Hannah Furlong
Editorial Assistant
Sustainable Brands
Forget Saving the Date, These Smarter Labels Will Save the Food
Waste Not / Confusion around food labels and expiry dates results in millions of tons of food waste each year, estimated to cost consumers $29 billion in the United States (US) and nearly £0.6 billion in the United Kingdom (UK). While many people throw away food because they perceive a safety risk, most date labels are not designed to indicate safety. Rather, “sell by” dates provide instructions for retail staff, “best before” refers to quality, and “use by” is related to safety. - 6 years ago
Businesses Urge Paris Agreement Ratification, UK Affirms Commitments at Business & Climate Summit
Leadership / Business and political leaders convened in London on June 28 and 29 for the second annual Business & Climate Summit, where they called for the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement without further delay, as well as more collaboration between businesses and governments in order to achieve global policy frameworks conducive to long-term, climate-resilient, low carbon investments. - 6 years ago
New Brand Seeks to Disrupt Luxury Fashion with Full Transparency – Even on the Price Tag
Product, Service & Design Innovation / New fashion brand Oliver Cabell is “seeking to disrupt the luxury fashion business” with an unmatched level of transparency around its products. Exclusively available online, each product’s page on the company’s website details where the item was made and the costs that went into it, including the brand’s mark-up. - 6 years ago
Study Shows Circular Economy Should Be ‘Key Instrument’ in Climate Strategy
The Next Economy / This month, countries are beginning to formally ratify commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, and Environment Ministers from across Europe met to finalize the approval of the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan. - 6 years ago
Timberland to Restore and Create Green Spaces in 5 Cities Over Next 5 Years
Product, Service & Design Innovation / This week, outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland announced a goal to double its footprint in five U.S. cities by 2020 in an unexpected, unique way. Each year for the next five years, the brand will match its retail floor space with the creation or restoration of an equivalent amount of green space in a different city with a Timberland store, beginning with New York City. The next four cities will be revealed later this year, with projects ranging from walking trails to community gardens to city parks. - 6 years ago
Trending: Food Waste Improvement Still Needed; Washing, Circular Solutions Here to Help
Waste Not / Increasing prevention of food waste could save grocery retailers and food manufacturers in the United Kingdom £300 million a year, according to a recent analysis by the waste reduction experts at WRAP, but the task is easier said than done. - 6 years ago
Trending: Chemical Plant, Nutrient Recovery Facility Bring Circular Economy One Step Closer
The Next Economy / Two new industrial facilities that will bring the circular economy one step closer were officially opened in Europe on Friday: a carbon dioxide-based chemical plant in Germany and a nutrient recovery facility in the Netherlands. The transition from a linear take-make-waste economy to one which keeps materials ‘circulating’ for as long as possible (or, ideally, indefinitely) has been an international priority in the continent. - 6 years ago
The Body Shop Is Using the Future-Fit Business Benchmark to 'Enrich Not Exploit' - and You Can, Too
New Metrics / We have entered a new era: the Anthropocene, an era characterized by humans as the dominant influence on climate and the environment. We are causing changes at such an unprecedented rate that it has been called ‘the Great Acceleration.’ We are well on our way to exceeding planetary boundaries, and while science has established some understanding of this, it is still rather abstract for us in our daily lives and in our business planning. - 6 years ago
#BusinessCase: How Dell Saved $39.5M, Slashed Emissions, Increased Sustainable Materials by 20%
Organizational Change / Today, Dell unveiled the significant progress it has made against the 21 goals under its 2020 Legacy of Good Plan. Based on a baseline of its Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13) performance, the company aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its facilities and logistics by 50 percent, ensure 100 percent of product packaging is sourced from sustainable materials and is either recyclable or compostable, identify and quantify the environmental benefits of IT-based solutions, and much more. - 6 years ago
Trending: Flexible Plastic Pouches, Coffee Cups (Finally) Ready for Recycling
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / Earlier this year, Chef-turned-waste-activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall drew attention to the huge problem of coffee cup waste. He claimed that in the U.K., less than 6 million takeaway hot beverage cups are recycled each year, while 7 million are thrown out each day, and specifically called on Starbucks and Costa to be more transparent about their cups. - 6 years ago
New Doc Shows Struggles of Asian Garment Workers, Demands ‘Living Wage Now’
Marketing and Comms / Struggling to cover basic expenses such as food, housing and education, the roughly 40 million garment workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and other parts of Asia regularly risk physical violence, sexual harassment, starvation, and even death for the sake of cheap clothing. - 6 years ago
Of Top Cotton Users, Over 75% ‘Appear to Do Virtually Nothing’ on Cotton Sustainability
Supply Chain / More sustainable cotton has become more widely available thanks to collaborations such as the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and other programs focused on minimizing the use of highly hazardous pesticides, improving working conditions, addressing biodiversity issues, and reducing water consumption in cotton agriculture. - 6 years ago
New Track and Trace Tool Enables Transparent, Circular Supply Chains
Cleantech / A new cloud-based platform for supply chain management promises to enhance transparency and help producers transition to circular models, starting with the apparel industry. In collaboration with software provider Improvement IT, Netherlands-based Dutch Awearness has launched an online software tool called the Circular Content Management System (CCMS) to help track and trace garments and their materials. - 6 years ago
Whole Systems Mapping: How to Design for Innovation and Achieve Sustainability Goals
Product, Service & Design Innovation / The room was buzzing during design strategist Jeremy Faludi’s Monday afternoon workshop, Whole Systems Mapping: Driving Innovation and Sustainability Through Prioritized Ideation and Value Chain Maps. Despite a sunny waterfront view, participants were engrossed in the activities in front of them as the interactive session guided them through various brainstorming and design processes. - 7 years ago
Get Gritty: Building Personal Resilience for More Successful Leadership
Leadership / In her Monday morning workshop at Sustainable Brands’16 San Diego, psychologist Laura Delizonna, PhD, provided an introduction to positive psychology, how it fosters success, and how it can be leveraged in the workplace. “Positive emotions help us broaden our vision, build resources, and grow as individuals,” Delizonna explained. Practicing mindfulness and building emotional intelligence, she added, have been proven to boost memory, ability to collaborate, and altruism. - 7 years ago
Trending: Packaging Innovations that Inspire Reuse, Replace Plastic, Save Wildlife
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / Zappos is challenging consumers to “literally think outside the box.” For its new #ImNotABox campaign, the online retailer will be shipping a number of shoes in a limited-edition boxes that encourage recipients to reuse them in new, inventive ways. The company designed the boxes to feature a number of creative uses for their cardboard, including a smartphone holder, a children’s shoe sizer, a small geometric planter or storage bin, and a three-dimensional llama. - 7 years ago
Hershey, Lindt, Mars, Nestlé Join New Program to Help Cocoa Farmers Adapt to Climate Change
Collaboration / Cacao beans grow best in the places where chocolate would melt in your hands, but over the next several decades, many of those environments may grow warmer, drier, and less suitable for its cultivation. While cacao can be grown in warmer places than coffee, cacao thrives in humid environments. As temperatures rise, so will evaporation, and projections suggest that there will not be enough increased rainfall to offset the moisture loss. - 7 years ago
RAN Finds Japanese Companies Misreporting Sustainability, Linked to Deforestation
Supply Chain / NGO Rainforest Action Network (RAN) claims it has found many Japanese companies are either “systematically misreporting compliance” under Japan’s Corporate Governance Code, or have a “fundamental lack of understanding as to what constitutes meaningful sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement.” - 7 years ago
MIT Researchers Look to Bones, Sea Sponges as Blueprints for Stronger Concrete
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have proposed a new bio-inspired, “bottom-up” approach for designing cement paste – concrete’s binding ingredient. Led by Oral Buyukozturk, a professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), the team compared cement paste to natural materials such as bones, deep sea sponges, and nacre, an inner shell layer of mollusks. - 7 years ago
London, NYC Ranked Most Global Cities; San Francisco, Boston Among Most Innovative
Leadership / For the first time since A.T. Kearney’s first Global Cities Index in 2008, London overtook New York City to claim the top spot. London has steadily improved its performance in the 27 metrics across the five evaluated dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.1 While New York continued to lead in business activity and human capital, London was able to close the gap due to its leading position in cultural experience and increased political engagement. Paris ranked third and was the leader in the information exchange dimension. - 7 years ago