CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Packaging remains a considerable challenge for businesses looking to reduce their impacts, but innovators such as food-service supplier Eco-Products and Finnish startup Sulapac are helping to accelerate the transition to lower-impact models through cross-industry partnerships and sustainable packaging solutions.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In an era where brands are becoming increasingly socially conscious to keep up with societal trends, Marc Skid is no exception. The recently launched online underwear retailer is using the finest, sustainably grown materials to provide its customers both a high-quality product and an opportunity to donate to feed, cure and save the world.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Plastic pollution is on the rise, a problem that threatens both human and environmental health. Between 4.8 million and 12.7 million tons of plastic end up in the world’s oceans every year and animals aren’t the only ones being affected — a recent report by Orb Media revealed that microplastics have infiltrated tap water across the globe.
PRESS RELEASE -
A businesslike look at America Recycles Day
America recycles one-third of municipal solid waste, and more would be better
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Chemicals management continues to go mainstream, with sporting goods manufacturer ASICS Corporation and chemical company Stahl joining the growing body of brands, manufacturers and chemical suppliers to achieve bluesign® system partner status.
PRESS RELEASE -
Braskem, the Americas’ leading producer of thermoplastic resins, and Danish-based Haldor Topsoe, a world leader in catalysts and surface science, have signed a technological cooperation agreement to develop a pioneering route to produce monoethylene glycol (MEG) from sugar. The agreement calls for the construction of a demonstration plant in Denmark, with operation slated to begin in 2019.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative has published a statement calling for a ban on oxo-degradable plastic packaging, as evidence emerges linking the material to the mounting microplastics problem.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
How a T-Shirt Is Driving a Circular Economy
by Melanie Vella
In this main stage session, Forum for the Future CEO Sally Uren returned to interview Jeffrey Hogue, Chief Sustainability Officer at C&A, to delve into the organic fibre that made up Sally’s t-shirt, quite literally.
PRESS RELEASE -
To many consumers, the ubiquitous plastic beverage bottle is an environmental zero. It's made of nonrenewable fossil resources, holds a low-value product, is used only once, and often ends up in a landfill or, worse, as litter fouling our land and oceans. But plastic packaging remains a fact of life. Chemical and material companies, and their big-brand customers, hope to turn this zero into a hero by making plastic resins from renewable ingredients rather than petroleum.
PRESS RELEASE -
Braskem's Green Plastic will be used for the first time in packages of refined sugar in Brazil. The pioneer in the use will be Caravelas Sugar, one of the country's most important companies in this segment. The 100% renewable raw material will be applied in the packaging of refined sugar and glass. The products will be available for sale as of October.
Currently, the Caravelas brand consumes 140 tons of packaging per month and will be the only one in the segment that has sugarcane in its production cycle from start to finish. Consumers will be able to identify the new packaging through the "I'm greenT" seal, visible on the product front. The seal is the identification of Braskem for packaging made with Green Plastic.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) today released its 2017 Citizenship Report, detailing progress in improving social conditions for those in need, advancing Diversity & Inclusion, building a world free from gender bias inside and outside the Company and reducing its environmental footprint. As P&G operates in about 70 countries and serves nearly 5 billion people, the Company leverages its brands and people to make the world a better place through its Citizenship efforts.
LEADERSHIP -
In a country infamous for being the second-biggest contributor of plastic waste to the oceans, a city in West Java has achieved a close to 100 percent segregation rate. This is how Depok transformed its waste system.
Waste is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing issues of all time. More than a decade after Bandung’s Leuwigajah dumpsite disaster in West Java, in which 143 people died buried under a waste avalanche, there is still no strict law enforcement to divert waste from filling up landfills.
PRESS RELEASE -
After the arrival in space of I’m greenTM plastic for the 3D printing of tools, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) now may start using, by 2018, a recycler of plastic objects and packaging that would improve the autonomy and sustainability of future missions beyond our planet.
The initiative represents an expansion of the “Printing the Future” project, a partnership between Braskem and Made In Space, the U.S. based leading developer of 3D printers for operation in zero gravity and a supplier to NASA. This will be the first commercial plastic recycling operation in the history of space missions.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
It’s Waste Reduction Week in Canada, and to celebrate, I spoke to some superstar companies reducing waste through product design that are featured in the National Zero Waste Council’s Design Portfolio. For the first article in this three-part series, I spoke to Abeego founder Toni Desrosiers about her company’s reusable beeswax wraps.
WASTE NOT -
While the circular economy hits its stride in Sweden, recycling comes to a standstill in the US as it comes face-to-face with the realities of China’s new scrap ban.
US shopping malls may be in fatal decline, but in Sweden, shopping centers are helping push the envelope on the circular agenda.
PRESS RELEASE -
DuPont Industrial Biosciences (DuPont) announced today a collaboration with Unifi, Inc. to create high-performance, renewably sourced garment insulation, offering leading apparel brands a new sustainable choice for cold-weather products.
PRESS RELEASE -
The world’s #1 shampoo brand Head & Shoulders was the recipient of a UN Momentum for Change award in the Planetary Health category. The award recognises novel solutions that balance the need for both human health and a healthy planet.
The Momentum for Change initiative, spearheaded by the UN Climate Change secretariat, shines light on some of the most innovative, scalable and practical examples of what people across the globe are doing to combat climate change.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Despite making progress on climate risks, the chemical industry is failing to meet the goals outlined by the Paris Agreement, says a new report by CDP.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
With 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean each year, we urgently need to change the way we make and use plastics, so that they don’t become waste in the first place. A host of announcements from major CPG companies and NGOs today from the Our Ocean 2017 conference in Malta signal the ongoing momentum behind the issue.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
News Deeply, in partnership with Sustainable Brands, has produced a series of profiles looking at how brands are tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges. The goal is to examine trends and gather insights from a new wave of corporate citizenship – in an era when the private sector is increasingly expected to play a positive role in improving our lives and societies. This is the 13th article in the series.