Follow the growing amount of collaborative work — cross-functional, cross-sector, pre-competitive and more — bringing about massive, disruptive, needed shifts to business as usual.
The launch of a new initiative designed to spur collective action around sustainability in the apparel and footwear industry is providing brands and manufacturers with the knowledge and resources necessary to select, fund and accelerate projects that can improve upon the sector's problematic environmental impacts.
Isle of Wight-based ethical apparel startup Rapanui has come a long way since its conception in 2009, when brothers Rob and Mart Drake-Knight launched with a mere £200. Now, with almost a decade of experience under its belt, Rapanui is helping other UK businesses achieve their sustainability goals.
The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) is on a mission to help consumers make healthier choices with the launch of a new pilot campaign in Hagerstown, Maryland.
In an effort to advance the goals outlined in its Sustainable Living Plan, in which it aims to positively impact the lives of 5.5 million people by 2020, consumer goods giant Unilever has announced a new partnership with the Better Than Cash Alliance.
At this year’s Sustainable Brands conference in May, we did something that we hadn’t done before — it was an ‘aha’ moment. Sustainable Brands and the Arbor Day Foundation — the world’s largest member-based tree-planting organization — partnered to host the first volunteer experience for conference attendees to get their hands dirty. This urban tree planting event, “ReGreening the Good Life,” was a fitting jump-start to the SB ’17 Detroit conference. More than 55 volunteers from the conference helped plant trees in a downtown Detroit park.
Since 2009, Oakland, California startup Back to the Roots has been on a mission to "Undo Food" by reconnecting consumers (and kids) with what’s on their plates, and driving the food industry towards greater transparency and integrity.
Today, PepsiCo reported progress towards its ambitious Performance with Purpose 2025 Agenda sustainability goals, announced last year. The company improved performance against goals in each of the Agenda’s three focus areas – Products, Planet and People – while returning over $7 billion to shareholders.
Brands are increasingly leveraging their influence for good, using their tremendous reach and means to draw attention to and inspire action to address some of the biggest environmental and social challenges of our time. ‘Goodvertising’ plays an important role in this space — as evidenced by this year’s Cannes Lions — but getting it right doesn’t always come easy. Spotlighting the world’s most burning issues is important, but simply telling stories isn’t enough — businesses need to demonstrate what they’re actually doing to create a better world.
Clean, drinkable water is crucial for human existence, but according to the Women Thrive Alliance, roughly 663 million people worldwide still lack easy access to safe water.
Hurricane Harvey, the strongest storm to hit Texas and Louisiana in decades, has left a wake of destruction in its path. More than 30,000 people have been driven into shelters and the storm’s aftermath has left behind some estimated tens of billions of dollars in damage. Though the storm has now been downgraded to tropical storm status, the danger is far from over if forecasts predicting the storm to move towards the Gulf of Mexico, where it will pick up strength before moving back over Texas, prove to be true.
Only one month after 175 CEOs came together to launch the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, nearly 100 additional CEOs have taken the pledge, committing themselves — and the organizations they lead — to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Pallets, ubiquitous throughout our economy, have been an early example of the potential for a circular product system, with reusable, pooled pallets reducing waste in logistics. For decades, wood has been the dominant pooled pallet material. While a natural, renewable material, wood can break, is porous and can create worker safety issues from handling. With roughly 10 billion pallets in circulation, there remains a significant opportunity for improvements.
As we navigate tumultuous times in our country and across the globe, people are looking to businesses to cultivate community, either through their own programs or through partnerships. According to the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, businesses and NGOs are the most trusted organizations by the public, more so than media or the government. People are looking to these organizations to fill a need, solve problems, and redefine the ‘good life’ in their communities.
When it comes to achieving bold sustainability goals, every action counts — a concept that is catching on fast with industry heavy hitters such as JPMorgan and GSK. The two companies have struck up new partnerships with GE and Schneider Electric, respectively, to tackle emissions and resource inefficiencies that threaten to impede their climate progress.
A coalition of 13 major energy industry firms, including Siemens, Shell, Statoil, Solar Power Europe and Total have launched a new initiative to limit the amount of state aid subsidies that are sent to highly polluting power plants across the European Union.
Over the years, adidas and Arizona State University (ASU) have emerged as leaders in the sustainability movement as a result of groundbreaking innovations, education and outreach programs and thought-provoking campaigns designed to solve global sustainability problems. Now, the two forward-thinking entities are teaming up to launch the Global Sport Alliance, a strategic partnership that aims to shape the future of sport and highlight its positive impact on society.
We can’t become sustainable by going it alone. This is the core tenet that has underpinned the vinyl industry’s sustainability efforts from the onset. As industry leaders first came together to talk about establishing a sustainability platform, there was a general consensus that this was an effort that had to be broad-based and encompass companies across the vinyl value chain.
Two of the world’s leaders in sustainable agriculture and certification, Rainforest Alliance and UTZ have announced plans to merge later this year in an effort to simplify the certification process for sustainable agriculture.
Improving childhood nutrition globally through gardening is a goal of the Mondelēz International Foundation (MIF). The MIF supports public-private partnerships, bringing school and community-based gardening programs to children around the world.
Following the filing of two multi-million dollar lawsuits by Canadian pulp and paper manufacturer Resolute Forest Products to silence Greenpeace’s criticism of its controversial logging in the boreal forest, 100 authors and thought leaders, including Margaret Atwood, Michelle Alexander, John Maxwell Coetzee, Stephen Fry, Naomi Klein and Yann Martel — have signed the environmental NGO’s pledge to support free speech and stand up for forests.