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.
Trending: The Future of Sustainable Food Is the Stuff of Science Fiction
(1 year ago) - Organic agriculture is likely one of the first things that come to mind when considering a sustainable food future, but emerging news would suggest that it is the laboratory — not the fields — where the sustainable food revolution is taking form.
Trending: European Automakers Roll Out Retrofits to Drive Down Diesel Emissions
(1 year ago) - As the environmental impact of the internal combustion engine — particularly those powered by diesel fuel – begins to rear its ugly head, governments across the globe are cracking down on automakers to address critical air pollution problems, curb emissions and mitigate climate change.
Plug and Play Accelerators Advance Sustainable Energy, Fashion
(1 year ago) - 2017 has been a busy year for global innovation platform Plug and Play.
MIT Climate CoLab Offering $10K for Solutions for Energy, Emissions, Shifting Climate Change Attitudes
(1 year ago) - While nearly every country in the world – along with many companies, cities, regions and other organizations – has outlined goals for addressing climate change, there is still much work to be done to create the detailed implementation plans to actually achieve these goals.
Trending: New Circular Solutions Aim to Eliminate Waste from Kids' Clothing
(1 year ago) - When it comes to sustainable fashion, the contribution of children’s clothing to the textile waste problem is often overlooked. While the sector represents only 12 percent of overall market share, it constitutes a considerable portion of the 26 billion pounds of textiles entering landfills each year. Children themselves embody the fast fashion model, with their rapid growth rate requiring a constant flow of new clothing to keep up with lengthening limbs and expanding feet.
UNDP Report Reveals How Investment in Innovation is Helping Achieve SDGs
(1 year ago) - Innovation and emerging technologies are increasingly changing how international organizations are investing to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) says a new report published by the UN Development Program (UNDP) Innovation Facility.
Reporting 3.0 Launches New Business Models Blueprint, Seeks More 'Positive Mavericks'
(1 year ago) - This is part four of a four-part series on themes explored at the 4th International Reporting 3.0 Conference. Read parts one, two and three.
Tired of Waste: How Hankook Is Working to Disrupt the Tire Industry
(1 year ago) - For every single car that eats fossil fuels and emits greenhouse gases (GHGs), there are four tires propelling it down the road. Car owners know buying tires eats away at their pocketbook, but tires do more than just consume cash. The manufacture, distribution and disposal of tires contributes to pollution, and consumes rubber trees. Tire manufacturing depletes 70 percent of the world’s natural rubber. Natural rubber comes from Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber tree; 93 percent of the trees are grown in Asia, which increasingly needs rubber trees to preserve rainforests.
5 Climate Change Solutions Advance to Biomimicry Accelerator
(1 year ago) - Nature-inspired solutions designed to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems continue to gain steam as five teams of entrepreneurs from around the world vie for the top prize at the 2017 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge.
What Archimedes Can Teach Us About Sustainable Innovation
(1 year ago) - If we could transport ourselves to Sicily about 2,250 years ago, we might get there just in time to hear Archimedes famously say, “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I shall move the world.” He couldn’t have imagined, almost 23 centuries down the road, how urgently we would need to pull every lever available to save the health of that world and its inhabitants.
Dell, HP, Fairphone Top Greenpeace Ranking on Product Repairability
(1 year ago) - Greenpeace East Asia has released a new IT product guide ranking tech giants according to iFixit’s repairability score. Seventeen IT brands were represented in the study and over 40 best-selling smartphones, tablets and laptops launched between 2015 and 2017 were assessed.
IKEA Bootcamp Giving US Startups 'Head Start' Into Incubator Program
(1 year ago) - Late last month, IKEA and entrepreneurial cooperative Rainmaking announced the launch of a new startup accelerator, IKEA Bootcamp, which will run from September 18 until December 8, 2017. The program will see startups create solutions for three challenges outlined by IKEA: creating products that are affordable, accessible and have positive impact on both people and planet.
Nestlé Lends Expertise to Terra Startup Accelerator to Shape Future of Food, Agriculture Industries
(1 year ago) - Expanding its commitment to innovation in the food industry, Nestlé has teamed up with Rabobank and Rocketspace to support startups through the Terra Food + Agtech Accelerator Program. The food giant will collaborate with Terra to select and coach the most forward-thinking and disruptive startups in the food and agricultural industries.
Trending: Pee-Powered Fuel Cells, Flexible Storage Revolutionize Renewables
(1 year ago) - Big news has emerged on the energy front, with a major application of a technology that harnesses the power of pee to generate electricity and new debate about the need for energy storage. The University of the West of England’s Bristol Bioenergy Centre (BBiC) is appealing to festival goers’ senses of humor to power this year’s Glastonbury Festival. The Centre’s signature Pee Power urinals have been installed across the festival grounds equipped with a revolutionary technology that transforms urine into electricity.
5th C2C Design Challenge Winners Reimagine Apparel, Furnishings, Personal Care Items
(1 year ago) - The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has announced the winners of the 5th Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge, including MyEcoWall, a mobile acoustic wall made from Ecovative mushroom material and Scout, a children’s jacket that “grows” with the child. The Challenge is the fifth in an initial series of six circular design challenges that incentivize and inspire the design community to envision viable product design solutions for the circular economy using Cradle to Cradle product design principles.
Trending: Circular Economy Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
(1 year ago) - Not all circular news is good news. As a new startup accelerator launches to drive forward sustainable solutions to everyday challenges, a prominent defender of the circular cause lands himself a spot in federal prison for copyright infringement. The UK’s first-ever sustainability accelerator fund — the cleverly named Sustainable Accelerator — has been met by enthusiastic reception, successfully raising over £700,000 through crowding.
Are You JUST? The Benefits of Being a Practice-Centered Business
(1 year ago) - I still clearly recall a professional practice class in architecture school that made the distinction between two types of architecture firms: the Business-Centered Practice and the Practice-Centered Business. In my view, the former was a business that simply happened to practice architecture, while the latter existed to practice architecture and simply happened to function as a business.
UNESCO MAB Recognizes 7 Young Scientists for Work on Ecosystems, Natural Resources, Biodiversity
(1 year ago) - The International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program has named the recipients of its 2017 Young Scientists Awards and the Michel Batisse Award for Biosphere Reserve Management.
Interface Unveils World's First Carbon-Negative Carpet Tile
(1 year ago) - Carpet manufacturer Interface has uncovered a new way to mitigate the negative impact of carpet production — a process that traditionally relies on petroleum-based fibers and adhesives and chemical dyes. Putting its Climate Take Back mission into action, the company has developed Proof Positive, a first-of-its-kind carbon negative carpet tile.
10 U.S. Inventors Named Finalists in First Global Showcase for Hardware-Led Social Innovation
(1 year ago) - The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the world’s largest organization for mechanical engineers, has announced the finalists of the 2017 ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW), the first international competition for hardware-led social innovation.