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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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Unilever, Coke, M&S, BT Launch Digital Platform to Engage Millennials on Our Power to Create Change, 'Collectively'

A coalition of the world’s biggest companies has launched a global digital platform to drive conversation and momentum around sustainability — and to help reach the ever-elusive goal of making sustainable lifestyles the new normal.The idea for Collectively, launched today, emerged from conversations at last year’s World Economic Forum between Unilever, BT Group, The Coca-Cola Company, Marks & Spencer and Carlsberg, around how to engage more effectively with millennials to inspire and accelerate more sustainable ways of living.

Home-Brew Innovators Prove Simple, Plant-Based Remedies Could Revolutionize Skincare

For most people with skin problems, the solution is to try every possible remedy and product out there until they find one that works. But when the alternatives don’t work, some enterprising patients decide to make their own.Anita Redd took matters into her own hands when conventional remedies were no match for her infant son’s eczema — a painful condition causing inflamed and itchy skin. From birth, Kevin suffered from flaky and blistered patches on his body. When doctors recommended putting him on creams and steroids with potential side effects such as stunted growth, infections and hypertension, Redd decided to look elsewhere for alternatives.

Avery Dennison RBIS Opens Innovation Center in Los Angeles

Avery Dennison RBIS, a global provider of apparel branding, labeling, packaging, embellishments and RFID solutions, celebrated the opening of its Los Angeles-based Customer Design and Innovation Center (CDIC), a 15,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in the city’s Arts District.The LA center will offer a collaborative experience for apparel brands with access to deep consumer insights and the latest trend information from Avery Dennison RBIS. The CDIC will also equip the apparel industry with custom embellishment and analysis tools for intelligent, creative and sustainable designs that help communicate the power of their brand.

Startup Setting Out to Make Fashion Industry Transparent, 'Just'

The deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh in April 2013 was a tragic, overdue wake-up call to the fashion industry — not only to take action to ensure the safety of workers throughout their value chains, but also to illustrate the critical need for transparency as far as their operations reach throughout the world.

2014 Tomorrow's Value Rating Calls for Paradigm Shift in How We Do Business

​The Tomorrow’s ValueTM Rating (TVR), published by DNV GL, assesses the sustainability performance of the world’s largest companies, evaluating how well companies understand their risks and opportunities, and how prepared they are to create future business value.For the second year running, Unilever tops the rating, with Intel, Nestlé and Swiss building materials producer Holcim in a three-way tie for second place.

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Barclays Pledges £1bn to Rapidly Growing Green Bonds Sector

On Monday, Barclays reaffirmed its commitment to the Green Bonds sector by announcing it will invest a minimum of £1bn (US$1.64) by November 2015 to form part of its liquid asset buffer — one of the largest such investments by a bank."Every so often, market innovation and social imperatives come together to create something exciting that has the potential to make a real difference,” said Tushar Morzaria, Group Finance Director at Barclays. “The Green Bond sector is a fast-growing and powerful example of this synthesis."

What Does Your Brand Stand For?

As a marketer, your goal is to win fans and keep them. You do that by making a difference. And by showing what moves you. What you stand for. But what is the best way to get to the core of your brand?

Unilever, ad:tech London Offering $50K to Tech Startups That Might Be 'The Next Big Thing'

Unilever has partnered with the ad:tech London initiative and the trade show’s Future Media and Technology Summit. With this new partnership, a range of marketing and media tech startup hopefuls will pitch their ideas to brand, agency and venture capital judges to win the prestigious honor of being named "The Next Big Thing."

European Startup Has Developed Biomimetic Solution for Safe, Antimicrobial Plastics

Parx Plastics, a Dutch-Italian bio-innovator in antibacterial plastic technology, is launching its first ready-to-use Saniconcentrates™ for manufacturers in Europe and the US to safely create self-sanitizing products with an antibacterial property of up to 99 percent within 24 hours*.

Shell Unveils First Soccer Field Powered by Players' Footsteps

Cross-Posted from Cleantech. Shell and Brazilian soccer player Pelé this week showcased a first-of-its-kind soccer field capable of capturing kinetic energy created by players' movement and combining it with nearby solar power to generate renewable electricity.Located in the heart of Morro da Mineira, a Rio de Janeiro favela, the soccer field uses 200 high-tech, underground tiles that capture kinetic energy created by the movement of the players. The energy is then stored and combined with the power generated by solar panels next to the field to convert into renewable electricity for the new floodlights, giving everyone in the favela a safe and secure community space at night.

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One Year In, Plum & Campbell Say Trust, Learning Each Other's Strengths Are Secrets to Successful Marriage

What happens when a publicly traded, 147-year-old global food and beverage institution buys a scrappy, organic baby food startup dedicated to alleviating hunger for children in the US?On the one-year anniversary of Plum Organics’ both becoming a B Corp and being acquired by what CEO & co-founder Neil Grimmer calls “an American icon,” we caught up with Grimmer and Dave Stangis, VP of Public Affairs & Corporate Responsibility at Campbell Soup Company, last week at SOCAP to find out if the mission-driven startup and the multinational corporation are still in the honeymoon phase.

BASF Evaluating Entire Product Portfolio for Sustainability

Cross-Posted from New Metrics. In order to better help its customers align environmental and societal considerations with business success, BASF has developed a new process for steering its portfolio based on sustainability criteria. Launched today, the Sustainable Solution Steering method is used to systematically review and evaluate the sustainability aspects of the approximately 50,000 relevant product applications in the company’s portfolio, which represent sales of €56 billion. The benefit: This externally validated process makes it possible to measure the products’ contribution to sustainability within their various markets and industries and to increase this contribution through targeted steps.

Cura Setting Out to Create Local and Global Impact 'Through Simply Enjoying Coffee'

Cura Coffee Co, a San Diego-based startup, sells a direct-trade, premium organic coffee that directly connects coffee lovers with the farmers who produce it.

General Mills Acquiring Annie's for $820M, Riding Wave of Demand for Authentic, Values-Driven Products

General Mills announced Monday that it will acquire Annie’s, Inc, a leading U.S. producer of branded organic and natural food products with net sales of $204 million in its latest fiscal year (completed March 2014).

Diners in Austin, NYC Going Halfsies to Address Obesity, Food Waste, Hunger

Controlling the size of your portions is a great way to save money, food and unnecessary health problems caused by obesity. Eating out, on the other hand, takes that control away from you — unless you go for a restaurant that’s signed up for Halfsies. Launched at the end of 2012 in Texas and New York, it’s an initiative that lets you donate half of your food before it even gets to the table. Apart from the warm, fuzzy feeling you'll get from giving, your waistline will be thankful as well.

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Datacoup Lets Users Unlock the Value of Their Personal Data for Cash, Insights

Datacoup, “The World’s First Personal Data Marketplace,” launched Thursday, providing a platform for individuals to aggregate, analyze and sell their own personal data. After a successful beta period with over 1,200 active users testing new site features and receiving money for their data, the service is primed to welcome 10,000+ individuals on its waiting list, as well as the general public, to its platform.

CVS Rebrands as CVS Health, Takes Next Steps to Making America Tobacco-Free

CVS Caremark today announced three potentially game-changing developments for its brand and its business. First, the pharmacy chain has changed its corporate name from CVS Caremark to CVS Health, to reflect its broader commitment to healthcare — first illustrated in February by its bold decision to discontinue the sale of all tobacco products.CVS Health encompasses the company’s retail business, which will continue to be called CVS/pharmacy; its pharmacy benefit management business, which is known as CVS/caremark; its walk-in medical clinics, CVS/minuteclinic; and its growing specialty pharmacy business, CVS/specialty.

RSF Launches Search for Next 25 'Social Enterprise Stars' at SOCAP 2014

RSF Social Finance, a San Francisco-based organization that lends money to path-breaking social enterprises, is launching a campaign Sept. 2 to find the Next 25 Social Enterprise Stars (#SocentStars).The campaign, kicking off in concert with SOCAP 2014, the world’s leading conference on impact investing and social enterprise, is designed to attract RSF’s next cohort of extraordinary, mission-driven borrowers. RSF wants to add 25 social enterprise stars to its loan portfolio over the next year.

20 Semi-Finalists Announced for 'Socially Responsible Design's Highest Award'

The Buckminster Fuller Institute has announced the semi-finalists for the 2014 Fuller Challenge. Named "Socially Responsible Design’s Highest Award," the Fuller Challenge invites scientists, designers, architects, activists, entrepreneurs, artists and planners from all over the world to submit their solutions to some of humanity’s most pressing problems. A $100,000 prize is awarded to support the development and implementation of one outstanding strategy.

FedEx May Pay for Millions For Misclassifying Workers

FedEx could be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in drivers’ operating expenses and wages after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a class of 2,300 individuals working for FedEx Ground was misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees.As a result, FedEx may owe its workforce of drivers hundreds of millions of dollars for illegally shifting to them the costs of such things as the FedEx branded trucks, FedEx branded uniforms, and FedEx scanners, as well as missed meal and rest period pay, overtime compensation, and penalties. The case, known as Alexander v. FedEx Ground, covers employees in California from 2000 - 2007.

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