WASTE NOT -
Molson Coors Brewing Company today released its 2015 Corporate Responsibility Report, covering the company’s 2014 performance toward its 2020 goals.The brewer reports meaningful progress in 2014 toward its 2020 targets of zero waste to landfill, 25 percent energy reduction and 15 percent reduction in both carbon and water intensity. Results included:
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
This week, Domtar Corporation released its 2015 Sustainability Report, highlighting its environmental leadership in fiber-based product production and its support of sustainable harvesting.Among its most notable accomplishments, the company self-generated 74 percent of the electricity used in its pulp and paper mills through cogeneration technologies and hydropower, outpacing the US pulp and paper industry average of 59 percent. Nearly two-thirds of this self-generated energy came from renewable fuel derived from its pulping chemical recovery process and from wood residuals left over from log debarking.
COLLABORATION -
The University of Minnesota has received a $12 million dollar award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bring together a network of scientists, industry leaders and policy partners committed to building better cities of the future, according to a recent announcement.The network will connect across nine research universities, major metropolitan cities in the U.S. and India, as well as infrastructure firms and policy groups. The project includes 25 faculty members across the nine universities, and will involve more than 40 graduate students conducting research in cross-university interdisciplinary teams.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
In less than eight months, humanity has used up nature’s budget for the entire year, with carbon sequestration making up more than half of the demand on nature, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in North America, Europe and Asia.
CLEANTECH -
Highways England and Under Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Jones MP announced today that off-road (test track) trials of technology needed to power electric and hybrid vehicles on England’s major roads are due to take place later this year.The trials are the first of their kind and will test how the technology would work safely and effectively on the country’s motorways and major A roads, allowing drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles to travel long distances without needing to stop and charge the car’s battery.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Even as many U.S. communities struggle to support growing populations with limited water resources, few are utilizing water connection charges to increase water-savvy residential development projects in their communities, according to a new report by Western Resource Advocates, Ceres and the University of North Carolina's Environmental Finance Center.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Ahead of the COP21 meeting in December, diverse groups are taking action in support of action on global climate change. From business coalitions and CEO pledges to ambitious city-wide emissions reduction goals, pressure is mounting on national governments to deliver a substantive agreement.
CLEANTECH -
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday announced $63 million in loans and grants for 264 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects nationwide that USDA is supporting through its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).Eligible agricultural producers and rural small businesses may use REAP funds to make energy efficiency improvements or install renewable energy systems, including solar, wind, renewable biomass, small hydroelectric, ocean energy, hydrogen and geothermal.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Kodak today opened a new manufacturing line at its Columbus, Georgia facility that will produce its KODAK SONORA Process Free Plates. Kodak says SONORA Process Free Plates deliver the productivity, quality and print capabilities of mainstream processed plates while eliminating the water, chemical and energy use required by processed plates, without sacrificing quality or productivity..
CLEANTECH -
The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge last year achieved concrete results in cities in Australia, Ireland, Mexico and the United States, according to the company’s 2014 Corporate Responsibility Report.This included improving infrastructure and its effectiveness, integrating municipally-owned solar energy into the existing power grid, planning for economic development and reversing neighborhood decline while increasing tax revenue.The report details how the company’s technology and talent are transforming governments, institutions, communities and the quality of life for people around the world.
PRESS RELEASE -
STAMFORD, Conn. (Aug. 6, 2015) – Keep America Beautiful and The UPS Foundation today announced the recipients of the 2015 Keep America Beautiful/UPS Community Tree and Recovery Tree Planting Grants. More than 30 grants, totaling $160,000, are being awarded to Keep America Beautiful community-based affiliates throughout the country.
CLEANTECH -
As a digital industrial company focused on answering the unique needs and scale of customers across aviation, energy, healthcare and transportation, GE has announced plans to enter the cloud services market with Predix Cloud. The world’s first and only cloud solution designed specifically for industrial data and analytics, this platform-as-a-service (PaaS) will capture and analyze the unique volume, velocity and variety of machine data within a highly secure, industrial-strength cloud environment.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Knowing how conventional cotton is grown and denim is made, always-a-better-way outdoor apparel brand Patagonia has set out to change the industry. The company has partnered with chemical company Archroma on a new denim collection, launched this week — which is Fair Trade certified and said to use 84 percent less water, 30 percent less energy and 25 percent less CO2 compared to conventional denim dyeing processes — as well as a campaign telling us all about it.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Greenpeace has begun its latest campaign against Shell, with a month of protests over the oil giant’s plans to drill in the Arctic.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final version of its Clean Power Plan, the nation’s first-ever limits on carbon emissions from power plants — the single largest source of U.S. global warming pollution.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
In Parts I and II of this Series, we gave evidence to support the unlikely hypothesis of an emerging conscience amongst some mainstream companies.
NEW METRICS -
UPS logged 154 million miles in 2014 toward its goal of driving 1 billion miles with its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet by the end of 2017 — an almost threefold increase from 2013, according to the company’s 13th annual Sustainability Report.To put this into perspective: it took 13 years for the company to drive the first 350 million miles with its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet, but in just one year UPS was able to build dramatically on that number and is now more than halfway to its 2017 goal.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
The UK-based Co-operative Bank has published its first Values and Ethics report, highlighting its significant environmental achievements, along with progress against its customer-led Ethical Policy, established in 1992. It is the only UK bank to have an ethical policy co-created by customers, and views this policy as essential to its comeback after its financial collapse in 2014.
WASTE NOT -
A new study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology highlights the progress of the notoriously water-consumptive almond industry in becoming carbon-emission neutral or even carbon negative. The research, undertaken by UC Davis scientists, highlights the carbon capture potential of almond orchards and concludes that reusing byproducts from almond production and harvest is critical to the industry’s environmental impact and emissions reduction.