COLLABORATION -
The University of Minnesota has received a $12 million dollar award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bring together a network of scientists, industry leaders and policy partners committed to building better cities of the future, according to a recent announcement.The network will connect across nine research universities, major metropolitan cities in the U.S. and India, as well as infrastructure firms and policy groups. The project includes 25 faculty members across the nine universities, and will involve more than 40 graduate students conducting research in cross-university interdisciplinary teams.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Not to be confused with the Fruit Rollups many of us probably grew up with here in the States — we’re talking about a solution to one of South Holland's (not to mention the rest of the Western world’s) biggest social issues (food waste), developed by a group of undergraduates from Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
While more and more companies are becoming focused on a triple bottom line — in which they prioritize the health of people and planet in addition to profit — Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson took the sentiment further back in 2000, when he decided to not take a $120 million payout and instead focus on sustaining the health of five bottom lines: Business, Brand, Community, Planet and People.
As CEO Kevin Cleary said during a recent “Feed Your Adventure” tour of Clif’s Emeryville headquarters: “In any given year, we incent ourselves and say we have to deliver on all of them — if you deliver on Business, but you don’t deliver on the rest, that isn’t delivering shareholder value.”
LEADERSHIP -
Nestlé has opened a $50 million global research center dedicated to transforming the way the world consumes frozen and chilled foods.Located in in Solon, Ohio, the new 144,000 square foot Nestlé Research & Development Center will balance consumer-centered innovation with technology leadership.Although the center’s mission is to sustain global needs, its location in Ohio reflects the growth in size and complexity of Nestlé’s frozen and chilled foods businesses in the United States. That growth made an expanded and collaborative research and development effort necessary, the company said.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Capping a decade of success employing people with criminal backgrounds and upending expectations in the bread category, Dave’s Killer Bread (DKB) this week launched the newly formed Dave’s Killer Bread Foundation. Powering what it calls “Second Chance Employment,” the Foundation will work to expand employment opportunities for people with criminal backgrounds, which make up 1 in 3 of Dave’s Killer Bread’s more than 300 employee partners.
NEW METRICS -
Like most British people, I enjoy a nice cup of tea. And like most practitioners of life cycle assessment (a far smaller group), I’m very interested in understanding the full impact of the products I consume.So how much water goes into a cup of tea? Somewhere around 30 litres of water is required for tea itself, 10 litres for a small dash of milk and a further 6 litres for each teaspoon of sugar. This means that a simple cup of tea with milk and two sugars could actually require 52 litres of water – enough to fill my kettle more than 30 times.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
A new video on humor website Funny or Die satirizes the unhealthy lunches served in American schools. Produced by the American Heart Association (AHA), the piece features comedian Nick Offerman as a “food expert” leading a farm tour full of greasy fare, including pizza vines and taquito trees.
CLEANTECH -
Stanford researchers announced today that a study in Senegal, West Africa, has found that freshwater prawns can serve as an effective natural solution in the battle against schistosomiasis, a potentially deadly parasitic disease that infects roughly 230 million people. The prawns prey on parasite-infected snails, while providing a marketable, protein-rich food source. Because prawns cannot support schistosomiasis' complex life cycle, they do not transmit the disease themselves.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
On Thursday, Sunny Delight Beverages Co. (SDBC) released its fifth annual Sustainability Report, detailing its sustainability goals and progress — including an $85 million investment in new production equipment to improve efficiency, a significant reduction in the calorie count for its beverages, and sustaining zero waste to landfill for the fifth consecutive year.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
While major restaurant chains including McDonald’s, Subway, Panera and Taco Bell have recently begun to move away from unpronouncable, unfamiliar ingredients such as propionic acid and Yellow No.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Third International Conference on Financing for Development was held in Ethiopia this week, gathering top government officials to discuss initial implementation plans for the UN’s post-2015 development agenda.
WASTE NOT -
British coffee drinkers can now support biofuel production on their morning commutes. Network Rail, the company owning and operating Britain’s stations announced a partnership Tuesday with bio-bean, a company recycling waste coffee grounds into carbon-neutral fuel.Following a successful trial at London’s Victoria and Waterloo stations, the scheme will be introduced at Network Rail’s six largest stations, which generate nearly 700 tons of coffee waste annually. Instead of sending the grounds to landfill, generating roughly 5,000 tons of carbon emissions, the waste will now produce over 650 tons of biofuel — enough to power 1,000 homes a year.
WASTE NOT -
The Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery in Scotland has cut its carbon footprint by 90 percent after installing a biomass boiler late last year.Traditionally, distilleries are heavy users of fossil fuels, but this is the latest example of investment in biomass gaining traction industry-wide.“Moving away from boilers that use heavy fuel oil – to more efficient wood pellets – helps reduce energy costs and lower emissions into the environment,” a spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said in a statement.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Greenpeace released the ninth edition of its Carting Away the Oceans (CATO) report today, ranking 25 supermarkets on the sustainability of their seafood procurement. Whole Foods ranked first for the third year in a row, followed by Wegmans, Hy-Vee, and Safeway in the “good” category. In total, 80 percent of evaluated retailers received passing scores overall.Supermarkets were scored across four areas:
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In the future, you may be able to print meat in your kitchen. That is the hope behind the Cultivator, a conceptual prototype for a countertop 3D printer made by design students Sarah Mautsch and Aaron Abentheuer.The Cultivator intends to spark conversation about the future of food production and bioprinting, a technology currently being explored to fabricate human organs in experimental medicine. Inspiration for the Cultivator was based on the assumed development of this technology over the next 30 years.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Mission-driven coffee startup THRIVE Farmers was recently recognized as the second-fastest growing company in Georgia by The Association for Corporate Growth in Atlanta.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
London’s first subterranean farm will begin selling produce to its first commercial client later this month, marking a breakthrough for the city’s urban farming.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Yesterday resource® Natural Spring Water announced the debut of a remodeled bottle made entirely of recycled plastic (rPET). Part of the Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) portfolio of bottled waters, the resource brand reflects Nestle’s exploration of environmentally sound packaging options across its family of beverages.The remodeled bottle, available in 700ml and 1L sizes, is sourced and bottled in the US. It is produced with 100 percent rPET, excluding the cap and label. resource says it hopes the new bottle will focus attention on the uses of rPET and encourage bottle-to-bottle recycling among consumers.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Coca-Cola has launched a new campaign to discourage stereotyping and prejudice. In time for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, the beverage giant will remove labels from its soda cans throughout the Middle East.The company explained its rationale behind the campaign in a statement: "In a time when equality and abolishing prejudices is a hot topic for discussion around the world, how does one of the leading brands like Coca-Cola join in the conversation? In the Middle East, during the month of Ramadan, one of the world's most well-known labels has removed its own label, off its cans, in an effort to promote a world without labels and prejudices."The no-label cans feature one blank side and one side reading: “Labels are for cans, not for people.”
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
As we discuss all too often here at SB, food waste around the world is one of our most pressing issues; nearly a third of all food produced — over 1.3 billion tons per year — is wasted, according to the FAO.