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Product, Service & Design Innovation

The latest products, services, design approaches and business models that are helping organizations of all sizes deliver on their sustainability ambitions and establish a new business as usual.

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Biochar Pilot Program Aims for Carbon-Negative Coffee

With more than 2 billion cups consumed each day, coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages. Most consumers of the black liquid hail from industrialized countries — over 90 percent of coffee production occurs in developing countries and out of the bulk of climate change regulations’ reach.

Earthwards: Johnson & Johnson’s Drive Toward a Healthy Future

Sustainability is no longer a fleeting trend. It is becoming a standard practice of companies both large and small, across multiple industries here in the United States and around the world. The health care sector is no different.

Bringing Back the Bike: One Start-Up’s Plan To Forever Change the Commute

To prepare for this year's Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SBIO) competition, we're catching up with some of our favorite entrepreneurial ventures from competitions past ...

Data Show Eco-Fashion a Smarter Choice for Conscious Consumers, Brands Alike

According to eMarketer, online apparel and accessories is the fastest growing category of online sales among nine major categories.

How Are Circular Economic Models Driving Innovation and Social Good?

Calling all innovators and implementers! In March 2013, Sustainable Brands will launch a new “Issues in Focus” editorial package, including daily features, interviews and case studies on the circular economy as a driver of business model innovation and social good.The Issue in FocusYou can't get a soy latte these days without hearing the words collaborative consumption, the circular economy, crade-to-cradle or the sharing economy. But how are these quasi-utopian concepts becoming real? What implications could they have for the future of business and the economy?

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New Interface Competition Wants Design for Nature Lovers

Modular carpet company Interface launched a new competition this week inviting architects, designers and students to submit visions for how nature can influence the design of a new or existing space, both within built environments or outside.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation Aims To Create $10B of Value by 2015 With New Global Business Alliance

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation today launched the Circular Economy 100 (CE100), a three-year program aimed at bringing together a network of 100 leading companies globally to facilitate development and commitment to new circular economy projects. The CE100 will provide executive education on key themes and emerging trends, share knowledge and new learnings, and identify and develop solutions to common challenges. The objective is that by 2015 participating companies will have triggered circular initiatives that will result in an aggregated economic benefit of $10bn for the businesses involved.

Indigenous Revolutionizes Apparel Industry by Highlighting Social Impacts

Seventeen years ago, Indigenous cofounders Scott Leonard and Matt Reynolds were picking burs out of hand-knit South American sweaters before delivering them to The Nature Company.

Aspirational Consumers Unite Style, Sustainability To Shape Market Trends

Is there such a thing as sustainable consumption? A new study by BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility finds that a majority of consumers across six international markets are seeking to reconcile their desire for shopping and style with responsibility to the environment and society through their purchases.

Unilever Redesigns Aerosol Deodorants For Smaller Environmental Impact

Unilever, the UK’s largest deodorant manufacturer, unveiled a new product design that could make the category significantly more sustainable.

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Design Matters, for the Circular Economy

A team from Seymourpowell, one of the UK’s most established design and innovation consultancies, were thrilled to spend an evening in the company of a select group of motivated Design & Technology teachers, at the recent Tunbridge Wells Teardown Lab led by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. It proved a fascinating evening of new insight and practical hands-on learning.

Circular Economy Not 'Silver Bullet' for Resource Crunch, Paper Says

This article first appeared on edie.net on January 28, 2013.Industrial systems based on circular economy models will be constrained by end-of-life material availability, limiting future improvements in process efficiency, scientists claim. A wider materials efficiency framework is required, they argue — one which encompasses not just circular resource flow systems but mitigation options for industrial carbon emissions and consumer demand.

Patagonia Cultivating Sustainable Wool in Namesake Region

Outdoor apparel company Patagonia is working to restore grasslands in its namesake region of Argentina through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Ovis XXI, an Argentine company working to improve the economic, environmental, social and human sustainability of the sheep-based supply chain.

Daimler, Ford, Renault-Nissan To Co-Develop Fuel Cell Vehicles

Three global automakers have signed an agreement to jointly develop a fuel cell system to power zero-emissions vehicles.

Circular Economy Promises $700 Billion in Savings for Consumer Goods Industry, Report Says

The consumer goods industry could save $700 billion in materials alone through the adoption of a circular economy, according to a new report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The report also details how land productivity and supply chain stabilitydesigning products so they can be recycled or reabsorbed into the biosphere without toxic residuals.

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Kendall-Jackson Joins Green-e Marketplace with 100% Renewable Energy Commitment

The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) announced Wednesday that Kendall-Jackson and parent company Jackson Family Wines, based in Santa Rosa, CA, have joined Green-e® Marketplace after purchasing 36,000 megawatt-hours of Green‑e Energy-Certified renewable energy certificates from NativeEnergy. The purchase covers 100 percent of the total annual electricity needs for Kendall-Jackson's U.S.-based operations. By participating in Green‑e Marketplace, Kendall-Jackson can now display the Green‑e logo to inform its customers of its commitment to clean, renewable energy.

How Your Cotton T-Shirt Can Make a Difference

Your favorite t-shirt is made from more than cotton and memories.One key ingredient that doesn’t show up on your shirt’s label is water. Amazingly, it can take 2,700 liters to produce the cotton needed to make a single t-shirt.

Book Review: Zeronauts by John Elkington

Zeronauts: Breaking the Sustainability Barrier by John Elkington, EarthScan, London; Routledge, New York, 2012

How Gravity Could Help Save the Earth and Its Residents

Smoking kills. That shouldn’t come as much of a brow-raiser. But did you know that in most parts of the world, it’s not necessarily tar, nicotine and carcinogens that are leading to early deaths? It’s smoke.

Scientists Make LEDs 55 Percent More Efficient by Imitating Fireflies

This post first appeared in Grist on January 8, 2013.LEDs are already much more efficient than any other light bulb out there, but a group of scientists figured out how to make them a whopping 55 percent more efficient — by looking at fireflies.

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