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Product, Service & Design Innovation

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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Trending: Wonder Food Can Make Products Softer than Suede, Sweeten Foods Better Than Sugar

Here are two innovations that give new meaning to the phrase "magic mushrooms": An Italian textile manufacturer has used a skin extracted from giant mushroom caps to create a leather-like material similar to suede; and a Colorado-based startup has found a way to use mycelium molecules to block bitter tastes on a person’s tongue as they eat, meaning they’ll only taste the other flavor profiles of the food.

Musk Envisions Tesla at Center of Sustainable Energy, Urban Transit, Sharing Economy

Billionaire industrialist Elon Musk is doubling-down on the ambitious vision he laid out in August 2006. In a blog post, Musk recently revealed his “Master Plan, Part Deux,” which extends beyond a corporate strategy for his electric car company Tesla, covering the breadth of the sustainable energy chain from generation and storage, to electrification of several types of vehicles, to the sharing economy.

Outerknown Sets New Bar for Transparency by Disclosing Supply Chain, Sharing Suppliers’ Stories

Just one year after the brand’s launch, eleven-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater and menswear designer John Moore’s clothing company Outerknown has publicly released its supply chain. The young brand is taking the public ‘inside the factories’ for a closer look at their practices; the website details Outerknown’s suppliers’ locations, employment figures, which products they produce for Outerknown, and other information. Customers are also now able to ‘shop by factory’ which filters products by supplier.

ByFusion: Creating the Building Blocks for Tackling Ocean Waste

“It’s all about timing,” says Gregor Gomory, CEO of ByFusion, a startup he believes is about to take advantage of a “perfect storm” brewing as the world wakes up to the enormous problem of plastic waste filling up our oceans. By now, we’ve all heard the statistics: By 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The 4-12 million tonnes of plastic that is spewed into our waters ever year is a problem that can no longer be ignored.

Play Through Heineken’s Sustainability Highlights from Ship to Concert in Its New Online Game

Heineken released its 2015 sustainability report back in April, along with a ‘Frank’ distillation video featuring Dutch rapper and vocal artist Kevin “Blaxtar” de Rendamie. This week, Heineken USA launched another unique engagement experiment to share its sustainability highlights: a first-of-its-kind interactive online experience.

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All Innovation Is Not Created Equal

All around today’s business world, there’s a lot of talk about “innovation.” Supply chains, service delivery, formulation, marketing, and countless other areas of business are undergoing rapid change from a variety of angles. Innovation is the new go-to for both entering a market and maintaining a competitive lead. Where “differentiation” may have been the buzzword not too long ago, innovation requires us to actually be different, not just look different.

Waste-Make-Retake: How Interface Is Setting Out to Change Industry with ‘Climate Take Back’

Carpet might not seem like a major player in the climate change fight, but the process of making it actually is quite impactful on the environment. Most carpets are synthetic — nylon, polyester, acrylic — all of which are petroleum-based products. Throw in other petroleum-based adhesives and materials used to back the synthetic fibers, chemical dyes to repel stains and fire, and a lack of reliable recycling methods, and you’ve got a recipe for some unsustainable practices.

Achieving Higher Value Chain Efficiency Through Product Life Cycle Analytics

“What data analytics did for baseball it could do for the environment by shrinking the carbon footprint of thousands of consumer products.

Project JUST Platform Expanding to Meet Demand for Ethical Fashion - and It Needs Your Help

Project JUST, an online platform that reviews fashion brands (75 to date) for their supply chain ethics and sustainability to help consumers make more informed choices, is crowdfunding to help expand its offering.

Ben & Jerry's and Ford Are Embracing Climate Disruption - and Your Company Needs to, as Well

Is your business embracing the disruptive forces of a low-carbon world as Ford and Ben & Jerry’s are? Over the next 10 years, climate change will drive industrial disruption at rates that previously seemed unimaginable. In response, policy makers must come to terms with the need to keep the mean global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

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These 6 Startups Just Won £180,000 for Driving Innovation in the Sharing Economy

Innovate UK’s IC tomorrow competition sought innovative ideas to grow trust in the sharing economy and support it in the fields of tourism, travel, home improvements, construction and data. Six winning startups were selected from over 200 entries – the most ever received in an IC tomorrow competition.

Shell Launches Digital Tool to ‘Springboard’ … Low-Carbon Startups?

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the low-carbon, clean energy and sustainability sectors can now use a handy interactive online tool to identify funding opportunities most relevant to their sector, development stage and financial requirements. The Access to Finance Navigator was recently launched by none other than energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, building on the company’s existing funding and awards offerings.

How SABMiller Is Furthering the SDGs to Help the World ‘Prosper’

International brewing company SABMiller released its 2016 Sustainable Development Report this week, detailing cuts to environmental impacts and updates to its ‘Prosper’ sustainability ambition to align more closely with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Latest Report Shows Kingfisher's 'Personal' Commitment to Net Positive

Kingfisher — parent company of European home-improvement chains B&Q, Castorama, Brico Depot, Screwfix and Koçtaş — has published its Sustainability Report 2015/16, which details its progress towards becoming a restorative, Net Positive business.

The Regenerative Business Prize: Search Is On for Company That Exemplifies Principles of Regeneration

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.

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New Brand Seeks to Disrupt Luxury Fashion with Full Transparency – Even on the Price Tag

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.

Winners of Biomimicry, Forward Food Competitions Tackle Food Waste, Behavior Change Challenges

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.

Timberland to Restore and Create Green Spaces in 5 Cities Over Next 5 Years

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.

Block'hood Teaches Gamers Systems Thinking to Help Design Tomorrow's Sustainable Cities

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.

Can You Put a Price Tag on Purpose? How Patagonia Highlights Value Over Cost

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.

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