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 Regenerative Business Alliance — a subsidiary of the Carol Sanford Institute (CSI) — has launched the search for its 1st annual Regenerative Business Prizewinner. This prize will recognize a business that is taking on practices of enlightened disruption, drawing on the regenerative principles of living systems.
New fashion brand Oliver Cabell is “seeking to disrupt the luxury fashion business” with an unmatched level of transparency around its products. Exclusively available online, each product’s page on the company’s website details where the item was made and the costs that went into it, including the brand’s mark-up.
Sometimes innovation comes from unexpected places — a father-son duo in Chino Hills, California has transformed a family furniture business into Sunflare, a solar energy company that produced solar “wallpaper,” among other high-efficiency PV products. For more than a decade, Len Gao and his son, Philip Gao, used the furniture business to finance their research on flexible solar panels. After much trial and error, they developed solar panels that are so lightweight and flexible they can be installed on nearly any building surface with little more than double stick tape.
Both the Biomimicry Institute and Net Impact launched food-focused competitions earlier this year, seeking innovative ideas for new products or services. This week, the winners of the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge and Forward Food Competition were announced.
This week, outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland announced a goal to double its footprint in five U.S. cities by 2020 in an unexpected, unique way. Each year for the next five years, the brand will match its retail floor space with the creation or restoration of an equivalent amount of green space in a different city with a Timberland store, beginning with New York City. The next four cities will be revealed later this year, with projects ranging from walking trails to community gardens to city parks.
The information and communications technology (ICT) industry is an at-risk sector for forced labor, and while most of the world’s largest ICT companies have publicly demonstrated awareness of the issue, far fewer have strong processes in place to address it.
Those with the most toys don’t always win, as a new video game is aiming to convey: Block’hood is a video game centered around construction and city planning that is out to raise awareness and understanding around the topic of sustainability. As your Block’hood grows, resource needs get more complex - and with 90+ blocks available for building, an infinitude of choices must be balanced with hood-ecology, taking into account living space, agriculture, commerce and manufacturing.
Almost 40 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions come from the countries in East and Southeast Asia, and it is expected that the emissions will increase in pace with the region’s economic boom. From a climate perspective, renewable energy, rather than fossil fuels, should meet the region’s growth and increasing energy demand. The good news is that the prospects for more renewables in the region are promising. In 2015, more than half of the global investments in clean energy came from East and Southeast Asia. Increasing interest for offshore wind For a long time, solar has dominated the East- and Southeast Asian clean investments. But, offshore wind power has attracted increasing interest in recent years.
In 2014, Patagonia dissolved its sustainability department – a move that the company’s VP of public engagement, Rick Ridgeway, remains proud of to this day. Overnight, the outdoor clothing brand deepened its commitment to environmental and social justice by decentralizing its sustainability team and moving them individually out into core areas of the business where they would have most influence.
Despite the hype surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT), its promise of enabling smart connected products, new business models, and delivering better customer experiences is undeniable. Combining physical products with sensors, software, storage, and connectivity will also enable exponentially more “products as a service.” Besides providing unprecedented opportunities for transforming brands’ relationships with customers, it’s also a promising portal to a more sustainable world – reducing waste, emissions and natural capital dependencies. Implicit is the hopeful and exciting potential for improving environmental and, in some cases, social footprints of both consumer and industrial products.
‘Smart minds’ are invited to submit ideas for self-driving delivery carts or sustainable logistics concepts towards two new innovation challenges from shipping company DHL. Anyone who is at least 18 years of age may join the competition by submitting a written document and video explaining their idea by September 28, 2016. Winners will receive a monetary prize out of a pool of combined 20,000 Euro, will be able to jointly develop their proof-of-concept with DHL, and will display their solutions at DHL Innovation Day on November 17, 2016.
It was a packed house on Wednesday afternoon at SB’16 San Diego, where attendees sat on the floor and crowded around the door to hear panelists from companies leading the way in sustainability discuss their strategies, and their personal experiences, in aligning with and addressing the UN SDGs.
Following a competitive search for the world’s top 50 marketing technology startups, Unilever announced its 2016 Foundry 50 on June 8th. Selected from 4,500 startups Unilever has reviewed over the past two years, the finalists are distributed across five innovation areas: Brand and Content Innovation; Data, Insights and Personalization; Engaging Millennials; Social Impact; and the Future of Retail.
Fashion is undergoing a sustainability overhaul.
Global Forest Watch’s new PALM (Prioritizing Areas, Landscapes and Mills) Risk Tool, released by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and freely available through its open-source Global Forest Watch Commodities platform, includes information about over 800 palm oil mills in Southeast Asia, along with regularly updated satellite imagery and spatial data.
Ford Motor Company’s 2015-16 Sustainability Report highlights key environmental benchmarks and the ongoing work of the automaker, including its expanded focus beyond vehicle production to developing mobility solutions for the future. The future of mobility Earlier this year, the automaker created Ford Smart Mobility LLC, a new subsidiary to design, build, grow and invest in emerging mobility services using existing Ford innovations, products and technologies.
Apple seems to be embedding its renewable energy commitments into its corporate structure. The company recently created a new wholly-owned subsidiary known as Apple Energy LLC and filed an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates power companies, to be able to sell electricity and other power grid services to non-utility customers. The move is a strong sign that Apple will not only fulfill its plans to operate on 100 percent renewable energy through net-metering, but plans to generate and sell renewable energy back to the grid.
A new cloud-based platform for supply chain management promises to enhance transparency and help producers transition to circular models, starting with the apparel industry. In collaboration with software provider Improvement IT, Netherlands-based Dutch Awearness has launched an online software tool called the Circular Content Management System (CCMS) to help track and trace garments and their materials.
The information and communication technologies (ICT) sector can play a vital role in helping achieve the objectives of the United Nation’s (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, according to new analysis prepared for the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) by Accenture Strategy. This would involve deploying an array of digital solutions to improve the quality of people’s lives, achieve equitable growth and protect the environment.
“Facility managers are at a premium these days and are overtaxed,” said Julien Gervreau, director of Sustainability at Jackson Family Wines (JFW) during a Thursday breakout session at SB'16 San Diego. That’s why the winery is benefiting from Tesla Energy’s stationary energy storage systems, which currently stores 4.2 MW of electricity. Partnering with Tesla has been helpful because the energy innovator understands how the winery is trying to be disruptive, Gervreau said.