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
In a report published this week, Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that an increase on product life of just one day across a range of foods could prevent roughly 250,000 tons of food waste each year — in households and in the supply chain — by giving consumers longer to eat the food that they buy.The “life” of a product is the time period over which food remains safe to eat, or over which the quality does not deteriorate to unacceptable levels, usually designated on-pack by companies through “Sell by” or “Best before” dates.
“How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?”Dwight D. EisenhowerThere is much more to be said on the issues of context-related sustainability, Planetary Boundaries and the multiple capitals approach than is included below. We intend to evolve and publish some further ideas on the challenges and opportunities of measuring and locating absolute sustainability in the context of the planet’s limits in further blogs in 2015 (and perhaps beyond).
Thick clouds of smoke, a suffocating heat. Forests, lush and green and bustling with all types of life, reduced to burned land and ashes. In Indonesia, in the 1997-98 fires, approximately 10 million hectares of rainforest, an area the size of Switzerland, were affected. The regional economic costs of the fires were estimated at $9 billion. These fires were set deliberately, by palm oil estates, to clear land for rapid and cheap expansion of their plantations, and to hide timber poaching and land theft.
Environmental justice has been a small, but increasingly vocal, component of civil rights activism. After all, many organizations, including the NAACP, have documented the disproportionate health problems the United States’ 370-plus coal-fired power plants — which often happen to be located near neighborhoods in which the majority of residents are people of color — have had on minority communities.
Two years ago at Davos, the sharing economy was a foreign concept. Whenever I asked anyone I met if they had heard of the phrase, I would receive blank stares. Perhaps 5% of people had heard of Airbnb (though they rarely used it). Quite a few more had heard of Zipcar – maybe around 20% of the people I spoke to – but most of them admitted that their familiarity was due to the company’s acquisition by Avis earlier that month.
This March, Scotland will promote a national week of swapping, sharing and donating, encouraging citizens to join in a reuse revolution. Pass it on Week begins on the 7th and continues through the 15th of March. The event is backed by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) in an effort to get people to pass on things they no longer want to someone else, rather than throwing them away.
Cross-Posted from Innovation & Technology. Cambodian fashion brand tonlé is revolutionizing the textile industry not only with its ethical business model, but also a creative approach to zero-waste.
Mars Chocolate North America announced last week that all 10 of its manufacturing facilities are now certified landfill-free, a significant step towards achieving Mars’ company-wide goal of zero-waste-to-landfill by 2015. The Henderson, Nevada site was the tenth and final chocolate manufacturing facility to achieve this milestone.Since announcing this goal in 2007, Mars has reached an overall reduction of approximately 4,500 tonnes of waste each year. To do so, Mars zeroed in on three key focus areas: efficient operating processes, recycling programs for multiple waste streams, and mutually beneficial partnerships with disposal vendors and local farm reuse programs.
The most effective technologies for addressing growing global water and energy interdependence — known as the water-energy nexus — are based on reduce, recycle, and recovery and zero-water/zero-energy, according to new research from analyst firm Frost & Sullivan.The report, Technology Convergence Resolving Water-Energy Challenges, identifies six types of technology that contribute to solving the water-energy challenge: renewables-based desalination, wastewater treatment and recovery, hydraulic fracturing, thermal power, water efficiency and energy efficiency.
Today, leaders of some of the world’s largest companies — collectively known as The B Team — called upon world leaders to commit to a global goal of net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 — and urged business leaders to match this ambition by committing to bold, long-term targets.
“Sustainability” isn’t something most of us associate with Las Vegas. However, as one of the top tourist destinations in the world, the Las Vegas Strip presents a host of opportunities for tackling the rampant waste created by the industry.
Cross-Posted from Organizational Governance. Last week, Royal Dutch Shell’s board of directors ratified a shareholder resolution that commits the oil giant to investing in a low-carbon future. The resolution called for the company to commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, invest in renewable energy, scrap bonus systems that are associated with climate-harming activities, and base its business model risk assessment against the widely considered “safe” warming limit of 2ᵒC (as signed by 141 governments at the UN’s Copenhagen Accord).
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Autodesk, a world leader in 3D design software, have teamed up to offer product designers a chance to win up to US$4,000 through the inaugural Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge. Participants are eligible to submit their design after completing the free 1-hour, online course, Designing Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Products for the Circular Economy. Submissions are due March 15, 2015 and winners will be announced in April.
Sprint today launched its Smartphone Encore Challenge — an attempt to inspire students to generate new ideas about how to revive old smartphones and their components. The competition — launched in partnership with Brightstar Corporations and HOBI International — calls upon students to come up with innovative ways to retrofit their old devices that could be scaled into a commercial business model. The Encore Challenge will be supported by Net Impact, the leading nonprofit that motivates younger generations to find sustainable ways to work within and beyond business.
Joel Solomon, a pioneer in social venture capital, is chairman of Renewal Funds, Canada’s largest organization in the sector.With $98m in assets under management, Renewal Funds invests in organic food, responsibly made products and environmental innovations. Its portfolio includes Alter Eco, Aquatic Informatics, Elevation Brands, Sensible Organics, Seventh Generation and Sweet Earth, to name a few.
Consumer goods giant Unilever today announced it has achieved a key sustainability target of sending zero non-hazardous* waste to landfill from its global factory network. The company says the milestone not only represents a significant step towards its ambition to double its size while reducing its environmental impact, the effort has eliminated more than €200m in costs and created hundreds of jobs – once again proving the business case for sweeping sustainability initiatives.
Project MainStream, part of the World Economic Forum’s Circular Economy initiative, has launched three new programs focused on developing ways of scaling the circular economy through materials management, information technology and business model innovation, among others.
The continued development of resource-efficient business activity, such as recycling, reuse and remanufacturing, could create demand for over 200,000 new jobs across Britain between now and 2030, according to a new study by Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and UK charity and environmental think tank Green Alliance.
From historic climate change marches and bold advocacy by companies on the price of carbon to global economic volatility and heated debates on inequality, 2014 was a year of accelerated awareness and action for sustainable development.Our Ten Trends for 2015 distills SustainAbility’s thinking over the past year and forecasts the issues that will shape the sustainable development agenda in 2015.
Grand & Toy, an affiliate of Office Depot, and TerraCycle Canada have announced the launch of a new, national retailer recycling program for office products.The program comes after a successful five month K-Cup® Pack pilot recycling partnership between Grand & Toy and TerraCycle for customers in Southern Ontario. The program will now be expanded nationally and will include coffee capsule recycling, as well as recycling for office supplies and computer accessories.