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.
If you doubt the mainstreaming of mindfulness, look no further than a key session at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, called Mindfulness Meditation.It’s a new era, where technology can directly measure and influence our moods, attitudes and behavior, which when woven together into a societal tapestry, could be a Trojan Horse for a more sustainable ethos.
It can be daunting to ramp up a sustainability program. This is especially the case when moving from an operations focus, where most programs start, to successfully leveraging the many opportunities associated with product materials and sourcing, design, and production. Yet companies that take aim at their products and measure, improve, and communicate the environmental and social attributes across the life cycle are able to achieve significant improvements that dwarf those they could realize otherwise.
International fashion brand EILEEN FISHER has announced its new Vision2020 campaign, detailing the strides it plans to take in the next five years to attain 100 percent sustainability in its practices.
Aquaculture has quickly grown from a minor, niche industry into an industrialized and modern one, and sustainability is at the center of many innovations on how to make this arena a long-term and thriving success. Output for food production from aquaculture has surpassed that of wild capture fisheries and today, more than 50 percent of seafood imported into the US is farm-raised. When you couple that with the fact that 90 percent of our seafood is imported from all corners of the world, you begin to realize the enormous role that aquaculture plays in feeding the world.
The financial landscape is rapidly changing thanks to new guests who have recently pulled up a seat at the investment table: Millennials.The generation has come into its own, with well-earned spending and investment power that it wields with great discretion. Millennials are placing their capital differently than previous generations, and they often demand that their investments meet socially progressive criteria. The nation’s first socially networked generation is eager for opportunities that are equally focused on generating returns and strengthening a more responsible bottom line.
Is it really possible for both businesses and the planet to thrive while providing people with the luxury goods and experiences they want?Luxury has always been a key component of international trade. We have historical records and archaeological evidence across several millennia of human history, showing the importance of items such as porcelain, silk, furs, wine, jewellery, fragrances and spices.There is every indication that human demand will continue for the positional goods and experiences that display status and wealth: travel to exotic locations, perfumes with exquisite smells, foods that taste delicious, or objects that look beautiful. But meeting this demand creates a consumption challenge.
In the lead-up to this year’s Sustainable Brands Innovation Open — our competition for startups poised to make scalable, sustainable impacts — we’re catching up with some of our favorite game-changing solutions from past years. This week, we have an update from SBIO 2014 finalist AkwaMag.
Taking a dip in the Hudson River typically is not something New Yorkers would advise — centuries of city sewage discharges have left the river toxic and harmful to human health. Although public policies aimed at cleaning up the Hudson have improved conditions over the past several decades, leftovers from past pollution remain, and new problems are becoming evident.
Levi Strauss and Co. today announced it has saved one billion liters of water since 2011 through its Water<Less™ process, which reduces the water used in garment finishing by up to 96 percent. This announcement coincides with the release of LS&Co.’s new Product Lifecycle Assessment (LCA), an update on the company’s groundbreaking 2007 study on the environmental impact of its products.
JetBlue Airways recently launched its first business mentoring program, called BlueBud (buddies + budding new companies), which will offer small and startup responsible food companies an opportunity to get their businesses off the ground (pun intended) and their products onboard commercial aircraft.BlueBud offers mentorship to small food companies that are creating unique and novel concepts, helping them to connect with a diverse group of customers and maintain responsible practices. Participants will get special access to JetBlue's business leaders, who will offer participants access to the airline's unique product development culture, as well as valuable industry insights.
Ahead of the release of a new heavy duty truck fuel-efficiency standard from the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this spring, a new Union of Concerned Scientists study, released this week, says new fuel efficiency standards for heavy duty trucks should require at least a 40 percent decrease in fuel use, and shows the target is achievable with existing technology and would result in billions of dollars in fuel cost savings.
Single-seat, solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse 2 successfully completed the second leg of its five-month journey around the planet, after touching down in Ahmedabad, India on Tuesday.The journey began successfully after a 13-hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Muscat, Oman. “The flight went really well, everything went as planned,” said a team spokesperson of the first flight. This is but a small step (about 270 miles) on the 20,000-mile journey that will take about 500 hours of flying time. Pilot André Borschberg flew the first leg, while his partner Bertrand Piccard took the second leg.
In the lead-up to this year’s Sustainable Brands Innovation Open — our competition for startups poised to make scalable, sustainable impacts — we’re catching up with some of our favorite game-changing solutions from past years. This week, we have an update from SBIO 2014 finalist and Target Award winner Amazi.
Walmart recently launched its Sustainability Leaders online shop. While I commend the company’s efforts over the past six years to elevate sustainability as an important attribute of products and their manufacturers, I feel that this launch is a bit misplaced. I am sure that it will be successful in terms of awareness and conversions, and I hope that the intent is genuine, but should Walmart even be the creator of the index? How about an independent organization such as the B Lab? How about the brands themselves?
Is your favorite beer helping to fight climate change? The chances just improved as, in the lead-up to Saint Patrick's Day — one of America's favorite excuses to drink beer — New Belgium Brewery, Guinness, Smuttynose Brewing Company and Deschutes Brewery join dozens of brewers in announcing today they’ve signed the Climate Declaration, a business call to action that urges policymakers to seize the economic opportunity of tackling climate change.
Ford Motor Company is expanding its global Ford Smart Mobility plan with a new experiment to study how electric bicycles can work seamlessly with cars and public transport to deliver faster and easier daily commutes and help businesses operating in urban centers.
In the lead-up to this year’s Sustainable Brands Innovation Open — our competition for startups poised to make scalable, sustainable impacts — we’re catching up with some of our favorite game-changing solutions from past years. This week, we have an update from SBIO 2013 finalist Blue Box.
Los Angeles-based fashion brand Reformation is helping to challenge the paradigm of wasteful “fast fashion.” Designed and produced in its factory in downtown LA, Reformation’s limited-edition collections of everything from ready-to-wear staples to bridesmaids dresses, all made with a cheeky attitude and sustainable or reclaimed textiles, are filling the wardrobes of celebrities and fashionistas across the country.
The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran is reportedly leaving his longtime post at the Post to form a new venture — a media company that will produce longform “social-impact" documentaries, with an initial focus on veterans’ issues, in partnership with Starbucks.
The energy shift in the world is now inevitable. To sustain life and livelihoods for 9 billion people by 2050, even if we didn’t count on living well (which we do, of course), we have 35 years to transform the global economy in order to decouple economic growth from high-emissions energy use. Phasing out emissions, especially those from carbon (CO2) - the primary cause of warming today - has to be a priority for business, as well as governments. There is growing evidence that a pathway to rapidly decarbonising the value chain goes well beyond ESG and reporting – it’s also a pathway to long-term growth, innovation, jobs and value creation.