CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) praised Proctor & Gamble (P&G) this week after the family, personal care and household products company expanded its chemical disclosure. P&G has listed the ingredients it uses in its fragrances and scents on its website since 2012, but a list of over 140 fragrance chemicals that it excludes from its products was added on Monday.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Biofuels have been a topic in aviation sector corporate responsibility for several years, leading to numerous initiatives from airplane manufacturers and airlines to advance their research and development. Boeing, for example, has been working with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other partners towards a goal of producing 1 billion gallons of aviation biofuel by 2018.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
According to the United Nations, 1.2 billion people live in areas of physical water scarcity and another 1.6 billion people face economic water shortage or lack the infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers, making water scarcity one of the most significant global problems to be faced this century.
CLEANTECH -
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is funding a project to cultivate microalgae as biomass for fuels and an array of consumer products. The microscopic single-cell organisms could unlock an affordable way to generate energy using only sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO2).
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Whether the presidential candidates pay attention to it or not, climate change is a looming threat. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation was considered to be the greatest global risk in the World Economic Forum’s newly-released 2016 Global Risks Report. Luckily, researchers are making progress on mitigation and adaptation solutions to combat the changing temperatures, thanks to beetles and adaptive building materials.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
New research on natural materials has the potential to unlock innovations in packaging, clean energy, and other industries. Fructose, a sugar found in many plants, and calcium carbonate, the material that crystallizes into chalk, shells, and rocks, have each led to chemical discoveries.DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) have developed a methodology that uses fructose to produce cost-efficient, renewable chemicals and polymers for plastics and textiles.
WASTE NOT -
Energy, water, waste, chemical consumption and support for local communities are now issues that hotels may take into consideration when adopting a sustainability approach, whether they do so for ethical, financial, or branding reasons. However, one fundamental aspect of hotel operation remains neglected - one with a staggering environmental impact that’s not included in the criteria for the most advanced green hotel certification schemes. And it can cause tremendous damage to a hotel’s income statement. Too often considered a necessary evil by hoteliers, food waste is the elephant in the room that the vast majority of operators still try hard to ignore.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Researchers from Australia’s Flinders University say they have found a “dirt cheap” solution to mercury contamination. Dr. Justin Chalker and his students have developed a dark red polymer from industrial waste products — sulphur and limonene — that turns bright yellow when it absorbs mercury. The color change allows the material to be a mercury detector on top of its remediation capabilities.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A report released Thursday by national women’s health non-profit Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) exposes the failings of the fragrance industry’s self-regulated safety program.
PRESS RELEASE -
At the SEPAWA Congress 2015, BASF will present new types of the readily biodegradable chelating agent Trilon® M, which has established itself in the market as the high-performance phosphate alternative for automatic dishwashing detergents. EU regulations stipulate that phosphate will be virtually prohibited for this application in Europe from 2017. In the US, 16 states have already banned phosphate in this application since 2010.Trilon® M binds the hard water ions particularly effectively and prevents limescale buildup on the dishes during the dishwashing cycle. It is readily biodegradable and fulfills the criteria for the EU Ecolabel.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Environmental health non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) has launched its new verification program to help consumers quickly and easily identify consumer goods that do not contain toxic ingredients. The EWG VERIFIED: For Your Health™ mark will appear on personal care products and cosmetics that meet criteria set by EWG scientists.
PRESS RELEASE -
Sovermol® 830 promotes sustainable development for industrial flooring systems, coatings exposed to potable water and semi-structural adhesivesExcellent hardening and mechanical characteristics even under difficult conditionsBASF has extended its range of high-quality bio-based polyols sold under the Sovermol® trademark. The products are used for manufacturing extremely low-emission 2K PU coatings for interior and exterior applications. With Sovermol 830 BASF is launching a new polyol that makes indoor floorings, e.g. in industrial warehouses or sports halls, more resistant.
PRESS RELEASE -
Trilon® M Max as the high-performance phosphate alternative for automatic dishwashing detergentsExtra benefits in terms of enhanced formulation flexibility and esthetic choice of the end productTrilon® Ultimate as 2-in-1 solution for improved stability and extra glass protectionLudwigshafen, Germany – October 14, 2015 – At the SEPAWA Congress 2015, BASF will present new types of the readily biodegradable chelating agent Trilon® M, which has established itself in the market as the high-performance phosphate alternative for automatic dishwashing deterge
WASTE NOT -
It seems increasingly likely that certain types of worms could be an amazing solution to our plastic problem — and that we may eat them and their cousins afterwards.Last week, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a risk profile to address the potential biological, chemical and environmental hazards as well as allergenicity associated with the use of farmed insects as food and feed.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Target has improved its sustainable product standard by beginning to test category-specific criteria and consider more toxic chemicals. The retailer’s Sustainable Product Index evaluates products based on a points system and the highest-scoring options are promoted under its “Made to Matter” banner.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Unilever have announced a research collaboration to develop groundbreaking scientific approaches to better assess the safety of chemicals found in some consumer products without using animal data.The alternative approaches represent the first steps in a paradigm shift for chemical safety testing and risk assessment by making them faster, cheaper and more relevant to humans. These new tools will provide a robust scientific basis for assessing and managing chemical safety and efficiently quantifying human health risks for thousands of chemicals.
LEADERSHIP -
The latest quarterly sector research report from CDP ranks companies in one of the highest-emitting sectors — diversified chemicals — based on a number of emissions-related metrics which, in aggregate, could have a material impact on company performance. It reveals which companies in the sector are best prepared for the future in developing sustainable products, enhancing efficiency or addressing regulatory change across sector-specific environmental metrics.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Kodak today opened a new manufacturing line at its Columbus, Georgia facility that will produce its KODAK SONORA Process Free Plates. Kodak says SONORA Process Free Plates deliver the productivity, quality and print capabilities of mainstream processed plates while eliminating the water, chemical and energy use required by processed plates, without sacrificing quality or productivity..
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Knowing how conventional cotton is grown and denim is made, always-a-better-way outdoor apparel brand Patagonia has set out to change the industry. The company has partnered with chemical company Archroma on a new denim collection, launched this week — which is Fair Trade certified and said to use 84 percent less water, 30 percent less energy and 25 percent less CO2 compared to conventional denim dyeing processes — as well as a campaign telling us all about it.
WASTE NOT -
U.S. Water Services, a water treatment company providing industrial and commercial water management, has announced a breakthrough in sustainable chemistry for cooling water treatment.The PhosZero™ family of water treatment products is designed to provide scale and corrosion control similar to “traditional” phosphorus containing chemistries, but without the discharge or aquatic toxicity of older technologies.The PhosZero products are made with E-FexTM technology, which the company says includes the following benefits: