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Circular Economy

The constant stream of new models, products and processes that are helping organizations extend the useful life of resources and materials while reducing, repurposing and ultimately eliminating waste in all its forms

COP15: ‘Environmental DNA’ Technology Enables World-First Nature Performance-Monitoring Service

Cross-Posted from New Metrics. NatureMetrics says new platform represents breakthrough in understanding and managing our impact on nature — providing simple, standardized metrics to track and report on site-based nature impacts.

Closing the Loop: Rethinking Operations, the Economy to Save the Planet

Whether making a widget or a culinary treat, prioritizing a circular life cycle for products helps keep them out of waste streams until they are negligible — or better yet, they never land there.

Record Number of Companies Recognize Biodiversity Risks, But Struggling to Turn Commitments Into Action

Cross-Posted from Finance & Investment. Self-reported data from over 7,700 companies that responded to questions on biodiversity through CDP’s climate change questionnaire shows they are ready to disclose on biodiversity, sending a powerful signal to negotiators ahead of COP15.

Q&A: Why Partnerships Are Essential for Delivering Circular Packaging for the Food Industry

Cross-Posted from From Purpose to Action: Building a Sustainable Future Together. While flexible packaging plays an important role in keeping food fresher longer, it has long been difficult to recycle. Designing more recyclable flexible packaging from the start and determining a better end-of-life process for current materials is a vital step in reducing food waste.

New Program Aims to Expand Plastic Film Recycling Capacity in US

Cross-Posted from Collaboration & Co-Creation. The joint effort from WM and Dow aims to provide a solution to make it easier for households to recycle the film while the companies explore new options to reuse it. When fully implemented, the program is expected to prevent 120,000 tons of plastic film from reaching landfills each year.

Brand Blind Spots, Empty Promises Hindering Effective Action Against Plastic Pollution

Cross-Posted from Materials & Packaging. As seen in ongoing incidents of greenwashing and a new Greenpeace report, the onus is on consumer product manufacturers to take more comprehensive approaches to stemming their flow of plastic into the world — and turning the tide of public opinion.

Breaking Through the Logjam to Accelerate Decarbonization in the Energy Sector

Cross-Posted from Organizational Governance. Why have the collective efforts of national governments, NGOs, forward-looking companies and citizens had so little impact on curbing carbon emissions? Here are three reasons why high-level pledges are not translating into concrete actions — and what’s needed to break through.

COP27 Yields More Impressive Forest-Conservation Commitments; But Will Our Efforts Go Up in Smoke?

Cross-Posted from Organizational Governance. From COP27, we see more and more business initiatives focused on not only reaching sustainability, but averting a climate crisis and achieving nature positivity — but have climate-fueled forest fires already nullified our chances at an effective carbon market?

Purpose-Driven Brands Continue to Encourage More Conscious Consumption Habits in Antidote to Black Friday

Cross-Posted from Consumer Behavior Change. As US consumers report more conservative gifting plans due to money worries, alternatives such as Freitag’s S.W.A.P. events and Poshmark’s Secondhand Sunday meet the downshift in enthusiasm for the Black Friday shopping frenzy.

ShippingEasy Pilots Carbon-Neutral Shipping for Ecommerce Merchants During the Holiday Season

Cross-Posted from Innovation & Technology. The Texas-based small-business shipper, in partnership with South Pole, will offset merchants’ shipping emissions by funding a renewable energy project in Oklahoma.

New Report Guides Private Sector on How to Simultaneously Tackle Escalating Climate, Health Crises

New research from Forum for the Future and four healthcare giants calls on businesses, policymakers and the finance community to accelerate progress against the mounting threats to human health from the climate crisis.

Recycling Isn’t Enough: Our Goal Should Be ‘Uncycling’

On a practical level, we simply cannot recycle our way out of the damage that plastic waste is doing to our world, our environment and ourselves. That’s why it's time to consider uncycling — or reducing our use of single-use plastics down to zero.

Accelerating Circularity Requires Creating a Viable Marketplace for Advanced Recycling

Cross-Posted from From Purpose to Action: Building a Sustainable Future Together. A circular plastics supply chain is still in its infancy. So, how do we work together to create a viable marketplace for advanced recycling to thrive? Here are a few strategies and approaches that show early promise.

After Formal Apology, Ocean Conservancy Works to Repair Damage Done by 2015 Plastics Report

Key recommendations failed to understand plastic pollution from a holistic perspective — placing too much blame on the five most impacted Asian countries and suggesting carbon-heavy options for disposal.

Are We Seeing Glimmers of a Healthier, Even Regenerative, Economic System?

Cross-Posted from Finance & Investment. Last week at SB’22 San Diego, over 1K sustainability practitioners converged to share insights, tools, inspiration and opportunities for collaboration with the goal of building a regenerative future for all. Here, we hear highlights from our day four keynotes, which featured glimpses into the next frontier in finance and capitalism.

The Sum of Small Efforts: Engaging Suppliers to Ensure Brand Plastic Reduction

Cross-Posted from Supply Chain. Whether the priority is to reduce the plastic in packaging, increase the recycled content or just figure out where to start, it all begins with opening up a dialogue with suppliers. That is exactly what one major US retailer did when it sought to re-energise its plastics and packaging pledge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Empowering Waste Pickers, Building Communities and Closing the Loop

Cross-Posted from From Purpose to Action: Building a Sustainable Future Together. In Latin America, where recycling rates remain below 10%, grassroots circular solutions are slowly beginning to scale — thanks to growing legitimacy, education, organization and protections for informal waste workers, who remain the backbone of the region’s collection and recycling infrastructure.

E-Waste No More: Fairphone and Framework Show a Better Way Forward for Personal Electronics

Recycling, circular industry partnerships and marketplaces for refurbished devices are growing in popularity, but they won’t be a match for the tech industry’s throwaway approach anytime soon. But some smaller, more intrepid brands are proving the validity and demand for longer-lasting, easy-to-repair electronics.

Ærli Aiming to Put Conscious, Regenerative Spin on Corporate Retreat Industry

Cross-Posted from Innovation & Technology. The new Norwegian network of nine properties is on a mission to redefine business travel with experiences that embed and impart the very essence of sustainability and regenerative practices.

Can Regenerative Agriculture Regenerate the US Food System?

The conversation recently made its way to Washington, DC — where the Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee of Oversight and Reform discussed calls to reform federal policies that unjustly favor corporate agribusiness, often at the expense of family farmers.