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
AT&T sees vast opportunity for mobile technology to enable sustainable lifestyles and the efficient use of resources. Did you forget to turn off the heat when leaving the house? No problem; we are long past the days when the devices in our pockets were used primarily as phones.Ahead of his presentation at SB’15 San Diego next month, we asked John Schulz, Director of Sustainability Operations at AT&T, about the company’s sustainability goals, its new Eco-Rating system, and its millennial workforce.
Today, Panera Bread shared its progress in removing a host of what the company deems “unacceptable” ingredients. Panera has committed to remove artificial additives and published a No No List of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives that the Company has eliminated or intends to remove from its U.S. Panera Bread® and St. Louis Bread Co.® bakery-café food menus by the end of 2016. This move makes Panera Bread the first national restaurant company in the U.S. to publicly share a comprehensive list of ingredients that will be removed from or will never appear in its menu items.
The Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI) has published its new Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT 4.0), a multi-industry tool designed to facilitate transfer of information throughout the supply chain in support of conflict-free sourcing. It includes an updated Standard Smelter List and numerous translation improvements.
Tesla Energy, the latest from Tesla Motors visionary Elon Musk, was introduced last night onstage at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, California, just south of LA. A statement from the company describes the new development as "a suite of batteries for homes, businesses, and utilities fostering a clean energy ecosystem and helping wean the world off fossil fuels."
If only 30 percent of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) refrigerants are reclaimed for reuse by 2040, approximately 18 billion metric tons carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent would be prevented from reaching the atmosphere over the next 25 years, according to a white paper released today by EOS Climate, a company that incentivizes the complete life cycle management of harmful refrigerants — using the power of capital markets to address climate change.
Today, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Autodesk announced the winners of the inaugural Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge, which asked participants to design products made with materials that can return safely to industry or nature at the end of use, fulfilling a core criterion of “remaking the way we make things.”
It is often presumed in the modern world that drawing people out of poverty results in higher carbon emissions and environmental impact; the biggest driver of greenhouse gas emissions has been economic growth. However, Tilonia®, an ethical accessories brand based in Rajasthan, India, has shown that the conventional growth model can be broken.
Having racked up over 10,000 deliveries and 30,000 members in its Scandinavian motherland since its 2013 launch, Norwegian social delivery service Nimber is set to plug a sustainability gap in the UK delivery sector, making use of unused capacity by using real people who are going somewhere anyway to make deliveries.The company estimates that to date its service has helped cut carbon emissions by 198.24 tonnes through the use of existing capacity to bring and send items to individuals and businesses.
Rapidly falling costs and clear benefits have led to a sharp increase in the number and scale of light-emitting diode (LED) and smart streetlight projects in the past year, according to a new study published today by Northeast Group.There currently are more than 2,000 LED and smart streetlight projects globally. By 2025, cities around the world will invest $64 billion in LED and “smart” streetlights.
Sprint, in conjunction with Brightstar Corp. and HOBI International, announced today the winner of its inaugural Smartphone Encore Challenge, a contest for Net Impact college students to find profitable and innovative ways to repurpose old smartphones or their components.
This is the latest in a series of posts in which we will poll our global community of business leaders and practitioners — the “SB Vanguard” — on a variety of issues pertinent to the evolving sustainable business landscape. Despite the continued growing pains of the “sharing economy” - unintended consequences (ex: Airbnb disrupting local home rental/sales markets), ambiguity around naming (sharing economy? peer-to-peer economy? collaborative economy?), regulatory snafus (hello, Uber!), etc - the proliferation of such business models points to a paradigm shift comparable to sustainability. What do you see as the future/potential of this trend, and of the opportunity for established brands within it?
You’re a Chief Executive. Why care about environmental impacts and employee wellbeing if the bottom line is improving? The business logic behind CSR contends that negligence of these issues increases reputational risks. Just as a positive image can endear a brand to consumers, a toxic spill or news of poor labor conditions may threaten its ‘social license to operate’ and worry investors about disruptions to business. History shows reputational damage can quickly translate into financial losses (case in point: the Deepwater Horizon spill.)
In these times of increasing corporate scrutiny, do we need a radical new definition of CSR? One that pretty much pushes the idea that companies need to take a financial hit in order to do social good? That solving the world’s most important environmental problems requires a level of business ‘altruism’ that can only be realistically achieved at the expense of the bottom line?
Aquion Energy, Inc., developer and manufacturer of Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI™) batteries and energy-storage systems, has announced that its AHI S20 and S20-P Product Lines are the first batteries in the world to be Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certified™ Bronze. The product lines were evaluated by MBDC, creators of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program, across five quality categories.
With Earth Day this week, it’s a great time to reflect on the challenges we face and the advancements we’ve made. Last week, Microsoft released a whitepaper describing the progress made with our carbon fee since its inception in the hope to inspire other organizations to take similar action.
Today, the adidas Group announced a partnership with Parley for the Oceans, an initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the beauty and fragility of the oceans and to collaborating on projects that can end their destruction. Together, the organizations will implement a long-term program that builds on three pillars: communication and education; research and innovation; and direct actions against ocean plastic pollution.
Apple has announced plans to invest in a new Chinese solar power project and help preserve some 36,000 acres of forests in the eastern United States.The tech giant is partnering with solar company SunPower to build two solar power projects totaling 40 megawatts (MW) in China — more than the amount of energy consumed by Apple’s 19 corporate offices and 21 retail stores in China and Hong Kong.The projects are expected to provide up to 80 million kilowatt-hours per year while also protecting the ecosystem. They will feature SunPower's "light-on-land" approach to solar photovoltaic power plant design and construction, which allows pasture farming to continue while power is generated.
Just one year after the launch of its ambitious Sharing Beauty with All program for sustainable development, cosmetics giant the L'Oréal Group has today revealed significant improvements in the first progress reportof its efforts:
Etsy’s IPO begins trading tomorrow, Thursday, April 16th. The online craft marketplace will be the largest B Corp to go public.Etsy’s stated mission — “To reimagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world” — is bold and decidedly social. Founder Rob Kalin launched the company in 2005 after struggling to find a place to sell his carpentry and artwork. He has been quoted as saying he started Etsy with sustainability and entrepreneurs, like himself, in mind, and that the enterprise would not become a ‘faceless corporation’ such as eBay or other online marketplaces.
RE100, a global initiative aimed at recruiting and encouraging major companies to use 100 percent renewable power across their operations, has announced a partnership with the China Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA) as part of a major new drive to help companies in China adopt renewable energy.