| JAPAN: Nissan to Slash Payroll, Pare Japanese Output by John Murphy, Wall Street Journal February 9th, 2009 Nissan Motor Co. Monday announced plans to slash more than 20,000 jobs world-wide, shift production out of Japan and seek government assistance from Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere, part of a broad new effort by the Japanese car maker to weather the economic downturn. |
| US: U.S. jewelry retailers oppose large Alaska gold mine by Mary Pemberton, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 12th, 2008 Just in time for Valentine's Day, five of the leading U.S. jewellers have sworn off gold that someday could come from the Pebble Mine, a huge deposit being scoped out by a subsidiary of a Canadian company near the world's most productive wild sockeye salmon stream in southwestern Alaska. |
| GLOBAL: False 'Green' Ads Draw Global Scrutiny
by Tom Wright, Wall Street Journal January 30th, 2008 With companies eager to tout their "green" credentials to consumers, advertising watchdogs are stepping up efforts to rein in marketers that make false or exaggerated claims. |
| US: McDonald’s Ending Promotion on Jackets of Children’s Report Cards
by STUART ELLIOTT, New York Times January 18th, 2008 McDonald’s has decided to stop sponsoring Happy Meals as rewards for children with good grades and attendance records in elementary schools in Seminole County, Fla. |
| INDIA: Many rescued child laborers in India soon back at another dismal job by Heidi J. Shrager, Chronicle Foreign Service December 23rd, 2007 A 2006 report by the Child Welfare Committee found that 12 of 22 children from a village in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar were re-trafficked, mostly to different states, within a year after being rescued from a Delhi hand-embroidery sweatshop. |
| CHINA/US: The Recalls’ Aftershocks by Louise Story and David Barboza, New York Times December 22nd, 2007 Toy makers are investigating whether they need to treat their tainted products with stabilization chemicals or if they must seal the toys in giant polyethylene bags. |
| US: Charity’s Share From Shopping Raises Concern by Stephanie Strom, New York Times December 13th, 2007 Increasingly, nonprofit experts are questioning one of the fastest-growing sectors of giving, the practice of building a donation into the purchase of items. Such giving is unregulated and, in most cases, unaccountable — and no one knows who, if anyone, is claiming a tax deduction for it. |
| GERMANY: FSC's 'Green' Label for Wood Products Gets Growing Pains by Tom Wright and Jim Carlton, Wall Street Journal October 30th, 2007 The Forest Stewardship Council -- a widely recognized third-party labeling system to identify "green" wood and paper products -- has acknowledged that some companies using its label are destroying pristine forests and says it plans to overhaul its rules. |
| UK: Three 'face jail' over Ikea deals BBC News Online September 7th, 2007 A supplier and two employees of the furniture giant Ikea have admitted to using bribes in purchasing deals. |
| US: Lead found in more baby bibs? Bibs sold in Toys R Us, Babies R Us questioned
by Anna Marie Kukec, Daily Herald August 16th, 2007 A California consumer group said Wednesday it has filed a legal action against Toys R Us and Babies R Us for selling vinyl baby bibs said to contain high levels of lead. |
| WORLD: We must count the true cost of cheap China by Richard McGregor, Financial Times August 2nd, 2007 In the wake of the multiple scandals over tainted Chinese food and drug exports in recent months, Chinese goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. But the fact that wrongly labelled foods, liquor and pharmaceuticals have routinely sickened and even killed people en masse in China has been largely overlooked. |
| US: Mattel Recalls One Million Toys by Louise Story , New York Times August 2nd, 2007 Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products’ surfaces are covered in lead paint. According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China. |
| MEXICO: Thousands of Unpaid Teens Bag Groceries for Wal-Mart by Joseph Contreras, Newsweek August 1st, 2007 Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. Wal-Mart is Mexico's largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico-and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. |
| US: SEC Suspends Online Listing Of Companies Tied to Terrorism by Deborah Solomon and Neil King , Wall Street Journal July 20th, 2007 Amid a barrage of criticism, the Securities and Exchange Commission is temporarily suspending an online list intended to spotlight companies doing business in countries tied to terrorism. |
| CHINA: Lead Toxins Take a Global Round Trip by Gordon Fairclough, The Wall Street Journal July 12th, 2007 High levels of toxic lead turning up in cheap jewelry from China are prompting recalls in the U.S. But some of the lead used by these Chinese manufacturers comes from an unconventional source: computers and other electronic goods discarded in Western countries and dumped in China. |
| NETHERLANDS: Shell ordered to withdraw 'misleading' Dutch ad that made environmental claims by James Kanter, The International Herald Tribune July 5th, 2007 Royal Dutch Shell has been ordered to withdraw an advertisement in the Netherlands that sought to portray the oil giant as environmentally friendly, and British authorities said Thursday they had opened a formal investigation in the case. |
| CHINA: The Growing Dangers of China Trade by Jyoti Thottam, TIME Magazine June 28th, 2007 Growing concerns over the safety of everyday goods manufactured in China and imported to the US have thrown into relief the problematic (and dangerous) differences in safety and regulatory standards between the two countries. |
| US: Green like money: Activists counter PG&E's greenwashing by Amanda Witherell, SF Bay Guardian January 31st, 2007 During a so-called green fair at the LGBT center in San Francisco, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG & E) unveiled a $170,000 gift of solar panels for the roof of the building. But activists complain that this recent move is a greenwashing tactic, to make this corporation, which owns a mere 0 percent solar and 2 percent wind, appear green when it is in fact not. |
| US: US farming watchdog accuses Wal-Mart of mis-selling by Stephen Foley in New York, Independent (UK) January 21st, 2007 Wal-Mart, the controversial retailing giant, is under investigation in the US over allegations it is trying to pass off non-organic foods as organic. |
| US: Gates Foundation faces multibillion-dollar dilemma by Kristi Heim, Seattle Times January 14th, 2007 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation owns shares of BP — a company accused of fouling the air with its oil refinery and paper mill in South Africa. Since the foundation spends billions of dollars to improve the health of Africans, that investment strategy would seem to conflict with its mission. |