Hannah Furlong
Editorial Assistant
Sustainable Brands
Europeans Want Cheap, Pesticide-Free Food; Industry Campaign Says It Can’t Be Done
Supply Chain / Do Europeans have unreasonable expectations for the agriculture industry? New poll results suggest that 91 percent of consumers think food should remain affordable, but just 54 percent think that farmers should be able to use pesticides to keep prices down. - 7 years ago
E-Commerce Platforms Powering the Local Food Movement
Product, Service & Design Innovation / The local food movement has thrived in recent years, bolstered by consumers’ growing concerns over what is in their food and where it came from – and startups are jumping at the opportunities it presents. From California to New York, a host of apps and business models are connecting growers, buyers, sellers and eaters. At the same time, many small farmers are still struggling. - 7 years ago
Trending: Beauty, Packaging No Longer Need to Come at the Expense of Our Oceans
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / The ocean’s value has been estimated as high as $24 trillion, yet despite its inherent connections to the health and well-being of wildlife, humans, and the global economy, it continues to be overexploited and polluted. Scientists have estimated that a minimum of 5.25 trillion plastic particles are in the oceans, and some studies suggest that these contaminants can make their way all the way up the food chain. - 7 years ago
Trending: Dutch Designers, L.L. Bean, Savers Revolt Against Waste in Fashion Industry
Waste Not / ‘Fast fashion’ holds a prominent position in the apparel industry despite the many problems associated with it, from labor conditions to clothing waste. In the three years since the tragic Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, the revolt against fast fashion has gathered steam. - 7 years ago
Dannon, Chobani Bucking Business as Usual to Empower Farmers, Employees
Leadership / Two of America’s most well-known yogurt brands are taking unconventional approaches create stronger ties with some of their stakeholders. Dannon is implementing a new supply system that allows the company to engage directly with its milk suppliers as part of an ambitious plan to influence farm practices, and Chobani will be giving its 2,000 full-time employees an ownership stake worth up to 10 percent of the company when it goes public or is sold. - 7 years ago
Framing the Climate Conversation: Researchers Investigate Discourse Across Party Lines
Marketing and Comms / Climate change has slowly become more of a partisan issue over the last few decades, fuelling heated debates despite the scientific consensus (and, quite often, about whether there is in fact a scientific consensus) that human activities are causing climate change. Amidst this tumultuous political landscape, how to communicate effectively about climate issues has become difficult. - 7 years ago
More Entrepreneurs Waging the Food Waste Fight
Waste Not / Campaigns near and far have been educating people on the – well, wastefulness – of food waste. Bad for both our wallets and the environment, the amount of food that is purchased by consumers only to go uneaten and get thrown out is estimated at 16 percent in European Union countries and up to 25 percent in the United States. The average family in the United Kingdom discards £700-worth (over US$1,000) of food a year, while the average American family of four tosses $1,365 to $2,275 per year. - 7 years ago
Unilever, J&J Campaigns Aim to 'End Bottle Bias,' Boost Bathroom Recycling
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / When it comes to in-home recycling habits, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson have found the same thing: Not all packaging is treated equally. Unilever reports that only 14 percent of Americans are recycling their bathroom bottles, while 56 percent of American households recycle kitchen items. Similarly, a recent consumer survey commissioned by Johnson & Johnson found that 34 percent of ‘regular recyclers’ admit that it never even occurred to them to recycle in the bathroom. Each company announced they would be reprising, and building upon, behavior change campaigns to encourage families to recycle, with an emphasis on bathroom product packaging. - 7 years ago
Investors: Apparel Workers in Bangladesh Still at Risk
Supply Chain / This Sunday, April 24th, will mark the third anniversary of the tragic Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, when workplace health and safety failures cost 1,134 people their lives and injured many others. - 7 years ago
Avery Dennison, Evrythng Unleash the ‘Internet of Clothing’ with 10B Smart Apparel Products
Cleantech / A minimum of 10 billion apparel and footwear products are expected to be produced with unique digital identities and data profiles in the cloud over the next three years through a partnership between packaging materials leader Avery Dennison and Internet of Things (IoT) company Evrythng. The companies believe this to be the largest number of IoT-connected products in a single deal, to date. - 7 years ago
Can ‘The Paris Effect’ Take Companies, Governments Beyond Flagship Initiatives?
Cleantech / This Friday, world leaders will convene to sign the Paris Climate Agreement. The international regulatory environment and national policies to curb emissions are reshaping global markets. Decarbonization could define the 21st century economy. But what do these changes mean for businesses? - 7 years ago
World’s First ‘Live Stream’ Billboard PSA Campaign Will Promote Recycling Across the U.S.
Waste Not / One of North America’s largest outdoor advertising companies is partnering with a non-profit on the world’s first-ever live-stream billboard campaign. Lamar Advertising Company is donating the use of hundreds of digital billboards across the United States at no cost to Recycle Across America (RAA) to promote its “Let’s recycle right!” campaign during a live-streamed photo shoot event on April 21, 2016 and throughout Earth Week. - 7 years ago
BMW, Daimler Expand Car-Sharing Services in the U.S.
Product, Service & Design Innovation / German multinational automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler are seeking larger shares of the U.S. urban mobility market. BMW has entered the car-sharing market with the launch of its ReachNow service in Seattle, Wash., while Daimler is merging its route-planning service with a mobile ticketing company to form a North American unit of its mobility services unit, moovel Group. - 7 years ago
‘ASPIREist’ TV Series Showcases Real Solutions, Purpose-Driven Celebrity, Brand Projects
Marketing and Comms / A new “reality feature news show,” ASPIREist, wants to inspire viewers to take action by showcasing people, projects and ideas that are making a difference. Co-hosted by six twenty and thirty-something TED Talk speakers from a variety of fields – environmentalists, activists, social entrepreneurs – the show calls itself “the new newsroom,” one for “today’s generation.” - 7 years ago
Trending: Buildings Inspired by Nature Absorb Pollutants, Collect Water, Keep You Cool
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Nature has inspired all kinds of innovation – from Ford looking at geckos’ sticky toe pads to improve adhesives to Airbus building a stronger, lighter-weight galley partition that mimics cell structure and bone growth. Biomimicry is also influencing building design across industrial, commercial and residential projects. - 7 years ago
3rd Fashion Revolution Will See Activists in 84 Countries Asking Brands #WhoMadeMyClothes
Supply Chain / This year, Fashion Revolution’s annual campaign has expanded into a week-long series of events featuring hundreds of activities, stunts and social experiments across 84 countries worldwide. Throughout Fashion Revolution Week, April 18th to 24th, consumers will demand transparency and raise awareness of exploitation in the fashion supply chain by posting on social media using the hashtag #WhoMadeMyClothes. - 7 years ago
Trending: Waste-Reduction Campaigns, Sharing Best Practices Among Brand, NGO Earth Day Efforts
Marketing and Comms / Every year, April evokes campaigns and initiatives from companies and nonprofits alike in celebration of Earth Day (April 22) or Earth Month. This year, personal care brand Tom’s of Maine has teamed up with upcycling leader TerraCycle on the#LessWasteChallenge, a stakeholder engagement campaign to reduce waste. Consumers are invited to take an online pledge to reduce their household waste by one pound per week. - 7 years ago
Recovery Toolkit, Zero-Waste Grocers Aim to Fight Food Packaging Waste
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / Following the success of grocery stores such as in.gredients in Austin, TX, and day by day in locations across France, other shops focused on eliminating packaging waste from their shelves have been popping up around the world. Opening this year: new locations in Copenhagen, Vancouver, and Brooklyn. - 7 years ago
How to Take the Pain Out of CSR Reporting
New Metrics / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and other forms of sustainability reporting can be a painful process. Whether you’re a one-person sustainability, health and safety manager or your company has staff around the world who share reporting responsibilities, it can be challenging to effectively collect, assess, and communicate your company’s sustainability metrics. - 7 years ago
If 21 Countries Can Reduce Emissions While Growing GDP, It Should Be No Sweat for Companies
The Next Economy / Whether climate stabilization and economic growth can coexist or promote each other is the subject of ongoing debate. Recent analyses by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) add to the evidence that we could indeed have the best of both. - 7 years ago