WASTE NOT -
Southwest Airlines has announced the distribution of products made in Kenya and the U.S. as part of its global upcycling initiative LUV Seat: Repurpose with Purpose. The distribution in Kenya completes the second phase of the multi-year environmental program, which will upcycle around 80,000 former airline seat coverings into new leather products to provide training and jobs in several communities in addition to keeping these materials out of a landfill.
CLEANTECH -
Governments can keep climate change in check at manageable costs but will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2100 to limit risks of irreversible damage, according to a new UN report, as reported by Reuters.The 40-page synthesis is a summation of 5,000 pages of work by 800 scientists already published since September 2013, and says global warming is now causing more heat extremes, downpours, acidifying the oceans and pushing up sea levels.
PRESS RELEASE -
What: The Great Bear Forest Carbon Project – one of the largest carbon management projects in the world and is helping to protect more than 6 million hectares of land on British Columbia’s coast – will be the focal point for Offsetters Climate Solutions as they present at Sustainable Brands: London. The conference is attended by brand leaders from corporations like 3M, H&M, Coca-Cola, Adidas, and Target.
PRESS RELEASE -
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Deutsche Nanoschicht GmbH establish joint laboratoryResearch institute and BASF subsidiary cooperating to further develop thin film superconductorsKarlsruhe and Rheinbach, October 29th, 2014 – The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Deutsche Nanoschicht GmbH have made it their goal to develop tailored high-temperature superconductors for energy technology applications. The research institute and the BASF subsidiary New Business GmbH have signed relevant cooperation agreements.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
On Thursday, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) announced the launch of a new technology infrastructure region in Frankfurt — the 11th such region globally for AWS and the second region in the EU (the first being in Ireland). The company says Frankfurt is the third of its regions that will enable customers to run their cloud computing on carbon-neutral power.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company, boasts some of the highest sustainability scores, credentials and rankings brands can earn, including reducing its total GHG emissions while increasing its shipping volume in 2013. How has the company achieved all this? What can others learn from its success so far? SB was recently invited to UPS HQ in Atlanta for the company’s annual Global Forestry Event — and we gained some insights:1. Start with low-hanging fruit
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) has announced that a comprehensive climate change adaptation and community development project, Living Breakwaters has been selected as the winner of the 2014 Fuller Challenge, what has been dubbed by the Institute as "socially responsible design’s highest award." The project was submitted by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture PLLC based in New York.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
The Carbon Trust and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) today announced that they will be working together to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore to improve their energy efficiency. The announcement of the collaboration is being made at Kew Gardens in London as part of the official state visit to the UK of Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of the Republic of Singapore.The SEAS is leading a S$17 million SME Energy Efficiency initiative, with support from SPRING Singapore, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). The goal is to help some 300 SMEs achieve at least 10 percent savings in energy costs over the next three years.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Microsoft has met its carbon neutrality commitment through internal efficiency projects, the purchase of more than 3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy and a carbon offset project portfolio representing more than 600,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to the software company’s 2014 Citizenship Report.The company also achieved its goal for all new data centers to have an average 1.125 Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), one-third less than the industry average datacenter PUE of 1.7.
COLLABORATION -
Boeing and Kenya Airways have partnered with First Baptist Church in Baytown, Texas, to transport medical equipment to Kajiado, Kenya, on a newly delivered 787 Dreamliner from the company's North Charleston, S.C., facility.The supplies, including examination tables and other equipment, will benefit Kenyan children served by the Africa Inland Church Childcare Center in Kajiado. The center provides care and treatment for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.
WASTE NOT -
As more and more organizations are finding ways to create fuel from waste — case in point: Italy is about to become the first country to require cars and trucks to run on biofuel made from agricultural waste — Chevrolet says its 2015 Bi-fuel Impala will be able to run on leftovers, table scraps and, oh, yeah, grains from brewing beer (welcome to the present, Back to the Future fans!).
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
On Thursday, the first full day of Flourish & Prosper: The Third Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit in Cleveland, Ohio, the morning’s plenaries and CEO panels explored how business can move beyond how social and environmental responsibility are thought of today, to a new mindset of "full-spectrum flourishing" where “companies prosper, people excel, and nature thrives.”
PRESS RELEASE -
As a result of its actions to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the business risks of climate change, Novozymes has been awarded with a position on the A List: The CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index 2014 by CDP, the international NGO that drives sustainable economies. Novozymes is one of the 187 companies that has been awarded an A grade for its climate performance, earning a position on this global ranking of corporate efforts to mitigate climate change. The index presents 187 listed companies identified as demonstrating a superior approach to climate change mitigation.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
I am sitting in the airport at Minneapolis, Minnesota, having just left the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) Retailer Sustainability Conference, and my mind is awash in the list of challenges and risks that were reinforced over the past few days. The U.S. retail economy plays an enormous role in our daily lives — it employs 25 percent of the U.S. workforce, represents more than 66 percent of the country’s GDP and undoubtedly plays a critical role in our environmental stewardship.While the central theme of the RILA conference was sustainability, much was devoted to addressing recent advancements in technologies, the sharing economy, resource responsibility and transparency.
CLEANTECH -
Rechargeable lithium batteries, used in everything from portable electronic devices to electric cars to large-scale energy storage, are convenient and efficient but less than stellar when it comes to resource and environmental impacts. Now researchers at Uppsala University’s Ångström Laboratory have come up with an entirely new battery concept based on recovery and renewable biological material, with an energy content corresponding to that of current lithium-ion batteries.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
Southeast Asian countries will invest $13.6 billion in smart grid infrastructure between 2014 and 2024, according to a new study by market intelligence firm Northeast Group.This investment will include smart metering and the modernization of electricity transmission and distribution networks with sensors, communications and software. By 2024, the largest markets will be Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. Smart grids permit power generators and users to monitor usage, which helps utilities to adjust supply to demand and reduce costs by saving energy in transmission.
NEW METRICS -
The Clorox Company has reduced its greenhouse gases emissions by 12 percent and the amount of waste it sends to landfill per case of product sold by 34 percent since 2011, according to the company’s 2014 integrated annual report. Altogether, these footprint reductions and product sustainability improvements have averaged $15 million in annual cost savings since 2008, helping to offset raw material cost increases and enable investments in innovation and demand creation.
WASTE NOT -
Hilton Worldwide has reduced its waste output by 26.8 percent, energy use by 13.6 percent, carbon output by 20.2 percent and water use by 13.1 percent since 2009, according to the company’s 2013-2014 corporate responsibility report, released today.The report is Hilton Worldwide’s third corporate responsibility report, and its first since returning to public markets following an initial public offering in December 2013. The report highlights efforts, achievements and priorities across the four focus areas of Hilton Worldwide’s corporate responsibility strategy, Travel with Purpose: creating opportunities, strengthening communities, celebrating cultures and living sustainability.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
By sharing a pool of kegs rather than owning their own, over 200 leading craft brewers have helped reduce their collective carbon footprint by over 3 million kg of CO2e in 2013. These findings, based on a study by John Heckman, Ph.D with PE International and commissioned by MicroStar Logistics, will be used as a benchmark to help the craft beer industry further minimize its carbon footprint each year.