PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Battery storage has long been one of the last remaining significant barriers to the widespread adoption of solar energy — and a nimbler, more resilient energy grid. But a number of players are quickly emerging with solutions.In May, Tesla Energy dominated headlines when it unveiled a new home battery called the “Powerwall,” which can store solar energy and allow customers to cache grid electricity from non-peak periods to use during peak times. For business and utilities, there is a larger version available called the “Powerpack.”
LEADERSHIP -
AT&T, Verizon, and Cisco are among the dozens of internet service providers, equipment suppliers and retail equipment manufacturers to join the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) in announcing a new voluntary agreement to improve the energy efficiency of internet modems, routers and other equipment that deliver broadband to millions of American consumers.Other companies to sign on include Charter Communications, Comcast, DIRECTV, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, CenturyLink, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, Actiontec, ARRIS, D-Link, EchoStar Technologies, NETGEAR and Pace and Ubee Interactive.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Stanford scientists have created a new carbon material that “significantly” boosts the performance of batteries and supercapacitors, according to a new study published in ACS Central Science.Zhenan Bao, senior author of the study and a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford, said they have developed a so-called “designer carbon” that is both versatile and controllable. The material has notable energy-storage capacity, which enables high performance in lithium-sulfur batteries and supercapacitors.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Sonoma County, Calif.-based Jackson Family Wines is among the first winemakers to install Tesla Energy’s new energy-storage technology and currently one of Tesla’s largest installations: An early strategic collaborator in the development of the technology, JFW already has 21 Tesla stationary storage systems in place at its Kendall-Jackson winery and others.
CLEANTECH -
In 2010, Verizon set a goal to collect two million pounds — or 1,000 tons — of electronic waste in communities it serves by the end of 2015. The company has announced that that five-year goal was achieved today, eight months ahead of schedule, during Verizon's e-waste recycling rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, as area residents, businesses and Verizon employees safely disposed of tens of thousands of pounds of unwanted computer hardware, TVs and small appliances.The two million pounds collected for recycling over the past five years is equal to the weight of 500 average cars, or roughly 50,000 cathode ray tube computer screens.
CLEANTECH -
Sprint, in conjunction with Brightstar Corp. and HOBI International, announced today the winner of its inaugural Smartphone Encore Challenge, a contest for Net Impact college students to find profitable and innovative ways to repurpose old smartphones or their components.
PRESS RELEASE -
ROCKVILLE, MD – April 23, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Long before the first Earth Day in 1970, a Methodist minister in Boston, MA, Rev. Edgar J. Helms, pioneered the “reduce, reuse, repurpose” practice in 1902.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), a nonprofit coalition of leading electronics companies dedicated to supply chain responsibility, has made the eradication of forced labor a high priority in 2015, as evidenced by a series of recent actions taken to strengthen its Code of Conduct. Today, the Coalition — whose members include Apple, Cisco, Dell, Eastman Kodak, HP, Microsoft and many more — announced changes to its Code designed to protect workers and a membership vote to ban all recruitment fees paid by workers.
PRESS RELEASE -
Being socially responsible is business as usual for us at AT&T, and we weave it into everything we do. So today, for the fourth year in a row, we want to recognize several suppliers who have really taken to heart our call to action for sustainable operations. These companies have contributed innovative solutions toward our sustainable operation efforts.
CLEANTECH -
Tesla founder Elon Musk has announced a new project that could get millions of people off the grid.Musk’s increased interest in the emerging energy storage market has led to plans for a giant lithium-ion battery factory. Home and businesses owners could buy these battery systems for backup power or for managing solar electricity generation and use.
CLEANTECH -
This week, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), a nonprofit coalition of many of the world’s largest leading electronics companies — including Apple, Cisco, Dell, Eastman Kodak, HP, Microsoft and many more — dedicated to supply chain responsibility, and CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) announced a new partnership to help expand greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting and reductions in the electronics supply chain.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
New strategies for reuse and remanufacturing of mobile devices can cut the carbon footprint of each device by up to half while expanding sales, according to a new report from the Green Alliance.A circular economy for smart devices identifies how laptops, tablets and smartphones up to five years old can be profitably recovered and resold in the UK, US and India. It describes six business models that companies can use to adapt to consumer preferences for lower cost, longer-lasting electronics and how reuse can bring the benefits of internet connected devices to new consumers in the developing world.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
There's a lot of talk about manufacturing’s “New Industrial Revolution.”
But the way we interpret “industrial” — and its definition moving forward — is going to change dramatically. Fewer smokestacks, more 3D printers, more choices.
When industries turned to machines and away from the hands of artisans during the first industrial revolution, the manufacturing of goods became quantity and speed over quality and care. Products lost the potential for personalization, replaced by a one-size-fits-all approach.
WASTE NOT -
Sprint today launched its Smartphone Encore Challenge — an attempt to inspire students to generate new ideas about how to revive old smartphones and their components. The competition — launched in partnership with Brightstar Corporations and HOBI International — calls upon students to come up with innovative ways to retrofit their old devices that could be scaled into a commercial business model. The Encore Challenge will be supported by Net Impact, the leading nonprofit that motivates younger generations to find sustainable ways to work within and beyond business.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In this new age of mobile phones, many of us suffer from “Shiny Object” syndrome — where we always want the latest and greatest toy Apple, Samsung or one of the other multitude of manufacturers can think up. Most of the more than 1.8 billion mobile phones sold worldwide in 2013 replaced devices that were less than two years old. Nearly a billion of these devices were smartphones.
CLEANTECH -
Recovery specialist Axion Consulting, Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells Limited and Technical Fibre Products (TFP) have developed a new recycling process to recover high-value materials from waste fuel cells.Funded by Innovate UK, the UK government's innovation agency, the Recover project aims to establish the technical and economic feasibility of recovery and reuse of high value materials from fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies and ultimately to establish the potential for a new UK-based global recycling business.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), a nonprofit coalition of electronics companies dedicated to supply chain responsibility, has announced that it will conduct shadow audits and increase its industry and government engagement in Malaysia to further combat forced labor.The EICC says it has been working for more than a decade to support the rights and wellbeing of workers and communities worldwide affected by the global electronics supply chain. Although the EICC Code of Conduct bans trafficked and forced labor, completely eradicating it in the global electronics industry supply chain remains a challenge for everyone—including EICC members.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, AT&T unveiled Eco-Rating 2.0, an updated rating system that provides consumers an easy way to understand environmental — and now social — impacts associated with their devices. With expanded and more aggressive goals, the ratings also now apply to tablets.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Among the dizzying array of potentially game-changing innovations on display this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, BASF — along with Haier, a global manufacturer of household appliances, and Astronautics Corporation of America — are presenting a proof‑of‑concept wine cooler refrigerated by a magnetocaloric heat pump.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Drones have already disintermediated the aerospace/defense industry and have crossed the threshold from commercial to consumer, delivering to the average person the world’s most powerful personal computer. The potential for good in industrial agriculture, wildlife conservation and animal poaching, monitoring of factory farms, and prevention and early detection of forest fires is unprecedented.Drones can make granular crop maps for farmers, monitor illegal logging, track sometimes elusive endangered species in their habitats, and even drill down to track the sounds of animals as small as bats.