BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
A competition that began in October, the CoolCalifornia Challenge, is motivating Californians in 22 participating cities to reduce their water and energy consumption. The cities are competing for a share of $150,000 to put towards local sustainability projects and the coveted title of “Coolest City in California,” and Mayors and city officials are joining in the fun by releasing rallying call videos to encourage their constituents to take part.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
In October, water testing found toxic levels of lead in the water at Flint, Mich. schools. The state of Michigan, community groups, various charities, and even Mark Walhberg and Sean “Diddy” Combs have supported the city of about 100,000 residents with bottled water donations in response.
WASTE NOT -
Energy, water, waste, chemical consumption and support for local communities are now issues that hotels may take into consideration when adopting a sustainability approach, whether they do so for ethical, financial, or branding reasons. However, one fundamental aspect of hotel operation remains neglected - one with a staggering environmental impact that’s not included in the criteria for the most advanced green hotel certification schemes. And it can cause tremendous damage to a hotel’s income statement. Too often considered a necessary evil by hoteliers, food waste is the elephant in the room that the vast majority of operators still try hard to ignore.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
10 promising startups that deliver water-focused data and analytics solutions have been selected as finalists in Imagine H2O’s Water Data Challenge, competing for $50,000 in cash awards. The final winners will be announced at Imagine H2O’s WaterGala event in San Francisco on March 16, 2016. In the meantime, the startups will participate the non-profit organization’s specialized water innovation accelerator program which will provide mentorship and grant them access to industry events as well as introductions to investors, utility partners, and beta customers.
WASTE NOT -
Although summer is now officially in 2015’s rear-view mirror, water — access and pricing — is still making waves throughout the country. Water rates continue to rise in almost every major U.S. city, and in the West, unprecedented drought conditions have spurred tougher regulations and restrictions on residential and commercial customers.Ecova has more than 700 commercial and industrial clients representing more than 700,000 individual sites across the country. Recently, Ecova polled a group of its existing clients with sites in California to better understand:
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Aluminum rolling and recycling leader Novelis released its sustainability report for Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15) on December 22. The company doubled its recycling capacity over the past five years, among other achievements.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Colgate toothpastes and toothbrushes will not be the focus of the brand’s first-ever Super Bowl advertisement. Rather, it will be using its airtime to remind viewers to turn off the tap when brushing their teeth.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Waste reduction charity WRAP’s new Clothing Durability Report reveals that extending the active life of clothing items by nine months could reduce carbon, waste and water footprints of clothing in the UK by 20 to 30 percent each and cut resource costs by £5 billion.
WASTE NOT -
Bad news: You might be a water hog. Americans use more water per person than anyone else in the world – 27 billion gallons every day. Unfortunately, it is the river systems, lakes and wetlands and the wildlife of those habitats that suffer the most as a result of reckless water consumption. A new campaign is trying to call attention to the issue, engage people, and help them learn how to save water for wildlife.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
In September and October, Carlsberg Group accepted submissions for its "Cheers to Green Ideas" competition, hosted in partnership with think tank Sustainia. The competition asked people and organizations from around the world to submit their ideas about how to make Carlsberg more sustainable.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Water scarcity is among the most serious long-term risks facing society worldwide. Climate impacts are worsening drought conditions, causing billions of dollars in economic losses and fresh water supplies are dwindling. To make matters worse, 97 percent of the planet’s water is salt water, 2 percent is glacier ice, and just 1 percent is usable fresh water.
WASTE NOT -
Researchers from UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension are testing a new method for capturing excess water flows during California’s rainy season by diverting it from rivers into the network of canals running through Central Valley farmland, SFGate reports.This irrigation system remains empty during the rainy months, and the scientists are exploring the possibility of filling some canals with water and directing it onto farmland where it can seep underground.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Around the world, more and more action is being taken to create a more sustainable clothing industry. In the U.K., waste reduction charity WRAP is seeing significant progress on its Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP). Meanwhile, two U.S.-based Kickstarter campaigns are offering sustainable, certified organic options: men’s denim made in America; and temperature-regulating base layers that use nanofibers from Austria.
LEADERSHIP -
I came to Colorado, like millions before me, for the mountains, the active, sustainable lifestyle — and, of course, the beer. Coloradoans love their beer. So when I was invited up to Fort Collins to check out the water-saving initiatives of a local brewery I jumped at the opportunity. “Which one?” I wondered. Fort Collins is home to more than 15 breweries (roughly 1 for every 10,000 residents), amongst the highest concentrations for any city in America. New Belgium is a certified B Corp — that’d make sense. Or maybe Odell?
WASTE NOT -
Asahi Group Holdings, Colgate Palmolive, Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Corporation are among the global corporations achieving an A rating for their efforts to improve water security, according to the first global ranking of corporate water stewardship revealed this week by CDP — which holds the most comprehensive dataset of publicly available corporate water information collected on behalf of investors.
WASTE NOT -
Levi Strauss & Co. claims its consumer care recommendations could have saved California 35 billion liters of water over the past four years — the amount of time that the state has been experiencing a severe drought.
LEADERSHIP -
One of the highest standards for social and environmental responsibility in business, B Corp certification, was awarded to Fetzer Vineyards and praised by the U.S. Department of Labor last week. The certification developed by the non-profit B Lab now signifies over 1,400 responsibly run companies from 130 industries and 42 countries. The performance standards are comprehensive and transparent, and measure a company’s impact on all of its stakeholders, including workers, suppliers, community, and the environment.
WASTE NOT -
As we prepare for the innumerable resource challenges of supporting a population expected to top 9 billion in the next 35 years, it is simply unacceptable to continue wasting food. Organizations large and small are now focusing a variety of efforts on eliminating food waste.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A 2010 report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF estimated that four out of every 10 people in the world, particularly those in Africa and Asia, do not have clean water to drink, and according to Green Cross International, roughly 3,000 children die each day as a result of diseases caused by ingestion of filthy water.
CLEANTECH -
Toyota recently announced a set of goals to be achieved over the next 35 years, which address key global environmental issues such as climate change, water shortages, resource depletion and degradation of biodiversity.The Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 aims to reduce the negative impact of manufacturing and driving vehicles as much as possible. The challenge is composed of six individual challenges across three areas: Ever-better cars, ever-better manufacturing and enriching lives of communities.Ever-better cars