PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A first-of-its-kind, global shopping platform, Loop™ aims to offer zero-waste packaging options for the world’s most popular consumer products.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Businesses and manufacturers will pay the full cost of recycling or disposing of their packaging waste, under a major new government strategy unveiled late last month by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
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.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
There’s a flurry of activity this week, as several heavy-hitters announce moves that promise big ripple effects in the plastics and packaging space.
PepsiCo, Inc. today announced a multi-year supply agreement with Loop Industries, Inc., a leading technology innovator in sustainable plastic, that will enable PepsiCo to purchase production capacity from Loop’s joint venture facility in the US and incorporate Loop™ PET plastic, which is 100 percent recycled material, into its product packaging by early 2020.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The Welsh Government and City to Sea, a group campaigning against single-use plastics, are collaborating on the development of campaigns to encourage refills and change residents’ behavior to make tap water their first choice for hydration.
While the campaigns will help people ‘see the value of water,’ the government has also announced an additional £15 million of capital funding to further improve Local Authority recycling collection systems and infrastructure, including for plastics.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Imagine buying a pair of shoes and being able to address the carbon emissions from those shoes’ production and transportation right when you buy them. To date, this hasn’t been possible: We didn’t have blockchain to immutably and transparently track the carbon; point-of-sale integrations were cumbersome, and the carbon market has only worked in tonnes while a pair of shoes is around 12kg of carbon.
WASTE NOT -
Long before concepts such as future-fit and circular became buzzwords, Fuji Xerox was already busy redefining business as usual and demonstrating the opportunities to be harnessed by embracing a more sustainable, resource-efficient business model.
COLLABORATION -
Recent climate change talks in Bonn drew to a close last week without major fanfare. However, despite no landmark announcements — such as that coming out of Paris after COP21 — it was nonetheless a critical meeting, with a key aim of better defining ‘how’ to make the ambitions set out in Paris in 2015 a reality and keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.
For those of us leading sustainability efforts for companies, the COP talks are a great opportunity to learn about what’s happening at a global level and reflect on how we, as just one actor, fit into the bigger picture.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Denim has rightfully earned its reputation as a dirty business, but denim brand G-Star Raw is continuing its efforts to shape a new future for the fabric with the development of the first-ever Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Gold level certified denim.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
A new report by CDP has revealed the extent to which deforestation threatens the global economy — and the numbers are staggering.
WALKING THE TALK -
Cobalt is back in the news, as a new report from Amnesty International reveals that tech industry giants such as Microsoft, Lenovo, Renault and Vodafone aren’t doing enough to keep child labor out of cobalt battery supply chains in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
As part of its CanopyStyle initiative, environmental NGO Canopy has released an updated and expanded edition of its Hot Button Report, a ranking of eleven viscose and rayon producers that represent 70 percent of global viscose production.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Maybe you remember visiting a post office to pick up one of your online purchases and seeing the hundreds, even thousands, of packages going to other shoppers — to be used once and thrown away.
Sure, online purchases need to be individually labelled and protected for transport, so some form of packaging is necessary. But shouldn’t we as environmentally conscious purchasers have a say in how our goods are packaged? And shouldn't sustainably minded brands be able to offer their customers a choice in this matter? Because surely shoppers and brands would choose a returnable, recyclable package for transporting online purchases — especially if it made economic sense.
This is where RePack comes in.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Companies operating in the apparel industry could be missing out on new opportunities for growth by not digitizing data on leftovers from garment factories, says a new report by H&M Foundation Global Change Award winner Reverse Resources.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The issue of worker exploitation and forced labor continues to gain global attention, as more and more companies rise to the challenge to align their operations with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
More and more companies are making public commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions outside of their own operations. Why? Because compared to scope 1 and 2 emissions (from direct activities), avoiding scope 3 emissions can have the greatest impact on a corporate footprint.
The numbers are clear: The majority of GHG emissions come from indirect activities, both upstream and downstream, in the supply chain. In fact, for most of consumer goods products manufacturing, scope 3 emissions account for over 70 percent of overall GHG emissions. Included is everything from purchasing raw materials to end of life treatment.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
We are transitioning to a low-carbon, circular and inclusive economy. The latest arrival to the party is the procurement department — and none too soon, given the mammoth challenge ahead to make global supply chains sustainable and ethical. If you’re looking to fill your procurement cart with insights on tackling the challenges, read on for information about two tools and a city with a supply chain vision.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Brands have identified labor recruitment as one of the riskiest parts of their supply chains, and rightly so. Human trafficking, forced labor and wage theft often have their origin in recruiting practices.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Ohio-based Buckhorn manufactures different types of heavy-duty, reusable plastic packaging for the food processing, automotive, manufacturing, distribution, bakery and agriculture industries, with a focus on improving companies’ supply chain performance by reducing product waste and material handling costs.
The company is also dedicated to keeping its own impacts in check by buying back end-of-life containers for recycling; the company then incorporates ground-up recycled materials, called ‘regrind,’ into the next generation of containers.
We spoke with president Ken Kozicki to learn more about Buckhorn’s commitment to eliminating waste throughout its value chain.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Microsoft Corp. and international development organization Pact have announced an expanded partnership to address child labor mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Microsoft has made a new three-year financial commitment to support Pact’s work to address child labor in mining and will build on the successful Watoto Inje ya Mungoti (Children Out of Mining) project.