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.
One World Futbol: Saving Soccer in the Developing World
To prepare for this year's Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) competition, we're catching up with some of our favorite entrepreneurial ventures from competitions past ...
The Circular Economy: Reinventing Business Models for Broad Economic Change
Let’s start with where we are today. The state of the "economy," like the bible or the U.S. constitution, is granted semi-magical powers by most businesses, as if it were carved out of granite, solid and unmoving, never in flux. Yet we all know that the economy — which we'll define here as the system of production and consumption of goods and services within a given region — is ruled by no one, experiences massive upheavals as industries rise and fall, and serves to enrich some people and impoverish others. The economy requires the functioning of natural systems, from the hydrologic cycle to photosynthesis, to function.
The Circular Economy: Driver of Business Model Innovation and Social Good
In this Issue in Focus, guest editor Adam Werbach and the SB editorial team explore the broad range of radical economic and business-model innovations emerging, through which both startups and some of the top global brands are rethinking the future of business and creating new economic, environmental and social benefits.Discussion question:What do you think are the biggest challenges to overcome in the shift toward a circular economy?Join the conversation!
Manufacture New York: A New Sustainable Model for U.S. Fashion Production
Sometimes an industry simply can’t move forward without changing the conversation and embracing more sustainable business models.
Ecofiltro: Quenching Thirst in Guatemala One Family at a Time
To prepare for this year's Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) competition, we're catching up with some of our favorite entrepreneurial ventures from competitions past ...In most of the developed world, few of us give much thought to where our drinking water comes from. When thirsty, we need only to walk to the nearest faucet for an endless supply of fresh, potable water. Studies show the average American household wastes 100,000 to 200,000 gallons of water every year, while 780 million people in developing countries lack access to reliable drinking water — about one in nine people on the planet.
Assembling for Disassembly: Alcoa, Honda Back Automotive Manufacturing Research at OSU
Aluminum company Alcoa is lending its support to a longstanding research partnership between Honda and Ohio State University that could innovate auto manufacturing.
Greyhound Installs Telematics to Increase Fuel Efficiency in 1,775 Buses
Greyhound has begun integrating telematics program DriveCam across its entire fleet to optimize safety performance and increase fuel efficiency.
Biochar Pilot Program Aims for Carbon-Negative Coffee
With more than 2 billion cups consumed each day, coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages. Most consumers of the black liquid hail from industrialized countries — over 90 percent of coffee production occurs in developing countries and out of the bulk of climate change regulations’ reach.
Earthwards: Johnson & Johnson’s Drive Toward a Healthy Future
Sustainability is no longer a fleeting trend. It is becoming a standard practice of companies both large and small, across multiple industries here in the United States and around the world. The health care sector is no different.
Bringing Back the Bike: One Start-Up’s Plan To Forever Change the Commute
To prepare for this year's Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) competition, we're catching up with some of our favorite entrepreneurial ventures from competitions past ...
Data Show Eco-Fashion a Smarter Choice for Conscious Consumers, Brands Alike
According to eMarketer, online apparel and accessories is the fastest growing category of online sales among nine major categories.
How Are Circular Economic Models Driving Innovation and Social Good?
Calling all innovators and implementers! In March 2013, Sustainable Brands will launch a new “Issues in Focus” editorial package, including daily features, interviews and case studies on the circular economy as a driver of business model innovation and social good.The Issue in FocusYou can't get a soy latte these days without hearing the words collaborative consumption, the circular economy, crade-to-cradle or the sharing economy. But how are these quasi-utopian concepts becoming real? What implications could they have for the future of business and the economy?
New Interface Competition Wants Design for Nature Lovers
Modular carpet company Interface launched a new competition this week inviting architects, designers and students to submit visions for how nature can influence the design of a new or existing space, both within built environments or outside.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation Aims To Create $10B of Value by 2015 With New Global Business Alliance
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation today launched the Circular Economy 100 (CE100), a three-year program aimed at bringing together a network of 100 leading companies globally to facilitate development and commitment to new circular economy projects. The CE100 will provide executive education on key themes and emerging trends, share knowledge and new learnings, and identify and develop solutions to common challenges. The objective is that by 2015 participating companies will have triggered circular initiatives that will result in an aggregated economic benefit of $10bn for the businesses involved.
Indigenous Revolutionizes Apparel Industry by Highlighting Social Impacts
Seventeen years ago, Indigenous cofounders Scott Leonard and Matt Reynolds were picking burs out of hand-knit South American sweaters before delivering them to The Nature Company.
Aspirational Consumers Unite Style, Sustainability To Shape Market Trends
Is there such a thing as sustainable consumption? A new study by BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility finds that a majority of consumers across six international markets are seeking to reconcile their desire for shopping and style with responsibility to the environment and society through their purchases.
Unilever Redesigns Aerosol Deodorants For Smaller Environmental Impact
Unilever, the UK’s largest deodorant manufacturer, unveiled a new product design that could make the category significantly more sustainable.
Design Matters, for the Circular Economy
A team from Seymourpowell, one of the UK’s most established design and innovation consultancies, were thrilled to spend an evening in the company of a select group of motivated Design & Technology teachers, at the recent Tunbridge Wells Teardown Lab led by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. It proved a fascinating evening of new insight and practical hands-on learning.
Circular Economy Not 'Silver Bullet' for Resource Crunch, Paper Says
This article first appeared on edie.net on January 28, 2013.Industrial systems based on circular economy models will be constrained by end-of-life material availability, limiting future improvements in process efficiency, scientists claim. A wider materials efficiency framework is required, they argue — one which encompasses not just circular resource flow systems but mitigation options for industrial carbon emissions and consumer demand.
Patagonia Cultivating Sustainable Wool in Namesake Region
Outdoor apparel company Patagonia is working to restore grasslands in its namesake region of Argentina through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Ovis XXI, an Argentine company working to improve the economic, environmental, social and human sustainability of the sheep-based supply chain.
