Stories About Consumer Products
Found 331 stories. Page 6 of 17.
Anti-Plastic Regulation Risks Less Sustainable Alternatives
THE NEXT ECONOMY - Faced with shortages of suitable recycled material, a growing consumer backlash and a hostile regulatory environment, it is no wonder that some companies are shifting away from plastics. But encouraging this shift towards material choices that do little to improve end-of-life environmental impact would be the worst possible outcome for the planet.
Sell Responsibly… or Else? It’s Time to Face (Over)-Consumption and Come Up with Creative Solutions
MARKETING AND COMMS - We shouldn’t lure people into buying more than they need; but rather, help people make it all add up to a more meaningful life. Brands might be able to keep afloat on a short-term strategy and hide behind a cloak of innocence, but every dinosaur step is one closer to extinction.
What Will a Circular Economy Mean for Branding?
MARKETING AND COMMS - While a circular economy will present huge challenges to most brands' conventional business models, there are huge opportunities for those who embrace and adapt to this change — while those who drag their heels with incremental changes will undoubtedly fall behind.
More Major Retailers Are Saying ‘Forever Chemicals No More’
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - To paraphrase Voltaire: “With great market power comes great responsibility.” Retail market leaders are setting the pace in the transition to safer chemistry in their products and packaging. Their actions add up to saying, “Forever chemicals no more.”
Recyclate – A New Lease on Life for Consumer Packaging?
WASTE NOT - Consumers appreciate recycled packaging as long as it doesn’t affect the quality, functionality and price of the product. But how do brands remain competitive in view of added costs for high-quality recycling and the low price of virgin plastics?
Sustainability Drove Us to Buy Less This Holiday Season
BEHAVIOR CHANGE - As retail sales reportedly fell for the first time in 25 years, with particularly weak holiday sales, new research reveals that a new conscientiousness may be a central cause — with sustainability-concerned consumers buying less.
Uniting to Drive Change: The Cleaning Industry Bands Together for a Sustainable Future
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - We know, of course, that no matter how many bold ambitions a company has, it cannot change the world alone. But through collaborative effort, the impact companies can make is multiplied, often many times over.
Empowering Customers While Building Better Business, a Thriving Future for All
THE NEXT ECONOMY - With higher-priced products, “sustainability” can still be seen as a privilege. It is time for brands to empower consumers by offering them accessible choices that are better for them, for the planet and for generations to come.
Give More, and Better, This Season: The 2019 SB Holiday Gift Guide
WASTE NOT - What better way to celebrate and participate in the season of giving than with gifts that truly keep on giving? Here are just a few of our favorite discoveries this year of products we'd be thrilled to give and receive.
Air, Water and Earth: Reducing Environmental Impacts Across the Three Elements
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE - With goals to achieve carbon-neutral factories by 2030, to reduce CO2 emissions in its supply chain, combat deforestation and step up its efforts to tackle littering, PMI is working to reduce its environmental impacts, end to end.
Sanitary Products, Soft Drinks and Safety Locks: An FMCG Approach to Fighting Period Poverty in Tanzania
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION - 'Period poverty' — in which women and girls struggle to access and afford menstrual products — is particularly bad in sub-Saharan Africa. That’s why a new initiative in Tanzania is taking a 21st-century, FMCG approach to a centuries-old problem.
Brands Missing Opportunity to Highlight Health Benefits of Sustainable Products
MARKETING AND COMMS - Brands that are committed to sustainability could conduct efficient, cost-effective research to show that their products help reduce exposure to harmful substances, leveraging their commitment to sustainability and expanding it to a commitment to consumer health.
The Biosphere’s Guide to Foolproofing Sustainability, Part 6: Function Over Form
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION - Sustainability experts for decades have been exhorting managers to focus more on the function their products deliver and less on the product itself. Biosphere Rule #5, Function Over Form, is focused on fulfilling customers’ functional needs in ways that sustain the value cycle.
Hidden: The Waste That Goes Into Making Stuff and How 2 Companies Are Tackling It
WASTE NOT - The waste we produce in our daily lives is just one small portion of the total waste stream. Public Thread and Rewilder, two winners of the recently announced Upcyclers Network Annual Product Awards, are putting non-household waste streams to creative use.
Combating Child Labor on India’s Tobacco Farms
BEHAVIOR CHANGE - Child labor and other labor abuses are recurring problems characteristic to tobacco-growing and other agricultural communities in countries such as India. But Philip Morris International’s Agricultural Labor Practices is creating a step change.
Trending: Partnerships Laying More Groundwork for Circular Plastics Economy
THE NEXT ECONOMY - The US’ biggest beverage companies have invested into ensuring they get ‘Every Bottle Back’ for recycling; Bluewater is helping Londoners ditch single-use bottles; and SC Johnson and Plastic Bank are broadening the Social Plastic ecosystem.
Chilean Startup Eliminating Packaging Waste, ‘Poverty Tax’ in Latin American Product Market
THE NEXT ECONOMY - Algramo’s unique, refillable packaging system allows customers to buy as much or as little of a product as they want, in reusable containers, with no difference in the price per gram — then recycles all packaging at the end of its life.
With New Absolute-Reduction Strategy, Unilever 'Gets Drastic on Plastic’
WASTE NOT - By 2025, the CPG giant says it will eliminate more than 100K tonnes of plastic packaging, and collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells. This makes Unilever the first global CPG company to commit to an absolute plastics reduction across its portfolio.
Ask First, Give Second: The One-for-One Giving Model Gets a Revamp
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION - Ideally, Western companies should adopt an attitude of *Ask First, Give Second*. We’d all benefit if we empowered those who will receive the donations to determine what they need most, rather than making that decision for them.
Do We Need Science-Based Targets for Plastic?
THE NEXT ECONOMY - How much plastic recycling is enough to save our seas? It might be time to do the math and set forth quantifiable expectations and accountabilities for plastic production, use and recovery, as we’ve started to do with emissions.
