PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO, May 17, 2017 – Sustainable Brands® recently unveiled the session schedule for the Activation Hub at SB’17 Detroit, running May 22-25th at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. The Activation Hub is the action-centered space within the conference program that allows attendees to collaborate on new tools, resources and ideas to accelerate sustainability-led innovation.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
MIT has developed a new technology that could revolutionize wastewater treatment and water purification. Providing an alternative to more energy- and chemical-intensive alternatives, MIT’s new method is capable of removing even extremely low levels of pollutants from water.
The technology was developed by MIT postdoc Xiao Su, Ralph Landau, Professor of Chemical Engineering T. Alan Hatton and five others at MIT and at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
PRESS RELEASE -
World-leading chemical company, BASF today announced its membership of the Circular Economy 100 (CE100). As the latest corporate member of the programme, BASF embarks on a three-year partnership to bring about opportunities for a circular economy within new business models and new solutions.
BASF 'creates chemistry for a viable future'. In combining economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility, it enables its customers and its entire value chain to meet the current and future needs of society. Through science and innovation, BASF investigates techniques for decreasing material use while keeping function and durability at its highest utility.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Building on its commitment to remove harmful chemicals from its products and invest in green chemistry, retail giant Target has kicked off its first-ever Target Takeoff — a mini retail boot camp focused on supporting emerging businesses who are working to create healthier, more ethical and sustainable products.
PRESS RELEASE -
For the sixth consecutive year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes Eastman (NYSE: EMN) with an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for continued leadership and superior energy efficiency achievements. This year marks Eastman’s fourth consecutive ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award, EPA’s highest ENERGY STAR honor. The award reaffirms Eastman’s commitment to managing natural resources, which continues to drive sustainable and impactful improvements in energy performance, resulting in energy intensity reductions, avoided costs and lowered emissions.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
Following the announcement of its new store renovation initiative, CVS Pharmacy has revealed that it will be eliminating parabens, phthalates and the most prevalent formaldehyde donors in nearly 600 beauty and personal care products in its CVS Health, Beauty 360, Essence of Beauty and Blade lines. CVS Pharmacy will stop shipping store brand products that don’t meet these standards to distribution centers by the end of 2019.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
A recent report by UK-based charity CHEMTrust has linked the recycling of plastic components of electrical and electronic products to dangerous human health risks, creating obstacles for the recycling industry and the widespread adoption of a circular economy.
PRESS RELEASE -
BATON ROUGE, LA, and GEISMAR, LA, April 6, 2017 – Louisiana State University (LSU) officials joined BASF executives in the public unveiling of the BASF Sustainable Living Laboratory on campus. The Lab, which is the first-of-its-kind at LSU and in the Southeast region, is an innovative space that promotes problem-based teaching and research focused on sustainable solutions to meet global challenges. As part of BASF's workforce development and science education efforts in the region, the Lab is the result of a $1 million donation BASF made to LSU Foundation and the College of Engineering first announced in 2014.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
Following the launch of Applied DNA Sciences’s CertainT platform that utilizes molecular tags to certify authenticity and origins of products, AkzoNobel, Advanced Biochemical Thailand Co. and EY have introduced a new online tool that allows businesses, for the first time, to use e-certification to track bio-based content along the chemical value chain.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
This week, two more multinationals joined the ranks of companies energizing their sustainability agendas with bold commitments to power their entire operations with renewables.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The development of innovative packaging solutions continues to help brands reduce impact and drive future growth.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
The textile and apparel industries are widely known to have considerable environmental and social impacts on both local and global levels. The leather industry is no exception — in India, approximately 2.5 million workers are exposed to poor working conditions that violate their human rights and negatively affect their health.
PRESS RELEASE -
BASF SE and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced that the companies will collaborate to develop one of the world’s largest supercomputers for industrial chemical research at BASF's Ludwigshafen headquarters this year. Based on the latest generation of HPE Apollo 6000 systems, the new supercomputer will drive the digitalization of BASF's worldwide research.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Textile dyeing accounts for one fifth of all industrial wastewater pollution generated worldwide and much of it, particularly in developing countries in Asia, goes untreated. Now, China is employing electron beams to treat effluent from textile dyeing plants, ushering in a new era for radiation technology.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, only 2 percent of the 78 million tons of plastic used each year for packaging is actually recycled. The remaining 98 percent finds its way into landfills, incineration plants and the environment. New innovations and initiatives from across the U.S. and Canada, however, are offering new solutions to tackle the ever-growing plastics problem.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Policymakers must limit chemicals entering the material cycle and adapt existing legislation in order to protect human health and the environment from toxic substances in a circular economy, say ClientEarth and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) in a new report.
The NGOs indicate that the current legal framework has failed to ensure information about dangerous chemicals is diffused throughout the whole material cycle and potential subsequent lifecycles.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Increasing economic benefits while reducing global-warming potential: How products from BASF’s Master Builders Solutions® range help achieve this is the focus of the new Europe-wide campaign, “Quantified Sustainable Benefits – Reduce your Footprint and Boost Your Bottom Line.” Through a series of ads and a dedicated website, BASF’s Master Builders Solutions experts, together with European customers, present selected cases that demonstrate how superior chemistry enables customers to increase their productivity while decreasing their operational costs and carbon footprint.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
While recycling most certainly plays an important role in the shift to the development of a more circular, sustainable economy, it largely focuses on a product or material’s end of life. But recent initiatives and technological breakthroughs are helping more companies design impacts out of their products’ life cycles.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Finding new post-consumer uses and solutions for products is critical for making the shift towards a more circular economy, but more and more companies are turning their focus to the early stages of product production and development, effectively addressing the sustainability question before it becomes a problem.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Retail giant Target has announced its commitment to reducing harmful chemicals from its products and investing in green chemistry with the release of a new chemical strategy that covers its entire value chain, operations and products. The goal is to be transparent, proactive and innovative when it comes to managing chemicals and, where necessary, developing alternatives.