PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Superfood social enterprise Kuli Kuli has announced a partnership with the Clinton Foundation and a Haitian nonprofit, the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA), to develop a new moringa supply chain in Haiti. Earlier this month, Chelsea Clinton met with Haitian women moringa farmers.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
This week, Domtar Corporation released its 2015 Sustainability Report, highlighting its environmental leadership in fiber-based product production and its support of sustainable harvesting.Among its most notable accomplishments, the company self-generated 74 percent of the electricity used in its pulp and paper mills through cogeneration technologies and hydropower, outpacing the US pulp and paper industry average of 59 percent. Nearly two-thirds of this self-generated energy came from renewable fuel derived from its pulping chemical recovery process and from wood residuals left over from log debarking.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Today, Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) announced it is committing to retire roughly 7,000 hectares (~17,300 acres) of commercial plantation areas to protect threatened carbon-rich peatlands — the first time that plantations on tropical peatland have been retired for conservation purposes worldwide.Peatland development in Indonesia represents one of the single largest terrestrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the world1. Retiring these plantation areas will help support the Government of Indonesia’s target of a 26 percent reduction in emissions by 2020.
COLLABORATION -
The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a global industry network driven by its members to encourage the adoption of practices and standards that serve the consumer goods industry worldwide, has announced publication of the first-ever Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing Guidelines.
CLEANTECH -
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday announced $63 million in loans and grants for 264 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects nationwide that USDA is supporting through its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).Eligible agricultural producers and rural small businesses may use REAP funds to make energy efficiency improvements or install renewable energy systems, including solar, wind, renewable biomass, small hydroelectric, ocean energy, hydrogen and geothermal.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Agriculture consumes close to 70 percent of water demand, but a significant 10 percent goes to domestic applications, such as maintaining lawns and other landscaping.Arguably, the best and most sustainable course of action is to let your lawn die and plant indigenous landscapes but, realistically, not everyone is going to do that. The next-best thing, however, would be to find a way to maintain non-native landscaping using as little water as possible.A company called Blue Marble hopes to help people do just that by leveraging Internet of Things technology to conserve water during domestic irrigation.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Earlier this year, the Des Moines Water Works announced plans to sue three Iowa counties over high concentrations of nitrates from agricultural runoff. At the same time, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation issued its biennial report on the state of the Chesapeake, giving it a D+ and highlighting phosphorus runoff from agriculture operations. And then there was the city of Toledo shutting down the water supply in the summer of 2014 due to a harmful algal bloom that may have been caused, in part, by runoff from over-fertilized fields.You’d be forgiven for thinking that water quality impacts of the food and ag supply chain are on consumers’ radars.But they’re not.
WASTE NOT -
A new study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology highlights the progress of the notoriously water-consumptive almond industry in becoming carbon-emission neutral or even carbon negative. The research, undertaken by UC Davis scientists, highlights the carbon capture potential of almond orchards and concludes that reusing byproducts from almond production and harvest is critical to the industry’s environmental impact and emissions reduction.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Farmers have tilled the soil - turning it as preparation for planting - for millennia. But that legacy is under scrutiny today as “soil health” has entered the vernacular – at least amongst people aware of prevailing agri-trends such as those recently discussed in the New York Times.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
At Levi Strauss & Co., our sustainability thinking has traditionally begun at the cotton stage of the product life cycle. The cotton is picked, ginned, spun, and woven into fabric. The fabric is cut, sewn, and finished into a pair of jeans before being sent to a distribution center, then on to your favorite store where the jeans are sold to you.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Third International Conference on Financing for Development was held in Ethiopia this week, gathering top government officials to discuss initial implementation plans for the UN’s post-2015 development agenda.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Dow Chemical Company, the “Official Chemistry Company” of the Olympic Games and Official Carbon Partner of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, announced Tuesday that Dow AgroSciences Brazil is working with Brazilian farmers from the state of Mato Grosso to implement more sustainable agricultural practices that will generate climate benefits for the mitigation of Rio 2016’s direct carbon footprint.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Mission-driven coffee startup THRIVE Farmers was recently recognized as the second-fastest growing company in Georgia by The Association for Corporate Growth in Atlanta.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
General Mills announced a major move toward cage-free eggs this week as part of an updated animal welfare policy that now extends throughout its global supply chain.The Minnesota-based food giant committed itself to 100 percent cage-free eggs for its U.S. operations, a move several other large companies also have taken recently. The company did not set a deadline but said it will work with its suppliers to determine a "reasonable timeline," given the disruption that bird flu has caused to the U.S. egg supply.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
London’s first subterranean farm will begin selling produce to its first commercial client later this month, marking a breakthrough for the city’s urban farming.
LEADERSHIP -
On Tuesday and Wednesday in Chicago, BASF is hosting a Science Symposium, gathering academics and thought leaders from a variety of disciplines to discuss the challenge of sustaining global food production.The event, “Sustainable Food Chain – From Field to Table,” is part of BASF’s yearlong program to celebrate its 150th anniversary, during which it will collaborate with multiple stakeholders to “co-create” solutions to global issues including smart energy, food and urban living.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A new report suggests the U.S. biobased products industry has a notable impact on the nation’s economy. It is the first research effort to quantify the effect of this industry from an economics and jobs perspective, according to U.S. Agricultural Secretary, Tom Vilsack.“Before, we could only speculate at the incredible economic impact of the biobased products industry. Now, we know that in 2013 alone, America’s biobased industry contributed four million jobs and $369 billion to our economy,” Vilsack said.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
For more than three years, BASF, Cargill and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH have worked together to promote sustainable coconut oil and improve the living conditions of coconut farmers in the Philippines. This week they’ve announced the establishment of the world’s first certified production of copra, the dried coconut flesh needed to process coconut oil. The project on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is partly financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the develoPPP.de programme.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Member companies of the Pacific Alliance for Sustainable Tuna, representing 93 percent of tuna production in Mexico, have announced they will refrain from fishing Pacific Bluefin tuna until 2020.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Today, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) released a new progress report, titled Testing Commitments to Cut Conflict Palm Oil, ranking the relative strength of palm oil commitments made since the launch of its Snack Food 20 campaign two years ago. The 2015 progress report shines a spotlight on the laggards in the Snack Food 20 and outlines the actions that these companies — as well as the frontrunners who are pushing ahead on their commitments — can and must take to rapidly cut Conflict Palm Oil from our food system.