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.
It’s a great time to be a salad on a fast food menu. A generation ago, there was no happy medium between lunch hour at a fast food joint or at a sit-down restaurant — and either option was, and still is, calorie-laden. But concerns over the nation’s food supply, growing environmental awareness, and the disturbing obesity rate here in the U.S. has led to the growth of the “fast-casual” food concept, and many chains in this category are more socially conscious than conventional restaurant chains.
Do you ever have that Charlie Brown moment? You know, the moment when you’ve done something again for the umpteenth time, hoping for a different result, but you get what you’ve always gotten? That’s my current relationship with the Eco Mode on my one-year-old, fairly expensive dishwasher. I rinse the dishes (wondering if I’m just making environmental matters worse), pop them in the dishwasher, press the Eco Mode button and hope for the best. And then I sort through the dishes when the cycle is done, pull out the ones that actually appear to be clean and leave about a quarter of them in the machine, to be washed a second time when it’s full (in Regular Wash mode).
When Oren Lyons, traditional faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation, addressed the United Nations in 1977, he highlighted the relationship between people and animals:
British multinational grocer and retailer Tesco sourced 100 percent of its own brand Easter eggs from programs that promote responsible cocoa, and teamed up with LEGO to offer a special limited edition toy created as a healthy alternative present to chocolate eggs.
On Monday, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) released a second white paper detailing the final findings from its industry research partnership with Cranfield University.
In honor of World Water Day, major brands are making their pioneering water-saving and -purifying innovations available for more widespread use. Kohler Co., a global leader in the plumbing industry, has shipped the first order of its ceramic filtration system, KOHLER Clarity, to Water Mission, a nonprofit, Christian engineering organization that provides sustainable safe water solutions to people in developing countries and disaster situations. Water Mission plans to distribute the filters in small communities in Haiti, Honduras and Peru.
At age 27, I was the youngest director elected to Vancity Credit Union, the largest community-based credit union in the world. It was the late 1980s. I ran a seniors' agency, was chair of a provincial social planning group and had been a recent board member of the local United Way. In two and a half words, I was a "social do-gooder." My first board-management strategy session was spent discussing mergers, declining margins, capital adequacy and potential staff lay-offs. We were in a bad business cycle. An hour before the meeting was scheduled to end, we reached the final agenda item: "Other Business."
The private vehicle sector has been one of the first and most pressing to push for a transition in the way we value the consumer economy. Companies such as Uber, Zipcar and Blablacar have stirred both applause and controversy as their disruptive business models have taken the marketplace by storm.
Building on the inspiration and energy from day one, day two of the International Women’s Day Forum kicked off with a panel on The Power of Communication and Perception. Beth Colleton, SVP of CSR at NBC Universal, posed the question: “We reach 97 percent of all people in any given month. But how do we get people to care?”
Social entrepreneurs have a new opportunity to launch and scale their sustainability solutions - through a new partnership between crowdfunding platform Indiegogo and the Unilever Foundry, the ‘entry-point’ for startups seeking to connect with Unilever and its venture capital arm, Unilever Ventures.
This week, two major banks made changes to their policies regarding coal financing. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) acknowledged their progress, but asserted that a great deal more must be done to meet the global commitment made at COP21 in December to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The ‘biggest international sustainable entrepreneurship competition’ is underway! The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge is open to entrepreneurs and businesses who have a product or service which reduces CO2 emissions. Now in its 10th year, this annual business plan competition for eco-entrepreneurs aims to promote a low carbon economy by supporting “sustainable innovation in the battle against climate change.”
Made to Matter — Handpicked by Target just got an upgrade: Since its inception in 2014, Target has built strong partnerships with purpose-driven brands in the wellness space to make natural, organic and sustainable products more accessible. The retail giant just announced that it has raised its standards for inclusion in the collection this year. Each brand must now meet one or more new criteria:
Kraft Heinz followed through on its promise to remove artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes from its iconic macaroni and cheese – three months ago. In what the company is calling “the world’s largest ‘blind taste test,’” Kraft Mac & Cheese quietly changed its recipe and the ingredients listed on the box in December, and sold over 50 million boxes before making a formal announcement about it.
The “sharing economy” is today’s buzzword for Silicon Valley’s most recent batch of billion-dollar companies. So ring the headlines: $51 billion valuation for Uber; Chinese ride-hailing business Didi Kuaidi raising $4.42 billion; Airbnb valuation $10+ billion. In the last three years, the world has embraced this idea of the sharing economy. Who would have thought that a 23-year-old part-time student tooling around in her Prius would disrupt the transportation industry? Or that renting out your spare bedroom with the Star Wars sheets could make you part of the largest hotel network in the world?
Alternative protein company Exo announced the close of a $4 million Series A funding round today. The company’s cricket flour protein bars are “formulated for taste” to “appeal to everybody” by Kyle Connaughton, former Head Chef of R&D at The Fat Duck. The funding round was led by AccelFoods, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on food and beverage companies.
The annual competition from the Biomimicry Insititute is spreading its wings: The Biomimicry Global Design Challenge (BGDC) is expanding to include the Living Product Prize.
With a growing body of evidence showing that purpose-driven brands are more successful at attracting customers, retaining talent and delivering financial returns, it’s increasingly important to define some essential elements that can bring meaning to your brand: purpose, vision and mission. Whether you’re building a global brand or a young challenger brand, any brand big or small can benefit from this kind of clarity. Here’s how one of each — Unilever and Burger Lounge (a client of mine) break it down:
According to the UN’s Global E-Waste Monitor, roughly 46 million tons of e-waste was generated worldwide in 2014. Of that, just 7.1 tons were recycled or reused, and those numbers are expected to rise five percent annually for the foreseeable future. The recently launched Nascent Objects platform offers an alternative via a customizable system of interchangeable electronic modules that can be used to assemble a variety of consumer products.
The negative environmental impacts of our rampant plastic water bottle use have been well-documented, and despite a growing number of efforts to discourage their use or develop alternatives such as boxed water and edible bottles, Americans alone use about around 50 billion each year, of which less than a quarter get recycled. According to the Pacific Institute, producing all of these bottles uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, or enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year.