PRESS RELEASE -
The gender gap in technology and engineering is getting worse, despite the increased demand for STEM-related jobs. GM and the national nonprofit Girls Who Code (GWC) today announced a partnership to inspire and empower thousands of U.S. middle and high school girls to become future leaders in these fields.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
The incoming administration has suggested it will take a sharp turn away from President Obama’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, causing uncertainty regarding the factors that have made energy strategy a top priority among businesses in recent years.
CLEANTECH -
The Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has awarded 2015 SBIO winner LanzaTech, a carbon-recycling company, $4 million to design and plan a demonstration-scale facility using industrial off gases to produce 3 million gallons a year of low-carbon jet and diesel fuels.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Energy giants Statoil and BP are part of a growing number of utilities future-fitting their operations to better compete in the emerging low-carbon economy. The two companies have recently invested in new wind and solar power projects across Europe, demonstrating their commitment to transition away from fossil fuels.
PRESS RELEASE -
Consumer goods giant Unilever has opened a Dh1 billion ($272 million) manufacturing plant, the region’s largest personal care products facility, at Dubai Industrial Park.
The company will mark products manufactured at the factory with a ‘Made in UAE’ label and will export 80 per cent of them to Europe and Mena region.
PRESS RELEASE -
UPS (NYSE:UPS) has formed a strategic alliance with Optoro, providing a one-stop shop solution for retailers and manufacturers to optimize the transportation and disposition of returns and excess inventory. The companies’ joint reverse logistics solutions combine UPS’s operational and logistics expertise with Optoro’s software platform that maximizes recovery value and reduces environmental waste.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Earlier this year, the World Bank announced a fundamental shift in its role of alleviating global poverty, by refocusing its financing efforts towards tackling climate change through the lens of SMEs. Last month, the group launched a new Climate Business Innovation Network (CBIN) during COP22 in Marrakech to help commercialize and diffuse clean technologies through developing countries.
PRESS RELEASE -
Teach For America announced today that it will expand its Computer Science (CS) initiative, bringing high-quality opportunities to teachers and students in the Bay Area with support from AT&T. Through its signature philanthropic initiative, AT&T Aspire, the technology company will contribute $200,000 to Teach For America–Bay Area toward providing Udacity Nanodegree credential scholarships to help students learn the skills needed for entry-level jobs in the tech industry, and also to provide quality professional development and resources for teachers reaching 2,570 students across the Bay Area.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
We’ve seen a rash of textile-recycling schemes emerge of late — in which the textiles in question may become new garments, but for the most part they remain, well, fabrics.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
On Monday, the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) announced the completion of a multi-hospital plastics recycling project in Chicago, collaborating with the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS). Focused on non-infectious plastic packaging and products collected from clinical areas of the hospitals, the project sought to demonstrate a viable business model for recycling healthcare plastics on a regional level.
PRESS RELEASE -
3M Canada has become the first organization in Canada to receive ISO 50001 Enterprise Level Certification as part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability, including energy management initiatives to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse emissions. This milestone achievement comes after two more 3M Canada facilities received their ISO 50001 certifications earlier this year – a manufacturing plant in Morden, Manitoba (the first ISO 50001 certification in the province) and a commercial building in Montreal, Quebec – joining four other 3M Canada facilities already certified.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
General Motors (GM) achieved a record number of landfill-free facilitiesin 2016, exceeding its commitment four years early. The company now operates 152 global facilities that recycle, reuse or convert to energy all waste from daily operations, including 100 manufacturing sites and 52 non-manufacturing sites.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
According to a recent survey of 287 sustainability professionals, working conditions are the most important sustainability issue in supply chains. That’s not too surprising; in the short time it’s taken to read this far, 153 people around the world have had a work-related accident.
PRESS RELEASE -
We live in the age of digitization where astonishing opportunities emerge when people and devices connect. Mobile technology empowers remote workers. IoT-based factories achieve new levels of efficiency. Sensors monitor the availability of clean drinking water. We are innovating and reaching people in ways never before possible.
CLEANTECH -
Siemens and New York-based startup LO3 Energy have announced that they are partnering up to make the energy-sharing economy a reality through the development of microgrids that use blockchain technology to enable local energy trading.
PRESS RELEASE -
Multiple technologies from The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) have been recommended for use in projects supported by the U.S.-China Building Efficiency and Green Development Fund. The Fund is a public-private partnership convened by the Paulson Institute that provides financing to bring innovative technologies from the United States to China in an effort to reduce building-energy emissions.
CLEANTECH -
Tom Singh, founder of UK fashion brand New Look, has backed a London-based fashion technology company to help apparel retailers and manufacturers manage their supply chains.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
As we head into the most gluttonous week of the year here in the U.S., it’s helpful to be reminded that companies large and small continue to churn out new technologies in the ongoing war against food waste – both at the business and consumer level.
CLEANTECH -
Commodity production drives two-thirds of tropical deforestation worldwide, and tracing those commodities has proven difficult.
PRESS RELEASE -
Green Plastic, which is made from sugarcane, is now being used to fabricate parts in space, thanks to a partnership between Braskem, the largest thermoplastic resin producer in the Americas, and U.S.-based Made In Space, the leading developer of zero gravity 3D printers and an official supplier to NASA. The technology allows astronauts to fabricate tools and spare parts in space using the biobased resin, which effectively increases the autonomy of space missions.