Sustainable Business

India Uses Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) to Clean the Ganges River

India’s government has lately set a 3-year target to rejuvenate the River Ganges, formulating an integrated plan for the use of new technologies to solve the water pollution crisis. Known as the “Namaami Gange” or “Clean Ganga” project, optimism is high for cleaning up the Holy River Ganga, as it is known and revered by …

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Islamic Finance: A Fast-Expanding Market

When the Western financial world imploded in 2007-8, many nations’ economies suffered as a result. Riding out the storm with little to no negative impact in the midst of severe economic downturn, the Islamic financial market has paradoxically been experiencing exponential growth. For this reason, Islamic finance has become a topic of worldwide interest. However, …

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A CSR Makeover for Chocolate Truffles?

On a mission to transform the globe “through ethical relationships with small-scale farmers, and an integral sustainability orientation at every point on the supply chain,” Alter Eco Foods has bitten off a big bite to chew on. But it sure looks delicious. Especially those chocolate truffles. Organic, fair trade truffles! In dark chocolate and dark …

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Stevia Helps US Lose Weight & Quit Smoking, Too

As more Americans quit smoking, estranged tobacco farmers are coping with their grief by switching to growing domestic stevia, instead. Approved for commercial use in the U.S. five years ago, stevia extracts are fast becoming the more popular choice of sugar substitutes in America. Although most stevia is currently grown in China and South America, …

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IKEA Expands Solar Sales to Eight New Countries

IKEA Group lately announced it will expand its residential solar sales from Britain into the Netherlands and Switzerland before the end of this year. The offer will expand to a further 6 countries within the coming 18 months. “We know that our customers want to save energy and live more sustainably at home,” said Peter Agnefjäll, …

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Jean Tirole Wins 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics (and Why)

Jean Tirole is the 2014 winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Tirole, of Toulouse 1 Capitole University in France, has been awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences “for his analysis of market power and regulation.” A Nobel Prize for Sowing Seeds of Corporate Social Responsibility …

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Recycling Flip Flops From the Ocean Shores of Kenya

The world’s oceans are vast, floating dumps for plastic pollution. Without a serious plan for cleaning up the world’s oceans, this situation is dire and becoming worse every day. With a goal of retrieving and recycling 400,000 flip flops a year from the coast of Kenya, one small start-up in Nairobi is making a big …

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TripAdvisor Green Travel Program Expands Into Canada & Europe

Today’s travel decisions are not just about where to go and how to get there. Environmental factors color our decisions, and we prefer them in cool shades of green. More hotels and B&Bs are addressing the concerns of travelers by meeting our need for environmentally responsible places to stay while traveling. And now, thanks to …

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New Belgium Celebrates Patagonia’s 40th Anniversary with Organic Lager

What better way to help celebrate four decades of responsible business than to partner up with another principled company to produce a premium organic beer? In celebration of Patagonia‘s 40th Anniversary, and their longtime commitment to purchasing organic cotton for their clothing lines, New Belgium Brewery produced a special run of an organic beer, dubbed …

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How to Read a Sustainability Report

[Originally published by Marc Gunther at Ensia.com] Corporate sustainability reports have been around since … well, it’s hard to say.  The first report may have been published by “companies in the chemical industry with serious image problems” in the 1980s, or by Ben & Jerry’s in 1989 or Shell in 1997. No matter — since …

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Using Crowdfunding to tell Fair Trade and Supply Chain Stories

How can Fair Trade companies tell their story in a way that’s transparent, honest, and informative? If this crowdfunded campaign is successful, it might be as easy as giving people a single, consumer-friendly point of entry for all Fair Trade organizations and companies, either on the web or via an app. “Many consumers want to …

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