Hannah Furlong
Editorial Assistant
Sustainable Brands
Trending: Consumers Want Fewer Phones, More E-Waste Recycling
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Each year, a new wave of computers, smartphones and accessories spill onto the market with smaller components made from increasingly complex materials. Even as awareness of e-waste has grown and the circular economy has begun to spread its wings, progress is being undermined by a disposable culture in the tech industry. - 7 years ago
Trending: Entries Open for Circulars Awards; New Toolkit Helps Businesses Shift Models
Product, Service & Design Innovation / With the potential to change how businesses think about their waste, circular economy models could be an effective means of emissions reduction towards the commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement in addition to economic benefits, waste reduction, and reduced consumption of virgin materials. - 7 years ago
RSPO Recertifies IOI Group, But NGOs Have Yet to See ‘Real Action on the Ground’
Supply Chain / Less than five months after the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) suspended Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Group’s certification, that suspension has been lifted – much to the dismay of NGO campaigners. While the RSPO’s Complaints Panel has said it is “satisfied that IOI has met the conditions set out in its letter to IOI,” Greenpeace Indonesia and the Center for International Policy says they have yet to see any real action on the ground. - 7 years ago
Remade in the USA: Latest EILEEN FISHER Collection Closes Clothing Loop
The Next Economy / As cool as it is to know a jacket was made with recycled plastic bottles – or even bio-textiles made from cow dung or kombucha – changing the raw materials is only one of the ways to reduce the environmental impact of apparel and footwear. - 7 years ago
Health Charities Campaigning to Ban All Food, Drink Advertising to Kids in Canada
Marketing and Comms / Canadian health charities are teaming up to battle the problem of childhood obesity in a way that the food and beverage industry is not going to like. More than ten organizations have joined the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition, including some of Canada’s largest and most influential health charities, to campaign against advertising junk food to children. And to avoid the risk of unhealthy products pretending to be healthy – they’re pushing for a complete ban on all food and beverage advertising aimed at people age 16 and younger. - 7 years ago
Trending: Cow Dung, Kombucha Bio-Textiles Bring ‘Trashion’ to a Whole New Level
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / You may have heard the term ‘trashion’ in reference to clothing made out of trash, an art form that has grown over the past few years among students, artists and fashionistas alike with passions for both style and the environment. Well, these two new “bio-textiles” give “waste fashion” a new meaning. - 7 years ago
‘Better Food for More People:’ Chobani Incubator Seeking Purpose-Driven Food Startups
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Roughly a decade ago, Hamdi Ulukaya was just beginning his journey to popularize Greek yogurt in the United States as a healthier alternative to the sugar-loaded, artificial preservatives-filled cups and tubes of yogurt Americans were consuming. After 18 months of studying and recipe-testing, he launched Chobani in 2007. Now, the company is worth somewhere between $3 and 5 billion, and Greek yogurt makes up about half of the American yogurt market. - 7 years ago
AkzoNobel, Seymourpowell, Newlife Collaboration Creates Circular Economy for Paint
The Next Economy / Until now, recycling paint has been a laborious, costly process, leading to huge amount of unused paint going to waste and ending up in landfills. Thanks to a collaboration between Dulux-owner AkzoNobel, design and innovation company Seymourpowell, and Newlife Paints, recycling paint may finally be able to become ‘mainstream.’ - 7 years ago
Are Your Retirement Funds Destroying Rainforests? This New Web Tool Can Tell You
Cleantech / For the eco-conscious American, it may seem counterintuitive to invest in companies notorious for deforestation. Unfortunately, they may be unknowingly supporting such corporations through their retirement funds. “When Americans put their hard-earned money in savings and retirement accounts, they believe they are preparing for a better future. But large asset managers undermine that very future, globally speaking, by putting this money into destructive agribusiness firms, generally through complex investment chains and failures in due diligence,” said Jeff Conant, the senior international forests program manager at Friends of the Earth. - 7 years ago
We’re One Step Closer to Transparent Windows That Can Generate Solar Power
Product, Service & Design Innovation / This week, SolarWindow Technologies, Inc. announced an ‘invisible’ system for transporting electricity within the company’s transparent organic coatings, which are applied in thin layers onto glass surfaces. The SolarWindow™ Intra-Connection System moves electricity generated in the coating to ‘invisible wires,’ which in turn transport electricity to the edge of the glass and connect to building electrical systems. - 7 years ago
Musk Envisions Tesla at Center of Sustainable Energy, Urban Transit, Sharing Economy
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Billionaire industrialist Elon Musk is doubling-down on the ambitious vision he laid out in August 2006. In a blog post, Musk recently revealed his “Master Plan, Part Deux,” which extends beyond a corporate strategy for his electric car company Tesla, covering the breadth of the sustainable energy chain from generation and storage, to electrification of several types of vehicles, to the sharing economy. - 7 years ago
Would You Swipe Right for a Monkey? The Body Shop Trials ‘Gorilla’ Marketing on Tinder
Marketing and Comms / This month, Canadians may have noticed that The Body Shop has been monkeying around on the dating app Tinder. The brand has created a profile for Reggie, a Red Shanked Douc monkey from Vietnam, as part of a new ‘gorilla’ marketing initiative to promote its new Bio-Bridges program. Since it was announced in May, the program has been promoted through the ‘Help Reggie Find Love’ campaign, online and in-stores. The playful campaign is intended to raise awareness around the challenges that monkeys and other endangered species face in living safely and finding a mate. - 7 years ago
Trending: Why the Brits Continue to Lead in Reducing Food, Beverage Waste
Waste Not / In this week's roundup, UK-based organizations continue to lead the charge against food and beverage-related waste. First, grocery giant Asda has revealed the results of a customer-focused behavior change campaign; Frugalpac launched a new hot beverage cup that is made from recycled paper and can be recycled in any normal paper or cardboard facility; and egg processing plant Just Egg found a way to redirect its eggshell waste. - 7 years ago
Calling All Food Waste Fighters: New Funding for Closed-Loop Solutions
The Next Economy / The Closed Loop Foundation (CL Foundation) has announced a new grant and loan opportunity for food waste solutions that are applicable in the United States. Hoping to unlock food waste diversion and reduction at scale, the CL Foundation launched a ‘Food Waste Solution Search,’ open to submissions for all types of solutions to the food waste challenge, from field to end-of-life. - 7 years ago
Natural Capital Protocol Promises to ‘Revolutionize’ Business Value, Decision-Making
New Metrics / Two years in the making, the first global Natural Capital Protocol was launched today. The standardized framework brings together and builds on a number of approaches that already exist to help business measure and value natural capital. The Natural Capital Coalition suggests that by harmonizing these existing approaches, businesses everywhere can benefit from understanding their relationships with nature. - 7 years ago
Greenpeace Reveals Brands Stumbling on the Catwalk to Toxin-Free Fashion
Supply Chain / Since the “Detox My Fashion” campaign launched in 2011, 76 fashion brands, retailers and suppliers have committed to remove toxic chemicals from their supply chains by 2020, accounting for a combined 15 percent of global textile production. - 7 years ago
Chipotle Hopes to Reassure Customers with ‘A Love Story’
Marketing and Comms / Will the power of love help Chipotle recover from its food safety woes, defecting customers and still-struggling stock price? The fast casual restaurant chain has once again produced an original animated short film in an attempt to advocate for fresh, unprocessed ingredients and ‘cultivating a better world.’ - 7 years ago
Mr Potato Head Helps Hasbro, Asda Raise Awareness of Wonky Veg, Food Waste
Marketing and Comms / Mr. Potato Head was first manufactured back in 1952 as a bundle of plastic parts and pushpins, the idea being that you would stick them into a real potato that would serve as the toy’s head. The first toy ever advertised on television, Mr. Potato Head would rely on root vegetables from family kitchens until 1964, when rotting vegetables were replaced with everlasting plastic shells. Despite the strange practice of storing spare face parts in his butt, Mr. Potato Head has remained a childhood favorite, now marketed under the Playskool brand owned by toy giant Hasbro. - 7 years ago
Shell Launches Digital Tool to ‘Springboard’ … Low-Carbon Startups?
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the low-carbon, clean energy and sustainability sectors can now use a handy interactive online tool to identify funding opportunities most relevant to their sector, development stage and financial requirements. The Access to Finance Navigator was recently launched by none other than energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, building on the company’s existing funding and awards offerings. - 7 years ago
How SABMiller Is Furthering the SDGs to Help the World ‘Prosper’
Product, Service & Design Innovation / International brewing company SABMiller released its 2016 Sustainable Development Report this week, detailing cuts to environmental impacts and updates to its ‘Prosper’ sustainability ambition to align more closely with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). - 7 years ago