CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The innovators behind Seed Phytonutrients and the Loop reusable packaging platform shared lessons learned, and the potential impacts these disruptive new approaches to product and packaging development could hold for their respective industries.
WASTE NOT -
Announcements this week take skincare into refillable pods, set new standards designed to protect environment amid climate crisis, and increase recycled content in packaging.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
In its pilot run, the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council's Collaborative Innovation Challenge helped the likes of Beiersdorf, P&G, SC Johnson and Unilever address a pressing product formulation issue.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
The Body Shop is launching its first Community Trade Recycled Plastic from Bengaluru, India. Along with fighting plastic pollution, the initiative aims to drive social change and help empower up to 2,500 waste pickers in Bengaluru.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The global feminine hygiene market accounted for $31.23 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $62.84 billion by 2026. To stay relevant in this booming sector, investment in developing products responsive to these changing consumer demands is not only smart, it’s imperative.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
What do actress Michelle Pfeiffer; William McDonough, creator of the Cradle to Cradle® design framework and a pioneer of the circular economy movement; and perfume have in common? Likely nothing, until recently — when two newly launched products brought the certification into new territory.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
How does Saskia Van Gendt, Method’s Senior Director of Greenskeeping, stay so positive facing the globally unsustainable manufacturing processes still in play today? She says it’s through science — that at Method, “the direction of sustainability is based on the right thing from a scientific perspective, not a whim.”
CLEANTECH -
Pond Technologies is a Canadian cleantech company using nature’s filters to combat climate change, while also providing a model to help existing industries join the shift towards a low-carbon economy via value-added, recycled-carbon products.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
While momentum builds around improving our food system — what we put in our bodies — chemical giants and savvy startups alike are hard at work creating next-generation products that take just as much care of the environment as they do for our bodies.
LEADERSHIP -
FMCGs need to accelerate innovation to keep up with changing consumer preferences for plant-based products and less packaging, to name a few.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The MADE SAFE® certification is on the verge of certifying its 1,000th product. Three years ago, this program didn’t even exist.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
After an intensive global campaign by Greenpeace, Wilmar International has published a detailed action plan to map and monitor its palm oil suppliers.
This week, the world’s largest palm oil trader, Wilmar International, published a detailed action plan to map and monitor all of its suppliers. If implemented, this would put the palm oil giant — which supplies 40 percent of the world’s palm oil — one step closer to finally eliminating deforestation from its supply chain, and would have major implications for the rest of the industry.
PRESS RELEASE -
How2Recycle today announced Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. – one of the world's largest consumer wellness and personal care products companies – has joined the growing list of companies adopting the How2Recycle label. The company will start by using the on-package recycling label on many of its baby products, including baby lotion, baby shampoo, and baby wash. The label will help make recycling easier for busy parents, by providing specific instructions on how each product can be recycled.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
During this season of giving, many of today’s more discerning consumers won’t be joining the masses scrambling to answer the siren call to stock up on discounted “stuff” — they’ll be remembering the values meant to be at the heart of this season, by taking REI’s advice to #OptOutside to enjoy nature and giving back by cleaning up; and when they do shop, they’re increasingly basing their loyalty and purchasing decisions on companies’ reputations rather than just product features and price.
WASTE NOT -
It was 2014 and social entrepreneur Samir Lakhani was working on sustainable aquaculture projects in the villages of Northern Cambodia. Watching a mother wash and bathe her new baby using laundry powder rather than soap is a vision that has stayed with him to this day.
It was also the inspiration for his next business venture.
“I noticed that nobody seemed in good overall health — whether it was an infection that wouldn’t go away or a child with diarrhea,” he told Sustainable Brands in a recent interview.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
On Friday, Montreal’s McGill University announced the opening of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) — a hub for students, researchers and practitioners to work collaboratively towards bringing retailers into the 21st century. An interdisciplinary, forward-looking school dedicated to all facets of the retail industry, its research and programming will focus on fostering sustainable consumption and healthy societies.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
A growing roster of celebrities are no longer satisfied with endorsing corporate products, instead creating (or at least investing in) their own. Think George Clooney, Dr.
PRESS RELEASE -
Procter & Gamble, a multi-national consumer goods corporation which specialises in cleaning agents, personal care and hygiene products, and has operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. The company has been working to incorporate circularity into their supply chain for many years, and indeed, P&G's focus on waste has allowed their global facilities to successfully divert over 5 million tonnes of would be waste from landfills since 2008. They have recently announced their Ambition 2030 for the decade ahead which includes commitments to reduce their supply chain footprint and striving to drive circular solutions.
PRESS RELEASE -
A joint venture between Procter & Gamble and Italian healthcare group Angelini is working to create a sustainable recycling loop that would allow dirty diapers to be turned into plastic bottle caps and viscose clothing.
More than 20 million tonnes of disposable diapers are burned or dumped in landfills globally every year - a major environmental problem since their use became widespread in the 1960s and 1970s.
Part of the problem is that collecting, cleaning and breaking diapers into their component parts - plastic, cellulose and super absorbent polymer - is tricky and expensive.
The other issue is that no-one has been able to establish a market for the recycled output, dooming previous commercial efforts to failure.
PRESS RELEASE -
Seventh Generation, a leading household and personal care products company and pioneer in the eco-friendly products space, has announced the launch of a new laundry detergent in an effort to modernize the liquid laundry category and drive unnecessary plastic and water waste out of the industry.