BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
In Nestlé Waters North America's second annual survey of 6,142 US consumers and experts on water-related topics, released this week, respondents ranked clean water higher than getting enough sleep (25 percent of consumers and 22 percent of experts) and eating healthy foods (23 percent of consumers and 25 percent of experts) as factors important to living a healthy life.
WALKING THE TALK -
The release of classified documents such as the so-called Panama and Paradise papers in recent years has provided a glimpse into the opaque world of tax havens and their role in the global economy.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
More than 90 institutional investors, representing more than $6.7T in assets, have voiced their concerns over the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s relevance and effectiveness, and the current disconnect between its criteria and corporate policy commitments.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
For many, the sustainable choice is the alternative choice: alternative lightbulbs, alternative cars, alternative shopping bags, alternative business models. But there’s no longer a need for the sustainability community to present itself this way — especially in relation to business.
Every day, businesses face new and emerging risks related to environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related issues. In a world more connected than ever, these risks can be felt more directly and more immediately than they used to be.
NEW METRICS -
With 3.8 billion years of R&D behind Earth’s systems and creatures, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can learn and how we can apply those lessons to our companies, products and processes.
COLLABORATION -
Over 60 organizations including businesses such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola and M&S have signed a Catchment Management Declaration agreeing to step up action to address the increasing pressures to UK water through improved catchment management.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Since 1990, Indonesia has lost half of its rainforests. What’s worse, the rate of deforestation, currently at roughly two million hectares per year, is still accelerating.
Heart of the issue being that ecological values remain difficult to measure in monetary terms. Such is the tragedy of the commons for a country with the world’s fourth-largest population: Its eagerness for economic development driven by the global market has made one of the planet’s most diverse natural habitats subject to exploitation for fast cash, rather than being protected as a crucial part of the global ecosystem.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
It’s National Drinking Water Week, but new survey results suggest Americans may have more concerns on their minds than reasons to celebrate. Most Americans feel unknowledgeable about what is in their drinking water and are concerned about contaminants.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Nearly 50 years ago, the U.S. passed legislation to ensure the air we breathe and water we drink is clean, and that endangered animals and federal lands are protected. For 20 years, enforcement of these laws ranged from full swing or lapsed, depending on the political winds. And then something remarkable occurred: The American people took over and started a movement, spurring action to protect the environment.
BUSINESS CASE -
Recovering gold, copper and other metals from electronic waste – a practice called “urban mining” – is not only more environmentally friendly than extracting virgin materials, but can also be more cost effective. Newly published research shows that the revenue from selling metals recovered through recycling television sets far outweighs the recyclers’ expenses. With these offsets, it costs 13 times more to obtain these metals from ore than from urban mining.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Italy is quickly establishing itself as a force to be reckoned with in the circular economy, as evidenced by a new report from Enel, an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas.
LEADERSHIP -
Right now, almost four billion people live in a city somewhere in the world. By the middle of this century, that number is set to jump by a staggering 2.5 billion, with 90 percent of that growth happening in cities located in Asia and Africa.
However, with many cities doubling in size every 15 to 20 years, our urban environments currently lack the resources necessary to adapt to the forces of urbanization. Our cities will need to accommodate spiraling numbers of people, servicing their needs and stimulating trade and investment to create jobs, all within the constraints imposed by mega-challenges, such as climate change, poverty and employment. In Europe, two-thirds of people already live in cities.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
In case there was still any doubt that fossil fuels are on the decline, new analysis from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) confirms it: Wind and solar energy jobs now outnumber coal and gas jobs in 30 states.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) announced today it has made a commitment to no new deforestation in its global cocoa supply chain. This commitment is aimed at stopping ongoing deforestation and protecting forests in the cocoa-growing regions where the company sources its cocoa.
The commitment includes two fundamental components:
CLEANTECH -
Dutch financial firm Rabobank has shared the names of the 20 startups to participate in the FoodBytes! event in San Francisco on 1 March 2018.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Though the normalization of single-use plastic packaging has made plastic pollution out to be an insurmountable problem, consumers’ and brands’ growing awareness of the implications of take-make-dispose models is helping drive the development of recyclable and renewable packaging alternatives. Ellen MacArthur Circular Design Challenge winners TrioCup and Evoware are two examples of packaging innovators leading the charge towards a more circular economy.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
This week, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the Carlsberg Group launched the Carlsberg Young Scientists Community in an effort to address some of the world’s biggest challenges surrounding climate change and water scarcity.
The Community offers an opportunity for budding scientists to build on achievements made at the Carlsberg Research Laboratory and develop cutting-edge sustainability projects that set new standards for science-based and partnership-driven sustainability research, creating solutions for a low-carbon, circular future.
NEW METRICS -
We've come a long way since the first New Metrics conference seven years ago.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Dow Chemical Company recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Sustainability External Advisory Council (SEAC) at a meeting in Chicago.