PRESS RELEASE -
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced a new five-year commitment to help advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to help improve the health and well-being of men, women and children around the world. Johnson & Johnson is dedicating its expertise and innovations to ignite global partnerships and catalyze efforts through a variety of new implementation plans, targets and metrics. The announcement comes along with an expanded commitment by Johnson & Johnson to further strengthen the resilience of refugee and displaced children and their families in Syria and its neighboring countries where the need is greatest.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Collaborative consumption, also called the sharing economy, is expected to continue growing as a trend, particularly as digital technology makes sharing marketplaces more commonplace and accessible. This shift away from individual ownership of goods could really hurt manufacturers – or, as a recent study suggests, could deliver them profit-making benefits if they adjust their prices and product design.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A water- and space-efficient gardening system has been announced as the inaugural winner of the student Living Product Prize, a new initiative of the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge. The AquaCity Garden is a modular hydroponic system designed to grow food and plants on indoor walls.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
You may have heard the term ‘trashion’ in reference to clothing made out of trash, an art form that has grown over the past few years among students, artists and fashionistas alike with passions for both style and the environment. Well, these two new “bio-textiles” give “waste fashion” a new meaning.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the world’s sixth-largest consumer health company, has released the results from their latest set of five-year goals and announced a new set for 2020. J&J’s Citizenship & Sustainability 2020 Goals represent a shift in how the company measures impact, increasing focus on material impacts as opposed to incremental reductions and year-over-year improvements. Through seven distinct goals with a combined 15 associated targets and metrics, the company aims to help make people and places healthier while creating an internal culture of health and wellbeing.
COLLABORATION -
In the latest of a string of innovative partnerships in its quest for more sustainable materials (which so far have yielded CO2-based and tomato-based plastic, and guayule-based rubber, to name a few), Ford Motor Company and Jose Cuervo® are exploring the use of the tequila producer’s agave plant byproduct to develop more sustainable bioplastics to employ in Ford vehicles.
PRESS RELEASE -
It's widely recognized that the healthcare sector has a large and costly environmental footprint. Hospitals in particular account for some of the most energy-intensive facilities, yet many traditionally have been slow to embrace resource efficiency. A study by the University of Chicago found that the industry stands to save up to $15 billion over 10 years by adopting more sustainable practices - it's an opportunity that hasn't gone unnoticed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the world's sixth-largest consumer health company.
CLEANTECH -
Danish cleantech company DONG Energy is constructing the world’s first full-scale bio plant capable of handling household waste by means of enzymes. The REnescience plant in Northwich, in the North West of England, will be able to sort 15 tonnes of waste per hour or 120,000 tonnes per year – equivalent to the amount of waste from almost 110,000 homes in the United Kingdom (UK).
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Mars, Incorporated’s latest Principles in Action report captures the company’s performance on its targets for 2015, 2020, and those which are ongoing. Guided by its Five Principles of Quality, Responsibility, Efficiency, Mutuality and Freedom, the company has met and continues to pursue a wide range of sustainability, health and wellbeing, food safety, responsible marketing and workplace engagement objectives.
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.
PRESS RELEASE -
BASF is expanding its range of high performance foam products with the innovative, certified compostable particle foam ecovio® EA. The product is predominantly biobased and, like all of the grades under the ecovio® brand, it supports the biological cycle through its certified compostability. The excellent properties of the patented particle foam make it particularly suitable for transport packaging for high-value or delicate goods where a high level of impact resistance and robustness is vital. The product properties are similar to those of EPS and boast outstanding energy absorption and very good resilience even when subjected to multiple impact loads.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Both the Biomimicry Institute and Net Impact launched food-focused competitions earlier this year, seeking innovative ideas for new products or services. This week, the winners of the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge and Forward Food Competition were announced.
NEW METRICS -
Last week Harvard’s Sustainability and Health Initiative for Net Positive Enterprise (SHINE) hosted its annual Net Positive Summit to showcase the latest trends in well-being and health, and how they factor into creating Net Positive impacts. SHINE’s mission is to help corporations across all sectors measure and accelerate the ways in which they help the world become a healthier, more sustainable place. The summit showcased how integral well-being – which includes a combination of employee health and the health of the planet – is to creating a flourishing future.
LEADERSHIP -
Today at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2016 in New York, Claus Stig Pedersen, Head of Corporate Sustainability at biotech giant Novozymes, was announced as one of ten 2016 Local Pioneers of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
“We’re an emerging sector. We’re the cool kids. And that takes time,” said Kathryn Sheridan, CEO and founder of Sustainability Consult, during a Wednesday morning breakout session on the rise of bio-materials and bio-based products at Sustainable Brands 2016 San Diego.
Bio-based alternatives to plastic and other fossil-based materials can be used for a variety of applications, including construction, manufacturing and apparel, among others. However, many have yet to reach scale, largely due to industry clinging to classic chemistry.
“Bio-based materials work, it’s just a matter of economics,” Sheridan said.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
What could be a dry technical presentation on supply chain metrics is immediately derailed, as presenter Scot Case, Training Developer for the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC), elects to depart from the predetermined slide show, and instead deliver the content in a workshop-style format. So much for a nice, easy-to-write post.
PRESS RELEASE -
The company is incorporating bio-based plastics and post-consumer recycled paperboard into their new and improved Earth’s Choice product line
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have proposed a new bio-inspired, “bottom-up” approach for designing cement paste – concrete’s binding ingredient. Led by Oral Buyukozturk, a professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), the team compared cement paste to natural materials such as bones, deep sea sponges, and nacre, an inner shell layer of mollusks.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
In 1997, biologist Janine Benyus popularized the term “biomimicry,” with her groundbreaking book of the same name, and spearheaded the growth of the discipline dedicated to applying Nature’s designs and processes to create a healthier, more sustainable world. I recently spoke with Janine about some of her favorite biomimetic innovations, about asking more from our design interventions, and some of the yet untapped areas in which Nature’s genius could help solve our most intractable problems.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
From waste management to construction to apparel, circular economy models are gaining attention and proving effective in numerous industries. Even those in healthcare – an industry that requires the highest level of uncompromising performance – are beginning to re-evaluate linear product lifecycles.