CSR Minute: Consumer Goods Forum's Global Packaging Project; Fonkoze Financial Services Opens for Business in Haiti

Some of the world’s largest brands and packaging manufacturers have joined forces to create new, common standards to measure the sustainability of packaging. Coca-Cola, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, and other major companies met recently in Toronto for the Global Packaging Project, an effort run by the Consumer Goods Forum and co-chaired by representatives from Kraft Foods and the UK’s Tesco chain of supermarkets. They say the goal is to create a shared global industry metrics, definitions of sustainability in packaging that can be used universally. And we’ll be sure to follow their progress.
 
The US government has facilitated a $2 million dollar transfer from City National Bank of New Jersey to 34 branches of Fonkoze, a Haitian microfinance institution. The funds were transferred from CNB to JP Morgan in Miami and divided into 34 packets of cash, which were then delivered by military helicopter to Fonkoze’s 34 branches throughout the island. Fonkoze was the only bank able to open for customers to make withdrawals and to receive money transfers immediately following the earthquake.
 
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For more information on today's sponsor, go to Jaffe Management.