PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Global stressors — from water scarcity to modern-day slavery — are reinventing traditional business models across heavy industries that support a more secure, sustainable future. As one of the largest engineering, procurement and construction companies in the world, Bechtel is uniquely positioned to be part of this transformation. We’ve completed more than 25,000 extraordinary projects across 160 countries on all seven continents.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Due to their functional properties and low cost, plastics have become an integral part of our global economy and have seen their production increase twenty-fold over the past half-century. Despite their indisputable benefits, plastics have significant economic and environmental drawbacks. By 2050, it is estimated there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans. These negative impacts are sources of concern for business and government, who are recognizing the need to rethink the global plastic system.
NEW METRICS -
For the past year, climate change has returned to the top of the international agenda. While I was attending COP22 in Marrakech last month, the news broke that Trump had been elected President of the United States, with widespread possible implications not just for the U.S. but for the COP21 climate deal reached after such hard bargaining last year in Paris.
NEW METRICS -
The value of ecosystem services has, up until recently, gone largely unrecognized by governments and corporations. While nature is inherently valuable for a variety of obvious reasons, putting a price tag on it isn’t exactly a straightforward process.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Since the signing of the Paris agreement, more and more initiatives are emerging and making waves in terms of carbon reduction. However, our planet is much more complicated than a carbon cycle, in fact, there are nine planetary boundaries to look out for from biodiversity to land system change and our current way of doing business is on the trajectory of trespassing many of them.
PRESS RELEASE -
California’s forests are in crisis. A lethal combination of drought, wildfires, warmer temperatures and pests has destroyed 66 million trees in the past six years.
Restoring our forests won’t be easy. Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature recognized the importance and magnitude of the task by allocating $40 million in cap-and-trade funds. At the same time, President Barack Obama visited Lake Tahoe to announce $29.5 million to improve forest health and decrease the threat of catastrophic wildfires.
PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO, October 7, 2016 – Sustainable Brands® recently announced the full program for New Metrics’16, scheduled for November 14-16 in Boston, MA. Drawing together over 400 global business leaders, the conference will focus on the emerging methods for identifying, measuring, and quantifying new forms of business risk and value, as well as include strategies for communicating the impact of that value to stakeholders.
NEW METRICS -
With increasing pressure on natural resources and the accompanying impact on the environment, more businesses are beginning to realize the importance of properly valuing the natural resources upon which they depend. To do this they need to include ‘natural capital’ in their decision-making processes alongside other forms of capital, such as financial and human capital. The challenge for companies is a lack of data, tools and processes to facilitate business decision making in a rigorous and consistent way.
NEW METRICS -
Two years in the making, the first global Natural Capital Protocol was launched today. The standardized framework brings together and builds on a number of approaches that already exist to help business measure and value natural capital. The Natural Capital Coalition suggests that by harmonizing these existing approaches, businesses everywhere can benefit from understanding their relationships with nature.
NEW METRICS -
Many businesses have come to better understand the critical importance of nature as an input, but the question still remains as to how its value compares to other assets — not as lumber or drinking water or a fancy dinner, but as standing forests, healthy aquifers or living organisms.
NEW METRICS -
Think tank and sustainable management consultancy SolAbility recently released its fourth Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (GSCI), a ranking of 180 countries for “sustainable competitiveness,” defined as the ability to generate and sustain inclusive wealth and dignifying standard of life for all citizens in a globalised world of competing economies.Iceland topped the list for the second year running, followed by other Scandinavian nations. The only non-European countries in the top 20 are Japan (11), New Zealand (12), and Canada (16). The US ranked 41 and the UK ranked 48; China and Russia ranked above them at 25 and 33, respectively.
WASTE NOT -
At SB ’14 San Diego, the Plastic Disclosure Project, the UN Environment Program and Trucost unveiled the fist-ever assessment of plastic use in business, along with the business case for dealing with its global impacts: Among the sobering figures, the report calculated the total natural capital cost of pl
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The Dow Chemical Company on Tuesday announced the launch a new family of resins that offers unprecedented performance levels to help customers address some of today’s most challenging packaging performance gaps.Innate Precision Packaging Resins are created from a patented molecular catalyst coupled with advanced process technology, which Dow says will empower customers to unlock new packaging opportunities through “unmatched stiffness-toughness balance, processing ease and improved sustainability profiles.”
PRESS RELEASE -
NatureBank is at the intersection of finance and natural assets, producing long term, sustainable returns.Oct. 20, 2015, Vancouver, BC – In response to growing demand for sustainable commodities including cocoa, carbon and timber, Vancouver, BC-based company Offsetters Climate Solutions has formed NatureBank Asset Management, through a merger with Forest Finest Consulting, a German sustainable commodities company.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Last month, the Green Electronics Council (GEC) unveiled new research carried out by Trucost that highlights the importance of advancing best circular-economy practices throughout the electronics sector.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Coca-Cola, Dow and Nestlé are among the 10 companies testing the new draft of the Natural Capital Protocol against specific business applications.The Protocol will provide decision-making support to businesses in their risk-management processes, exploration of new revenue streams, and in product and value chain innovation. It is a product of the Natural Capital Coalition, a global platform that brings together the different initiatives and organizations working in natural capital under a common vision of a world where business conserves and enhances natural capital.
NEW METRICS -
Just in time for World Water Week, the Water Risk Monetizer, industry’s first publicly available financial modeling tool that enables businesses to factor current and future water risks into decision making, now provides users with insights into how water scarcity impacts revenue. The tool’s new assessment helps water-dependent businesses better understand the full value of water to their operations and identify revenue at risk based on current and projected water scarcity.
NEW METRICS -
Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) is an emerging methodology in the private sector, aimed at measuring the dependency and impact of companies on natural systems. NCA helps in quantifying the value of usually intangible assets from nature (such as water, pollination, etc). NCA allows mitigating risks but also identifies opportunities to reduce costs, innovate and become more resilient.
NEW METRICS -
Today, Kering released the results of its Environmental Profit and Loss Account (EP&L) — measuring the environmental footprint of its operations and across supply chains — and released the methodology as an open-source tool to encourage other corporations to clarify their impact on the environment.
NEW METRICS -
According to a recent study in Ecosystem Services, businesses may pay more for less reliable sources of water in the future.