MARKETING AND COMMS -
On Tuesday morning, over breakfast at SB’16 Copenhagen, Filip Engel, head of DONG Energy Group Sustainability, and Ryan Bell from VRScout showed us virtual reality’s (VR) transformational power in sustainability communication.
Modern energy companies have their share of challenges, as Engel told us.
PRESS RELEASE -
Delivery giant UPS and drone manufacturer CyPhy Works have started testing a CyPhy hexacopter to deliver packages to remote locations. On September 22, the companies conducted a mock delivery of urgently needed medicine from Beverly, Mass., to Children’s Island, three miles off the Massachusetts coast.
UPS is not new to the drone industry; the Atlanta-based logistics concern acknowledged last year that it was testing drones to monitor stock in its warehouse facilities. That testing is being done at warehouses in Louisville, Ky., and Venlo, the Netherlands. More recently, Houston Mills, UPS Airlines' director of safety, was named to the FAA’s high-level Drone Advisory Committee, which held its first public meeting on September 16.
CLEANTECH -
Despite international efforts to curb climate change, communities and companies alike need to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate. With this in mind, The White House has launched a new public-private collaboration to improve the availability and usability of data and information for climate resilience. Companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Microsoft and IBM’s The Weather Company are working alongside NGOs and four U.S. Federal agencies to execute the project.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Business must adopt a new mindset to move the world away from its collision course with the “Sixth Extinction" and onto a path of sustainability, acclaimed speaker and author John Elkington argues in a paper that shows how “Breakthrough Business Models” can deliver the technological advancements needed to achieve an inclusive, net-zero emissions economy. The paper, written for the Business and Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC), highlights critical pathways for developing a radical mindset that aligns sustainability with profit and transforms business and markets.
CLEANTECH -
A data-driven modeling tool is helping cities – including San Francisco – reach their sustainability goals by outlining which technologies will provide the greatest impact. According to a study released last week, electric car sharing alone has the potential to reduce emissions by half a million tonnes by 2050 – representing a 13 percent reduction in GHGs from a single technology.
COLLABORATION -
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) has announced a new digital ‘Global Solutions Platform’ to engage business students to support the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or Global Goals). The platform consists of two parallel projects through which business students will analyze and evaluate the quality of company activities as they relate to responsible and sustainable business operations, and highlight the most notable achievements of companies in each major industry.
PRESS RELEASE -
Bank of America announces new environmental operations goals to be met by 2020, including plans to go carbon neutral. This announcement supports the bank’s continued efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of its operations. Bank of America will work to reduce location-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 percent, energy use by 40 percent, and water use by 45 percent in its operations across the globe by 2020.
PRESS RELEASE -
Cost of water on the front end and discharge fees on the other end are squeezing industrial water users. Increasing water efficiency is a clear solution but facilities reusing and recycling must now treat water that is more fouled and more expensive to treat.
PRESS RELEASE -
At AT&T, supplier sustainability is critical to our corporate commitment to manage our environmental and social impact.
As we continue to build a sustainable supply chain, we would like to introduce a new online industry sustainability assessment tool, the QuEST Assessor, which our suppliers will use to help drive us to our 2020 goals and beyond. QuEST Forum, a global organization dedicated to quality and sustainability in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) community, developed the tool to help advance sustainability practices and standards.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Every day, 180,000 people move to urban areas. Urbanization is creating an urgent need for sustainable actions and solutions. At this critical time, National Geographic and United Technologies Corp. are collaborating to raise awareness of sustainable urbanization through the Urban Expeditions initiative.
Urban Expeditions will identify cutting-edge research and exploration projects that are leading the way in sustainable urbanization in three key areas:
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Recycling single-fibre fabrics – such as denim jeans and wool sweaters – is mechanically possible, but garments are often made from a blend of different fibres, which has historically caused a host of challenges for recycling them. Even for many of the most popular blends such as cotton and polyester, commercially viable separation, sorting and recycling technologies are not yet available. As a result, used apparel of blended or unknown materials are typically discarded in landfills or down-cycled into insulation, carpeting or other low-value applications.
PRESS RELEASE -
US 09/08/16Atlanta, GANamed to DJSI North America Index for 12th Straight Year
CLEANTECH -
Consumers are hungry for greater transparency - especially when it comes to fish. A recent study found that more than half of consumers are willing to pay more for certified sustainable seafood products. Yet, the industry’s complicated global supply chains have made traceability a challenge and have allowed forced labor to thrive.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
William McDonough + Partners and GXN — an internal division of Danish architectural practice 3XN that works with applied architectural research in green materials and building technologies — have partnered to develop a master plan for the Agro Food Park (AFP) near Aarhus, Denmark. The project aims to create a geographic hub for agricultural innovation; AFP will incorporate the benefits of urban density with the proximity of agricultural test fields in an open campus where academic and commercial businesses can collaborate, grow and prosper.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
More sustainable packaging options are cropping up – from water bottle multipacks to moulded paper packaging to renewable, recyclable bags, leading brands are changing the way products are wrapped.
Evian, a water brand under the Danone Group umbrella, is introducing a new way to multipack PET bottles using Nature MultiPack™, a technology developed by German packaging company KHS. Launching in select stores across France, the method uses a few small dots of specially-developed adhesive and a standard tape handle to carry the pack.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A new study released by mobile marketplace OfferUp has found that many Americans are increasingly drowning in things they no longer need or want, yet – strangely enough - there is a widespread struggle to meet household expenses on time every month.
CLEANTECH -
Six industries could enjoy massive savings and emissions cuts by digitizing their business processes and applying data to monitor resource use. According to SAP, Europe’s largest software company, each of the identified industries could cut at least half a gigaton of carbon emissions by making such changes, and together, they could help save around $33 trillion worth of resources and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 7.6 gigatons by 2030.
In order of highest potential emissions cuts, the six industries SAP identified are: utilities (2.2 gigatons); agriculture and food production (1.6 gigatons); transportation and logistics (1.5 gigatons); construction (1.1 gigatons); manufacturing (0.7 gigatons); and retail and consumer production (0.5 gigatons).
CLEANTECH -
News Deeply, in partnership with Sustainable Brands, has produced a series of profiles looking at how brands are tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges. The goal is to examine trends and gather insights from a new wave of corporate citizenship – in an era when the private sector is increasingly expected to play a positive role in improving our lives and societies. This is the 7th article in the series.
CLEANTECH -
More than one-third of American adults agree: Finding parking in many major cities is such a pain that they’re ditching driving to avoid the hassle. But with Ford’s new FordPass® platform, drivers can eliminate that anxiety — and avoid a showdown over parking — before they even get into their car.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
With about one-fifth of the world’s population, China has the ability to significantly contribute to the success of the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The country made impressive strides in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in poverty alleviation, and is well-positioned to build on that progress in the post-2015 development agenda despite the challenges it will undoubtedly face.