SUPPLY CHAIN -
Do Europeans have unreasonable expectations for the agriculture industry? New poll results suggest that 91 percent of consumers think food should remain affordable, but just 54 percent think that farmers should be able to use pesticides to keep prices down.
PRESS RELEASE -
As the Official Chemistry Company of the Olympic Games and the Official Carbon Partner of Rio 2016, The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) has launched an innovative Microfoaming Technology for the packaging industry in Latin America. The project is part of a comprehensive Dow program focused on mitigating the carbon footprint of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
"Packaging plays an important role in helping minimize food waste. The leveraging of the Microfoaming technology as one of the Rio 2016 carbon mitigation projects promotes a rational utilization of packaging and showcases how it can help enable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Paloma Alonso, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics Latin America commercial vice president.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
It’s the pinnacle of tax season here in the U.S. this week, and it’s easy to imagine coffee being in high demand at the Internal Revenue Service. So in the midst of their most grueling week of the year, a group of businesses and advocates are calling on the IRS to go one day without coffee — one of many crops that relies on pollination — to help drive home the potential implications of a future without pollinators.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A report released today by six non-profit organizations found that 67 percent of nearly 200 tested food can linings contained Bisphenol A (BPA). The report also identified the replacement materials and to what extent their safety has been studied. Ahead of the report’s release, both Campbell Soup Co. and Del Monte Foods announced plans to switch to BPA-free packaging.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A non-animal, non-vegetable feed for fish farms could help reduce the negative impacts of our fish consumption. Fish is likely an inevitable part of how the world will meet the protein demands of over 9 billion people by 2050, and the World Bank predicts that fish farms will produce nearly two thirds of global supply by 2030.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
As the old African proverb famously asserts: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Chemical giant BASF has taken this to heart, as evidenced by its collaborative approach to sustainability innovation.
We spoke with Peter Gräve, director of Communications and Advocacy at BASF Española, to learn more about the many ways the global company is engaging and collaborating to fulfill its commitment to “create chemistry for a sustainable future.”
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) praised Proctor & Gamble (P&G) this week after the family, personal care and household products company expanded its chemical disclosure. P&G has listed the ingredients it uses in its fragrances and scents on its website since 2012, but a list of over 140 fragrance chemicals that it excludes from its products was added on Monday.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Biofuels have been a topic in aviation sector corporate responsibility for several years, leading to numerous initiatives from airplane manufacturers and airlines to advance their research and development. Boeing, for example, has been working with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other partners towards a goal of producing 1 billion gallons of aviation biofuel by 2018.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
According to the United Nations, 1.2 billion people live in areas of physical water scarcity and another 1.6 billion people face economic water shortage or lack the infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers, making water scarcity one of the most significant global problems to be faced this century.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is funding a project to cultivate microalgae as biomass for fuels and an array of consumer products. The microscopic single-cell organisms could unlock an affordable way to generate energy using only sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO2).
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Whether the presidential candidates pay attention to it or not, climate change is a looming threat. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation was considered to be the greatest global risk in the World Economic Forum’s newly-released 2016 Global Risks Report. Luckily, researchers are making progress on mitigation and adaptation solutions to combat the changing temperatures, thanks to beetles and adaptive building materials.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
New research on natural materials has the potential to unlock innovations in packaging, clean energy, and other industries. Fructose, a sugar found in many plants, and calcium carbonate, the material that crystallizes into chalk, shells, and rocks, have each led to chemical discoveries.DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) have developed a methodology that uses fructose to produce cost-efficient, renewable chemicals and polymers for plastics and textiles.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
Energy, water, waste, chemical consumption and support for local communities are now issues that hotels may take into consideration when adopting a sustainability approach, whether they do so for ethical, financial, or branding reasons. However, one fundamental aspect of hotel operation remains neglected - one with a staggering environmental impact that’s not included in the criteria for the most advanced green hotel certification schemes. And it can cause tremendous damage to a hotel’s income statement. Too often considered a necessary evil by hoteliers, food waste is the elephant in the room that the vast majority of operators still try hard to ignore.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Researchers from Australia’s Flinders University say they have found a “dirt cheap” solution to mercury contamination. Dr. Justin Chalker and his students have developed a dark red polymer from industrial waste products — sulphur and limonene — that turns bright yellow when it absorbs mercury. The color change allows the material to be a mercury detector on top of its remediation capabilities.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A report released Thursday by national women’s health non-profit Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) exposes the failings of the fragrance industry’s self-regulated safety program.
PRESS RELEASE -
At the SEPAWA Congress 2015, BASF will present new types of the readily biodegradable chelating agent Trilon® M, which has established itself in the market as the high-performance phosphate alternative for automatic dishwashing detergents. EU regulations stipulate that phosphate will be virtually prohibited for this application in Europe from 2017. In the US, 16 states have already banned phosphate in this application since 2010.Trilon® M binds the hard water ions particularly effectively and prevents limescale buildup on the dishes during the dishwashing cycle. It is readily biodegradable and fulfills the criteria for the EU Ecolabel.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Environmental health non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) has launched its new verification program to help consumers quickly and easily identify consumer goods that do not contain toxic ingredients. The EWG VERIFIED: For Your Health™ mark will appear on personal care products and cosmetics that meet criteria set by EWG scientists.
PRESS RELEASE -
Sovermol® 830 promotes sustainable development for industrial flooring systems, coatings exposed to potable water and semi-structural adhesivesExcellent hardening and mechanical characteristics even under difficult conditionsBASF has extended its range of high-quality bio-based polyols sold under the Sovermol® trademark. The products are used for manufacturing extremely low-emission 2K PU coatings for interior and exterior applications. With Sovermol 830 BASF is launching a new polyol that makes indoor floorings, e.g. in industrial warehouses or sports halls, more resistant.
PRESS RELEASE -
Trilon® M Max as the high-performance phosphate alternative for automatic dishwashing detergentsExtra benefits in terms of enhanced formulation flexibility and esthetic choice of the end productTrilon® Ultimate as 2-in-1 solution for improved stability and extra glass protectionLudwigshafen, Germany – October 14, 2015 – At the SEPAWA Congress 2015, BASF will present new types of the readily biodegradable chelating agent Trilon® M, which has established itself in the market as the high-performance phosphate alternative for automatic dishwashing deterge
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
It seems increasingly likely that certain types of worms could be an amazing solution to our plastic problem — and that we may eat them and their cousins afterwards.Last week, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a risk profile to address the potential biological, chemical and environmental hazards as well as allergenicity associated with the use of farmed insects as food and feed.