PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Heineken released its 2015 sustainability report back in April, along with a ‘Frank’ distillation video featuring Dutch rapper and vocal artist Kevin “Blaxtar” de Rendamie. This week, Heineken USA launched another unique engagement experiment to share its sustainability highlights: a first-of-its-kind interactive online experience.
PRESS RELEASE -
CHICAGO (July 18, 2016) – MillerCoors released its 2016 Sustainability Report, which provides a comprehensive review of the company’s 2015 efforts in the areas of alcohol responsibility, environmental stewardship and community investment. The nation’s second largest brewer continues to help prevent drunk driving and underage consumption, reduce water use and brewery waste, and create equal opportunities for women in beer.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
The Closed Loop Foundation (CL Foundation) has announced a new grant and loan opportunity for food waste solutions that are applicable in the United States. Hoping to unlock food waste diversion and reduction at scale, the CL Foundation launched a ‘Food Waste Solution Search,’ open to submissions for all types of solutions to the food waste challenge, from field to end-of-life.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
After passing the Senate last week, a bill proposing a federal labeling standard for foods with genetically modified ingredients - and blocking states from creating their own standards - sailed through the US House of Representatives on Thursday, and is now on its way to President Obama.
The bill, which passed by a landslide 306 to 117 vote, directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create a national labeling standard that allows food producers to choose how they want to disclose the presence of genetically modified ingredients - manufacturers will be able to use text, symbols or a QR code that consumers must scan with a smartphone to relay the information.
PRESS RELEASE -
View full infographic here.
International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. and Unilever announced today a new partnership with leading non-governmental organizations to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder vetiver farmers in Haiti. The partnership, Vetiver Together, aims to sustainably improve food security, increase yields, and diversify income, while working to support women’s empowerment and environmental conservation.
PRESS RELEASE -
Seafood consumers put sustainability before price and brand
New independent research reveals global motivators to seafood purchase
Consumers perceive NGOs and scientific organisations as contributing most to protecting oceans
Independent certification increases consumer trust in brands
Awareness of the blue MSC label is 37% amongst all consumers
MSC-aware consumers say they will pay a premium of up to 11% for MSC labelled seafood
MARKETING AND COMMS -
This week, the Beer Institute announced a new initiative to encourage its member companies to display specific consumer information on products, packaging or websites.
WASTE NOT -
Found to be the worst-performing European country in terms of food waste in a 2015 study, the United Kingdom (UK) certainly seems to be setting a new course.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Is your business embracing the disruptive forces of a low-carbon world as Ford and Ben & Jerry’s are? Over the next 10 years, climate change will drive industrial disruption at rates that previously seemed unimaginable. In response, policy makers must come to terms with the need to keep the mean global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
The largest-ever global analysis of attitudes toward seafood consumption, released today, has found that sustainability is a key driver for seafood purchases: Across 21 countries, sustainability is rated more highly than price and brand, with nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of seafood consumers agreeing that in order to save the oceans, shoppers should only consume seafood from sustainable sources. More than half (54 percent) said they are prepared to pay more for a certified sustainable seafood product.
WASTE NOT -
More than half of the United States isn’t recycling, and PepsiCo is setting out to help change that with a brand new ad. Designed to motivate people to recycle, the ad depicts a series of humorous examples of people doing activities halfway — like dog-grooming, running a race and mowing the lawn — as a way to remind them to take the extra step to recycle.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Will the power of love help Chipotle recover from its food safety woes, defecting customers and still-struggling stock price? The fast casual restaurant chain has once again produced an original animated short film in an attempt to advocate for fresh, unprocessed ingredients and ‘cultivating a better world.’
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Alcohol giant Diageo — whose brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan’s whiskies; and Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas; along with Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness — recently announced plans to roll out a first-of-its-kind immersive virtual reality (VR) technology that will allow consumers of legal drinking age to experience the many pitfalls associated with irresponsible drinking.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Perdue Foods, one of the nation's largest poultry producers, recently unveiled a precedent-setting commitment to improving animal welfare, which involves much higher standards and requirements for its poultry facilities. Citing the "five freedoms," a set of ethical imperatives for farmed animal welfare, 2016 and Beyond: Next Generation of Perdue Commitments to Animal Care outlines the company's efforts to implement on-farm improvements such as environmental enrichment and natural light; curb malicious abuse; and eliminate cruel live-shackle slaughter.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
As the controversy over genetically modified foods continues to rage amongst consumers and researchers, Greenpeace recently came under fire from 110 Nobel Laureates calling them out for their consistent anti-GMO stance, in particular, against “Golden Rice” — a rice product genetically engineered to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, in the edible parts of rice.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Mr. Potato Head was first manufactured back in 1952 as a bundle of plastic parts and pushpins, the idea being that you would stick them into a real potato that would serve as the toy’s head. The first toy ever advertised on television, Mr. Potato Head would rely on root vegetables from family kitchens until 1964, when rotting vegetables were replaced with everlasting plastic shells. Despite the strange practice of storing spare face parts in his butt, Mr. Potato Head has remained a childhood favorite, now marketed under the Playskool brand owned by toy giant Hasbro.
WASTE NOT -
Food Cowboy, which uses mobile technology to help food companies route surplus and unsaleable inventory to charities and organic waste to composters, recently announced the launch of the No Waste Promise Alliance and the Food Waste Innovation Fund. Together, the Alliance and the Fund will invest up to $75 million a year in solutions that help eliminate food waste.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
By 2050, global demand for protein on our dinner plates is expected to increase by 80 percent over current levels, due to population growth in African countries and increased wealth in Asia.
How are we going to meet this demand? In 2011, 69 percent of the animal protein consumed globally came from land-based sources — and there are fewer and fewer options for expanding production on land.
“Most of the land we think of as farmland is used to grow food for animals, not for people,” says Arlin Wasserman, keynote speaker at the 2015 SeaWeb Seafood Summit and founder of Changing Tastes, a consultancy focused on food sustainability planning.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
In 2014, CVS made headlines when it rebranded to CVS Health and made the bold decision to discontinue the sale of all tobacco products. In September, the company claimed that the latter decision had a wider impact on public health; the data showed that cigarette sales were down across a variety of retailers in the states where CVS had greater than 15 percent market share.
WASTE NOT -
Confusion around food labels and expiry dates results in millions of tons of food waste each year, estimated to cost consumers $29 billion in the United States (US) and nearly £0.6 billion in the United Kingdom (UK). While many people throw away food because they perceive a safety risk, most date labels are not designed to indicate safety. Rather, “sell by” dates provide instructions for retail staff, “best before” refers to quality, and “use by” is related to safety.