PRESS RELEASE -
BASF inaugurated a new Rice Knowledge Center at its Agricultural Research Station in Bay, Laguna, Philippines. The new facility centralizes BASF’s global expertise in rice cultivation, and supports the delivery of enhanced agronomic and technical support to farmers seeking to increase productivity more sustainably.
“Rice is the staple food of more than half the world’s population, and farmers have an extraordinary challenge to meet growing demand for rice, while minimizing the impact to the environment,” said Gustavo Palerosi Carneiro, Senior Vice President, Crop Protection, Asia Pacific, BASF. “The new BASF Rice Knowledge Center will enable us to share the latest technologies and best practices with growers, so that we can drive further innovation in rice production.”
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
“The most important resource a customer, coffee brand or even the roaster has in the coffee industry is the relationship with a farmer,” said Thrive Farmers’ co-founder and chief sustainability officer, Ken Lander, from his small coffee farm tucked away in the village of San Rafael de Abangares, Costa Rica.
WASTE NOT -
Households in the UK waste two million tons of food each year simply by not consuming it in time. A third of this food waste is the result of the result of a confusing and counterintuitive labeling system. WRAP, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Defra have teamed up to change the way food is labeled and ultimately tackle the critical issue of food waste.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Packaging remains a considerable challenge for businesses looking to reduce their impacts, but innovators such as food-service supplier Eco-Products and Finnish startup Sulapac are helping to accelerate the transition to lower-impact models through cross-industry partnerships and sustainable packaging solutions.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Consumers have a critical role to play in pushing forward the sustainability agenda, particularly when it comes to food. But initiating change requires both educating the public about the issues and inspiring them to action, the latter of which isn’t always a straightforward process.
WASTE NOT -
While a recent report from waste management firm Suez has expressed concern about the potential “disastrous” consequences of Brexit on the UK’s already taxed waste infrastructure system, Scotland is forging ahead with its plans to create a Zero Waste future. Late last week, MSP Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, announced the cities chosen for phase two of Zero Waste Scotland’s Zero Waste Towns project.
CLEANTECH -
Carlsberg Group is now one step closer to achieving its Together Towards Zero goals — the company’s brewery in Falkenberg, Sweden is now 100 percent powered by biogas and clean electricity, thereby reducing its CO2 emissions to zero.
WASTE NOT -
Your morning cup of java could be good for more than just a caffeine buzz — Shell and Vancouver-based sustainable clothing company LEZÉ the Label are fueling a sustainable future with the help of waste coffee grounds.
WASTE NOT -
In the face of climate change, embracing new methods of agricultural production, consuming responsibly and adopting circular business models will be critical to forging a sustainable future and achieving both income and food security.
WASTE NOT -
The hotel industry continues to pursue a food waste-free future as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Rockefeller Foundation and the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) release a toolkit with strategies to help hotel properties and brands meet measurable, time-bound goals to reduce food waste. The resources are based on the results of a set of projects demonstrating innovative strategies aimed at reducing food waste in the hotel industry.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
At COP23, the largest cocoa-producing countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, announced far-reaching frameworks for action with leading chocolate and cocoa companies, including Cargill, General Mills, Hershey, Mars, Mondelēz International and Nestlé, to end deforestation and restore forest areas.
NEW METRICS -
Live Well San Diego: A visionary partnership to define and measure 10 quality-of-life metrics
By Anna Shugoll
WASTE NOT -
Extrusion technology is opening new doors for circularity within the food industry, allowing brands to transform food waste into nutritious food products instead of fodder for landfill. Planetarians is one such brand putting the method to the test, creating high-fiber, high-protein snacks that it says can tackle childhood obesity.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
CDP, RobecoSAM, EcoVadis — they are all organizations that assess the sustainability performance of companies worldwide. They all have their own agenda and targets, and of course, their own methodology to assess a portfolio of companies.
BUSINESS CASE -
On October 25, panelists representing both global brands and smaller local organizations convened in San Francisco to discuss their successes and potential in incorporating climate-friendly agricultural practices into their supply chains. The panel took place at The Perennial, a Bay Area restaurant committed to sustainable farming with the conviction that “food has the power to reverse climate change.” The panel discussion built on that theme, with further exploration into how the textile industry also has the power to enact positive impact on climate.
WASTE NOT -
Just in time for Thanksgiving, Ad Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Save the Food national public service campaign have launched a digital portion planning calculator designed to reduce the amount of food, money and resources that go to waste around the holiday.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
At some point in the future — and in some ways, we are already seeing this — the amount of physical stuff moving around the world will peak and begin to decline. By “stuff,” I am referring to liquid fuels, coal, containers on ships, food, raw materials, products, etc.
New technologies are moving us toward “production-at-the-point-of-consumption” of energy, food and products with reduced reliance on a global supply chain.
The trade of physical stuff has been central to globalization as we’ve known it. So, this declining movement of stuff may signal we are approaching “peak globalization.”
PRESS RELEASE -
Nestlé has today set a goal to source only eggs from cage-free hens for all its food products globally by 2025. This includes all shell eggs and egg products directly sourced as ingredients by Nestlé.
In Europe and the U.S., Nestlé will make the transition by the end of 2020. For the rest of the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania it will happen by 2025, with the move in Asia to be completed in the same transition period, as conditions allow.
In some parts of the world, such as in Europe, over 40% of eggs used by Nestlé are already from cage-free sources.
WASTE NOT -
Around a third of all food that is produced is lot at some point across the food supply chain. Globally, this equates to around 1.6 gigatons (GT) of food waste, of which 1.3 GT is still edible at the time of disposal.
A new technology developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia promises to make food waste a thing of the past, transforming discarded fruits and vegetables into healthy snacks.
Researchers at CSIRO’s Food Innovation Centre have developed a method to return lost food-grade biomass to the food supply chain as value-added ingredients and food products.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
As allegedly the first company ever, Chr. Hansen — a Danish bioscience giant that produces natural ingredients for the food, beverage, dietary supplements and agricultural industry — has conducted an extensive analysis to map its entire product portfolio of more than 3,000 products against the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The analysis shows that 81 percent of Chr.