WALKING THE TALK -
As food supply chains grow more complex, consumers are setting higher expectations for food quality, safety and sustainability as they seek more aspirational choices around what they eat. But food scares continue to happen, one of the most famous being the horse meat scandal in 2013.
PRESS RELEASE -
Braskem and Embalixo, Brazil's leader in the production of waste bags, in partnership with Pão de Açúcar, one of the leading retailers and pioneers in the collection of post-consumer materials, will be producing new garbage bags using plastic materials discarded by customers at the Pão de Açúcar Recycling Stations Unilever and industrial sacks previously used by Braskem in the delivery of its resins. The partnership is part of the Wecycle platform, created by the petrochemical company for the utilization plastic waste in the production chain.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Everyone’s gotta eat – and it makes for a big industry. Globally, food and agriculture is a $7.8 trillion industry. Its also growing (pun intended): global investments in the food and agriculture sector have grown three-fold since 2004 and, according to McKinsey, on average have demonstrated higher returns to shareholders than other sectors. In the US, agriculture, food and related industries generated 5.5% of the country’s GDP at $992 billion, $137 billion of that coming directly from US farms.
WASTE NOT -
Water and waste are issues at nearly every step of the textile and apparel lifecycles. Luckily, solutions are being developed across the board.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
The Procter & Gamble Company today announced it has achieved many of its 2020 environmental sustainability goals, has plans in place to meet the rest and has established new, broad-reaching goals for 2030.
WASTE NOT -
Long before concepts such as future-fit and circular became buzzwords, Fuji Xerox was already busy redefining business as usual and demonstrating the opportunities to be harnessed by embracing a more sustainable, resource-efficient business model.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
As much hype as cryptocurrencies and digital tokens are getting these days, their real-world, practical uses remain few and far between. But one Vancouver-based organization, The Plastic Bank, is working to exchange plastic waste for digital currency in some of the world’s poorest places.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The world’s first curbside recycling program started where I live. Ontario, Canada’s Blue Box program made its official debut in the City of Kitchener in 1981 and became a blueprint for recycling programs in more than 150 countries around the world. Many Canadians don’t realize recycling “started” here in the Great White North, and unfortunately, many also don’t know what can go in their blue boxes these days.
PRESS RELEASE -
Nestlé today announced its ambition to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or re-usable by 2025. Its vision is that none of its packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfill or as litter. Nestlé believes that there is an urgent need to minimize the impact of packaging on the environment.
Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said, "Plastic waste is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today. Tackling it requires a collective approach. We are committed to finding improved solutions to reduce, re-use and recycle. Our ambition is to achieve 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025."
PRESS RELEASE -
In order to promote initiatives for the recycling of plastic waste through its Wecycle platform, Braskem has joined Condor, a manufacturer of materials for real estate painting and other products, to develop the "Special Sustainable Kit" for paintings, using post-consumer plastic.
This is the first product deriving from the reuse of plastic packaging of printing and road marking paints. Indicated for wall paints, smooth surfaces and finishes, the kit consists of a tray, a brush, two paint rollers, and a holder for fixing them.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
This year has already seen some great steps forward in the uphill battle against fashion and textile waste: industry agreements and action plans have been announced; sustainable fashion startups are receiving support from the Fashion for Good-Plug and Play Accelerator and the Nike Circular Innovation Challenge; and collaborations have produced a
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Amidst a wave of negative public opinion on plastics and the waste associated with it, several companies have responded with commitments to reduce single-use plastics, combat marine plastic pollution, and support startups with
WASTE NOT -
With the public mood turning against plastic waste, British policymakers now have a new cause to rally behind.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Dow Chemical Company is again teaming up with national nonprofit and longstanding partner Keep America Beautiful to award a total of $100,000 in grants for organizations to establish Hefty® EnergyBag™ programs in their communities.
WASTE NOT -
Today, Soma and Parley for the Oceans announced their exclusive and limited-edition product for Starbucks; the world’s first reusable water bottle with a sleeve made using Parley Ocean PlasticTM, a material created from upcycled plastic intercepted from marine environments.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Plastics and packaging are ubiquitous and leading to major problems both for waste management and ocean pollution. While many companies are committing to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics, there is still a lot of work to do on all fronts.
WASTE NOT -
As much as one third of the world’s food is being wasted. The United States alone wastes roughly 63 million tons, or $218 billion, of food annually. As awareness of this issue has grown over in recent years, a variety of initiatives have taken root.
WALKING THE TALK -
McDonald’s has made strides towards sustainability this month: it’s the first restaurant company to set an approved Science-Based Target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; it’s launching a Chicken Sustainability Advisory Council; and it will begin trials to test paper straws – rather than plastic – in several of its U.K. locations.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
We’re increasingly living in a world of purpose-led brands, as growing numbers of consumers are more interested than ever in the “big world” issues related to the products they buy, and how they use them. And yet, when it comes to the sustainability sector, we still struggle to apply some of the most basic communications principles to the issues we are trying to solve.
CLEANTECH -
UN Environment has awarded seed funding to twelve young people with business ideas on how to foster energy-efficient, low-waste and low-carbon lifestyles. Each of the winners of the Asia Pacific Low Carbon Lifestyles Challenge will receive US$10,000 and mentorship to help bring their ideas to fruition.