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
The tagline for this year’s Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, “Design° for People + Planet,” asks participants to look at what degree of change they will make for a particular SDG, using nature as their mentor.
It takes a village of visionaries and specialists to galvanize innovative ideas and bring them to fruition. In a recent webinar, Shaw examined a case study in organizations coming together to take a “people-centric approach to sustainability.”
Smart building features once seemed like nice-to-haves, but they’re rapidly becoming need-to-haves. Facilities that are at a competitive disadvantage are not going to catch up by making operators smarter. The operators are already smart, and they don’t have time to deal with dumb buildings.
Cross-Posted from Circular Economy. What better way to celebrate and participate in the season of giving than with gifts that truly keep on giving? Here are just a few of our favorite discoveries this year of products we'd be thrilled to give and receive.
Cross-Posted from Circular Economy. Or, how to expand your conscious consumerism to include anti-waste cocktails, carbon-negative nightcaps and a hard kombucha that’s easy on the environment.
As we enter 2020, we face a trilemma of global warming, growing inequality and rising nationalism — so, a well-designed net-zero strategy must tackle the climate crisis and promote economic opportunities for the less privileged at the same time.
The Ray of Hope Prize competition gives startups a chance to get their biomimetic innovations to market; entrepreneurs with nature-inspired design solutions for climate mitigation, carbon sequestration or the SDGs have until December 31 to apply.
Why are lessons learned by a flooring company relevant? Many of the challenges we had to solve are the same that companies are struggling with as they pursue sustainability. Our accomplishments are significant because they show it is possible to transform a business and put sustainability at the core.
'Period poverty' — in which women and girls struggle to access and afford menstrual products — is particularly bad in sub-Saharan Africa. That’s why a new initiative in Tanzania is taking a 21st-century, FMCG approach to a centuries-old problem.
Envision a future where every material thing in our world is made out of a handful of materials, carefully selected to be safe, healthy and infinitely recyclable. Everything from coffee cup to countertop could be broken down and used as raw materials for a new shawl or lampshade.
Cross-Posted from Circular Economy. As we enter the season of giving — and the season of returns — two new, next-gen online retailers aim to address the rampant clothing waste inherent in e-commerce; and reward users for donating their used, unwanted clothing.
Sustainability experts for decades have been exhorting managers to focus more on the function their products deliver and less on the product itself. Biosphere Rule #5, Function Over Form, is focused on fulfilling customers’ functional needs in ways that sustain the value cycle.
Cross-Posted from Circular Economy. New analysis from Forum for the Future explores the public commitments of 132 leading food companies and outlines a five-point plan to get businesses on track towards a more sustainable global food system.
Cross-Posted from New Metrics. Typically, the stages in a product’s life cycle that have the greatest environmental effects also are the ones that present the best opportunity for sustainable innovation. If sustainability is part of the innovation process, then LCA should be conducted to ensure the avoidance of unintended consequences.
AI, a conscientious credit card, social plastic and underwater forests are just a few of the solutions showcased at SB Oceans that can help us restore their abundance.
Procter & Gamble has reached its 2020 goal of purchasing 100% renewable electricity in the US, Canada and Western Europe — which represent over 70% of its purchased electricity. We caught up with James McCall, Global Supply Chain Sustainability Leader at P&G, to learn more.
Biosphere Rule #4 is about taking your value cycle, built with parsimonious materials and a power-autonomous energy system, and creating a production platform upon which you can build a whole suite of products — producing profit-amplifying economies of scale and scope.
Edinburgh-based startup Gravitricity has developed a unique energy battery system that, unlike conventional battery systems, can operate for decades without any reduction in performance.
Nature has discovered that if you want to sustain your value cycles for billions of years, they need to run on free flows of solar energy. Our products and processes need to do the same.
A.P. Moller - Maersk has partnered with BMW, H&M, Levi Strauss and more to explore LEO — a blend of lignin and ethanol — that could be part of a solution for sustainable shipping.