CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - Amidst the anti-plastic frenzy dominating corporate sustainability news lately, adidas and Neste have announced plans to increase their efforts to utilize more waste plastic.
SUPPLY CHAIN - After a full decade of consultation among large numbers of stakeholders from the mining industry, organized labor, nonprofits, impacted communities and businesses — a global Standard for Responsible Mining was released today.
SUPPLY CHAIN - ‘I would like to source more sustainable cotton, but I’m not quite sure where to start. There seems to be an awful lot of standards out there, and I’m not quite sure what the differences are between them.’ ‘I’d like to increase the volumes of sustainable cotton I buy, but I’m worried about sourcing different types of sustainable cotton — does a portfolio approach work?’ ‘I want to source sustainable cotton. I just want this to be easy. I wonder how other brands are doing it.’
COLLABORATION - Fashion for Good and PVH Corp., one of the largest apparel companies in the world that owns brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, today announced their partnership to accelerate the transition towards a good fashion industry.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE - Last week, over 2,000 representatives from our global community of sustainability practitioners, brand strategists, product and service innovators, thought leaders and other change-makers converged at SB’18 Vancouver to share their latest insights on a multitude of themes pertinent to all of those committed to improving business around the world. Here, we dig into brand and organizational efforts to recruit, retain and support an engaged workforce — and go the extra mile for employees in need.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE - Jennifer Motles Svigilsky detests cigarettes. But she recently began focusing on the ambitious vision to help 1.1B smokers quit smoking within a generation. Which is how she found herself in front of a crowded room at SB’18 Vancouver, representing one of the world’s largest cigarette companies.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE - Consumers want simple solutions. They need simple messages. And yet when it comes to truly sustainable products and packaging, the reality is quite complex and often requires consumer behaviour change. Leading brands are increasingly investing significant resources to develop and implement innovative solutions that ensure a sustainable lifecycle for products and packaging. The same brands then face a communication challenge: How should they effectively tell their story of progress and innovation in a simple and compelling way that both informs and leads to behaviour change?
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE - Transparency has become a bit of a buzzword in the fashion industry and judging by the number of times it was mentioned at this year’s Copenhagen Fashion Summit, it is a trend that we are not going to shake anytime soon. Quite the contrary, transparency is reshaping how brands and retailers interact with their suppliers and consumers. But can it really transform the entire fashion industry? C&A Foundation’s Leslie Johnston hosted a panel of experts to find out.
MARKETING AND COMMS - Are you or someone you know helping create a gender equal world? Individuals are being invited to share stories of initiatives big and small in the form of video, audio, essays and artwork as submissions to the Girl Rising Creative Challenge, Powered by HP.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION - On Tuesday, Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) published its Sustainability Report 2017, outlining the concrete steps being taken to fundamentally transform its business, by putting smoke-free products at the core of its sustainability efforts to address wider societal challenges, drive operational excellence, manage its social impact and reduce its environmental footprint. PMI says it is committed to replace cigarettes as soon as possible with better alternatives to smoking for the millions of men and women who would otherwise continue to smoke.
MARKETING AND COMMS - A new television series is under development to help teach children about sustainability and what they can do to help keep our planet beautiful. With a goal to inspire and guide 4- to 7-year-old children to become global citizens as they grow up, the five Alphabravos heroes will traverse the planet righting wrongs, foiling the evil Mdudu’s plans, having fun and learning.
LEADERSHIP - Clif Bar wants to help college seniors pursue meaningful post-graduate experiences, instead of deciding based on the pressure of paying down their debt.
THE NEXT ECONOMY - This week, global brewer AB InBev announced two major initiatives helping it advance toward its 2025 Sustainability Goals in different parts of the world.
COLLABORATION - One of the greatest aspects of the corporate sustainability movement has to be the paradigm shift that has encouraged companies to collaborate to solve common issues – joining forces across industries and sectors, and even with direct competitors has allowed companies to pool resources and expertise to tackle everything from sourcing, labor, materials, communications, conservation issues and more in holistic and more effective ways. We spoke with Chief Sustainability Officer Monique Oxender to learn more about how strategic partnerships are helping propel Keurig’s sustainability agenda forward.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT - “A lot of people want to participate in Detroit’s recovery, but unfortunately, they feel that because they’re not a billionaire, millionaire, celebrity or politician, they feel they can’t,” Kwaku Osei told Fast Company.
MARKETING AND COMMS - In February, KFC in the United Kingdom had a bit of an issue — it ran out of chicken.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING - Ahead of its Annual Meeting of Shareholders this week, Starbucks has announced it is committing $10M in partnership with Closed Loop Partners and its Center for the Circular Economy to develop a more sustainable coffee cup. Together, the organizations will establish a new consortium to launch the NextGen Cup Challenge, which will award accelerator grants to entrepreneurs working on potential cup solutions and encourage industry collaboration.
WALKING THE TALK - Sustainable Brands has recently reported on a range of really interesting, wide-range of initiatives coming out of the beer industry, including innovative packaging solutions, the use of renewable energy and efforts to address climate change and water scarcity.
WASTE NOT - Earlier this year, tech giant Dell announced an innovative partnership with actress Nikki Reed’s jewellery company, Bayou with Love, which spawned a new line of fine jewellery made using recycled gold from the motherboards of end-of-life Dell computers. The juxtaposition of fine, intricate jewels with old computers has driven media interest and raised the issue and importance of sustainability within the tech sector. ‘The Circular Collection’ has been positioned as an example of circular economy success, but how deep does this move go?