PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Chipotle Mexican Grill announced this week that the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation will sponsor the first Chipotle Aluminaries Project, a seven-month-long accelerator program designed to help growth-stage ventures with a shared vision to cultivate a better world take their businesses to the next level.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A new app is eliminating our last excuse for breaking our diet: Pinto aggregates nutrition information from over 100,000 of the most commonly eaten foods in the US and creates personalized nutrition labels that focuses specifically on the ingredients and nutritional information users are concerned about.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Today, MBDC — the world’s foremost advisors in material health, product design and the Cradle to Cradle Design® framework co-founded by William McDonough and Michael Braungart — is proud to support C&A as the world’s first retailer to offer Cradle to Cradle Certified™ GOLD denim jeans.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A growing market shift has reached a critical mass this year against disposable plastic packaging. Leading on the regulatory front, the EU announced a goal of making all of its plastic waste recyclable or reusable by 2030. In the private sector, major brands have committed to achieving 100 percent recycling and reuse of materials in the form of sustainable packaging by 2025.
PRESS RELEASE -
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced today it is building a new supercomputer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that is more energy efficient and 3.5 times more powerful than its existing system.¹ The new development is part of a long-standing collaboration between HPE and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to apply advanced supercomputing and HPC solutions to accelerate research across various DOE agencies.
WASTE NOT -
We’ve all occasionally bought too much or waited too long to eat our fresh fruit and veg, but what is the true impact of the food we throw away?
UK food tech company It’s Fresh! has launched a food waste calculator to enable consumers to understand the true cost of the fruit and vegetables they discard.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Counter Culture Coffee has released its annual Transparency Report, along with a limited-edition blend that highlights the true average price farmers are paid for their coffee; Counter Culture is the only roaster in the industry to provide this level of transparency into its sourcing model.
"Viewing our business through a lens of sustainability has been an important aspect to our success for more than two decades," explained Brett Smith, founder and president of Counter Culture. "By sharing this report, we create accountability for ourselves — leading to a greater level of trust with our partners."
PRESS RELEASE -
In a follow up to their January announcement, A.P. Moller –Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the creation of TradeLens, jointly developed by the two companies to apply blockchain to the world's global supply chain. TradeLens is the result of a collaboration agreement between Maersk and IBM, a blockchain-enabled shipping solution designed to promote more efficient and secure global trade, bringing together various parties to support information sharing and transparency, and spur industry-wide innovation.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Today, food tech startup Impossible Foods published its 2018 impact report, an annual update on its mission, business and strategic roadmap.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Swedish sustainable packaging giant BillerudKorsnäs and researchers at Uppsala University have partnered to bring paper batteries to life. Together, they have taken basic research based on pure cellulose from algae and developed it to work with the same type of fiber that BillerudKorsnäs often uses to manufacture its packaging material — furthering development for both inexpensive and eco-friendly batteries. The long-term aim is to enable large-scale production and the future use of paper batteries for applications in areas such as smart packaging.
PRESS RELEASE -
Atlanta, GA - UPS (NYSE:UPS) today announced a collaboration with Thor Trucks, Inc. to develop and test a fully-electric class 6 delivery truck in Los Angeles, Calif. The truck is expected to be ready for deployment later this year.
UPS continues to work with a range of companies to test and deploy promising alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles that will help it meet its sustainability goals. Electric vehicles, and the charging infrastructure needed to support them, play a critical role in UPS’s vision for its fleet of the future.
PRESS RELEASE -
Rheem® has announced the launch of the new EcoNet® Smart Thermostat, the latest innovation in the company’s EcoNet enabled product line. Designed to optimize the performance of Rheem communicating HVAC and water heating systems, this new thermostat includes intelligent management features for both homeowners and contractors.
The ultra-thin programmable thermostat has a full-color glass touchscreen and is equipped with features modern homeowners expect, such as local weather, one-touch away mode, motion activation, and integrated Wi-Fi, in addition to being compatible with Rheem’s EcoNet mobile app. It also works with Amazon Alexa for convenient hands-free voice control. Just say “Alexa, set home to 72 degrees” or “Alexa, make home warmer” to an Alexa-enabled device.
PRESS RELEASE -
As the world of work is changing faster than ever, employees and potential talent are seeking out learning and development opportunities to not only keep up, but to stay ahead and be challenged. A recent study by Gartner shows that companies that offer learning and development opportunities have an employee-base which is 66% more engaged; 4.2x more likely to stay with their current company; 8x more likely to be high-performers; and learns skills 25% faster* – which is why The Estée Lauder Companies is pleased to be the first-ever beauty company to partner with LinkedIn Learning.
PRESS RELEASE -
Imagine lifting a bag of flour or a watermelon over your head up to 4,600 times a day as part of your job – that is similar to what some Ford employees do every day as they work to build vehicles around the world.
Repetitive motions like those can lead to fatigue and injury for workers, but now Ford is rolling out a new wearable technology globally called EksoVest that helps reduce injury risk in some plant workers after a successful trial in two U.S. plants.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
It’s estimated that nearly 8 million tons of plastic flow into our oceans every year; even more goes into landfills. While there are many great companies focused on recovering this plastic, there is one developing a plan for what to do with those millions of tons after the cleanup is done.
PRESS RELEASE -
The first #sheinnovates Girls’ Lounge in Africa is opening at the SAP Next-Gen Lab location at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa.
The launch of #sheinnovates Girls’ Lounge at UCT coincides with the #sheinnovates Festival taking place today at Startupbootcamp AfriTech.
PRESS RELEASE -
In an emergency, communication is critical to response efforts. That’s why former public safety officials and first responders on the AT&T* FirstNet team, in collaboration with Sonim, are creating Emergency Drop Kits. These portable kits will envelop first responders in a 300-foot “connected bubble,” letting them maintain constant communication to better coordinate their response.
The Emergency Drop Kits are being designed for use during emergencies in rural and remote areas, as well as areas where communications may be temporarily unavailable. Think wildfires or hurricanes.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Sustainable Brands recently talked to Wim Bartels, Program Lead at the Corporate Reporting Dialogue (CRD) about key issues and initiatives around the further development of corporate reporting.
CLEANTECH -
Kingfisher plc, the international home improvement company, has unveiled plans to install energy storage batteries at B&Q’s Swindon distribution center. The installations form a key part of Kingfisher’s aim to reduce grid energy consumption across its UK property portfolio, and are the latest milestone in Kingfisher’s strategic roadmap for sustainable growth to 2025, moving the company towards its goal of becoming net positive by 2050.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
FoodBytes! — the global pitch competition/networking event by Rabobank, a premier global food and agribusiness bank, has announced the 20 food and ag startups that will get a chance to pitch their ideas at the inaugural FoodBytes! London in September.