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
Earlier this month, 195 nations reached a landmark agreement at COP21 in Paris to fight climate change and unleash actions and investment towards a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable future.
When I first heard of the Sustainable Brands conference from our friends at Forum For The Future - I couldn't wait to go to one of the events. Luckily for me, it wasn't long until they brought the event to Asia, kicking off in the bustling city of Kuala Lumpur. Even though some people look at conference events as a waste of time, I couldn't disagree more. Events like SB'15 Kuala Lumpur are an amazing opportunity to meet like-minded collaborators and to find new and inspiring case studies of business done they way it should be: taking into account our environment and well-being.
The use of smartphones in the United States and Europe is helping to save more than 180 million tons of carbon emissions a year — an amount greater than the total annual emissions of the Netherlands — according to a new report released this week by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), authored by The Carbon Trust.
SolarCity is calling on Congress to swiftly pass comprehensive legislation that includes an extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar.The ITC, which was set to expire at the end of 2016, is a 30 percent federal tax credit for businesses and homeowners to incentivize installation of solar energy systems, fuel cells, combined heat and power systems, microturbines, small wind systems and geothermal heat pumps.Since its creation in 2006, the ITC has helped deliver job growth, cost reductions and domestic energy deployment across the country, SolarCity says.
13 ventures have been announced as the recipients of $12.9 million in funding from the Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development (PAEGC) program.
Atmospheric rivers — significant sources of rainfall — tend to intensify during El Niño events, and this year's strong El Niño likely will bring more precipitation to California and some relief for the drought, according to new satellite research from NASA.Duane Waliser, chief scientist of the Earth Science and Technology Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and his colleagues analyzed the historical record of atmospheric rivers. These concentrated rain bands account for 40 percent of California's water supply. Their results suggest the number of atmospheric rivers California receives will remain the same, at an average 10 per year, but they will be stronger, warmer and wetter.
Today, Procter & Gamble released its 17th annual sustainability report, which details the progress it is making to reduce its environmental footprint and improve social conditions for those in need.The report reinforces the Company’s commitment to operating sustainably and details progress against its long-term vision of producing products that consumers love while maximizing conservation of resources, powering all its plants with 100 percent renewable energy, using 100 percent renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging and having zero consumer and manufacturing waste go to landfill.
The dust may have settled on Sustainable Brands ‘15 London, yet its impacts continue to ripple. Hannah Ritchie’s blog provided excellent coverage of our ‘Future Concepts’ workshop that invited attendees to innovate with us on the day. Yet the session was about more than just a clever process so we wanted to share the results with you, too.We believe that innovation is a crucial yet under-utilised strategy for responsible brand leaders, so our workshop aimed to push more brands along a sustainable innovation path, showing them that this is possible and beneficial.
Humanity has a major math problem: Its population is growing, global demand for new products is swelling and the waste is mounting — all while natural resources and space remain constant. I’m no math wiz, but it seems like this isn’t the most sustainable of equations.Rather than working to balance each variable of the equation, many are working to rewrite it altogether by eliminating the very concept of “waste” through circular economic thinking. This involves recycling, but also taking it a step further, to upcycling.
Construction machinery and equipment giant Caterpillar recently hosted the first major national summit on infrastructure restoration, with the clarion call that investing in nature is smart business. In the room was Matt Arnold, Global Head of Social and Sustainable Finance at JPMorgan Chase. Arnold said he was looking for deals and that “smart failure is okay.”
IBM Research has announced a collaboration agreement with the City of Johannesburg and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to apply advanced technologies to help the city deliver on its air quality management plan.Johannesburg is the economic hub of South Africa, generating 17 percent of the country's GDP. Originally established as a mining town, the city's mine dumps, residential and traffic emissions generated by the city's population of approximately 4.5 million people are largely responsible for the city's air pollution, IBM says, which includes ultrafine particulate matter particles — the most harmful to human health.
In the future, everything from household appliances to industrial machinery will likely connect to the so-called Internet of Things. Inexpensive hardware embedded in these devices will send a stream of useful data to allow local and grid-wide energy optimization.
SunPower, SolarWorld and Trina earned top marks in the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition’s 2015 Solar Scorecard, which ranks manufacturers of solar photovoltaic modules according to several environmental, sustainability and social justice factors.REC, Yingli, JA Solar, AUO, LG, First Solar and Upsolar rounded out the top ten performers. JA Solar showed the most improvement from the 2014 Solar Scorecard — moving from a total score of 10 out of 100 in 2014 to 77 in 2015.
Looking for some ethical fashion options for your holiday shopping, or even your daily life? If you can’t wear a T-shirt to work, you may have the same frustrations that lead Yale School of Management grads Amanda Rinderle and Jonas Clark to co-found Tuckerman & Co..
Trucost and TruValue Labs have announced a partnership to provide investors with enhanced, real-time, environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. The market for responsible finance has grown rapidly over the past 20 years, driven by awareness of the risks and opportunities of climate change. There is a growing divestment movement among investors wanting to reduce exposure to polluting, carbon-intensive business activities. But investors need good quality, up-to-date ESG data to engage with companies and inform investment decisions.
Today, at the “Parley Talks” at COP21, adidas and Parley for the Oceans showcased their latest footwear concept, the 3D-printed Ocean Plastic shoe midsole, to demonstrate how the industry can rethink design and contribute to stop ocean plastic pollution.
Amidst the bustle of COP21, Indonesian forests have received some pretty good news. After weeks of devastating fires, APRIL Group and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), two of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, have made strong reforestation commitments.
The United Kingdom wastes more food than any other European country; a 2014 House of Lords report estimated 15 million tonnes of food per year are wasted in the UK, at a cost of £5 billion, and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has estimated the average UK household with children spends £700 per year on food that could be eaten but is thrown away.
While so much of our lives have veered toward the digital, many organizations’ operations still rely to some degree on paper. Innovative solutions to help minimize the impact of continued paper use include print-optimization technologies and even more “sustainable” fonts.
“We need innovation that gives us energy that’s cheaper than today’s hydrocarbon energy, that has zero CO2 emissions, and that’s as reliable as today’s overall energy system. And when you put all those requirements together, we need an energy miracle,” Bill Gates recently told The Atlantic.