PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In the future, you may be able to print meat in your kitchen. That is the hope behind the Cultivator, a conceptual prototype for a countertop 3D printer made by design students Sarah Mautsch and Aaron Abentheuer.The Cultivator intends to spark conversation about the future of food production and bioprinting, a technology currently being explored to fabricate human organs in experimental medicine. Inspiration for the Cultivator was based on the assumed development of this technology over the next 30 years.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Yesterday, I posted a piece about the Pope's "encyclical" on the environment, released last month. I summarized what I saw as the key themes and takeaways. I also provided the first half of my list of the best quotes from the essay. Yesterday's excerpts covered climate science (and denial), environmental ills in general, and the Pope's critique of modern technological society.
COLLABORATION -
At SB ‘15 San Diego in early June, speakers on the Sustainable Cities panel discussed big issues and a few case studies around global brands building innovative partnerships with cities. They also shared how new, non-conventional partnerships are necessary and discussed opportunities that corporate sustainability teams should take into consideration.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Sevamob, a social enterprise which aims to fundamentally transform primary healthcare in India through mobile clinics and a tele-health marketplace, has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA) to reduce anemia by 30 percent, HIV transmission to children by at least half of the national average and dental issues like caries by 25 percent, in the areas where it is active.The company says it provides primary healthcare and dental care to low-income people through a subscription-based model that combines local health teams with a network of specialists and a 24/7 call center for accurate diagnosis and treatment and leverages cloud-based mobile technology and data analytics to manage and monitor health outcomes.
CLEANTECH -
This week, startup Measurabl, a provider of sustainability data management and analytics software, announced a partnership with Optoro, a technology company focused on supply chain sustainability for retailers. The “We Are Measurabl” pilot program allows Optoro and other companies to track and validate their corporate sustainability performance to their stakeholders.
COLLABORATION -
Deliver Change, a UK-based non-profit focused on sustainable technology projects, launched a campaign this week called “Let’s make air pollution visible,” which aims to bring together businesses, policy makers and local groups to solve the problem of air pollution in the UK.“Air pollution remains the greatest invisible threat to our health today, as well as to the economic performance of our cities,” said Deliver Change chief executive Jonathan Steel. “People are waking up to the problem, but we need to be able to see the ‘unseeable’.”
CLEANTECH -
Today we can access vast quantities of information from countless sources to help us make better decisions quickly.My cell phone can help me find a restaurant with the type of food I like, at a price I like, and with a customer satisfaction rating. I can get directions to the restaurant, including current traffic conditions. And if I don’t want to drive myself, Uber can take care of that.All of this is possible, yet when I go to my grocery store I’m still unclear as to what’s in the products I buy and where they came from.Is this can of soup lined with BPA? Are there GMOs in it? What’s the environmental impact of this product? Can I recycle it?
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Today, Ford announced progress on its commitment to developing autonomous vehicle technology, including innovations in wearable technology and collaborations with startups in Silicon Valley to make mobility solutions more accessible. The announcement, made at the Further with Ford trend conference, marks a transition from Ford’s investment in autonomous vehicle technology as a research effort to an advanced engineering program.
CLEANTECH -
As previously functioning urban areas fall into disrepair, urban blight increasingly is afflicting cities across the United States. Characterized by high local unemployment and crime, political disenfranchisement and depopulation, in some of these areas the endless blocks of abandoned buildings seems like scenes out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Today Dell released an update on its headway in 2014-2015 against its 2020 Legacy of Good Plan, highlighting its first signs of progress in achieving 21 goals in the areas of environment, communities and employees.“Dell has made great progress across its global business ecosystem in its efforts to use the technology we produce for good,” said Trisa Thompson, VP of Corporate Responsibility at Dell. “We’re committed to this ongoing work and share our results to both create and inspire positive change in business practices.”Notable accomplishments in terms of its products and operations include:
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
For more than three years, BASF, Cargill and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH have worked together to promote sustainable coconut oil and improve the living conditions of coconut farmers in the Philippines. This week they’ve announced the establishment of the world’s first certified production of copra, the dried coconut flesh needed to process coconut oil. The project on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is partly financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the develoPPP.de programme.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The far-reaching social impacts of the fashion industry were catapulted into the global spotlight with the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh in 2013.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
On Wednesday, Ford Motor Company released its 16th annual sustainability report, highlighting progress to reduce its environmental impacts and to innovate “smart mobility” models that accommodate growing interest in alternatives to vehicle ownership and crowded cities.Notable successes in 2014 included:
CLEANTECH -
In a world where more people have access to mobile phones than to safe water, how can technology help scale up sustainable supply chains? Here are four suggestions from an expert panel at the Sedex Global Responsible Sourcing Conference, held in March 2015.
CLEANTECH -
If you’ve ever wondered about the energy powering your favorite websites, a new tool from Greenpeace is here to help. On Thursday, the advocacy group released a new browser extension tool that shows which of the most popular websites are moving most ambitiously towards renewable energy use. Users that download the extension (compatible with Google Chrome) can distinguish leaders from laggards by the color of a cloud icon that appears green, yellow, or red whenever they open a new site.
CLEANTECH -
AT&T, IBM and Mueller Water Products have teamed up to use Internet of Things (IoT) technology to address water sustainability in cities. Their partnership combines Echologics sensors and sound technology from Mueller Water Products with AT&T’s LTE wireless network to detect water pressure, temperature and leaks in urban water systems. The IBM Water Management Center helps aggregate the water data, providing a complete view of past, present and future performance.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Morgan Stanley has announced that it closed on the issuance of a $500 million green bond, its first green bond, as part of the company’s strategy to advance market-based solutions to social and environmental challenges.Funds equal to the net proceeds of Morgan Stanley’s green bond will be allocated to various renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Much of these funds will correspond with investments in existing and future third-party renewable energy projects, primarily wind farms, including Route 66 Wind, a 150 MW wind farm under construction in Texas, and Rattlesnake Wind Energy Center, a 207 MW wind power project also under construction in Texas.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Each year, Scandinavian think tank Sustainia highlights leading-edge sustainability solutions, technologies and practices from around the globe in its Sustainia100. Published today, this year’s list, which highlights standouts from more than 151 countries, points to a new development: sustainability alternatives are increasingly becoming the affordable and convenient choice.
CLEANTECH -
Today Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a solar farm project in Virginia that will advance the company’s progress towards its recent commitment to powering its data centers with 100 percent renewable energy.
PRESS RELEASE -
Ecodesk, a global supply chain sustainability database and communication platform, today announced a partnership with The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) to launch a leading edge, cloud-based supplier assessment scorecard to drive increased engagement and analysis of supplier sustainability performance.The scorecard is the result of extensive collaboration, combining P&G’s in-depth, tried and tested methodology for measuring supplier sustainability performance with Ecodesk’s expertise in cloud-based sustainable supply chain technology platforms, supplier engagement and data collection and aggregation. It is easy to use for suppliers and easy for customers to manage, speeding up the whole supplier assessment process.