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
Red Rock Biofuels, maker of renewable biofuels, announced Monday that it will produce approximately three million gallons of low-carbon, renewable jet fuel per year for FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp.The agreement runs through 2024, with first delivery expected in 2017. FedEx joins Southwest Airlines in purchasing Red Rock’s total available volume of jet fuel.
Technology giants are making strides towards a sustainable cloud: in the past two weeks, HP, Facebook and Amazon announced significant investments in wind energy.HP’s first utility-scale renewable energy purchase involves a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with SunEdison for 112 megawatts (MW) of wind energy, which will power 100 percent of its Texas-based data center operations.
Stanford researchers announced today that a study in Senegal, West Africa, has found that freshwater prawns can serve as an effective natural solution in the battle against schistosomiasis, a potentially deadly parasitic disease that infects roughly 230 million people. The prawns prey on parasite-infected snails, while providing a marketable, protein-rich food source. Because prawns cannot support schistosomiasis' complex life cycle, they do not transmit the disease themselves.
Hyundai Heavy Industries, a leading shipbuilder, and Accenture are collaborating to design a ‘connected smart ship’ that will enable ship owners to better manage their fleets and achieve potential operational savings through the application of digital technologies. The collaboration is part of Hyundai Heavy Industries’ plans to expand its business, moving from manufacturing to services.Using a network of sensors that will be built into new vessels, ship owners will be able to capture a range of ship voyage information including location, weather, and ocean current data, as well as on-board
On Thursday, Sunny Delight Beverages Co. (SDBC) released its fifth annual Sustainability Report, detailing its sustainability goals and progress — including an $85 million investment in new production equipment to improve efficiency, a significant reduction in the calorie count for its beverages, and sustaining zero waste to landfill for the fifth consecutive year.
The Third International Conference on Financing for Development was held in Ethiopia this week, gathering top government officials to discuss initial implementation plans for the UN’s post-2015 development agenda.
A new partnership between Ford, automaker FCA US LLC and the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory could lead to more efficient engines on the road. Announced this week, the research collaboration will explore technical concepts and development of engines that will simultaneously use natural gas and traditional gasoline.“The fact that two major players in the auto industry are partnering with Argonne on this project really shows the promise of this approach,” said project director Thomas Wallner. “The assumption here is that if you blend the fuels properly, you can make substantial gains in efficiency.”
British boyband One Direction are using their powers for good with a new campaign calling on their millions of fans around the world to push governments to address extreme quality, inequality and climate change at the upcoming climate talks later this year.
The Dow Chemical Company, the “Official Chemistry Company” of the Olympic Games and Official Carbon Partner of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, announced Tuesday that Dow AgroSciences Brazil is working with Brazilian farmers from the state of Mato Grosso to implement more sustainable agricultural practices that will generate climate benefits for the mitigation of Rio 2016’s direct carbon footprint.
In the future, you may be able to print meat in your kitchen. That is the hope behind the Cultivator, a conceptual prototype for a countertop 3D printer made by design students Sarah Mautsch and Aaron Abentheuer.The Cultivator intends to spark conversation about the future of food production and bioprinting, a technology currently being explored to fabricate human organs in experimental medicine. Inspiration for the Cultivator was based on the assumed development of this technology over the next 30 years.
Canadian startup Daymark has developed a fully electric, solar-powered scooter capable of playing music from built-in speakers, charging your phone and traveling up to 10 miles using its 24V battery pack, which is available in lithium or lead acid varieties.The Photon scooter re-charges under daylight during any kind of weather, gaining approximately 0.2 miles for every hour of exposure the 6W solar panel receives.
Mission-driven coffee startup THRIVE Farmers was recently recognized as the second-fastest growing company in Georgia by The Association for Corporate Growth in Atlanta.
Cross-Posted from Materials & Packaging. For the 20th year in a row, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is recognizing landmark sustainable chemistry technologies developed by industrial pioneers and leading scientists that turn climate risk and other environmental problems into business opportunities, spurring innovation and economic development.
Boeing and Japanese aviation industry stakeholders have partnered to develop sustainable aviation biofuel for flights during the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, when millions of people are expected to visit Japan. The Initiatives for Next Generation Aviation Fuels (INAF) — a consortium of 46 organizations including Boeing, ANA (All Nippon Airways), Japan Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Japan's government and the University of Tokyo — laid out a five-year "roadmap" to develop biofuel by 2020 as a way to reduce aviation's environmental footprint.
Battery storage has long been one of the last remaining significant barriers to the widespread adoption of solar energy — and a nimbler, more resilient energy grid. But a number of players are quickly emerging with solutions.In May, Tesla Energy dominated headlines when it unveiled a new home battery called the “Powerwall,” which can store solar energy and allow customers to cache grid electricity from non-peak periods to use during peak times. For business and utilities, there is a larger version available called the “Powerpack.”
If you think about air travel and sustainability, a couple of things might occur to you: First, that you are not involved or interested; second, that since airlines are so dependent on liquid fuel, reducing their carbon emissions is a lost cause. But, you probably are involved, and flying can become less disruptive of the planet’s systems.
Perhaps one of the silver linings of the climate crisis is the continued emergence of innovations from both the private and public sectors to avert impending disaster while creating new growth and development opportunities.
Sevamob, a social enterprise which aims to fundamentally transform primary healthcare in India through mobile clinics and a tele-health marketplace, has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA) to reduce anemia by 30 percent, HIV transmission to children by at least half of the national average and dental issues like caries by 25 percent, in the areas where it is active.The company says it provides primary healthcare and dental care to low-income people through a subscription-based model that combines local health teams with a network of specialists and a 24/7 call center for accurate diagnosis and treatment and leverages cloud-based mobile technology and data analytics to manage and monitor health outcomes.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency are competitive resources in today’s marketplace that will not only be cost-effective mechanisms for compliance with EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) but should also be expected to grow strictly on the basis of cost, according to a recent report by the Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) Institute.
Last week, courier service Shyp announced it will convert its contract workers to full-fledged W2 employees. The company’s decision bucks the surge of startups fueling the 1099 economy, which avoids paying workers benefits by classifying them as independent contractors.“This move is an investment in a longer-term relationship with our couriers, which we believe will ultimately create the best experience for our customers,” Shyp CEO Kevin Gibbon wrote in a company blog post.