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
Step aside solar — bacteria and prickly pears could be the future of renewable, sustainable energy, according to new research in the United States and Mexico.
The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, one of the largest sustainable enterprise competitions in the world, has announced the five startups still in the running for a cash prize of €500,000. Finalists include innovators from France, Rwanda, the Netherlands and Denmark.
Hotel booking platform and blog Kind Traveler is changing the way consumers think about travel. Built on a socially conscious ‘Give + Get’ model, the platform aims to empower travelers to become a force of change that benefits communities, the environment and animals. In just its first year of operation, Kind Traveler has already reached 130 hotels, destinations and charities that have come together to fulfill its mission.
A cocktail that gives back — that’s the premise for Danny Lafuente and Dan Maslow’s Simple Vodka, the latest company to enter the social enterprise space. The Idaho-based distillery aims to tackle the issue of food insecurity in the US one bottle at a time, with each sale of its gluten-free potato vodka resulting in the donation of 20 meals through partnerships with local and national hunger relief programs.
The realities of climate change and shifting consumer preferences for responsible, sustainable products have sparked a paradigm shift in the food industry, one that is leading food companies and farmers alike to rethink the way food is produced and manufactured. The relationship between global warming and beef production in particular has long been a hot button issue for the industry.
Ahead of announcing the 2017 Buckminster Fuller Challenge semi-finalists, the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) has unveiled some of the initiatives that were selected for the 2017 Catalyst Program, representing the top 17 percent of entries this year.
Cross-Posted from Marketing & Communications. What started as a simple home remedy and a middle school science project has exploded into a viable and affordable solution for fighting food waste across the globe. During a trip to India to visit family when she was 12 years old, Kavita Shukla’s grandmother gave her a homemade tea of different spices to ward off illness after having ingested a glass of unfiltered tap water. The spicy concoction prevented Shukla from becoming sick and ultimately became the inspiration behind years of experimentation with rotting fruits and vegetables that would lead to the creation of Shukla’s revolutionary FreshPaper.
Organic agriculture is likely one of the first things that come to mind when considering a sustainable food future, but emerging news would suggest that it is the laboratory — not the fields — where the sustainable food revolution is taking form.
As the environmental impact of the internal combustion engine — particularly those powered by diesel fuel – begins to rear its ugly head, governments across the globe are cracking down on automakers to address critical air pollution problems, curb emissions and mitigate climate change.
2017 has been a busy year for global innovation platform Plug and Play.
While nearly every country in the world – along with many companies, cities, regions and other organizations – has outlined goals for addressing climate change, there is still much work to be done to create the detailed implementation plans to actually achieve these goals.
Have a look at the gadgets you have within reach right now. Your cell, your laptop, your tablet, a backup power source – they all have one thing in common. They are powered using a lithium-ion battery, and for good reason. These batteries offer high energy density and high voltage, meaning they can power increasingly sophisticated electronics. They last a long time. And they are relatively environmentally friendly, containing no polluting metals, such as cadmium, lead or mercury.
When it comes to sustainable fashion, the contribution of children’s clothing to the textile waste problem is often overlooked. While the sector represents only 12 percent of overall market share, it constitutes a considerable portion of the 26 billion pounds of textiles entering landfills each year. Children themselves embody the fast fashion model, with their rapid growth rate requiring a constant flow of new clothing to keep up with lengthening limbs and expanding feet.
Taking plastics recycling to a whole new level, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has pioneered a new technology that restores used polypropylene plastic (PP) to ‘virgin-like’ quality. Developed in P&G labs, the patented technology is being licensed to PureCycle to deploy in a new recycling plant in Lawrence County, Ohio and will allow consumers to purchase more products made from recycled plastic.
As global temperatures reach record highs and heat waves become the norm across the globe, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), a global initiative led by former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to achieve universal energy access, improve energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energy, has launched a new campaign to identify the challenges and opportunities of providing access to affordable, sustainable cooling solutions for all.
Innovation and emerging technologies are increasingly changing how international organizations are investing to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) says a new report published by the UN Development Program (UNDP) Innovation Facility.
This is part four of a four-part series on themes explored at the 4th International Reporting 3.0 Conference. Read parts one, two and three.
As further evidence of the global corporate momentum behind renewable energy, the RE100 initiative has reached 100 members, following new commitments from AkzoNobel, AXA, Burberry and Carlsberg Group to transition to 100 percent renewable power.
For every single car that eats fossil fuels and emits greenhouse gases (GHGs), there are four tires propelling it down the road. Car owners know buying tires eats away at their pocketbook, but tires do more than just consume cash. The manufacture, distribution and disposal of tires contributes to pollution, and consumes rubber trees. Tire manufacturing depletes 70 percent of the world’s natural rubber. Natural rubber comes from Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber tree; 93 percent of the trees are grown in Asia, which increasingly needs rubber trees to preserve rainforests.
Nature-inspired solutions designed to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems continue to gain steam as five teams of entrepreneurs from around the world vie for the top prize at the 2017 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge.