Outdated Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guides remain under review
Consumers are increasingly seeking to select products which can be environmentally friendly, which is especially true for younger consumers. Recognizing this, firms have redoubled their efforts to spotlight their environmental credentials, at times making eco-friendliness a significant a part of the corporate ethos and in some cases putting carbon footprint labels alongside nutrition labels. That has opened manufacturers as much as accusations of greenwashing (providing misleading or inaccurate environmental claims). Oatly is the primary example that involves mind for me. The oat milk producer put environmental friendliness at the middle of its edgy promoting campaign and received pushback from an investment firm shorting the corporate’s shares and had ads banned within the U.K. after environmental claims were found to be misleading.
Clearly, there must be a referee or there will probably be limitless claims and counterclaims serving everyone’s self-interest. To avoid disruptions and even lawsuits related to greenwashing, one strategy is for manufacturers to tie their environmental claims to guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides. The problem is that the Green Guides are badly outdated, last updated in 2012. Since then, environmentally conscious Gen Z has emerged with pricing power and climate change concerns have intensified.
The FTC announced in December that its Green Guides are under review, and it has been soliciting input in a comment period that ended April 23. The target is to assist marketers avoid unfair or deceptive marketing claims. Areas where the Green Guides could also be revised include carbon/climate (to incorporate additional detail), the term “recyclable” (might be revised for containers which can be picked up by recyclers but not ultimately recycled), and the term “recycled content.” Pertaining to the last two areas, on May 23, the FTC is hosting a workshop on recyclability and recycled-content claims. The Consumer Brands Association, which supports updated Green Guides, is advocating for national recycling rules quite than 1000’s of various recycling rules throughout the country that hurt recycling rates.
Regulations on carbon claims are perhaps the portion of the Green Guides most in need of revision. The present rules pertain to carbon offset claims stating that marketers must have competent and reliable evidence to support carbon offset claims and use appropriate accounting methods. As more firms add carbon labels, issues that need clarification include what appropriate accounting methods are, reminiscent of whether carbon calculations include all parts of the provision chain, and the way carbon is allocated for a producing plant that produces a big selection of products. One other query is certainly one of benchmarking — a label with the liters of carbon doesn’t mean much unless it’s in comparison with some industry standard or average.
Tyson shares fall to 3-year low as meat processors grapple with livestock costs
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After record profits in 2021, the Biden administration targeted the meat processing industry in early 2022, concluding that the high concentration within the meat processing industry is unfairly burdening consumers and driving down prices ranchers receive for livestock. Recent Tyson results suggest that the 2021 profits were as a substitute attributable to temporary market forces which have reversed and are actually working against the meat processors. Now, the meat export markets have softened and consumers are shifting away from dearer proteins, reminiscent of beef and pork. As well as, ranchers are raising smaller livestock herds following droughts and high feed costs. On Monday, Tyson cut its sales guidance for the 12 months from 0%-1% growth from the prior guidance of three%-7% growth and cut the margin guidance for its chicken, meat and pork segments by 200-300 basis points. In recent weeks, the meat processing giant also announced that it is going to cut 10% of its corporate positions and 15% of its corporate leadership positions — all while it continues to struggle to search out employees for front-line positions at plants — a lot of which it hopes to automate.
How AI can reduce inefficiencies for shippers, in response to Vorto
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On Monday’s The Stockout show, CEO Priyesh Ranjan and Strategic Adviser Ramesh Chikkala described how their company, Vorto, can use AI to automate shippers’ and carriers’ supply chains. There may be tremendous inefficiency within the freight markets that is essentially the results of capability disruptions from drivers moving across the industry to chase a couple of extra cents per mile. Using a mixture of predictive analytics and high-frequency data that responds to events that can’t be anticipated, Vorto intends to streamline and automate logistics within the retail and CPG industries, because it has already done within the energy industry. To that end, the corporate brought on strategic adviser Chikkala, who spent 11 years as a senior vice chairman at Walmart, in addition to one other strategic adviser with a Procter & Gamble background. See the complete interview here.
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