PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Today is the launch of the second annual Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge, which calls upon designers to innovate products for the circular economy. Participants will be awarded up to $6,000 for their designs that creatively eliminate the concept of waste.
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Circular business models thrive on longevity, reuse and capacity sharing - they disrupt, uncover customer value and drive resource efficiency. Many would agree that society needs to adopt this circular thinking, but how do we really make it happen at large?The truth is, there are several players required to accelerate the journey to a more circular economy; it can't be achieved by certain echelons of society alone. Instead, it requires a holistic view of the diverse role business, public bodies and investors all have to play to accelerate the uptake of circular principles; a belief reflected in the categories of this year’s Circular Economy Awards, aka The Circulars.
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The European Commission is expected to unveil its revised Circular Economy Package this autumn – an occasion that will mark the first significant piece of policy intervention in this space. The Commission is under pressure to get the detail right this time, having ditched the original proposals earlier this year, deeming them not ambitious enough.
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At Levi Strauss & Co., our sustainability thinking has traditionally begun at the cotton stage of the product life cycle. The cotton is picked, ginned, spun, and woven into fabric. The fabric is cut, sewn, and finished into a pair of jeans before being sent to a distribution center, then on to your favorite store where the jeans are sold to you.
NEW METRICS -
I’ve been working in the Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility (CR) field for twenty years. In that time, skeptics have persistently challenged the discipline: Do corporate environmental, social, and governance practices drive or distract from tangible financial, competitive, and wider business performance?On the one hand, anyone who attended SB’15 in San Diego should celebrate the present as the best of times to answer this question. Eyes are opening – backed by rigorous assessment – on the financial and wider competitive potential of low-carbon innovations, circular economic and other breakthrough economic strategies, and base of the pyramid development.
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The National Materials Marketplace, a new joint pilot project led by the Corporate Eco Forum (CEF), US Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD), and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), brings together more than 20 major companies with operations in the United States, helping them identify ways to reuse or exchange undervalued materials via an online database, and establish new circular supply chains.
CLEANTECH -
The emerging Internet of Things (IoT) space represents one of the most disruptive, yet lucrative, forces in the business world today. Research by McKinsey & Co estimates that IoT technology offers a potential economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025. At the top end, that level of value would be equivalent to about 11 percent of the world economy.
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More and more evidence continues to emerge that points to the literal wealth of untapped potential of shifting to a circular economy. Today, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, and SUN (Stiftungsfonds für Umweltökonomie und Nachhaltigkeit) present the results of a major new study at the European Commission’s stakeholder conference on the circular economy in Brussels.
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Rochester Institute of Technology has become a Pioneer University within the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF)’s Higher Education program, joining a select group of universities worldwide dedicated to accelerating a global transition to a regenerative, circular economy.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A collaborative approach to responsible sourcing, packaging and the circular economy has taken DIY giant Kingfisher to new heights in the second year of its Net Positive sustainability plan.On Wednesday, the parent company of B&Q, Screwfix and other European home-improvement brands released its annual Net Positive Report, updating stakeholders on its sustainability ambition to transform the business to have a restorative impact on the environment.
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.
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With approximately 9 billion people in the world today, society consumes and discards more and more each year, with no signs of slowing down. Culturally, we’ve begun to embrace and adopt recycling as a solution to our modern waste habits and an opportunity to keep designing, using and producing recyclable materials. But what if those recyclable materials are not in fact being recycled? Well, then we’re right back where we started, aren’t we?
PRESS RELEASE -
05/19/2015 | Press releaseNovelis UK were unveiled as the winner of the Circular Economy Success category at this year's Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management, 2015.The annual Awards for Excellence are renowned for delivering true value and recognition to leaders of the innovation in the sector. The Circular Economy Success category - sponsored by the Textiles Recycling Association - was targeted at businesses, local authorities and organisations that show how they have provided for success within the circular economy process in the waste management and recycling sector.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Since Ellen MacArthur made the transition in 2009 from world-record-breaking sailor to champion of the circular economy, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has become a driving force behind shifting our approach to business away from that of take-make-waste to one centered on resilience, reuse and optimality.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Just three months after announcing its industry-leading achievement of zero waste to landfill across its global factory network and weeks after confirming that its Sustainable Living Plan is having an increasingly positive impact on its growth, cost efficiency and resilience, CPG giant Unilever has reached another milestone — announcing today that it has saved 1 million tons of CO2 throughout its manufacturing network since 2008.
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According to Communicating the Circle: Are circular economy communication strategies starting to connect? — a white paper published by Go Circular — a majority of circular economy professionals (61 percent) believe corporate circular economy communication strategies would benefit from such a definition.
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The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Granta Design have launched new indicators which, for the first time, enable companies to assess how well a product or company performs in the context of a circular economy. The new Circularity Indicators measure the extent to which the material flows of a product or company are restorative. In doing so, they will enable companies to measure their progress in making the transition from linear to circular models, and to identify areas of further opportunity.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Today, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Autodesk announced the winners of the inaugural Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge, which asked participants to design products made with materials that can return safely to industry or nature at the end of use, fulfilling a core criterion of “remaking the way we make things.”
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
On Wednesday, Dow Chemical Company announced an ambitious set of 2025 Sustainability Goals, which it said were designed to redefine the role of business in society. Among the new commitments: developing breakthrough product innovations, positively impacting the lives of 1 billion people, and delivering $1 billion in cost savings or new cash flow for the Company by valuing nature in business decisions and advancing a circular economy.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
After years of searching for a solution to the worldwide problem of textile waste, pioneering textile upcycler Worn Again has joined forces with fashion retailer H&M and luxury, sport & lifestyle group Kering to bring to market a revolutionary innovation in clothing production and recycling.