Latest News
PyeongChang 2018 Olympics Committee Launches Sustainability Report, Carbon Credit Campaign
With only a few short weeks left to go before the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the PyeongChang Organizing Committee has unveiled details of the measures being taken to ensure the sustainability of this year’s event. Read More...
The Sustainability Practitioner’s (Basic) Guide to Investors
As a reformed banker, I tend to be alert whenever I hear folks talking about investment and investors. Over the past few Sustainable Brands events, I’ve noticed, however, that the language can sometimes be a bit muddled around this topic. Investors are often lumped into one homogenous bunch, whose needs and duties are not really understood. The differences between the types of investment product and the accompanying financial risk-reward can be confused. Read More...
2 Ways to Tie Your Sustainability Path to a Broader Movement
Sustainability matters, but why does it matter to your business? The vinyl industry began our sustainability journey with the recognition that meeting the needs of a fast-growing population will demand much more of the earth’s natural resources, and we wanted to be prepared to address this challenge. As a result, doing more with less is essential to the way we manufacture and market our products. Read More...
More Gifts That Keep on Giving: Sustainable Brands' 2017 Holiday Gift Guide
Sustainable products geeks rejoice, for 'tis once again the season of giving! And what better way to celebrate and participate than with gifts whose buying and giving creates more cheer, health, beauty and financial stability while eliminating waste, pollution and carbon emissions around the world? Here are just a few of our favorite discoveries this year of products we'd be proud to give. Waste Not You know we’re big fans of upcycling, here at SB! Here are just a few of the waste-turned-products we loved this year: Read More...
KIND Launches Storytelling Campaign to Inspire Empathy, Kindness
The campaign explores the differences between being 'nice' and being 'kind' — an often overlooked distinction that has tangible implications on how we act towards one another. Read More...
Report: Corporate Action on SDGs Stalling Just Two Years Into 2030 Agenda
Despite mounting evidence for the business case for integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into brand strategy, a new report released by Corporate Citizenship shares some alarming trends in how corporate action on the SDGs is evolving. Read More...
Wilmar Embraces Sustainability-Linked Finance, Unveils Child Protection Policy
Wilmar International, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, has announced major steps forward in reducing its environmental and social impacts. The company has worked out an innovative financial deal with ING to link its existing loan to its sustainability performance, and has unveiled a policy aimed at protecting children living on its palm oil plantations. But human rights campaigners say it may be little more than a band-aid. Read More...
Trending: Cross-Industry Collaboration, Bio-Based Materials Fuel Sustainable Packaging
Packaging remains a considerable challenge for businesses looking to reduce their impacts, but innovators such as food-service supplier Eco-Products and Finnish startup Sulapac are helping to accelerate the transition to lower-impact models through cross-industry partnerships and sustainable packaging solutions. Read More...
Third Year of REI's #OptOutside Movement Gives the Power to the People
With the launch of its #OptOutside campaign in 2015, REI set a new precedent in retail, shuttering its stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, giving its employees a paid day off and – on a day that has come to represent consumerism at its most extreme – encouraging staff and consumers alike to forgo the shopping frenzy in favor of the great outdoors. The move epitomized the company’s ethos and kickstarted a movement to drive positive behavior change and impacts. Read More...
Trending: Coffee Grounds Poised to Power Future for Sustainable Transport, Fashion
Your morning cup of java could be good for more than just a caffeine buzz — Shell and Vancouver-based sustainable clothing company LEZÉ the Label are fueling a sustainable future with the help of waste coffee grounds. Read More...
Beauty Industry Leaders Partner with EcoVadis to Launch Responsible Beauty Initiative
In an effort to accelerate improvement on ethical social and environmental performance throughout the beauty supply chain, Clarins, Coty, Groupe Rocher, L’Oréal and EcoVadis have launched the Responsible Beauty Initiative (RBI). Read More...
Looking for a Circular Packaging Solution? Meet RePack
Maybe you remember visiting a post office to pick up one of your online purchases and seeing the hundreds, even thousands, of packages going to other shoppers — to be used once and thrown away. Sure, online purchases need to be individually labelled and protected for transport, so some form of packaging is necessary. But shouldn’t we as environmentally conscious purchasers have a say in how our goods are packaged? And shouldn't sustainably minded brands be able to offer their customers a choice in this matter? Because surely shoppers and brands would choose a returnable, recyclable package for transporting online purchases — especially if it made economic sense. This is where RePack comes in. Read More...
Earning Trust Through Transparency
Trust. It can sound a lot like a buzzword or business jargon, a word or phrase thrown around by leaders when trying to identify, define or solve a problem. Sometimes it’s not even a consideration until it’s lost. According to the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, only about half of the general population trusts business, government, media and nongovernmental organizations to do the right thing. Trust in business fell to 52 percent, and CEO credibility also fell globally. Read More...
3 Key Takeaways from Engaging an Industry in Sustainability
The vinyl industry recently marked its first “sustainability community anniversary” — that moment where industry leaders came together to pledge to embark on our sustainability journey. In the year since, we’ve adopted common sustainability positioning focused on doing more with less, agreed on a purpose-driven continuous improvement path forward, formed the Vinyl Business and Sustainability Council (VBSC), and initiated an industry-wide materiality assessment. There’s still much work to do. Read More...
Liverpool FC Comes Under Fire for Controversial Deal with Tibet Water Resources
Liverpool Football Club’s latest sponsorship deal, with Tibet Water Resources Limited — a company committing ongoing human rights and environmental atrocities in the region — is a case example of the kind of partnership brands just cannot make in today's world if they are striving for sustainability. This matters because England-based Liverpool FC is a widely recognized sports brand. According to Forbes, the team is worth $1.49 billion, making it the eighth most valuable soccer club in the world. Read More...
Q&A: Tim Greiner on the Transformational Role of Chemical Footprinting
Sustainable chemical management is a critical component of a healthy and circular future. In its second annual report, the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP) revealed encouraging advances across industries towards the use of safer materials and greater transparency. Read More...
Gold Standard Unveils New Label, Carbon Credit Shop to Help Companies, Consumers Deliver SDGs
Gold Standard, an organization established by WWF and other NGOs to catalyze action on climate change, is making it easier for anyone to support sustainable development projects around the world while offsetting their carbon footprint with the opening of an online ‘shop’ for carbon credits. For the first time, members of the public, small businesses and organizations can offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits online through Gold Standard. The carbon credits offered come from a range of projects in Cambodia, China, Sudan, Ethiopia, Laos, Panama and Rwanda, with plans to add additional projects within the coming months. Read More...
Apparel, Textile Industry Giants Unite Around SDGs at 2017 Textile Sustainability Conference
Big news has been rolling out of the Textile Exchange 2017 Textile Sustainability Conference near Washington, D.C. this week, providing evidence of the major paradigm shift taking place in the apparel and textile industry. Read More...
FSC-Certified Products Nudging Consumers Into Walking Their Sustainability Talk
Good for your health, good for the environment, good for the future. These common themes have consumers embracing trends toward products that are responsibly sourced and manufactured. As with many things, consumers hold the key. And for products derived from the forest, the reality is no different. Read More...
Redefining Ethical Business, Education, Activism, Customer Experiences All Key to 'The Good Life'
Last week, at the third and final SB Buenos Aires event of 2017, perspectives from the worlds of arts, finance, education, big business, healthcare, urban planning, consumers, activist brands and more provided a 360-degree look at how organizations around the world are working to manifest our changing vision of “The Good Life” – and highlighted the amount of work yet to be done. Read More...
