CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Let me start by saying that I don’t expect you to believe what you are about to read. Why should you take an opinion of an executive of a multi-national at face value?
There was a recent quote on Reddit that opened my eyes to an unexpected truth: “April fool’s day is the one day of the year when people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true,” (user: kellenbrent). But shouldn’t we aspire to have this attitude every day? Let’s be critical when we are presented with a foregone conclusion. Let’s be curious about what is behind every piece of information we see or hear. Let’s leave preconceived notions at the door and be open to challenging what we believe or what may seem obvious.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Reimagine Food, an organization on a mission to create an “ecosystem for the techno-food revolution,” has announced the second edition of its Prometheus accelerator program. Touted as the first disruptive food and tech program in the world, Prometheus will accept startups using emerging technologies to create food sector solutions.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Global food security is all about sourcing enough protein, on a genuinely sustainable basis, for a population in excess of nine billion people in the second half of this century.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The final morning plenary at SB ’15 London brought together a handful of popular household brands with some established and up-and-coming industry innovators, all of which pulled back the curtain on key success factors for bringing sustainability into their business strategy.
PRESS RELEASE -
Nestlé UK and Ireland in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University’s National Centre for Excellence for Food Engineering are leading a series of Innovate UK projects to help improve resource efficiency and deliver impressive cost savings across the food supply chain that will benefit the whole industry Businesses and researchers from across the industry will work together on innovative projects in strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology. Working with Sheffield Hallam’s Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering and Spirax Sarco, Nestlé UK will play a lead role in developing a pioneering project to improve waste heat recovery processes.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
After spending much of her childhood in landfills near Mexico City, 22-year-old Sandy Yazmin Colohua Gomez is now one of the women who has gained financial independence and confidence through The Coca-Cola Company’s 5by20 initiative. The company has released a short film, 5by20: Meet the Artisans, to share the global impact of the initiative through stories such as Sandy’s.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The growing world population’s increasing hunger for protein could lead to serious environmental repercussions. Livestock farming is still the primary source of protein, and has massive environmental impact compared to vegetable farming and other forms of agriculture. Beef remains the most resource-intensive to produce, but new research suggests the resource burden of other sources isn’t clean cut.
WASTE NOT -
The latest celebrity chef-led TV show is going beyond delicious meals to dish out hard truths about waste. Chef-turned-food-waste-activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall “is on a mission to reduce the amount of waste that Britain produces,” in the new BBC One series, "Hugh’s War on Waste."
WASTE NOT -
What if we could get rare metals for computers and smartphones from plants? What if food and beverage waste could be used to create components for LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes)? We’re one step closer to these realities thanks to scientists from Germany’s Freiberg University of Mining and Technology and engineers from the University of Utah.
LEADERSHIP -
I came to Colorado, like millions before me, for the mountains, the active, sustainable lifestyle — and, of course, the beer. Coloradoans love their beer. So when I was invited up to Fort Collins to check out the water-saving initiatives of a local brewery I jumped at the opportunity. “Which one?” I wondered. Fort Collins is home to more than 15 breweries (roughly 1 for every 10,000 residents), amongst the highest concentrations for any city in America. New Belgium is a certified B Corp — that’d make sense. Or maybe Odell?
PRESS RELEASE -
Panera Bread is proud to share its progress in reducing confinement and antibiotics across its U.S. Panera Bread® and St. Louis Bread Co.® bakery-cafe menus.Highlights include:Laying Hens (Eggs): 100% cage-free by 2020Pigs (Pregnant sows): 100% gestation-crate free in 2015Poultry: 100% of chicken and 100% of roasted turkey in sandwiches and salads raised without antibiotics in 2015Beef Cattle: 89% grass fed, free range in 2015
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
What will our food system look like 10 years from now? According to a new report from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a sustainable, secure UK food system will depend on industry and government action to reframe issues and innovate. The waste-reduction charity predicts there will be new business opportunities in protein supply, data-enabled technology, and food designed for nutritional requirements.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Here in Idaho, we’re the number one barley-producing US state. But how much of that barley (and the profits from it) remains in the state, or even in the region?This is the type of question advocates for sustainability ask. We want to buy local and help sustain our local businesses. We want fresh farm produce delivered to our local businesses—such as Co-ops—where we buy the produce and help these farmers grow more crops. The local business profits, the farmer profits, and hopefully, our health is bolstered by environmentally conscious growing practices the farmer employs.At first blush this might not be obvious, but the barley question is a big deal. Here’s why:
WASTE NOT -
Food waste has proved to be a persistent global challenge despite numerous efforts to reduce it from stakeholders throughout the value chain, from corporates, to non-profits, to startups. At the same time, it may not be obvious to business owners and employees what they can do to be reducing food waste in their daily operations.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Soon consumers in the US will come a lot closer to knowing what's in the food they buy thanks to a new standard being introduced by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). SmartLabel was created to meet the public’s desire for more information about the products they use and consume, and Hershey is the first brand to adopt it.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
It’s difficult to swallow the contradictory statistic that 50 million Americans are food insecure while 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. is wasted, according to the NRDC. Food recovery entrepreneur and advocate, Dana Frasz — founder of Oakland, Calif.-based food-recovery non-profit Food Shift— suggests that the sustainable food movement could use a new recipe. Those working on hunger should not just look at providing food, but how they can create jobs.
PRESS RELEASE -
In much of the world, we take rice for granted. We’ve got canisters of it in our cupboards, and it’s readily available in our stores. Indeed, we can take it or leave it as part of our daily meals.But for billions of people around the globe, rice is the only thing standing between a full stomach and going to bed hungry. For millions of farmers, it’s the only difference between a decent wage and destitution – and the only thing keeping their children alive. But with the world’s population expanding towards ten billion in the next 40 years, we face a very real threat: there may not be enough rice to go around.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
This week, Nestlé announced it is the newest member of the How2Recycle Label Program. Selected Nestlé USA and Purina® brands will use the How2Recycle label to help communicate to the public how to recycle their packaging.The How2Recycle label is a project of GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), developed to provide clear and concise on-package recyclability information and keep recoverable materials out of landfills. The brands join over 40 How2Recycle member companies using the label on packaging.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
This summer, JetBlue announced New York City-based Hot Bread Kitchen — a social enterprise that builds lasting economic security for foreign-born and low-income women by introducing them to professional opportunities in the culinary industry - as the first winner of its “BlueBud" business mentoring program.
WASTE NOT -
As we prepare for the innumerable resource challenges of supporting a population expected to top 9 billion in the next 35 years, it is simply unacceptable to continue wasting food. Organizations large and small are now focusing a variety of efforts on eliminating food waste.