THE NEXT ECONOMY -
This week, circular economy experts from over 20 countries convened in Scotland as Glasgow hosted the third annual Circular Economy Hotspot. Glasgow used the occasion to announce its intention to become Scotland’s first circular city — this will involve Glasgow City Council publishing the country’s first circular economy route map with a key target to power 15 percent of the city’s homes with renewable energy by 2030.
PRESS RELEASE -
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this week presented UPS with a SmartWay Excellence award, which recognizes leading carriers who have made significant contributions to reducing the impact of freight transportation on air quality.
“UPS is committed to delivering goods to people in the most sustainable way possible,” said Tamara Barker, chief sustainability officer, vice president of environmental affairs and domestic plant engineering at UPS. “We are honored to be recognized by the EPA for our accomplishments and look forward to continuing our work to create smarter and cleaner communities.”
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A growing number of forward-thinking companies have set about redesigning urban mobility solutions to meet the needs of modern cities and their citizens — from Lyft committing to providing carbon-neutral ride-sharing nationwide; to the growing popularity of electric bikes and scooters for personal mobility; to Ford’s work on everything from autonomous and connected vehicles to roads, parking and public transit solutions to
PRESS RELEASE -
Iron Mountain Incorporated™ (NYSE: IRM), the global leader in storage and information management services, today announced the signing of a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with an affiliate of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, for 145 megawatts (MW) of new wind energy from the Pretty Prairie Wind Farm, located in Reno County, KS. With this agreement, coupled with other recent green power purchases, Iron Mountain expects to exceed 75 percent global renewable electricity usage in 2018, and move the company closer to its goal of 100 percent renewable power by 2050.
Iron Mountain worked with Schneider Electric Energy & Sustainability Services to identify and evaluate projects and arrange the deal.
WALKING THE TALK -
Next month’s election could potentially be historic for Washington State, where voters will have the choice of enacting the first-in-the-nation carbon fee — a concrete measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state. Measure 1631 has the support of several prominent Washington-based businesses including REI, Expedia, Microsoft and Northwest Energy, and over 100 businesses in total.
PRESS RELEASE -
HOUSTON, TX – ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC and BASF Corporation are conducting a full scale commercial demonstration of a new gas treating solvent at Imperial Oil’s Sarnia Refinery.
PRESS RELEASE -
Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA), together with ENGIE Resources, today announced that they have signed a renewable energy agreement through which ENGIE will supply over 50 percent of the energy needed for NWNA’s manufacturing and distribution facilities in Texas. With this agreement, NWNA operations in Travis, McLennan, Dallas, and Harris counties will be supplied by renewable wind energy from the Midway Wind Farm in San Patricio County, Texas, supporting Nestlé’s global goal to transition to 100 percent renewable energy use in its operations.
PRESS RELEASE -
For many years, the idea of going green in payments has been limited to linking purchases and accounts with donations to environmental causes and carbon offsets. These programs have had an impact in terms of awareness and raising much-needed funds. Now, there’s an opportunity to put these efforts into action across a broader part of the payments industry.
Today, Mastercard and card manufacturers Gemalto, Giesecke+Devrient and IDEMIA launched the Greener Payments Partnership to establish environmental best practices and reduce first-use PVC plastic in card manufacturing.
PRESS RELEASE -
NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) announces the availability of Renewable Select, simplifying the renewables procurement process and making it easier for businesses to choose renewable energy. The plan transforms the lengthy and complex traditional energy procurement process into a cost competitive, easy to execute transaction.
Today’s customers demand renewable energy at grid parity to meet their fiscal requirements while achieving their sustainability goals. Renewable Select uniquely delivers to customers:
PRESS RELEASE -
Kohler Co. has been presented with a 2018 Mahatma Award for Social Good for its “Innovation for Good” (IfG) efforts. Laura Kohler, Senior Vice President-Human Resources, Stewardship & Sustainability for Kohler Co., accepted the award on behalf of IfG and Kohler Co. in New York City during the recently held UN General Assembly.
The Mahatma Awards for Social Good spotlight changemakers and are awarded annually to individuals or organizations committed to addressing complex social issues like safe water, sanitation, disease, poverty and hunger.
PRESS RELEASE -
Procter & Gamble, a multi-national consumer goods corporation which specialises in cleaning agents, personal care and hygiene products, and has operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. The company has been working to incorporate circularity into their supply chain for many years, and indeed, P&G's focus on waste has allowed their global facilities to successfully divert over 5 million tonnes of would be waste from landfills since 2008. They have recently announced their Ambition 2030 for the decade ahead which includes commitments to reduce their supply chain footprint and striving to drive circular solutions.
CLEANTECH -
The project aims to continue the sustainable industrialization of battery cells in Europe and the associated acquisition of skills — from cell chemistry and development through to production and ultimately recycling.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Amazon today announced that it will invest $10 million in Closed Loop Fund to support recycling infrastructure in the United States. The investment will increase the availability of curbside recycling for 3 million homes in communities across the country, making it easier for customers to recycle and further develop end markets for recycled commodities. The investment will divert 1 million tons of recyclable material from landfill into the recycling stream and eliminate the equivalent of 2 million metric tons of CO2 by 2028 — equivalent to shutting down a coal-fired power plant for six months.
PRESS RELEASE -
The annual CSR prize seeks out best practices in economic, social and governance (ESG) reporting among Denmark’s biggest companies.
CLEANTECH -
Sustainability is at the core of Lime’s mission.
Over the last 16 months, we’ve led an exciting mobility shift towards free-floating scooters and bikes in communities across the U.S. and Europe. The resulting 13+ million trips have underlined a growing demand worldwide for cleaner air, safer infrastructure and more sustainable mobility options.
But rides alone are not enough.
At a time when the transportation industry leads the world in CO2 emissions, we must all do more to support meaningful environmental stewardship.
PRESS RELEASE -
Attaining environmental benefits and lower cost of ownership are driving more commercial fleets to electrify, according to a
MARKETING AND COMMS -
As of the writing of this article, the year 2020 is a mere 450 days away. Can you believe that? 450 days!
For the sustainability community, 2020 is a particularly important date: 2020 Sustainability Goals have become highly fashionable; unless you have been living under a rock, you are familiar with phrases such as “20 percent reduction [insert carbon, energy, waste, water, etc] by 2020.”