This week we have a winner who plans to invest more than $100 million in clean energy and energy efficiency with a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent in the next decade. This week's loser has issued a recall for 206,668 vehicles over a minor malfunction with windshield wipers.
Winner
General Mills CEO Ken Powell announced Monday the company's goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not just in its own operations, but "from farm to fork to landfill" worldwide.
Powell said the company is taking action because climate change will have an adverse effect on business.
"We think that human-caused greenhouse gas causes climate change and climate volatility and that's going to stress the agricultural supply chain, which is very important to us," Powell said. "Obviously we depend on that for our business, and we all depend on that for the food we eat."
General Mills intends to work with suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint as well and expand efforts throughout the entire supply chain.
This move is not only business-smart, it's earth-smart. For that reason, General Mills is this week's winner.
Loser
Fiat Chrysler has been in numerous headlines lately, and unfortunately not all of them are favorable to the company's reputation.
This week, the company is recalling 206,668 Jeep Cherokee SUVs because the windshield wipers can stop working unexpectedly.
This is costing the company money and credibility with consumers considering it follows a slew of problems and recalls.
Less than three weeks ago, Fiat Chrysler recalled 85,816 Chrysler 200 sedans due to an electrical problem. In the end of July, the company recalled more than 1.6 million vehicles for multiple reasons including potential unexpected airbag deployment, faulty impact sensors and — perhaps one of the more prominent reasons — to update software following an event in which two hackers were able to take control of a Jeep Cherokee SUV over the internet. Fiat Chrysler also faced a hefty fine in late July of $105 million after the company failed to complete 23 recalls involving more than 11 million vehicles.
The Jeep brand alone has faced recent issues such as complaints about newer Jeep SUVs rolling away unexpectedly and post-crash fires involving several Jeep models with rear-mounted gas tanks.
This is just another recall to tack on to a series of negative revelations, and it could potentially deter consumers who view the vehicles as unsafe or low-quality products. That's why Fiat Chrysler is this week's loser.