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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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Could Growing Food in Gravel Be Pay Dirt for Sustainable Agriculture?

A new age in gardening is dawning: Geological agriculture, aka gravel gardening — a completely soil-less way to grow all kinds of crops in sedimentary rock.Leading the charge is To Soil Less, a family business founded by former management consultant Richard Campbell in 2011.

Campbell Soup Launches $125M Venture Capital Fund for Food Startups

The Campbell Soup Company has announced that it is launching a $125 million venture capital (VC) fund to invest in food startups. The fund, under the banner Acre Venture Partners L.P., will be managed by unidentified outsiders independent of Campbell, although the food giant is its sole limited partner.

Beyond Good Intentions: Tweaking the Buy One, Give One Model

While these models were implemented with the best of intentions, their lack of a holistic approach to the problems they’re aiming to address undermines a key selling point for mission-driven business models: the mutual benefits of improved reputation and profits.

'Peak Stuff': Why IKEA Is Shifting Towards New Business Models

Last month, IKEA’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Steve Howard, raised eyebrows at a panel debate by suggesting that in some parts of the world we have reached the point of ‘peak stuff’, a comment that was interpreted by some as a warning that consumer appetite for home furnishings had reached a crucial turning point.

Unilever Foundry Seeking 50 New Stellar Marketing Tech Startups

Unilever Foundry — Unilever’s startup technology incubator — has launched a search for the world’s top 50 marketing technology startups to pitch to industry leaders at Lions Innovation in Cannes in June. As part of the Unilever Foundry 50, the startups will have an exclusive opportunity to showcase their technology, pitch their solutions to brand and agency leaders from around the world and catalyze new partnerships.

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Innovation Inspiration: What Bones Taught Airbus About Optimizing Strength

Airbus Group is taking innovation inspired by nature to the air by using 3D printing to help build a stronger, lighter-weight galley partition that mimics cells structure and bone growth. The design literally lightens each airplane’s load, allowing it to do things like save a projected 465,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

The Body Shop Marks 40th Year with Pledge to Be World's Most Ethical, Sustainable Global Company

To mark its 40th anniversary, The Body Shop has unveiled a pioneering global CSR strategy that will underpin all aspects of company operation. The new commitment will reaffirm the global cosmetics brand’s positioning as a leader in ethical business and will define its next stage of development. The commitment, entitled Enrich Not Exploit™ - which will support The Body Shop in its aim to be the world’s most ethical and sustainable global business - is an extensive program of global activity and measurable 2020 targets that touches all areas of the business.

This Waterless Toilet Is Helping Ghana Turn Poop Into Power, Clean Water

There are still 2.4 billion people without access to toilets, risking their health and safety on a daily basis. Costs, culture, and a lack of awareness of the dangers of unsanitary practices pose substantial challenges and have resulted in an ongoing search for a sustainable and affordable “next-generation” toilet.

Start Now: The Benefits of Annual Impact Reporting from the Beginning

There aren’t many businesses that dedicate a fifth of their team to measuring impact. Luckily at Thread, we recognized early on that if we were going to produce the most responsible fabric in the world with a completely traceable and transparent supply chain, in an industry that is notoriously opaque and dangerous, we would need the data to back it up.

Mars to Remove All Artificial Colors from Food Portfolio

On Friday, Mars, Incorporated announced that it will remove all artificial colors from its human food products. Over the next 5 years, artificial colors will be phased out of the company's chocolate, gum, confection, food and drink businesses. The company asserts that artificial colors pose no risks to human health or safety, but that the change comes in response to consumer demand for the increased use of natural ingredients.

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Mobility as a Service Charting the Course for Customized On-Demand Mobility

To serve people’s urban mobility needs, cities rely on anything from one dominant, mainly private owned means of transport — the personal automobile — to a complex mixture of publicly and privately financed transport means. Users of these mobility services are usually left to their own devices to identify the optimum (combination of) modes to cover a journey and understand differences in terms of pricing, time and convenience.

UK Sugar, Carbon Taxes Could Produce £3.6B in Revenue, Reduce Emissions by 19M Tonnes

Could the health and environmental benefits of taxes on sugary drinks and carbon-intensive foods outweigh the out-of-pocket costs? New research from Oxford University and the University of Reading suggests that is indeed the case. A study published in BMC Public Health found that a combination of a sugar tax on soft drinks and a food-based carbon tax in the United Kingdom could raise £3.6 billion in revenue, reduce carbon emissions by 19 million tonnes, and increase life expectancy.

5 Steps Every Food Retailer Should Take to Eliminate Food Waste

Campaigners for action on food waste have had much to celebrate recently. The Rockefeller Foundation launched YieldWise, a $130 million initiative to tackle loss between farm and market and demonstrating how the world can halve food loss by 2030. This coincided with the launch of Champions 12.3, a collaboration of 30 executives and ministers united in their dedication to meeting SDG target 12.3.

Stakeholder Collaboration Enables Accelerated Progress in APP's Peatland Management Efforts

On Thursday, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) released a progress report on its Forest Conservation Policy (FCP), which involves four main corporate commitments that have regulated the company’s resource development since 2013. APP claims to have accelerated progress in its peatland restoration work and strengthened fire prevention measures, in addition to promises to provide funding for additional conservation projects this year.

The Role of the Representative Product in Product Environmental Footprinting

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) approach is a game-changing initiative in LCA, with effects and ramifications that we are only just beginning to understand. Today in PRé’s PEF series: What is a European representative product? And how do these products play a crucial role in the development of specific rules for product environmental footprinting of the various product groups?

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Vote to Allocate Part of €1M Global Change Award to Your Favorite Circular Textile Innovation

Cross-Posted from Chemistry, Materials & Packaging. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the US alone generates an estimated 24 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste (PCTW), which ends up in landfills each year — the equivalent of about 70 pounds of textiles per person.

Barbie Breaks Out of Blonde, Blue-Eyed Box with Range of New Shapes, Sizes, Skin Tones

“It’s kind of cool to have people look different,” a young girl says, with two dolls in her hands. One is blonde and blue-eyed, the other has darker tones – and both are Barbie.In a bold move from Mattel, Barbie will now be available in 7 different skin tones and 22 eye colors. The most startling change, though, is that she will also have 4 body types: original, petite, tall, and curvy.

Novelis, Unilever, Forum Co-Develop Tools to Help Ease Shift to Circular Products, Business Models

Following the recent announcement of a €24 billion EU Circular Economy Package, leading sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future has today launched two free tools, developed together with partners Unilever and Novelis, that empower businesses and designers to make decisions that accelerate the shift towards a more circular economy.

Back to the Roots 'Ready to Grow' Thanks to $5M Seed Round

Back to the Roots®, an Oakland, California startup spearheading a movement to reconnect people with food, announced today that it has completed a $5 million strategic seed financing round, led by Tony Robbins’ and Peter Guber’s startup accelerator, Agency of Trillions, along with additional new angel investors. Previous investors — TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie, Annie’s founder John Foraker, and Clif Bar CEO Kevin Cleary — also joined the round.

HPE Living Progress Challenge Calling for Tech Solutions to Address Global Problems

Amidst increasing risks and heightened uncertainty, diverse perspectives are essential to solving the complex problems facing the world today. That is the thinking behind Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)’s Living Progress Challenge, which is asking people from all over the world: What software applications and digital services would you create to improve people’s lives?

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