BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Ned Bell has no shortage of opinions about seafood. He grew up fishing Pacific salmon off the west coast of Canada and now evangelizes for the future of fish as the founder of Chefs for Oceans and the executive chef at Ocean Wise, a nonprofit organization based at the Vancouver Aquarium that develops criteria for sustainable seafood and lends its logo to vendors and restaurants that meet its standards.
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 -
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.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
It’s estimated that nearly 8 million tons of plastic flow into our oceans every year; even more goes into landfills. While there are many great companies focused on recovering this plastic, there is one developing a plan for what to do with those millions of tons after the cleanup is done.
WASTE NOT -
Litter. It seems like such a ‘60s word, but it’s time to dust it off and rethink it — especially in the context of plastics and Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs).
Start with the fact that more than 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the environment annually, much of it into our oceans. That’s almost 3 percent (and perhaps more) of all plastic produced annually.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Can market solutions and innovative technologies help the world solve its growing ocean crisis? That’s what the nonprofit Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) hopes, as it recently launched a new startup incubator program in Silicon Valley, the Ocean Solutions Accelerator, with five companies in the initial cohort.
WASTE NOT -
Following Vancouver’s approval of a strategic plan to achieve zero waste and phase out plastic straws and other select packaging, its neighbor to the south is also taking action. Seattle recently became the first major U.S.
WASTE NOT -
It’s a tough time to be a plastic straw producer. Over the past few months, it seems the message has broken through that plastic straws are harmful to the environment – and marine life in particular – that phase outs and bans are warranted.
PRESS RELEASE -
BillerudKorsnäs, a sustainability leader in the global packaging industry and provider of packaging solutions, is encouraging action against ocean litter in a series of just-announced U.S. events, in theme with this year's World Oceans Day. The Swedish company has outlined an ambitious mission to challenge conventional packaging and bring more sustainable practices to the industry.
"Between the growing chorus from consumers to address single-use packaging waste to reports from ocean researchers on declining ocean health, the problem of ocean litter has reached critical awareness," said Peter Malmqvist, BillerudKorsnäs Marketing Director, Americas. "What we need now is collaboration for sustainable development."
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
New research released by environmental charity Hubbub reveals that 44 percent of people in the UK don’t realize that synthetic fibres such as polyester, acrylic or nylon are actually plastic. Despite that synthetic clothing is on the rise – it now accounts for an estimated 60 percent of all clothing produced – many are unaware of what the microfibres they release and the resulting threats to the environment.
WASTE NOT -
Awareness of our plastic waste problem continues to grow, prompting campaigns and corporate action around the world.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A new digital platform aims to make sustainable business decisions easier for the fashion industry. By matching actors along the supply chain and providing data-driven, solutions-focused information, Common Objective (CO) hopes to improve the day-to-day practices of textiles and clothing companies around the world.
LEADERSHIP -
As we at Sustainable Brands — and anyone working to rectify the damage people have done to the planet — are well aware, it's all too easy to ignore pressing social and environmental issues if their effects can’t be seen or felt in our daily lives.
After a life-altering excursion across three continents, SoulBuffalo CEO and founder Dave Ford was determined to find a way to change this, by taking those just as responsible for causing as solving many of these issues — global corporate decision-makers — out into the wild to experience the effects of their business decisions with their own senses.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
As the amount of single-use plastic in the world's oceans continues to grow, National Geographic is announcing a new, global commitment to tackle this pressing problem. On Wednesday, the media giant launched Planet or Plastic?, a multiyear initiative aimed at raising awareness of this challenge and reducing the amount of single-use plastic that enters the world's oceans.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
People of all ages are more aware of their impact on the planet’s limited resources and ecosystem health than ever before. Packaging is of particular concern, prompting this year’s Earth Day theme: end plastic pollution.
“I’d like more people to take care of the Earth,” said Yasmine, a 7th grader in the Garden Club at Montgomery Middle School in San Diego, CA. Fellow club member Daisy, also in 7th grade, agrees. “People can use more reusable bags instead of plastic,” Daisy added. “We have lots of reusable bags at home. When we do get plastic bags, we reuse them.”
WALKING THE TALK -
Last year saw unprecedented natural disasters across the globe – from wildfires in California to record-breaking hurricanes in the U.S. Gulf Coast, eastern seaboard, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. At the same time, scientists warn that the risks posed by climate change are even more dire than predicted and will lead to even bigger impacts on heat and extreme weather. Combined, this has led to a spike in environmental consciousness, not only for the American people, but for businesses across the globe.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
The Procter & Gamble Company today announced it has achieved many of its 2020 environmental sustainability goals, has plans in place to meet the rest and has established new, broad-reaching goals for 2030.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
We’re increasingly living in a world of purpose-led brands, as growing numbers of consumers are more interested than ever in the “big world” issues related to the products they buy, and how they use them. And yet, when it comes to the sustainability sector, we still struggle to apply some of the most basic communications principles to the issues we are trying to solve.
WASTE NOT -
Corporate action to tackle the mounting problem of ocean plastics is on the rise with new commitments and cross-industry initiatives cropping up regularly.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A new online tool developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and social enterprise Searious Business could help stem the massive tide of microplastics entering the world’s oceans each year. The tool, dubbed Plastic Scan, allows businesses to measure their plastic emissions and provides recommendations on how to reduce impact across the textile supply chain.