BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Waste reduction charity WRAP’s new Clothing Durability Report reveals that extending the active life of clothing items by nine months could reduce carbon, waste and water footprints of clothing in the UK by 20 to 30 percent each and cut resource costs by £5 billion.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Saving engines from the scrapyard and reusing them could deliver a 50 percent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to producing a new engine, according to news from Ford Motor Company. The automaker has announced that its new, patented plasma coating technology unlocks new recycling potential.
NEW METRICS -
Experts on the economics of climate change have revealed concerns that damages from climate change impacts will be larger and more immediate than previously estimated, according to a new survey from The Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law.The survey’s respondents were limited to those who have published an article about food production, climate adaptation, energy economics and other topics related to climate change in a highly ranked, peer-reviewed economics journal since 1994.
CLEANTECH -
“We need innovation that gives us energy that’s cheaper than today’s hydrocarbon energy, that has zero CO2 emissions, and that’s as reliable as today’s overall energy system. And when you put all those requirements together, we need an energy miracle,” Bill Gates recently told The Atlantic.
LEADERSHIP -
If cities around the world take aggressive climate change action, they can help cut global emissions by 3.7 billion tons a year by 2030 — helping to close the “emissions gap” between what countries have promised to do before the COP21 climate talks, and what is needed to avoid a rise in temperature above 2 degrees Celsius, according to a new report by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) on behalf of C40.The emissions gap amounts to around 15 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year.
CLEANTECH -
American Modular Systems (AMS) has started production on River Vine Vineyards, a new Gen7 Concept Home to be sited on a 50-acre working vineyard along the banks of the Mokelumne River Watershed in Lodi Wine Country.Designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, AMS claims River Vine will be one of most advanced, high-end prefabricated residences ever constructed — a state-of-the-art smart home that will take sustainable prefabricated design and construction to the next level.
LEADERSHIP -
Corporate sustainability reporting desperately needs to up its game in order to align company-level sustainability performance with the broader systems-level ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and COP21, the United Nations climate change conference, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Ahead of the UN 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21), Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo became the latest major banks to pledge to eliminate their support for the coal industry in favor of reducing carbon pollution associated with the industry.Morgan Stanley said that it “recognizes that climate change poses significant risks to the global economy and that reducing carbon emissions is critical to our success in addressing the challenges presented by a changing climate.”
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A penguin and a cow walk into a bar. The cow says, "We have a problem. Every year cows emit so much methane into the atmosphere - the equivalent of fifty-times more CO2 than the entire country of Switzerland! It's killing our image. We don't know what to do." The penguin pondered for a moment and replied, "Maybe it's something you ate."
LEADERSHIP -
Developing countries will need to pay an additional $270 billion more each year to adapt to the impacts of climate change if COP21 fails to elicit increased global pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report by Oxfam.Game-changers in the Paris climate deal warns that developing countries’ economies face being crushed under the double burden of climate change adaptation costs of almost $800 billion and more than twice that in economic losses every year by 2050 if pledges to cut emissions are not improved.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Next week marks the start of important climate negotiations in Paris – the aim of COP21 is to deliver a new international agreement that will put the world on track towards a low-carbon future. The feeling in the air is one of optimism – there are high hopes the agreement could go beyond its intended diplomacy and act as a historic catalyst to drive real leadership on the issue.
CLEANTECH -
Renewable energy company Masdar kicked off its Innovation Week activities by announcing the Middle East’s first startup accelerator focused on sustainability and clean tech.
COLLABORATION -
To mark its 150th anniversary, German firm BASF is hosting a ten-day program in Ludwigshafen focusing on one of the most pressing global challenges: Given the limited resources, how can we secure our energy supply also in the future?By 2050, global energy demand is forecast to rise by more than 50 percent, BASF says, and new solutions will have to be developed in order to secure the energy supply in the future.Germany, in particular, is in the midst of an energy transition: Electricity generation is becoming increasingly decentralized. As a result, electricity grids and energy markets will have to change and become more flexible. That’s why BASF says it chose to make “smart energy” the theme of the tour stop in Germany.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
“There was an American comedian 100 years ago that said, ‘If we don’t change direction soon, then we’ll end up where we’re going.’ Where we’re going at the moment is not very pretty.”So said Geoff Kendall, CEO of the Future Fit Foundation, as he opened this breakout session, continuing by explaining that a clear, defined destination is needed for companies to know where they should be headed.“At the start of any journey, the most important step is to understand what the destination is; something that we have been lacking in the sustainability world. That is what the Future Fit Business Benchmark is.”
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
One the final sessions at SB ’15 London saw Mandar Apte, chemical engineer and program manager of Shell's GameChanger program on social innovation, facilitate an interactive workshop about how to drive social innovation from inside large organisations and how this could empower the employees and create shared value - for business and society.Apte started by demonstrating the power of the relationship economy. He drove home the idea that in this world of open innovation, it is important to build relationships.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
After a slow start 6 years ago when the G20 and APEC made commitments to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, about 30 countries have launched or accelerated fossil fuel subsidy reforms, according to a new paper by the New Climate Economy.The paper, Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform: From Rhetoric to Reality, identifies the lessons learned from past attempts to reform fossil fuel subsidies, explores why progress has been slow and outlines the principles for successful reform.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
For great sports teams, the big win marks a beginning, not an end. It whets their appetite for excellence, and more wins.So it is with companies who’ve had success in meeting sustainability targets through greener freight transportation strategies. Early wins trigger a planned effort, with dedicated resources, to uncover more opportunities. It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and again at brands that have made green freight a linchpin of CSR efforts – the green freight heroes.Freight accounts for 16 percent of corporate-driven climate pollution, so there’s no shortage of impactful opportunities. The challenge comes in assessing the priority projects and maintaining a focus on continuous improvement.
CLEANTECH -
On November 18, telecommunications company AT&T announced goals for 2025. The goals represent the company’s first long-term roadmap for its citizenship and sustainability work, and focus on three areas: networks and customers, supply chain, and communities.The three corresponding goals for 2025 are:
PRESS RELEASE -
Charlotte, NC, November 16, 2015 – Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE: SEE) today announced that its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate risks of potential climate change have been recognized by CDP, the world’s only global environmental disclosure system. According to this year’s CDP 2015 Climate Change Report, Sealed Air was named to the Climate Performance Leadership Index (CPLI) A List and also earned a position in CDP’s S&P 500 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), for the second consecutive year.
PRESS RELEASE -
Nestlé UK and Ireland in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University’s National Centre for Excellence for Food Engineering are leading a series of Innovate UK projects to help improve resource efficiency and deliver impressive cost savings across the food supply chain that will benefit the whole industry Businesses and researchers from across the industry will work together on innovative projects in strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology. Working with Sheffield Hallam’s Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering and Spirax Sarco, Nestlé UK will play a lead role in developing a pioneering project to improve waste heat recovery processes.