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Innovation & Technology

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

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Thinking Outside the Room: Catalyzing and Speeding Up Purpose-Driven Innovation

The San Diego breeze rustles the palm fronds above the Mission Bay Patio - it's nice to be in an outdoor presentation space enjoying the Southern California climate. The topic for the afternoon is innovation, and the panel brings a good range of pers... View More

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How to Factor in Exponential Technologies and Deep-Future Trends in the Innovation Process

Technology is exponentially accelerating, creating a future that is difficult to imagine and one that impacts communities on a systems level. It is Robert Suarez’s job to think way, way outside of the box and design for that exponential future. Whe... View More

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What Underlies the Success of the World's First Billion-Dollar Sustainable Brands

What do Organic Valley, Target, REI and Toyota have in common? They are what Freya WIlliams describes as “Green Giants,” companies that have turned sustainability into billion-dollar businesses, and they are not alone. ... View More

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The Missing 60%: ExxonMobil, Forceful Stewardship and the 2°C Business Model Imperative

The Spring 2016 proxy votes supporting the 2°C stress test resolutions at last week’s Annual General Meetings of ExxonMobil (38.2%) and Chevron (41%) give cause for both celebration - and concern. These votes suggest that key asset managers are re... View More

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Lessons Learned from Buddhism, 10 Years of Sustainable Innovation Set Tone for SB'16 San Diego

KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, founder and CEO of Sustainable Life Media and Sustainable Brands, kicked off the 10th annual Sustainable Brands conference Monday evening by going back to when she first asked the question, “Why Sustainable Brands?” ... View More

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Whole Systems Mapping: How to Design for Innovation and Achieve Sustainability Goals

The room was buzzing during design strategist Jeremy Faludi’s Monday afternoon workshop, Whole Systems Mapping: Driving Innovation and Sustainability Through Prioritized Ideation and Value Chain Maps. Despite a sunny waterfront view, participants w... View More

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Nestlé in the U.S. Continues 'Creating Shared Value' by Improving Product Nutrition, Supplier Standards

Nestlé in the United States (which includes Nestle USA’s people food divisions, as well as Nestle’s other Stateside operations, including Nespresso, Purina and Nestlé Professional) today releases its 2015 Creating Shared Value Report, highligh... View More

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With Help of $10M Series A, Back to the Roots Poised to Truly 'Undo Food'

Back to the Roots, an Oakland, California startup pioneering how families reconnect with food, announced today that it has expanded its January crowdfunding campaign on CircleUp into a $10M Series A. The new investment was led by Acre Venture Partner... View More

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PrintEco: Partnering with Competitors to Double Down on Sustainable Printing

Two years ago a story was penned here on Sustainable Brands about a partnership between my company, PrintEco - a small startup with an app to enable more efficient printing - and Domtar, one of the largest paper & pulp manufacturers in North Amer... View More

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Supply Chain Visibility Critical for Seeing the True Cost, Sustainability of Our Products

As Sustainable Brands marks its 10th anniversary, many of us find ourselves in a reflective mood. We can recall the decade’s pivotal milestones like they were yesterday as we also consider the challenges that lie ahead. Despite the countless amazin... View More

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Audi, DuPont, Novozymes Among 20 Orgs Joining Below50 Coalition to Scale Up Sustainable Fuels

From investors to growers, producers, blenders and consumers, the below50 initiative, launched today, expects to attract every industry sector involved in the pipeline of sustainable fuels. Any company who produces, uses and/or invests in fuels that ... View More

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Schneider Electric Helping MBTA Drive Energy Savings

Schneider Electric, global specialist in energy management and automation, today announced it’s working with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA — aka “the T”) to cut utility bills and carbon emissions tied to public transpor... View More

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The Journey to Creating a Scalable Social Enterprise

In today's startup world, high burn rates and the need to raise multiple rounds of funding have become the norm. It's believed that this is the only path to "scalability" — a word that has lost its meaning through a decade of abuse. Befor... View More

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The Virtuous Circle Business Model: Social Purpose at the Core of Business Success

Mention the term “corporate social responsibility” and you might hear something like: “It’s dead.” “CSR has stalled.” “CSR has not fulfilled its potential. It has failed us.” Why? Because even at its best, CSR is only a partial solu... View More

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Smarter Soap, Soccer Balls, Seats and Supply Chains: The 2016 SBIO Semi-Finalists, Part 2

Sustainable Brands ’16 San Diego is coming up June 6-9, and part of the fun includes this year’s competition for game-changing, purpose-driven startups — the SB Innovation Open, hosted by Target. In part two of our two-part introduction to our ... View More

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Can Danish Enzyme Technology Help Alleviate Asia’s Waste Problems?

Today, large quantities of CO2 are emitted when we extract raw materials for the production of consumer goods. After use, most of these products end up in landfills as wasted resources. Among other drawbacks, this linear, take-make-waste system harms... View More

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The Body Shop to Regenerate Over 18K Acres of Forest, Help Monkeys Find Love

Deforested and degraded lands inhibit the ability of endangered plants and animals to grow and thrive again. Restored wildlife corridors such as “bio-bridges” within damaged landscapes can help re-establish plant populations and reconnect endange... View More

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Revolutionizing Food, Beer and … Tampons! The 2016 SBIO Semi-Finalists, Part 1

Our 2016 SB Innovation Open, hosted by Target is approaching fast, and our latest crop of disruptive, purpose-driven startups are among our most exciting yet. From edible beer to sustainable farming solutions, here’s a closer look at who will be jo... View More

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How Cisco Is Using Its Unique Capabilities to Drive Breakthroughs in Supply Chain Sustainability

As the world’s largest designer, manufacturer and seller of networking equipment, Cisco Systems faces many supply chain sustainability issues, including energy, waste and climate change impacts, among others. To address these challenges, Cisco has ... View More

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Janine Benyus: What Businesses Can Learn from the 'Optimization Engine of Evolution'

I recently spoke with the biomimicry pioneer about some of her favorite biomimetic innovations, about asking more from our design interventions, and some of the yet untapped areas in which Nature’s genius could help solve our most intractable probl... View More

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