Hannah Ritchie
AkzoNobel Creates Longer-Lasting, Self-Cleaning Paint
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / AkzoNobel has discovered a way to add self-cleaning properties and extend the life of its paints. Pioneered by one of the company’s product developers, Dr. Peter Greenwood, the company added colloidal silica to its paints and found it gave them this unique quality and durability.“It was actually on an aircraft. I was travelling home after meeting with a customer. Then I came up with the idea that if we add colloidal silica to a paint you can enhance the self-cleaning properties,” Greenwood reflected in the video.Through rigorous testing, AkzoNobel found that the paints now last up to 16 years, which is 25 percent longer than the standard product. - 8 years ago
Clorox Increasing Product Transparency with Mobile App, Ingredient Calculator
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / The Clorox Company — a multinational leading manufacturer of top-selling cleaning and personal care products — has announced the launch of its Clorox Preferred Ingredient Calculator. The company has also expanded its Ingredients Inside program — a mobile app that lists and explains all ingredients of Clorox products to shoppers — to include specific fragrance components.The company says both are aimed at showing consumers what goes into their cleaning and care products so they can make informed purchasing decisions, as well as pushing the company to continue making sustainable ingredient choices. - 8 years ago
Apple's New HQ Could Be 'Greenest Building on the Planet,' CEO Says
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed last week that his company’s new headquarters in Cupertino, California would be the “greenest building on the planet.”Speaking at Climate Week NYC, when asked about Apple’s efforts to reduce its impact throughout its supply chain, CEO Tim Cook reportedly said: “We’re building a new headquarters that will, I think, be the greenest building on the planet. It’ll be a center for innovation, and it’s something clearly our employees want and we want. Apple at its roots has a very core value of leaving the world a better place than we found it.” - 8 years ago
Home-Brew Innovators Prove Simple, Plant-Based Remedies Could Revolutionize Skincare
Product, Service & Design Innovation / For most people with skin problems, the solution is to try every possible remedy and product out there until they find one that works. But when the alternatives don’t work, some enterprising patients decide to make their own.Anita Redd took matters into her own hands when conventional remedies were no match for her infant son’s eczema — a painful condition causing inflamed and itchy skin. From birth, Kevin suffered from flaky and blistered patches on his body. When doctors recommended putting him on creams and steroids with potential side effects such as stunted growth, infections and hypertension, Redd decided to look elsewhere for alternatives. - 8 years ago
MSC to Enact More Rigorous Standard for Sustainable Fisheries
Supply Chain / The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has launched an updated version of its sustainable fishing standards, to come into effect on April 1, 2015.Developed over the past two years, Version 2.0 of the MSC’s Fisheries Certification Requirements incorporates the latest knowledge and understanding of the science and management behind sustainable fisheries and aquatic environments. The year-long consulting stage of the project involved input from experts and stakeholders worldwide, including fishing industry scientists, NGOs and MSC’s partners. - 8 years ago
Leading Up to Fair Trade Month, Keurig Green Mountain Ramping Up Efforts to Develop Resilient Supply Chains
Supply Chain / With Fair Trade Month beginning tomorrow, Keurig Green Mountain Inc. (KGM), formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, has revealed its strategy for building a more resilient supply chain. By continuing its support of fair trade, the company is aiming to build lasting relationships with its suppliers, and help communities become more robust in tackling climate-driven issues that could impact their supplies over the coming decades. - 8 years ago
Congo, Wildlife Works Unveil Program to Protect 9M Hectares from Deforestation
Collaboration / With eyes on New York last week as leaders gathered for the UN Climate Summit, a pivotal REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) program has been launched to protect forests in the Congo Basin and promote the inherent value of natural standing forests around the world. - 8 years ago
NYC Commits to Reduce Emissions 80% by 2050
Organizational Change / In the spirit of this week, which has seen global leaders convening in New York City for the UN Climate Summit and more than 400,000 citizens filling the City’s streets for the People’s Climate March, NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio has committed to reducing the City’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by a whopping 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels with plans to renovate its public and private buildings. - 8 years ago
Protest Prompts 8 Major Fashion Retailers to Support Wage Increase for Cambodian Workers
Organizational Change / Thousands of workers took to the streets of Phnom Penh, in Cambodia, last week to protest for a near-doubling of the minimum wage for retailer workers there to US$177 (£110) a month. It seems their calls for fairer pay have sparked a response from the fashion industry, as eight leading retailers have now pledged to pay more for clothes produced there, according to the Guardian. - 8 years ago
Unilever, ad:tech London Offering $50K to Tech Startups That Might Be 'The Next Big Thing'
Product, Service & Design Innovation / Unilever has partnered with the ad:tech London initiative and the trade show’s Future Media and Technology Summit. With this new partnership, a range of marketing and media tech startup hopefuls will pitch their ideas to brand, agency and venture capital judges to win the prestigious honor of being named "The Next Big Thing." - 8 years ago
DJSI Reveals Its 2014 Global Leaders in Corporate Sustainability
Leadership / Demonstrating a lead in corporate sustainability has become increasingly important to both businesses and their customers in recent years, as has receiving plaudits for their efforts. This week, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) released their 15th annual choices for the world’s leading companies, what many consider an important acknowledgment of their progress in this area. - 8 years ago
Honest Tea Refreshes Its Product & Packaging to Better Communicate Its Mission, Values
Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / Honest Tea, the US’s top-selling organic bottled tea brand, is giving its glass-bottled line a makeover in an attempt to more fully encapsulate its overall values and mission.“Our glass-bottled line continues to be the top- selling bottled tea in the natural channel, and even as we’re having one of our best sales years to date, we felt now was the time to double-down on our mission,” said co-founder & TeaEO, Seth Goldman.The beverage company says it is refreshing four aspects of its product: - 8 years ago
Coke Teams Up with Nestlé, Tesco and More in Latest Push to Improve Consumer Recycling Habits
Waste Not / Plastic has in recent years become one of the top materials households know they should be recycling — but there’s often confusion about what’s recyclable and which material goes into which bin. - 8 years ago
H&M, Swedfund Team Up to Drive Sustainability in Ethiopian Textile Industry
Collaboration / H&M has teamed up with Swedfund, a Swedish company that offers expertise and financial support to emerging markets within Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, in a rare collaboration to try to develop a more ethical Ethiopian textile industry. The main goal of the coupled effort, to be launched this fall, is to promote both high social and environmental standards in an industry which is characteristically plagued with a poor ethical standing.The possibility of a collaboration was brought to light following initial talks between the two companies, before culminating in a joint trip to examine factory conditions in Ethiopia in May. - 8 years ago
Perdue Foods Sets New Standard for Antibiotic-Free Chicken
Supply Chain / Last week, Perdue Foods announced that it has discontinued the use of antibiotics at all of its chicken hatcheries, another step in setting a standard that defines the responsible use of antibiotics in poultry production. While the company, with farms based in Salisbury, Maryland, says it has not used antibiotics for growth promotion in its poultry since 2007, it does use an animal-only antibiotic to control an intestinal parasite, and to treat and control illness within unhealthy flocks. - 8 years ago
Apple Voted 'Greenest Gadget' Company in New Greenpeace Report
Cleantech / Apple has topped the electronics sector in addressing its environmental footprint, according to a new report released by Greenpeace. In the same week that Berlin will gather some of the world’s biggest technology companies for its IFA 2014 technology show, Greenpeace has released a new report, Green Gadgets: Designing the future, evaluating which of these products wins the award for having the lowest environmental impact. - 8 years ago
Could Marketing Fresh Produce Like Junk Food Get Kids Eating More Fruits and Vegetables?
Behavior Change / Getting kids to eat more fruit and vegetables has long been a challenge that, despite their best efforts, many parents struggle to win. It’s not just parents — it appears that no one, including schools, retailers and health experts, has managed to crack it. Despite all the drive towards healthy eating, fruit and vegetable consumption still falls well short of the recommended amount, with Americans only eating, on average, one portion of fruit and 1-2 portions of vegetables a day. - 8 years ago
Macallan Distillery Cleans Up Its Act with £74M Clean Energy Investment
Cleantech / The Macallan, one of the world’s most famous whisky distilleries, has launched a new £74m clean energy project at its facility in Speyside, Scotland, which is expected to produce enough energy to heat the plant as well as power 20,000 local homes.The project was launched in a collaboration between John Laing and the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB). The new plant, developed by Estover Energy, is a biomass combined heat and power facility. According to GIB, the plant will be fuelled with sustainable forestry by-product sourced locally from one of the UK’s most productive forestry areas. - 8 years ago
Cradle to Cradle Marketplace First Online Store Dedicated to Circular Economy Products
Product, Service & Design Innovation / The concept of a circular economy has been on the fringes of market development for a while now, but a boost could come from the recent launch of the Cradle to Cradle Marketplace, the first online store to support the circular economy, selling only C2C-certified products (products in which their full life-cycle has been taken into account). - 8 years ago
Al Gore Inviting Youth to Challenge World Leaders on Climate Change
The Next Economy / The voices of the world’s younger generation — who potentially have the most to lose from climate change — have predominantly been left unheard in the whole debate about how (or if) to deal with it. Former Vice President Al Gore hopes to change that, however, with the launch of a new campaign offering young people the opportunity to have their say when the world’s leaders meet in New York next month for the UN Climate Summit. - 8 years ago