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
In an effort to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the world today, National Geographic and GSK Consumer Healthcare have joined forces to launch the Chasing Genius Challenge. The competition aims to uncover innovative solutions for issues related to sustainability, global health and food security and will provide $25,000 to winners to scale their ideas.
The apparel industry continues to make progress towards shedding its bad rep, with even more brands making moves to rethink traditional supply chains.
The sand dune turned booming metropolis known as Dubai has never been a city synonymous with sustainability — extravagance and wealth, yes, but environmental ingenuity? Not so much. But as oil and fossil fuels, in general, take a hit, the city is wasting no time shedding its frivolous rep and reinventing itself as a hub of innovation, according to a recent article in Popular Science.
Startup accelerators designed to bolster support for the low-carbon transition seem to be popping up almost daily — within the last two months alone, H&M, Levi Strauss, Plug & Play, Target and even the
Cross-Posted from Collaboration & Co-Creation. How Detroit Can Become the Most Sustainable City in North America By Nithin Coca Joel Howrani Heeres It’s been an eventful week for Joel Howrani Heeres, the brand-new Sustainability Director for the city of Detroit, who welcomed over 1000 attendees at the final day plenary at SB ’17 Detroit, on what was just his fourth day on the job.
Levi Strauss & Co. continues to drive the apparel industry towards a more sustainable, circular model, announcing that it has awarded more than $350,000 grants to the inaugural class of its LS&Co. Collaboratory fellowship program. The funding will go towards new approaches and innovations in the apparel supply chain.
Cross-Posted from Organizational Governance. Day two of SB'17 Detroit picked up the momentum from day one and ran with it. ... Transforming Consumption Norms Around Food By Hope Freedman
Minnesota’s largest member-owned electric cooperative Connexus Energy is making solar sweeter at its community solar garden in Ramsey, MN where it is now producing honey. Bolton Bees has installed 15 beehives at Connexus Energy’s SolarWise garden and will be managing and expanding the hives throughout the summer.
When people think of industries making the world a more sustainable place, air travel is likely at the bottom of the list — but United Airlines is one industry leader working hard to change that. We recently spoke with United’s Director of Environmental Strategy and Sustainability, Natalie Mindrum, to learn more about how the airline continues to fuel its progress on sustainability.
Big things are brewing in the realm of clean energy, with new initiatives in France, Denmark and Puerto Rico ushering renewables towards the mainstream. France is poised to double its current wind and solar power capacity with a new plan approved by the European Commission that will see Europe’s second largest economy add 17 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to its portfolio.
MIT has developed a new technology that could revolutionize wastewater treatment and water purification. Providing an alternative to more energy- and chemical-intensive alternatives, MIT’s new method is capable of removing even extremely low levels of pollutants from water. The technology was developed by MIT postdoc Xiao Su, Ralph Landau, Professor of Chemical Engineering T. Alan Hatton and five others at MIT and at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
What if there was an easier way to connect revolutionary solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges with the capital needed to initiate real change? That’s exactly what the Global Opportunity Explorer sets out to do.
LED lighting provides an important resource for the successful transition to a low-carbon future, something Philips Lighting is hoping to convey this week at the annual LIGHTFAIR International Tradeshow and Conference in Philadelphia. The lighting company is introducing three new LED lamps designed to reduce energy consumption and operating costs, improve the comfort and utilization of a space and deliver value that goes beyond illumination. The new technology advancements combine the accumulative improvements in energy efficiency with enhanced quality and capabilities of connected LED lighting.
Cutting-edge isn’t exactly the word that comes to mind when it comes to the capital of Catholicism — the Vatican — but Stephen Forte is gearing up to change that. The entrepreneur and Fresco Capital founder is launching a new startup accelerator in Rome this summer that aims to change social impact investors' perception of mission-driven, for-profit startups — companies that have social missions at their core.
Building on its commitment to remove harmful chemicals from its products and invest in green chemistry, retail giant Target has kicked off its first-ever Target Takeoff — a mini retail boot camp focused on supporting emerging businesses who are working to create healthier, more ethical and sustainable products.
Today C&A, one of Europe’s leading fashion retailers, debuted the first Cradle to Cradle Certified™ GOLD T-shirts, marking an industry-first achievement for a fashion garment.
Approximately 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted around the world each year, putting unnecessary strain on natural resources, needlessly producing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to climate change. Two startups in Australia and the US are working to change that with the opening of a rescued-food supermarket and the launch of a technology that turns food waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer. Perishable food rescue organization OzHarvest has opened Australia’s first ever rescued-food supermarket — The OzHarvest Market — in Kensington, Sydney.
DanoneWave, the newly combined entity of WhiteWave Foods and Danone’s dairy business, has been incorporated as a public benefit corporation in the U.S. With more than $6 billion in revenue and 6,000 employees, DanoneWave will be the largest public benefit corporation, which is a corporate structure intended to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. A public benefit corporation is managed in a way that balances shareholders’ financial interests and the benefits it brings to people, the environment and broader society.
Since the introduction of Cisco Telepresence in October 2006, Cisco has studied how the use of our technology impacts corporate travel. The early days were exciting; Cisco set our first travel reduction goal in 2006! Reducing travel via collaboration technologies had benefits for our business (cost reduction, productivity improvement), employees (work-life balance) and the planet (greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions). Execution, however, invariably focused on travel reduction. The recurring savings from less travel recouped the upfront investment for telepresence systems, so less travel was the metric that mattered.
The Mekong Business Initiative (MBI) and Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) have announced the 18 tourism startups from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos who will participate in the upcoming Mekong Innovative Startup Tourism (MIST) startup accelerator program. Assessed by US-based Travel Startups Incubator, applications were weighed against criteria such as potential for investment, business plan quality and strength, sustainability and other socio-economic criteria.