NEW METRICS -
With 3.8 billion years of R&D behind Earth’s systems and creatures, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can learn and how we can apply those lessons to our companies, products and processes.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
If I took one thing away from the Circular Economy sessions at SB’18 Vancouver, it was the need to design for the end of a product’s first life. Note I said, “first life,” because ideally it will be endlessly recycled. That said, as new products come online, designers need to be asking, what materials are we using? Can the product itself be reused like the very cool fashion pieces curated by Beyond Retro (a Bank & Vogue LTD company), or will it be recycled and recreated like Brambles’ packaging solutions?
WALKING THE TALK -
Interface has become the first global flooring manufacturer to declare that all of its products — including all carpet tile and luxury vinyl tile (LVT) – are carbon neutral across the entire product lifecycle. The company is now offering its Carbon Neutral Floors™ program as standard to every customer, at no extra cost, to help them meet their own sustainability goals while also allowing them to reduce the emissions impact of their projects or spaces.
PRESS RELEASE -
A self-proclaimed “complexity junkie,” Monique Oxender, Keurig Green Mountain’s Chief Sustainability Officer, doesn’t bat an eye at tackling big, complicated issues. From the future of coffee to the recyclability of Keurig’s pods, Oxender and her team have provided innovative solutions to complex issues across the value chain — all while embodying Keurig’s signature focus on collaboration.
PRESS RELEASE -
Today, in recognition of World Environmental Day, Kohler Co. announces expansion of its environmental and human health product disclosures for its kitchen and bath products.
WALKING THE TALK -
In recent conversation with Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer at P&G, we spent our time talking about shifting out from old paradigms and models, to create new frameworks for building brands and advancing sustainability. Here are Pritchard’s top five paradigms to shift:
PRESS RELEASE -
3 things we are looking forward to at Sustainable Brands ‘18
CLEANTECH -
Mars Australia has signed 20 year power-purchase agreements (PPA) with Total Eren to generate the equivalent of 100 percent of Mars’ electricity from renewable energy by 2020. In addition to its latest agreement in Australia, Mars is already using or purchasing renewable electricity to cover 100 percent of its operations in Belgium, Brazil, Lithuania, the United Kingdom and the United States.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer and a leading floorcovering provider, has also become a leader in sustainability — in August, Shaw announced that 85 percent of its products are now Cradle to Cradle Certified™; and earlier this month, it achieved carbon neutrality in its commercial carpet manufacturing operations.
We spoke with Troy Virgo, Director of Sustainability and Product Stewardship, to learn more about what drives the company’s efforts.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Makersite is an all-in-one, open-source data platform for product design, costing and stewardship that product teams can use to analyze and collaborate on how things are made and improve the impacts of making them.
The platform includes dozens of apps tailored to various business, compliance, health and environmental evaluations that developers and designers can use to quickly explore the effects of different product configurations, such as climate change, eutrophication, carcinogenicity, RoHS and REACH compliance and production costs.
We caught up with CEO and co-founder Christoph Wilfert to find out more about this one-stop shop for sustainable product design.
PRESS RELEASE -
Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Shaw) has completed the construction of a cogeneration Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plant at its Columbia, S.C. fiber production facility. The CHP, which began operating in May 2018, will reduce the plant’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 26,000 metric tonnes; that’s an impact equal to removing almost 5,500 passenger vehicles from the road each year.
This is the latest in ongoing investments Shaw is making to minimize its environmental footprint. The company recently announced it has achieved carbon neutrality in its commercial carpet manufacturing operations. Companywide, Shaw has made significant investments to help reduce its energy and greenhouse gas impact.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
This year, the world’s largest event on sustainability in fashion, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, included an Innovation Competition that saw 12 finalists pitch their technologies onstage in front of a panel of expert judges and Summit attendees. After a series of presentations and judging sessions over the two day event, the winner was announced: ColorZen.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
WAP Sustainability Consulting works with manufacturers and brands to help them meet customers’ expectations on sustainability – specifically around life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon management and product ingredient transparency, particularly in regards to chemicals management.
We spoke with founder William Paddock to learn more about these current hot spots in the ongoing quest for supply chain transparency.
What are some of the key issues or buzzwords of concern for companies right now?
William Paddock: I tend to see organizations struggling with three things:
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Ahead of Earth Day last month, over one million people took to social media urging corporations to "break free" from single-use plastics. And from the fashion to the auto industry – and everywhere in between – innovations are taking root to increase our use of sustainable materials. To continue the momentum created by Earth Day, this year’s World Environment Day (June 5) is also focused on plastic pollution.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
As we get ready to judge our semi-finalists for the 2018 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, we wanted to check in with last year’s competitors to learn about the impacts they continue to have on the business world. Here, we catch up with our 2017 winner, Detroit Ento.
PRESS RELEASE -
Avery Dennison, a global leader in pressure-sensitive, functional materials, branding, weaving and labelling solutions for the retail apparel market; and SoftWear Automation, a revolutionary sewing technologies company for manufacturing automation in the home goods, footwear and apparel industries, have teamed up to help apparel manufacturers create a fully-digital supply chain that enables speed in the manufacture of apparel and textile products.
Through this partnership, Avery Dennison is leading a transformative change in the apparel industry, ushering in innovation that is in keeping with the company’s history of pushing boundaries to create positive change across the supply chain.
Sparking Change in the Apparel Industry
MARKETING AND COMMS -
“All I really need is the word to be brought up.”
“If they aren’t talking about it, then it can’t be important to them.”
At WAP Sustainability, we work with manufacturers and brands to help them meet customers’ expectations on sustainability, many of which receive requests through The Sustainability Consortium (TSC).
BUSINESS CASE -
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Better Buildings Initiative has grown to include more than 900 organizations, which represent 30 of the country’s Fortune 100 companies, 12 of the top 25 U.S. employers, 12 percent of the U.S. manufacturing footprint and 13 percent of total commercial building space, as well as 28 states and close to 100 cities and counties across the nation. Even more impressive is the progress they have made through the program.
PRESS RELEASE -
Neutrox, a brand specializing in hair moisturization, believes that good things in life, such as practicing outdoor sports or being in touch with nature, deserve to be valued more and more. Proof of this is the fact that the brand is one of the sponsors of women's surfing, which depends directly on nature, becoming increasingly aware and concerned about sustainability and preservation of the environment.
Therefore, the brand has decided to renew its packaging, beginning to produce them with Braskem's I'm GreenT Green Plastic, the first polyethylene from renewable origin to be produced on an industrial scale in the world.