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
Questions — and asking the right ones — are at the heart of Patricia Wang’s role as design researcher in WorkSpace Futures for Steelcase Inc. These days, the biggest question Wang faces is just as complicated and ambiguous as it is important: How can Steelcase encourage employees to get to a future state that is better both for them and for the planet?
Mars Australia has signed 20 year power-purchase agreements (PPA) with Total Eren to generate the equivalent of 100 percent of Mars’ electricity from renewable energy by 2020. In addition to its latest agreement in Australia, Mars is already using or purchasing renewable electricity to cover 100 percent of its operations in Belgium, Brazil, Lithuania, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer and a leading floorcovering provider, has also become a leader in sustainability — in August, Shaw announced that 85 percent of its products are now Cradle to Cradle Certified™; and earlier this month, it achieved carbon neutrality in its commercial carpet manufacturing operations. We spoke with Troy Virgo, Director of Sustainability and Product Stewardship, to learn more about what drives the company’s efforts.
Makersite is an all-in-one, open-source data platform for product design, costing and stewardship that product teams can use to analyze and collaborate on how things are made and improve the impacts of making them. The platform includes dozens of apps tailored to various business, compliance, health and environmental evaluations that developers and designers can use to quickly explore the effects of different product configurations, such as climate change, eutrophication, carcinogenicity, RoHS and REACH compliance and production costs. We caught up with CEO and co-founder Christoph Wilfert to find out more about this one-stop shop for sustainable product design.
The future of transport is shaping up electric — by 2040, more than half of all new car sales and a third of global fleet will be electrified, according to research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Its latest forecast shows sales of electric vehicles (EVs) increasing from 1.1 million worldwide in 2017 to 11 million in 2025, then surging to 30 million in 2030 as they become cheaper to produce than internal combustion engine cars.
While many aspects of the textile industry have notoriously harmful effects on people and the planet, we’re seeing a variety of solutions emerge that could shape the future of fashion. Two of the latest examples are Kloters’ RepAir t-shirts and Malai’s vegan leather-style accessories.
As we get ready to judge our semi-finalists for the 2018 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, we wanted to check in with last year’s competitors to learn about the impacts they continue to have on the business world. Here, we catch up with our 2017 winner, Detroit Ento.
As we get ready to judge our semi-finalists in the 2018 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, we wanted to check in with last year’s semi-finalists to learn about the impacts they continue to have on the business world. Here, we catch up with Bluon Energy.
On Tuesday, Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) published its Sustainability Report 2017, outlining the concrete steps being taken to fundamentally transform its business, by putting smoke-free products at the core of its sustainability efforts to address wider societal challenges, drive operational excellence, manage its social impact and reduce its environmental footprint. PMI says it is committed to replace cigarettes as soon as possible with better alternatives to smoking for the millions of men and women who would otherwise continue to smoke.
After one of our most high-traffic voting periods to date, it’s time to meet the eleven semi-finalists in the 7th annual Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) — our competition for startups that positively impact people, planet and profit, co-sponsored by Makersite and RISN Incubator.
As we get ready to select our semi-finalists for the 2018 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, we wanted to check in with last year’s semi-finalists to learn about the impacts they continue to have on the business world. Here, we catch up with Immotor.
Some 290 million tires are discarded each year in the U.S. alone, and they can be a challenge to recycle.
These days, there is more pressure than ever on businesses to be environmentally conscious, reduce their impact and do their part to keep the planet healthy. Logistics is a major area of focus for many, with a lot of potential for impact due to traditional transport’s huge fuel and energy requirements.
Technology has been quickly evolving into many markets such as clothing, food, health and home, and hotels are certainly no exception. As the industry is disrupted by more privatized options such as AirBnb and VRBO, Bloomberg reports that technology has become “top of mind for hotels,” as they seek to compete by providing amenities and new services for luxury vacationers and business travelers.
Reimagining global agriculture will require numerous efforts of various size and focus, such as those in the news this week from a global agribusiness firm trying to meet targets across complex supply chains, a startup developing ways for bees to deliver natural pesticides, and teens looking to utilize unused space for agriculture or al
“Clean meat” — products produced from culturing animal cells rather than raising and slaughtering animals — is facing its first major regulatory battle. The U.S.
Business strategy, technological innovation and corporate sustainability are increasingly linked in the minds of executives.
Many people assume that tech companies are always competing. But as we celebrate Earth Day this year, we’re feeling grateful for our tech peers. When it comes to the environment, working together allows us to make bigger strides toward our shared sustainability goals — and collaboration is the only way forward.
The United States generates millions of tons of food scraps; inedible fats, oils and greases; sewage and manure. Some of this organic waste is used for energy or fertilizer, but most of it — around 50 million tons a year — is sent to landfills, incinerated or otherwise left to decompose.
In season 4 of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Better Buildings Challenge SWAP web series, energy management teams from General Motors (GM) and L’Oréal USA visit each other’s facilities in search of opportunities to reduce their energy use and save money.