CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
This week, the nonprofit H&M Foundation and the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) opened two first-of-their-kind textile recycling facilities in Hong Kong, where HKRITA’s breakthrough hydrothermal recycling technology will for the first time be put into practice at scale, and a miniaturized Garment-To-Garment Recycling System is opened for the public.
WALKING THE TALK -
London’s Heathrow International Airport has chosen the winners of its inaugural Centre of Excellence Sustainable Innovation Prize, which were judged as the best solutions to some of the sustainability challenges facing airports and the aviation industry more widely.
Launched in January, the competition challenged entrants to focus on three areas as part of Heathrow’s Centre of Excellence for Sustainability work:
PRESS RELEASE -
Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Shaw) has introduced an innovative, patent-pending tool to showcase the impact ceiling and floor construction, as well as flooring and underlayment selection, have on room acoustics. Known as Sound Advisor, the web-based tool helps users make more informed design and interior product selection decisions.
CLEANTECH -
It is possible to unlock a 100 percent renewably powered grid — without any coal, nuclear or gas storage baseload — within the next several years. And any driver or homeowner could contribute to the solution by using electric vehicles (EVs) as mobile batteries that charge at one location when there’s a surge of renewable energy and deliver it back to the grid at another when it’s needed.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
VTT — the Technical Research Centre of Finland — is helping to solve the global plastic waste problem with a project called PlastBug, a mobile container unit that removes plastic waste from ocean areas and converts it into material for other uses.
"Our idea is to design a mobile container where microbes degrade plastic waste to valuable products like fuels or chemicals," says Kari Koivuranta, Principal Scientist at VTT.
PRESS RELEASE -
In this interview, John Cangany, Corporate Social Responsibility Communications Manager at Ford, talks about a zero-waste tradition dating back to founder Henry Ford, electric vehicles, human rights and sustainable manufacturing. Nicole DesNoyer, Group Production Manager at GTB, one of Ford’s communications agencies, covers sustainable printing for Ford’s annual financial report, and how Rolland’s recycled paper answered Ford’s needs.
Ford is focusing on mobility solutions and sustainable manufacturing to chart an electrified course for the future.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Is your grocery store’s meat aisle becoming obsolete? If it’s started carrying Beyond Burgers and sausages, it might be.
That’s not because meat as we know it — the kind made from animals — is disappearing (at least not yet). Rather, the credit (or blame) goes to entrepreneurs such as Beyond Meat’s Ethan Brown, who argues convincingly that “protein aisle” is not only the more accurate way to describe the offerings there, but also the best location for his own Beyond Burger, a “muscle” made from peas that is so succulent and juicy you’d swear it came from a cow.
PRESS RELEASE -
DowDuPont™ (NYSE: DWDP) announced today that it was named a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series. FTSE4Good was created by the global index provider, FTSE Russell, and is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The FTSE4Good indices are used by a wide variety of market participants to create and assess responsible investment funds and other products.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Kubota tractor parked out front is the first tip-off that Michael Crooke is not your typical executive. While other startup founders might sport a Tesla, Crooke’s home office in Ojai is a far cry from Silicon Valley. Step over the welcome mat with the Pearl Izumi mark, look up at the Patagonia surfboard in the rafters, and you realize this little converted garden shed is like a history lesson in Crooke’s path from Navy SEAL to being a leading figure in sustainable business.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Chipotle Mexican Grill announced this week that the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation will sponsor the first Chipotle Aluminaries Project, a seven-month-long accelerator program designed to help growth-stage ventures with a shared vision to cultivate a better world take their businesses to the next level.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
60 members of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles have revealed concrete action plans to ensure humane working conditions, greater environmental protection and fair wages in their own companies and in their suppliers’ production facilities. The Partnership — a multi-stakeholder coalition made up of companies, associations, NGOs, trade unions, standards organisations and the Federal German Government, formed in 2014 with the aim of making improvements along the entire textile supply chain —considers this a major step forward, as it means that many members agree on revealing even sensible information for the first time.
PRESS RELEASE -
Eastman today announces the release of its 2018 sustainability report, Changing the trajectory. Building on the company’s progress, the report provides a review of Eastman’s sustainability strategy and goals as well as highlights from the past year. The interactive report is available online at www.eastman.com/sustainability.
PRESS RELEASE -
Atlanta, GA - UPS (NYSE:UPS) today announced a collaboration with Thor Trucks, Inc. to develop and test a fully-electric class 6 delivery truck in Los Angeles, Calif. The truck is expected to be ready for deployment later this year.
UPS continues to work with a range of companies to test and deploy promising alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles that will help it meet its sustainability goals. Electric vehicles, and the charging infrastructure needed to support them, play a critical role in UPS’s vision for its fleet of the future.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Grocery stores, restaurants and coffee shops have wholeheartedly embraced the slow food movement, with phrases such as "certified organic," "fair-trade" and "all-natural" plastered across product packaging and menus. While each of these designations means something specific, in the eyes of many along the supply chain including the end user, they all can deliver a similar message of high quality.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
FoodBytes! — the global pitch competition/networking event by Rabobank, a premier global food and agribusiness bank, has announced the 20 food and ag startups that will get a chance to pitch their ideas at the inaugural FoodBytes! London in September.
PRESS RELEASE -
The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of the world's leading food and beverage companies, and national nonprofit The Recycling Partnership today announced the launch of "All In On Recycling," the largest ever industry-wide residential recycling challenge to make recycling easier for 25 million families across the country – providing them with the resources they need to recycle more and recycle better.
PRESS RELEASE -
Loop Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq:LOOP), a global leader in sustainable packaging innovation, announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent with L’Oréal Group, the global leader in the beauty industry setting the stage for L’Oréal to become the first major cosmetics company in the world to close the loop on their PET plastic packaging by incorporating Loop™ PET.
This collaboration between L’Oréal Group and Loop will further accelerate the transition to the circular plastic economy. Thanks to Loop’s breakthrough technology, waste PET plastic and polyester fiber that once made its way to landfills, incinerators and our shared natural areas, rivers and oceans can now be diverted and converted into Loop™ PET to be endlessly upcycled.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A process that turns wood pulp into yarn and a vegan wool alternative made from hemp and coconut fibers have respectively earned a spot in Fashion for Good’s Scaling Programme and a prize in the 2018 Biodesign Challenge.
PRESS RELEASE -
Columbia University and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new Center devoted to research, education, and innovation in blockchain technology and data transparency. To advance compelling new ways to apply blockchain and help address growing demands around data transparency, the Center will also include an innovation accelerator to incubate business ideas from entrepreneurial students, faculty and members of the startup community.