CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Ecover, the world's largest maker of non-toxic, eco-friendly cleaning products, has teamed up with packaging producer Sonoco for a series of plant-based plastic bottles for its new North American home care line.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Nestlé UK and Unilever are among organizations coming together on a new project aiming to improve the recyclability of flexible packaging products, in the hope of pushing the resource industry closer towards a circular economic approach.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
BASF and recycled cardboard company Schuster have announced they are working on a solution for a combined migration and grease barrier on recycled cardboard.The biopolymer ecovio® PS 1606 is applied to recycled cardboard in an extrusion coating process. This enables the proportion of recycled paper fibers in fast food packaging to be increased while simultaneously making it industrially compostable. The polymer coating applied to the cardboard is several times thinner than a human hair, but provides the packaging with good protection against potential migration of undesired substances while also offering high greaseproofness and liquid tightness. This cardboard is more than 90 percent biobased, recyclable and industrially compostable.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
A whopping 97 percent of environmental impacts in the retail sector come from the product itself — from raw materials, transportation and product manufacturing. With impacts so heavily weighted in the supply chain, retailers are increasingly and creatively wading upstream to partner with their suppliers on their greatest impacts. The key to success lies in selecting the appropriate supplier engagement method and then using that approach as a vehicle to deeper collaboration. But can successful retailer approaches truly motivate meaningful supply chain improvements?The benefits of engagement
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition announced this week that Plum Organics is the latest company to join its How2Recycle Label program. Plum joins 30 other participating companies — including most recently, Kellogg and McDonald’s — committed to educating consumers on packaging recyclability by providing clear on-package instructions.
PRESS RELEASE -
Ludwigshafen and Hebertshausen, Germany – December 3, 2014 – BASF and "Feinpappenwerk Gebr. Schuster GmbH & Co. KG" are working jointly on a solution for a combined migration and grease barrier on recycled cardboard. The biopolymer ecovio® PS 1606 is applied to recycled cardboard in an extrusion coating process. This enables the proportion of recycled paper fibers in fast food packaging to be increased while simultaneously making it industrially compostable.Greaseproof, liquid tight and migration resistant due to ecovio® PS 1606
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The global environmental industry grew 3.6 percent in 2013, generating revenues of $1.047 trillion, while the U.S. environmental industry grew only 0.7 percent in 2013 compared to 4.5 percent in 2012, according to new research from Environmental Business International.In 2013, the U.S. environmental industry’s total of $344.84 billion in annual revenues represented 2.81 percent of the gross domestic product, while the environmental industry employment reached 1.75 million.
COLLABORATION -
Philips and the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation have partnered to improve access to clean cooking solutions in Africa by introducing clean and efficient household cook stoves to rural communities across the continent. Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) announced separate plans to raise $100 million to help provide clean cooking solutions to millions of people worldwide.The Philips-SNV partnership aims to improve the health and wellbeing and income of rural populations while having a direct positive impact on the environment. It will include research, community education and access to financing for adopting clean cooking technologies.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company — the Ohio-based parent company of a global family of companies that specialize in the design, manufacture, marketing and sales of passenger car and light truck tires — has completed tire builds using rubber derived from guayule plants and new guayule-related materials. The company says the tires are being evaluated by Cooper’s technical team using rigorous wheel, road and track tests, which are ongoing, but to date suggest tire performance that is at least equal to tires made of components derived from traditional rubber, derived from the Hevea rubber plant.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has scaled up its use of Labor Link mobile technology in the supply chain to poll 64,230 workers across 46 manufacturing locations in 5 countries (China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the UK) — exceeding its target of 22,500 workers in 30 factories by more than double.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble has made a qualified commitment that 90 percent of its packaging will be recyclable by 2020. The commitment came the day before an October 14 vote on a shareholder proposal filed by shareholder advocacy group As You Sow asking the company to phase out unrecyclable packaging. The proposal won significant support — 25 percent of shares voted, representing more than $35 billion of investments, according to a P&G filing yesterday with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Procter & Gamble just announced expansion of its sustainability goals with ambitious new initiatives for 2020 aimed at water conservation and product packaging. But when you’re a company as big, old and sprawling as the Cincinnati-based consumer packaged goods giant, nothing comes easily — including accomplishment of a huge sustainability agenda. And some in P&G’s diverse body of shareholders are making sure to hold the company’s feet to the fire.CEO A.G. Lafley was able to boast about P&G’s “promises kept” on sustainability at the company’s recent annual meeting.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Sustainable footwear is a hotbed of innovation right now for many apparel and lifestyle brands, who are looking to blend ever-smarter manufacturing efficiencies with material optimization techniques. But one enterprising startup is looking to take this to the next level — calling itself a “disruptive digital manufacturing revolution,” Lyf Shoes is looking to capture a slice of the market by handing the creative process back to the consumer.
PRODUCTS AND DESIGN -
Goodyear has launched a new fuel-efficient long haul drive tire that improves highway fuel economy by an average of 2 percent compared to the Michelin X Line Energy D, the next most fuel efficient tire on the market.The tire, called Fuel Max LHD G505D, saves around $1,444 worth of fuel per truck per year, compared to the Michelin X Line Energy D. The Fuel Max technology incorporates innovative fuel-efficient compounds, tire constructions and tread designs to lower the rolling resistance of the tires, which reduces truck fuel consumption.
WASTE NOT -
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced Monday it will begin using ash left over from the burning of rice husks to produce electricity and an environmentally friendly source of silica for use in its tires.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
AkzoNobel is on a roll: In the last two months, the paint, coatings and specialty chemical company has expanded its partnership with Solazyme for the joint development of Tailored™ algal oils, launched its new EvCote™ Water Barrier 3000 paper cup coating technology for the first fully compostable and recyclable paper cup, and last week was ranked number one in its sector by the DJSI for the third year in a
PRESS RELEASE -
Following biological clues to better materialsMIT Professor Brad Olsen creates bioinspired and biofunctional materials for widely diverse applications.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Novelis, a global leader in rolled aluminum products, is in the process of shifting its entire business model from a traditional linear model to a closed-loop or circular model. The company is embracing an entirely new way of thinking and operating in order to radically transform itself — and, in the process, reap the brand value associated with being a clear leader on that front in its industry.In 2013, Novelis introduced evercan™, the first independently certified, high-recycled-content (currently 90 percent, with a goal of 100 percent) aluminum beverage can sheet, while committing to making it available at no extra cost.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Tetra Pak‘s just-released 2014 Sustainability Update highlights the processing and packaging giant's 2013 progress in a variety of areas.
WASTE NOT -
Ford’s Oakville Assembly plant now sends no operational waste-to-landfill, an achievement that gives Ford Motor Company the distinction of becoming landfill-free at all its manufacturing facilities in Canada.Oakville Assembly is the first Ford assembly plant in North America to achieve this environmental designation.The Essex Engine Plant received landfill-free status in 2012 and Windsor Engine Plant in 2013. A total of 21 Ford facilities around the globe maintain zero waste-to-landfill status. By Ford’s definition, this means that those facilities do not send any operational waste to a landfill.