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Innovation & Technology

The latest products, services, design approaches and business models that are helping organizations of all sizes deliver on their sustainability ambitions and establish a new business as usual

M&S To Initiate First Wide-Scale Green Lease Policy in the UK

Marks & Spencer will soon require all of its new retail stores to have green clauses in new leases to facilitate the sharing of waste information and utilities data in a collaborative effort to reduce carbon emissions.

Ecofiltro: Quenching Thirst in Guatemala One Family at a Time

To prepare for this year's Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) competition, we're catching up with some of our favorite entrepreneurial ventures from competitions past ...In most of the developed world, few of us give much thought to where our drinking water comes from. When thirsty, we need only to walk to the nearest faucet for an endless supply of fresh, potable water. Studies show the average American household wastes 100,000 to 200,000 gallons of water every year, while 780 million people in developing countries lack access to reliable drinking water — about one in nine people on the planet.

SolarCity To Help Honda Customers Adopt Solar

SolarCity has partnered with Honda to establish a $65 million investment fund to make solar power more affordable and available to Honda and Acura customers in the U.S.

Macy's, Sprint Join Presidential Challenge To Increase Building Energy Efficiency

Macy’s, Sprint and Johnson Controls will upgrade more than 200 million square feet of building space to cut energy use by at least 20 percent by 2020, as part of the Obama Administration’s Better Building Challenge.

Assembling for Disassembly: Alcoa, Honda Back Automotive Manufacturing Research at OSU

Aluminum company Alcoa is lending its support to a longstanding research partnership between Honda and Ohio State University that could innovate auto manufacturing.

Greyhound Installs Telematics to Increase Fuel Efficiency in 1,775 Buses

Greyhound has begun integrating telematics program DriveCam across its entire fleet to optimize safety performance and increase fuel efficiency.

Biochar Pilot Program Aims for Carbon-Negative Coffee

With more than 2 billion cups consumed each day, coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages. Most consumers of the black liquid hail from industrialized countries — over 90 percent of coffee production occurs in developing countries and out of the bulk of climate change regulations’ reach.

Earthwards: Johnson & Johnson’s Drive Toward a Healthy Future

Sustainability is no longer a fleeting trend. It is becoming a standard practice of companies both large and small, across multiple industries here in the United States and around the world. The health care sector is no different.

Bringing Back the Bike: One Start-Up’s Plan To Forever Change the Commute

To prepare for this year's Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) competition, we're catching up with some of our favorite entrepreneurial ventures from competitions past ...

Data Show Eco-Fashion a Smarter Choice for Conscious Consumers, Brands Alike

According to eMarketer, online apparel and accessories is the fastest growing category of online sales among nine major categories.

How Are Circular Economic Models Driving Innovation and Social Good?

Calling all innovators and implementers! In March 2013, Sustainable Brands will launch a new “Issues in Focus” editorial package, including daily features, interviews and case studies on the circular economy as a driver of business model innovation and social good.The Issue in FocusYou can't get a soy latte these days without hearing the words collaborative consumption, the circular economy, crade-to-cradle or the sharing economy. But how are these quasi-utopian concepts becoming real? What implications could they have for the future of business and the economy?

New Interface Competition Wants Design for Nature Lovers

Modular carpet company Interface launched a new competition this week inviting architects, designers and students to submit visions for how nature can influence the design of a new or existing space, both within built environments or outside.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation Aims To Create $10B of Value by 2015 With New Global Business Alliance

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation today launched the Circular Economy 100 (CE100), a three-year program aimed at bringing together a network of 100 leading companies globally to facilitate development and commitment to new circular economy projects. The CE100 will provide executive education on key themes and emerging trends, share knowledge and new learnings, and identify and develop solutions to common challenges. The objective is that by 2015 participating companies will have triggered circular initiatives that will result in an aggregated economic benefit of $10bn for the businesses involved.

Google, Verizon, 3M Join DOE’s Workplace EV Charging Initiative

Outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced 13 major U.S. employers and eight stakeholder groups have joined the Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge, which aims to increase workplace charging by tenfold over the next five years.

Indigenous Revolutionizes Apparel Industry by Highlighting Social Impacts

Seventeen years ago, Indigenous cofounders Scott Leonard and Matt Reynolds were picking burs out of hand-knit South American sweaters before delivering them to The Nature Company.

Facebook, Cleantech Group Launch Contest To Accelerate Environmental Solutions

Facebook and the Cleantech Group have asked contestants to submit concept pitches for products, applications or services that utilize the social network’s billion-person user base to reduce environmental impact and engage in conversation over sustainability challenges.

Aspirational Consumers Unite Style, Sustainability To Shape Market Trends

Is there such a thing as sustainable consumption? A new study by BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility finds that a majority of consumers across six international markets are seeking to reconcile their desire for shopping and style with responsibility to the environment and society through their purchases.

Unilever Redesigns Aerosol Deodorants For Smaller Environmental Impact

Unilever, the UK’s largest deodorant manufacturer, unveiled a new product design that could make the category significantly more sustainable.

Design Matters, for the Circular Economy

A team from Seymourpowell, one of the UK’s most established design and innovation consultancies, were thrilled to spend an evening in the company of a select group of motivated Design & Technology teachers, at the recent Tunbridge Wells Teardown Lab led by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. It proved a fascinating evening of new insight and practical hands-on learning.

Circular Economy Not 'Silver Bullet' for Resource Crunch, Paper Says

This article first appeared on edie.net on January 28, 2013.Industrial systems based on circular economy models will be constrained by end-of-life material availability, limiting future improvements in process efficiency, scientists claim. A wider materials efficiency framework is required, they argue — one which encompasses not just circular resource flow systems but mitigation options for industrial carbon emissions and consumer demand.