CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
This week, Amerplast, one of Europe's largest flexo printers and bag converters, began a supply partnership with Braskem, a global leader in biopolymers, to market Green Polyethylene (Green PE) made from a renewable sugar cane ethanol, to tissue segment.
WASTE NOT -
The British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) is calling on car manufacturers to ensure that using lightweight materials to achieve greenhouse gas reductions doesn't impede circular manufacturing processes, edie reports.
PRESS RELEASE -
PRODIAS (PROcessing Diluted Aqueous Systems) fosters competitiveness of the European process industryAim is to decrease production costs for renewable-based products via increasing the efficiency of raw material use and production processesProject funding by European Union with €10 million – total budget is about €14 millionLudwigshafen, Germany – March 18, 2015 – A consortium of companies in the European process industry from the areas of biotechnology, renewable resources, chemistry, process engineering, equipment supply as well as research organizations recently launched project PRODIAS (PROcessing Diluted Aque
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Selling a product in today’s world is not just about quality and price point anymore. Packaging has become a key factor in the way companies sell products, and specifically, how (if at all) they are making packaging more sustainable. What companies want to know now is if consumers take their carbon footprint into account when buying products and how they respond when companies make an effort to create more sustainable packaging for their products.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
On Thursday, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) announced it has taken action against members that are not fulfilling basic membership obligations intended to create a more transparent, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible palm oil industry. A number of prominent NGOs working in the field — including World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Rainforest Action Network (RAN) — commend the action as an important first step, but emphasize the Roundtable's need for more teeth in ensuring progress toward a truly sustainable palm oil industry.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
We’ve heard a lot recently about 2015 promising to be the year of sustainability — with global conferences on sustainable development and climate change, new UK legislation fighting modern day slavery, and the forthcoming UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), set to shape the global remit for social, economic and environmental development.One of the key goals of the SDGs is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls around the world. With this in mind, the post-2015 development agenda offers a great opportunity to drive lasting change for women’s rights and equality.
WASTE NOT -
Following the release of a new joint report from the Carbon Trust, Knowledge Transfer Network, High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute, Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse and Coventry University, leading experts from industry and academia have warned that the UK is falling behind other advanced economies in harnessing the value of a rapidly growing remanufacturing industry.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
After an often-heated six years of confrontation between activist group ForestEthics and paper and packaging giant 3M, the conflict finally came to an end yesterday as 3M announced its new paper and wood pulp sourcing policy. ForestEthics, which has been critical of the corporation’s sourcing policy, has applauded its new commitment to tracing its virgin wood fiber and ensuring it comes from renewable sources.
WASTE NOT -
In a report published this week, Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that an increase on product life of just one day across a range of foods could prevent roughly 250,000 tons of food waste each year — in households and in the supply chain — by giving consumers longer to eat the food that they buy.The “life” of a product is the time period over which food remains safe to eat, or over which the quality does not deteriorate to unacceptable levels, usually designated on-pack by companies through “Sell by” or “Best before” dates.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Last fall, HP became the first company in the IT industry to require direct employment of foreign migrant workers in its supply chain with the release of the HP Foreign Migrant Worker Standard.Three months after HP the release of this new standard for preventing exploitative labor practices and forced labor, Sustainable Brands spoke with Bob Mitchell, Global Manager of Supply Chain Social & Environmental Responsibility, to learn how the program is enabling HP to ethically recruit and manage foreign migrant workers.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
UK recycled packaging manufacturer Spectra unveiled a number of new concepts emphasizing closure technology this week at an industry event in Birmingham.One of the new closure concepts is a two-piece cap that features an inner screw mechanism, which allows customers to snap on five alternate outer shells for a mix-and-match outcome. Another idea is a new push button sliding cap that can be operated with one hand, available in twin color options.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
This month, responsible paper company Domtar launched Paper Made Here — a new program that encourages its stakeholders to ask themselves: “Where does my paper come from?”The Paper Made Here program demonstrates why buying North American paper is the responsible economic, social and environmental choice, and the best business decision. The program also spotlights Domtar’s longtime commitment to sustainability, its history as a North American job creator and its investment in local communities.
CLEANTECH -
This week, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), a nonprofit coalition of many of the world’s largest leading electronics companies — including Apple, Cisco, Dell, Eastman Kodak, HP, Microsoft and many more — dedicated to supply chain responsibility, and CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) announced a new partnership to help expand greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting and reductions in the electronics supply chain.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A startup called Soundlazer claims to have developed the world’s thinnest speaker, made from a new class of plastic polymer. With the ability to reproduce a large range of audio frequencies, the company says it can be used to deliver audio in tight or unique spaces.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Dow Chemical Company recently completed a pilot program aimed at showing how certain plastics such as juice pouches, candy wrappers and plastic dinnerware — which are not easily recyclable under traditional models — can be converted into synthetic crude oil for fuel.As part of the Energy Bag Pilot Program, Dow partnered with the Flexible Packaging Association, Republic Services, Agilyx, Reynolds Consumer Products and the city of Citrus Heights, Calif. to drive a collection pilot program meant to divert non-recycled plastics from landfills and to optimize their resource efficiency across the lifecycle.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
New strategies for reuse and remanufacturing of mobile devices can cut the carbon footprint of each device by up to half while expanding sales, according to a new report from the Green Alliance.A circular economy for smart devices identifies how laptops, tablets and smartphones up to five years old can be profitably recovered and resold in the UK, US and India. It describes six business models that companies can use to adapt to consumer preferences for lower cost, longer-lasting electronics and how reuse can bring the benefits of internet connected devices to new consumers in the developing world.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
There's a lot of talk about manufacturing’s “New Industrial Revolution.”
But the way we interpret “industrial” — and its definition moving forward — is going to change dramatically. Fewer smokestacks, more 3D printers, more choices.
When industries turned to machines and away from the hands of artisans during the first industrial revolution, the manufacturing of goods became quantity and speed over quality and care. Products lost the potential for personalization, replaced by a one-size-fits-all approach.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Apple has terminated its relationships with 18 suppliers to date due to sustainability code violations, according to a new report from the technology company.
NEW METRICS -
Whirlpool has announced that nine of its cooking appliances are among the industry’s first certified under the Association for Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) Sustainability Standard for Cooking Products — the first voluntary sustainability standard for household cooking products, developed by AHAM, UL Environment and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group.
WASTE NOT -
Mars Chocolate North America announced last week that all 10 of its manufacturing facilities are now certified landfill-free, a significant step towards achieving Mars’ company-wide goal of zero-waste-to-landfill by 2015. The Henderson, Nevada site was the tenth and final chocolate manufacturing facility to achieve this milestone.Since announcing this goal in 2007, Mars has reached an overall reduction of approximately 4,500 tonnes of waste each year. To do so, Mars zeroed in on three key focus areas: efficient operating processes, recycling programs for multiple waste streams, and mutually beneficial partnerships with disposal vendors and local farm reuse programs.