the short-term, this can very quickly become a long-term problem for a company that competes on serial innovation.
For the generations who grew up without digital technology, the news of this much-loved toy making a comeback brings a smile as it conjures up fond childhood-memories.
As with the Google Cardboard, affordability is a key emphasis in marketing the device
The new View-Master will be based on Google’s Cardboard technology, which simply uses a smartphone inserted into a headset in order to immerse the user into a world of virtual reality. In place of cardboard, the material used in Google’s product, Mattel brings its toy-making finesse to the partnership with a colourful, futuristic design.
Just like the original View-Master, which was launched in 1939, the device will allow users to explore famous destinations and landmarks across the globe. Images will be photospheres, thereby allowing a 360 degree viewing experience. Other gaming features are expected to be added as the product continues to be developed.
As with the Google Cardboard, affordability is a key emphasis in marketing the device. In addition, Mattel is promoting the updated View-Master as a tool for interactive learning, thereby opening up a range of possibilities in terms of educational functionality. The joint venture thus marks another attempt by Google to explore the education market, following Google Classroom, an aid for teachers, which was unveiled last year.
The new View-Master is due to be on sale later on this year for $30, with additional “experience reels” available at $15 each.
The race to dominate the car market of the future is set to become increasingly competitive with the news that Apple could be following rival tech giants Google into the electronic- and autonomous-car market.
According to reports, Apple has been aggressively hiring a number of key auto industry figures from the likes of Mercedes and BMW in recent months as it steps up its efforts to develop a car. It has also been competing with electric carmaker Tesla for talent in recent weeks, while there were rumours last year that Elon Musk’s company might have been a buy-out target for Apple.
Apple has been aggressively hiring a number of key auto industry figures from the likes of Mercedes and BMW
Reports in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend hint that the company wants to revolutionise the electronic car market with standardised charging points and deep integration with Apple services. Others speculate that Apple will be looking at autonomous cars; a technology that Google has been investing heavily in recently, but one that is not likely to see mainstream usage for a good few years.
According to the Financial Times, Apple has established a secretive new R&D laboratory that is primarily focused on autonomous vehicles. Many of the car industry staff hires – including former Mercedes head of R&D Johann Jungwirth – are reportedly working out of this facility, while Apple design chief Jonny Ive is said to have had numerous meetings with car executives in recent months.
Apple has already made tentative steps into the car market, with its CarPlay software launching last year that enables Apple services to be activated by voice control inside existing vehicles.
Rival firms like Google have been touting their own autonomous cars for a number of years now, while Tesla has led the way in innovating electronic vehicles. Taxi firm Uber has also invested in its own autonomous research facility. With Apple entering the market, however, it seems that the car industry is about to undergo a serious technological revolution.
In a country-by-country analysis of plastic waste in the sea, published by Science, scientists developed a new framework to measure mismanaged plastic waste and, for the first time, quantify the annual flow of plastic waste into the ocean from global populations living within 50km of a coast.
China tops the list of the most mismanaged waste
The research names the world’s 20 worst polluters based on the size of coastal population and national plastic production. China tops the list of the most mismanaged waste, with 3.5 million tons of marine waste produced annually. Asian nations take 13 out of the top 20 places while the US comes in at 20 on the list. The study estimates that 8 million metric tons of plastic waste flows into the sea every year, with this figure to increase to 9 million in 2015.
The researchers from the US and Australia derived a calculation that estimated the mass of plastic waste entering the ocean from each country in 2010 and then projected the increase to 2025. They projected the amount of waste based on population growth estimates and started with the overall mass of waste produced per person annually in 192 nations that have coastlines, they then worked through the proportion of that waste likely to be plastic and how much of the plastic could end up in the ocean due to each nation’s waste management practices.
“Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris,” stated Jenna Jambeck and her team in the published research paper. “Improving waste management infrastructure in developing countries is paramount and will require substantial resources and time. While such infrastructure is being developed, industrialized countries can take immediate action by reducing waste and curbing the growth of single-use plastics.”
Plastic marine debris estimates for the top 20 countries in 2010 (measured in mmt/per year) as calculated by Jambeck et al
As part of his two-year anti-corruption campaign, Xi has pledged to crack down on advertisements promoting Macau casinos and tighten visa restrictions, according to analysts. In addition, officials will monitor UnionPay, the only domestic bank in China, to track retail gamblers. The stakes are particularly high as Xi’s reforms to quash ostentatious spending squeeze revenue growth even further, leading to high rollers abandoning Macau’s tables.
Macau’s casino industry, which contributes 80 percent of government revenue, has boomed since 2002
Officials will review the 35 casinos in Macau and examine how operators have diversified away from gambling to decide who will get the greater share of the gambling tables in a new strip modelled on Las Vegas. Many of the companies that lead the city’s $44bn gaming industry have pledged billions of dollars to open more amenities such as theatres, convention centres and to emphasise good corporate culture and training for local residents, of which 90 percent are employed by the casinos.
Macau’s casino industry, which contributes 80 percent of government revenue, has boomed since 2002 and has grown into a $45bn powerhouse seven times bigger than Las Vegas. Last year its growth took a hit when revenue growth turned negative, falling by 30.4 percent in December. This saw shares fall by 30 percent to 40 percent in six months.
In comments given on Chinese state television, Xi said: “It is important for Macau to adopt a global, nationwide, future-oriented and long-term perspective, formulate appropriate plans and blueprints for its development and promote sound economic and social development.”
Focus on building a global tourism and leisure centre…promote the Macanese economy’s appropriate diversification and sustainable development. This is of great importance for the interests of the people of Macau.”
There is arguably no clearer image of mankind’s destructive influence on the planet than a forest stripped of its cover, yet connecting the dots between the affected areas and populations is a complex business. The often-made assumption is that deforestation is executed only by faceless and irresponsible organisations, operating off the radar and under the guise of another name. However, the truth is that this process fulfils an important function in the global supply chain, with over 50 percent of deforestation in the past 10 years attributable to none more than consumer demand for food, feed and fuel prices.
Palm oil, soya, beef, leather, timber, pulp and paper are all commodities that can be found in near enough every room in the developed world, and all commodities that implicate each of us in a runaway deforestation economy.
[A]ttempts to end deforestation have passed no further than the outskirts of global policy discussion, and the risks, even now, are little understood by the man on the street
True, if deforestation were stripped from the supply chain, it could mean that these demands would not be met so easily, yet the ecosystems in question represent a vital source of natural capital for the global economy; and only now are the risks and repercussions becoming clear.
Figures taken from the Global Canopy Programme’s (GCP) Forest 500 project show that $1.7tn in shareholdings are exposed to so-called “forest risk commodities”. And by drawing the data from 40,000 public and private sources, the GCP has named the 150 investors, 250 companies, 50 countries and remaining powerbrokers that control the global network of commodities and outlined what steps have been taken to reduce the damage.
For years, attempts to end deforestation have passed no further than the outskirts of global policy discussion, and the risks, even now, are little understood by the man on the street. This is despite one Bonn-based Convention on Biological Diversity in 2008 that showed damage to natural ecosystems could halve living standards for the world’s poor and wipe seven percentage points from global GDP by 2050. This is an issue that is responsible for 15 percent of all global greenhouse emissions, and with two thirds of the planet’s biological diversity on the slide, some perilously so, the findings point to a future in which the precious natural resources on which we all depend are pushed to the brink of extinction.
The issue in the main is that the above-mentioned commodities are all renewable by nature, yet the go-to methods of extraction and production are unsustainable. Detergent, chocolate and prime cut steak are all part and parcel of everyday life in the developed world, yet the present methods of production – chiefly deforestation – could bring untold consequences for future generations.
Still, there is hope yet. The New York Declaration on Forestsaims to end deforestation in the supply chain by 2020 and the Consumer Goods Forum’s 400 corporate members are committed to net zero deforestation, again before 2020. Meanwhile, similar commitments have been made at national and sub national level, (see Colombia, Norway and Liberia) and a string of corporate names have adopted policies to this same end (Groupe Danone, Kao Corporation and Nestle).
There is a discernible difference between the promises put to paper and the actual progress made by those aiming to strip deforestation from the supply chain. Studies show that governments in some of the worst affected areas are relying too heavily on industry-led voluntary initiatives, and many are questioning whether short-term growth targets can be reached without the same extent of deforestation. “However, increasing emphasis has been put on the need to transition to green economies, where development is not predicted on deforestation and short-term economic growth does not come at the expense of natural capital,” according to the Forest 500 executive summary.
While the steps taken so far are small, there is reason to believe that the cause is gaining traction. By making visible the risks, for governments, corporates and investors, the Forest 500 marks an important turning point in alerting implicated parties to the pains inflicted by the issue. And though deforestation is out of sight and out of mind for most, there is a growing consensus that more must be done to address the malpractice before it spreads any further.
A new initiative carried out by the Global Canopy Programme has identified the 500 powerbrokers of the deforestation economy and looked at what steps they have been taken to remove the issue from supply chains. After a milestone year in which numerous zero deforestation commitments have been made, the Forest 500 project looks at how key parties can increase the sustainability of forest risk commodity supply chains and protect $1.7tn in at-risk shareholdings.
The findings acknowledge that the current level of deforestation puts key commodities at risk
“The overarching goal of the Forest 500 is to provide precise and actionable information to measure the progress of investors, corporates and governments in achieving their zero deforestation commitments,” said Mario Rautner, The Global Canopy Programme’s Drivers of Deforestation Programme Manager.
Having taken from 40,000 data points, the Global Canopy Programme has identified the 250 companies, 150 investors, 50 countries and 50 additional names that control important forest risk commodities, including palm oil, pulp, leather and paper.
Among the major powerbrokers are 150 financial institutions, whose backing is vitally important in realising ambitious zero deforestation goals. “Financial organisations are a critical part of the solution to end deforestation and can be extremely influential in being able to increase the sustainability of forest risk commodity supply chains. Whilst the Forest 500 saw a number of large banks taking a leadership role in this area, unfortunately this wasn’t indicative across the sector as a whole” said Rautner in a statement. “Though the findings highlight that much work needs to be done by the investment community, for the first time the Forest 500 provides a way to measure the progress of these key actors.”
The findings acknowledge that the current level of deforestation puts key commodities at risk, not just in the developing but the developed world also, and show that without swift action on the issue, the situation could worsen. The project also found that only a small minority of those surveyed were adequately equipped to tackle the problem, and the rankings set forth examples in how best jurisdictions, companies and investors around the world can follow up on zero deforestation commitments.
Top 5 Forest 500 company scores
Groupe Danone
Kao Corp.
Nestle S.A.
Procter & Gamble Co.
Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC
Top 5 Forest 500 investor scores
HSBC Holdings Ltd.
AXA
Bank of America Corp.
BNP Paribas
Credit Suisse AG
