CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Grocery stores, restaurants and coffee shops have wholeheartedly embraced the slow food movement, with phrases such as "certified organic," "fair-trade" and "all-natural" plastered across product packaging and menus. While each of these designations means something specific, in the eyes of many along the supply chain including the end user, they all can deliver a similar message of high quality.
PRESS RELEASE -
As the world of work is changing faster than ever, employees and potential talent are seeking out learning and development opportunities to not only keep up, but to stay ahead and be challenged. A recent study by Gartner shows that companies that offer learning and development opportunities have an employee-base which is 66% more engaged; 4.2x more likely to stay with their current company; 8x more likely to be high-performers; and learns skills 25% faster* – which is why The Estée Lauder Companies is pleased to be the first-ever beauty company to partner with LinkedIn Learning.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
In the true spirit of coopetition, 17 of New York’s top marketing, advertising and communications agencies have partnered with leading climate scientists and non-profits to harness consumer insights and creativity to motivate urgent and collective action to address climate change, starting with Gen Z — an estimated 17 million soon-to-be-voters citing a deep passion for climate change and other societal issues.
WASTE NOT -
Litter. It seems like such a ‘60s word, but it’s time to dust it off and rethink it — especially in the context of plastics and Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs).
Start with the fact that more than 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the environment annually, much of it into our oceans. That’s almost 3 percent (and perhaps more) of all plastic produced annually.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
A new film, WATERSCHOOL, takes viewers on a journey with several young female students who live along six of the world’s major rivers — the Amazon, Mississippi, Danube, Nile, Ganges and Yangtze — to shine a light on the importance of safeguarding the continued supply of fresh water and the work of the Swarovski Waterschool education and community investment progra
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Amazon has launched a new challenge to reward developers of Alexa skills that have a positive impact on the environment, local communities and the world.
PRESS RELEASE -
Columbia University and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new Center devoted to research, education, and innovation in blockchain technology and data transparency. To advance compelling new ways to apply blockchain and help address growing demands around data transparency, the Center will also include an innovation accelerator to incubate business ideas from entrepreneurial students, faculty and members of the startup community.
PRESS RELEASE -
The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) and WE, an organization that makes doing good, doable, are excited to announce the winners of the inaugural WE Are Innovators campaign, challenging youth to tackle today’s daunting issues of food waste, the environment and more by applying chemistry, science and innovation.
PRESS RELEASE -
A group of scientifically-inclined 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in Northern New Jersey Council are learning lessons beyond just science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Through team work, experiments, and exciting topics, the STEM Scouts program is helping these young geniuses develop character, leadership, and academic strengths they’ll use long after their school days are behind them.
WALKING THE TALK -
The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has announced a major new partnership with leading companies today with the launch of The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme. Corporate and individual donors are sponsoring up to 15 academic fellows to identify breakthrough solutions to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and mobilize evidence on these challenges as they undertake three-year studies.
PRESS RELEASE -
To help kick off the spring season, we once again asked our team members and guests at our locations across North America to participate in the annual CodeGreen Challenge for a chance to be named the most eco-conscious location in the company. The CodeGreen Challenge is part of Caesars Entertainment’s effort to raise awareness around environmental conservation, as well as the health and wellness benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle, through activities and promotions that educate and support environmental consciousness.
PRESS RELEASE -
To celebrate today’s Global Wind Day, AT&T* is expanding its renewable energy program with NextEra Energy Resources. Together, AT&T and subsidiaries of NextEra Energy Resources will help to deliver clean energy, create jobs, boost the local economy and support a low-carbon economy.
During a groundbreaking ceremony in Webb County, Texas for the first AT&T-backed wind farm project, AT&T announced a new agreement to purchase 300 megawatts (MW) of wind energy. It also announced a scholarship program for students interested in pursuing careers as wind turbine technicians, one of the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S.¹
Delivering renewable energy
BUSINESS CASE -
The Dow Chemical Company’s newly released 2017 Sustainability Report details its progress against its goals for 2025, including surpassing the year’s target for savings and revenue from projects that are “better for ecosystems.” Such projects generated $120 million in cost savings and new cash flow in 2017 against the goal to reach $1 billion by 2025.
WASTE NOT -
Today, Savers® released its third annual State of Reuse Report, which reveals that while people consistently state they are donating or finding ways to extend the life of their items, there is still a long journey ahead to fully embrace reuse — as 60 percent of North Americans shop secondhand only once a year or less.
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?
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The idea of the Deep Time Walk is simple but incredibly powerful: When dealing with the vast dimensions of time and space, we are often unable to grasp the magnitude quantitatively, just through studying the numbers. A Deep Time Walk allows us to walk the timeline of the history of the Earth and also universe, and thus for example, on a walk of 4.6km, if we start with the birth of Earth, each one-metre step represents one million years.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Tyson Foods, the largest meat company in the U.S., is starting to step up to the plate on sustainability and respond to pressure from investors and consumers to tackle water risks in its supply chain.
Recently, the company made a commitment to improve the water, soil and fertilizer practices in its far-flung feed grain supply chain — impacting more than two million acres of corn production by 2020, or about half of its corn supply chain. The measures have strong potential to both improve water quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tyson’s move sends a strong signal to the rest of the meat sector that driving down the massive environmental impacts of growing animal feed is a smart business strategy.
PRESS RELEASE -
The newly constructed Dow Innovation Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was inaugurated today in a ceremony attended by Dow executive leadership, the KAUST Board of Trustees, university leadership, and special invited guests from Saudi Arabia.
LEADERSHIP -
As we at Sustainable Brands — and anyone working to rectify the damage people have done to the planet — are well aware, it's all too easy to ignore pressing social and environmental issues if their effects can’t be seen or felt in our daily lives.
After a life-altering excursion across three continents, SoulBuffalo CEO and founder Dave Ford was determined to find a way to change this, by taking those just as responsible for causing as solving many of these issues — global corporate decision-makers — out into the wild to experience the effects of their business decisions with their own senses.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
As the amount of single-use plastic in the world's oceans continues to grow, National Geographic is announcing a new, global commitment to tackle this pressing problem. On Wednesday, the media giant launched Planet or Plastic?, a multiyear initiative aimed at raising awareness of this challenge and reducing the amount of single-use plastic that enters the world's oceans.