Stories About Circular Economy
Found 597 stories. Page 25 of 30.
Portfolio of Cradle to Cradle Certified Materials Launched for the Fashion Industry
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - Fashion designers have long asked for a place to find materials they know are healthier for people and the planet — and now they have one. The new Fashion Positive Materials Collection, which debuted this week, includes 39 materials for fashion applications that are Cradle to Cradle Certified or have received a Material Health Certificate, which at higher levels of certification ensures safe materials suitable for circular design.
Study Shows Circular Economy Should Be ‘Key Instrument’ in Climate Strategy
THE NEXT ECONOMY - This month, countries are beginning to formally ratify commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, and Environment Ministers from across Europe met to finalize the approval of the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan.
Trending: Food Waste Improvement Still Needed; Washing, Circular Solutions Here to Help
WASTE NOT - Increasing prevention of food waste could save grocery retailers and food manufacturers in the United Kingdom £300 million a year, according to a recent analysis by the waste reduction experts at WRAP, but the task is easier said than done.
Trending: Chemical Plant, Nutrient Recovery Facility Bring Circular Economy One Step Closer
THE NEXT ECONOMY - Two new industrial facilities that will bring the circular economy one step closer were officially opened in Europe on Friday: a carbon dioxide-based chemical plant in Germany and a nutrient recovery facility in the Netherlands. The transition from a linear take-make-waste economy to one which keeps materials ‘circulating’ for as long as possible (or, ideally, indefinitely) has been an international priority in the continent.
3M, Aveda, Target Among Members of New Coalition Aimed at Advancing Circular Economy in U.S.
THE NEXT ECONOMY - Today, more than 25 businesses and organizations announce the launch of the Minnesota Sustainable Growth Coalition, a business-led public-private partnership harnessing their collective expertise to advance the next frontier of corporate sustainability – the circular economy.
Latest C2C Product Design Challenge Spawns Circular Solutions for Packaging, Footwear, Housing, Food Waste
THE NEXT ECONOMY - Today, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute announced the winners of the third Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge. The series of six global design challenges running from 2015 through 2017 are presented by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Autodesk, and made possible by the Alcoa Foundation.
New Track and Trace Tool Enables Transparent, Circular Supply Chains
CLEANTECH - A new cloud-based platform for supply chain management promises to enhance transparency and help producers transition to circular models, starting with the apparel industry. In collaboration with software provider Improvement IT, Netherlands-based Dutch Awearness has launched an online software tool called the Circular Content Management System (CCMS) to help track and trace garments and their materials.
Business, NGO Leaders Stress the Need for the Circular Economy in New Short Film
THE NEXT ECONOMY - A new 18-minute documentary film, Circularity: Preparing for the New Economy, calls for a radical overhaul of current economic systems. Featuring commentary from a number of business analysts, the film provides an overview of what the “circular economy” is and the opportunities for growth that it presents.
How Big Brands, Small Startups Have Partnered to Push the Circular Economy
WASTE NOT - “It didn’t make sense to me — to make a bunch of products that use a lot of materials, and then throw it away,” Scott Hamlin, co-founder at Looptworks, said during a Tuesday breakout session on partnerships in the circular economy at Sustainable Brands '16 San Diego. What Hamlin saw was a broken apparel industry, which focused on the traditional take-make-waste model. That’s why the social entrepreneur decided to found a company that doesn’t use virgin materials at all — and Looptworks was born. “We are called Looptworks because we are working toward a closed-loop system,” he said.
IFF Goes Circular with New Sustainability Strategy, Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Fragrance
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. (IFF), a leading producer of “sensory experiences that move the world,” has released its 2015 sustainability results in a report, Creating a Sustainable Future, and announced the launch of a new sustainability strategy centered around circular economic principles applied to three pillars: Positive Principles, Regenerative Products and Sensational People.
The Virtuous Circle Business Model: Social Purpose at the Core of Business Success
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION - Mention the term “corporate social responsibility” and you might hear something like: “It’s dead.” “CSR has stalled.” “CSR has not fulfilled its potential. It has failed us.” Why? Because even at its best, CSR is only a partial solution with incremental changes that are not putting society and business on a strong footing to enable nine billion people to live well on the planet by 2050. Despite the efforts of the past two decades, CSR is still marginal to corporate strategy — siloed and largely irrelevant to a company and its workforce.
How Cisco Is Using Its Unique Capabilities to Drive Breakthroughs in Supply Chain Sustainability
CLEANTECH - As the world’s largest designer, manufacturer and seller of networking equipment, Cisco Systems faces many supply chain sustainability issues, including energy, waste and climate change impacts, among others. To address these challenges, Cisco has worked to improve energy efficiency, implemented circular economic methods to turn waste into resources and recently announced a new goal to avoid one million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain operations by 2020.
Forget Incremental Improvements: 40 Companies, Cities Working to Activate New Plastics Economy
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION - The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative kicks off today with an inaugural workshop that brings together more than 40 leading companies including Amcor, Coca-Cola, The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, Indorama Ventures, Marks & Spencer, MARS, Natureworks, Novamont, Sealed Air, SUEZ, Unilever
Trending: Levi’s, EU Project Unlock New Ways to Turn Textile Waste Into New Products
THE NEXT ECONOMY - With dramatically large amounts of clothing and other textiles being thrown out every year – nearly 10 million tonnes in the United States and more than 3 million tonnes in European Union (EU) countries – it is no wonder why designers and companies are increasingly looking to this waste as a potential resource.
Dow Teams Up to Advance Renewable Energy, Circular Economy Goals
CLEANTECH - This week, The Dow Chemical Company launched two new partnerships aimed at advancing two of its seven 2025 Sustainability Goals, launched last year.
Report: $3.5B+ Business Opportunity in Scaling Up Circular System for Plastics
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - Plastic has many benefits ranging from reducing food waste by providing packaging to cutting transport pollution due to its light weight. However, waste plastic is undervalued by the economy due to externalization of environmental costs. In a new discussion paper, Trucost estimates that scaling up companies’ use of sustainable plastic could deliver environmental savings of $3.5 billion.
#BusinessCase: Circular Economy Helping Nike Double Its Business with Half the Impact
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION - On Wednesday, leading apparel and footwear brand Nike released its latest sustainability report and was announced as the newest Global Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Nike has made impressive progress during a period of continued growth, and recognizes that to continue as such, it must innovate on an unprecedented scale. The company has set “a vision for a low-carbon, closed-loop future as part of the company’s growth strategy.”
WEF Report Outlines 30 Steps to a Circular Construction Industry
THE NEXT ECONOMY - The construction industry has been slower than most to adopt technological innovations, which has stagnated the sector’s labor productivity in the United States and elsewhere in the last 40 years. At the same time, the construction industry is the world’s largest consumer of raw materials, yet only a fraction of its waste gets recycled. According to a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), these factors coupled with the industry’s size and weight make construction ripe for disruptive transformation that could have profound benefits for the world.
Why Recycling Will Be a Last Resort in a Truly Circular Economy
WASTE NOT - The circular economy represents a fundamental shift in the way resources, energy and information flow through our economy. A key characteristic of this framework is that products and components remain at their highest levels of integrity and performance. So is recycling part of the picture?
Trending: Levi Strauss, MIT Partnerships Advancing Textile Innovations
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - As Levi’s VP of Social and Environmental Sustainability, Michael Kobori, said last year in a blog post, along with a long-standing partnership with Goodwill to divert clothing from landfill and take-back programs for apparel for recycling into everything from building insulation to cushioning material, Levi Strauss’ circular economy ambitions include establishing an infrastructure that support
