ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Modern global nutritional problems derive from food excess as well as food shortage. Traditionally a first-world problem, obesity is now spreading to developing countries. Individual countries and companies are responding to the Sustainable Development Goal to improve nutrition. One unique employee cafeteria has sparked a huge movement to improve nutrition in Japan.
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Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Shaw), alongside the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, BuildingGreen, Google, and several others, will host a national workshop series entitled
CLEANTECH -
Airbnb has formed another strategic partnership aimed at increasing the environmental benefits of home sharing: Airbnb and SolarCity, the nation’s largest solar power provider, have joined forces to connect Airbnb hosts and guests with an affordable and sustainable way to power their homes with solar energy.
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Energy efficiency, lower costs and spectator experience were all factors that led Ford Field to make plans for a greener future. From recycled water to LED lighting, new initiatives at the Detroit Lions stadium should make everyone a fan.
Transitioning 650 1,500 watt traditional bulbs to 264 1,400 watt LED bulbs throughout the 1,800,000 square feet building was no easy project, but director of facilities at Ford Field, Fred Reddig, tells how and why the organization is making green investments.
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It was 1983 when an engineer from Michigan met a Yellow-Naped parrot from Honduras. Little did Joe Azzarello know that “Otis” would be a part of the family for 33 years (and counting) and would affect not only his personal life but his career as well.
“I’ll admit I had very little environmental sensitivity before I adopted Otis,” said Joe, shaking his head.
Kohler’s resident green-building guru is well-known in the industry, but his career started out on a very different path. Joe was working as a mechanical engineer for a power company when Otis came into his life. It was while researching parrots at his local library that Joe became aware of the plight of the bird’s natural habitat.
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Shaw Floors announces its Life Happens with LifeGuard carpet, Floorté enhanced vinyl plank, and Tuftex area rugs along with turf tile from Shaw Contract’s The Park collection will be showcased in the Greenbuild KB Home ProjeKt demonstration home at the 2016 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Los Angeles, and will be available for in-person discovery tours for conference attendees on October 5 and October 6. The home will also be available nationwide via the online virtual tour beginning October 5.
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REI, the specialty outdoor co-op, has designed its new distribution center to be Net Zero Energy and is pursuing LEED Platinum—the highest level in the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) rating system. Situated in the Arizona desert, the facility is intended to be one of the world's most sustainable distribution centers. To encourage further innovation, REI is taking an unusual approach and will make the design information of this facility available to the public, so that others can advance the parameters of sustainable design.
REI is driving sustainability and efficiency at its new distribution center in several new ways:
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Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, today announced the launch of its new five-year sustainability program ‘Brighter Lives, Better World’ during the Climate Week NYC. This is the first time Philips Lighting has set sustainability goals as a standalone, listed company, building on the long legacy of Philips’ world class performance in sustainability and its EcoVision programs.
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Stratham, NH based outdoor lifestyle brand, Timberland, opens its first completed project in its five-year commitment to create and restore urban green spaces starting with New York City. In partnership with local nonprofit GrowNYC, Timberland and volunteers transformed a vacant lot in the Mott Haven Neighborhood of South Bronx, New York into a vibrant community garden. The restoration project came full circle with a service event that kicks off Timberland’s busy fall season of service, and also commemorates 9/11; something Timberland has done each year since September 11, 2001 when employees volunteered at a Bronx elementary school as tragedy struck.
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Every day, 180,000 people move to urban areas. Urbanization is creating an urgent need for sustainable actions and solutions. At this critical time, National Geographic and United Technologies Corp. are collaborating to raise awareness of sustainable urbanization through the Urban Expeditions initiative.
Urban Expeditions will identify cutting-edge research and exploration projects that are leading the way in sustainable urbanization in three key areas:
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William McDonough + Partners and GXN — an internal division of Danish architectural practice 3XN that works with applied architectural research in green materials and building technologies — have partnered to develop a master plan for the Agro Food Park (AFP) near Aarhus, Denmark. The project aims to create a geographic hub for agricultural innovation; AFP will incorporate the benefits of urban density with the proximity of agricultural test fields in an open campus where academic and commercial businesses can collaborate, grow and prosper.
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Toyota Donates $1 Million to Help Fund New Yellowstone Youth CampusCampus Will Be First Regenerative Campus of Living Buildings in a National Park
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (Aug.
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The famed central strip of Las Vegas has often been called the ‘brightest spot on earth’ because of its powerful neon lights. However, the city has been working to reduce its environmental footprint, with many of the neon lights being replaced by LED screens, and its hotels and casinos increasingly adopting sustainable solutions to improve their energy and water use efficiency.
Caesars Entertainment, one of the city’s largest gaming businesses, has revamped its commitment to sustainability, and aligned its targets to eight of the 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The company has highlighted its “CodeGreen” environmental performance in its latest corporate sustainability report.
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Two products have earned unprecedented recognition from the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Products Program, raising the bar for building materials. This week, the program awarded its first-ever Platinum-level certification and named the first homogenous flooring product to earn Gold-level certification.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
This week, SolarWindow Technologies, Inc. announced an ‘invisible’ system for transporting electricity within the company’s transparent organic coatings, which are applied in thin layers onto glass surfaces. The SolarWindow™ Intra-Connection System moves electricity generated in the coating to ‘invisible wires,’ which in turn transport electricity to the edge of the glass and connect to building electrical systems.
CLEANTECH -
In an effort to expand quality solar home system solutions to the 2.3 billion people worldwide without reliable access to power, d.light - a manufacturer and distributor of solar lighting and power products providing access to reliable, affordable, renewable energy for people in the developing world - is licensing its pay-as-you-go financing technology to partners and distributors around the world. d.light is the market leader in solar lighting and home system solutions in the developing world, as well as one of the early pioneers of the PayGo model.
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Twenty two years ago, Ray Anderson - founder of Interface, one of the world's largest manufacturers of carpet tiles - had something of an epiphany.
A customer had for the first time asked the firm what it was doing for the environment - and he realised he didn't have an answer. "No one had ever asked us that before, and we were not doing anything, in fact we were doing everything the wrong way," Erin Meezan, Interface's global vice-president of sustainability, tells BusinessGreen.
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Specialty outdoor retailer REI has completed a 2.2 megawatt rooftop solar installation at its new distribution center in Goodyear which is expected to offset 100 percent of the facility’s annual electricity consumption.
The project was completed in conjunction with Blue Oak Energy, which has worked on numerous other solar installations for REI facilities.
“REI’s ambitious net-zero energy distribution center is a landmark project and houses one of the largest rooftop solar arrays in Arizona,” Kirk Meyers, sustainability manager at REI said. “We are thrilled to continue our relationship with the Blue Oak Energy team. Their ongoing partnership is representative of what it takes to complete complex energy projects like this.”
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POWER PLAY
Toyota’s New Plano Campus Drafts Impressive Energy & Environmental Line Up
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
In 1997, biologist Janine Benyus popularized the term “biomimicry,” with her groundbreaking book of the same name, and spearheaded the growth of the discipline dedicated to applying Nature’s designs and processes to create a healthier, more sustainable world. I recently spoke with Janine about some of her favorite biomimetic innovations, about asking more from our design interventions, and some of the yet untapped areas in which Nature’s genius could help solve our most intractable problems.