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.
13 ventures have been announced as the recipients of $12.9 million in funding from the Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development (PAEGC) program.
Today, Procter & Gamble released its 17th annual sustainability report, which details the progress it is making to reduce its environmental footprint and improve social conditions for those in need.The report reinforces the Company’s commitment to operating sustainably and details progress against its long-term vision of producing products that consumers love while maximizing conservation of resources, powering all its plants with 100 percent renewable energy, using 100 percent renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging and having zero consumer and manufacturing waste go to landfill.
The dust may have settled on Sustainable Brands ‘15 London, yet its impacts continue to ripple. Hannah Ritchie’s blog provided excellent coverage of our ‘Future Concepts’ workshop that invited attendees to innovate with us on the day. Yet the session was about more than just a clever process so we wanted to share the results with you, too.We believe that innovation is a crucial yet under-utilised strategy for responsible brand leaders, so our workshop aimed to push more brands along a sustainable innovation path, showing them that this is possible and beneficial.
Humanity has a major math problem: Its population is growing, global demand for new products is swelling and the waste is mounting — all while natural resources and space remain constant. I’m no math wiz, but it seems like this isn’t the most sustainable of equations.Rather than working to balance each variable of the equation, many are working to rewrite it altogether by eliminating the very concept of “waste” through circular economic thinking. This involves recycling, but also taking it a step further, to upcycling.
Construction machinery and equipment giant Caterpillar recently hosted the first major national summit on infrastructure restoration, with the clarion call that investing in nature is smart business. In the room was Matt Arnold, Global Head of Social and Sustainable Finance at JPMorgan Chase. Arnold said he was looking for deals and that “smart failure is okay.”
Looking for some ethical fashion options for your holiday shopping, or even your daily life? If you can’t wear a T-shirt to work, you may have the same frustrations that lead Yale School of Management grads Amanda Rinderle and Jonas Clark to co-found Tuckerman & Co..
Today, at the “Parley Talks” at COP21, adidas and Parley for the Oceans showcased their latest footwear concept, the 3D-printed Ocean Plastic shoe midsole, to demonstrate how the industry can rethink design and contribute to stop ocean plastic pollution.
Amidst the bustle of COP21, Indonesian forests have received some pretty good news. After weeks of devastating fires, APRIL Group and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), two of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, have made strong reforestation commitments.
The United Kingdom wastes more food than any other European country; a 2014 House of Lords report estimated 15 million tonnes of food per year are wasted in the UK, at a cost of £5 billion, and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has estimated the average UK household with children spends £700 per year on food that could be eaten but is thrown away.
While so much of our lives have veered toward the digital, many organizations’ operations still rely to some degree on paper. Innovative solutions to help minimize the impact of continued paper use include print-optimization technologies and even more “sustainable” fonts.
My last social post explored how living wage employers benefit from higher productivity levels, lower hiring costs, better brand recognition and increased customer satisfaction. In this article, I focus on the importance of Social Buying, the third of the four core corporate strategies that I explore in more detail in my Social Value Business Guide, which examines why social businesses are more profitable businesses and explains how your company can become a change agent in the local community and a leader in the global marketplace.
Diverting waste from landfills and the innovative reuse of textiles are becoming higher priorities for businesses large and small. From pro baseball teams to grocery stores, partnerships are helping companies send less waste to the dump.
What can we learn about purpose from design? In preparation for launching this series and my consulting business, I decided I needed a bit of a crash course on design. I’ve always been interested in design (particularly interior and visual design), and I’ve always thought of myself as a creative person, but I’ve always felt I lacked the skills to succeed.Well, now at least I know I was mostly lacking the knowledge. Like everything, turns out being a good designer is like most things. First, you learn the basics, then practice, a lot, till you get to the point where you’re good enough to break the rules, then do that.
Reimagine Food, an organization on a mission to create an “ecosystem for the techno-food revolution,” has announced the second edition of its Prometheus accelerator program. Touted as the first disruptive food and tech program in the world, Prometheus will accept startups using emerging technologies to create food sector solutions.
“There was an American comedian 100 years ago that said, ‘If we don’t change direction soon, then we’ll end up where we’re going.’ Where we’re going at the moment is not very pretty.”So said Geoff Kendall, CEO of the Future Fit Foundation, as he opened this breakout session, continuing by explaining that a clear, defined destination is needed for companies to know where they should be headed.“At the start of any journey, the most important step is to understand what the destination is; something that we have been lacking in the sustainability world. That is what the Future Fit Business Benchmark is.”
One the final sessions at SB ’15 London saw Mandar Apte, chemical engineer and program manager of Shell's GameChanger program on social innovation, facilitate an interactive workshop about how to drive social innovation from inside large organisations and how this could empower the employees and create shared value - for business and society.Apte started by demonstrating the power of the relationship economy. He drove home the idea that in this world of open innovation, it is important to build relationships.
The final morning plenary at SB ’15 London brought together a handful of popular household brands with some established and up-and-coming industry innovators, all of which pulled back the curtain on key success factors for bringing sustainability into their business strategy.
Athletics brand adidas will end the use of microbeads in its body care products by January 1, 2016. With the help of its license partner Coty, adidas has outpaced body care industry giants in eliminating the plastic beads from their products.
Apparel brand TOMS, the poster child of the one-for-one business model, is taking its support for fellow purpose-driven businesses to the next level. The newly launched TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund is investing in up-and-coming startups that can make a difference.
Kicking off this Monday morning workshop at SB’15 London was Raphael Bemporad from BBMG. He soon got the room buzzing with his warm welcome and introduction to the topic for the morning’s workshop: market insights related to customer attitudes and behavior.