When you’ve finished with EcoCradle packaging, you don’t throw it out. You compost it. That’s because it is made from filamentous fungi (mushroom roots), which can be bonded into any shape. According to Ecovative Design, which grows the packaging (yes, I meant to say “grows”), EcoCradle provides the same cushioning, strength and protection as petrochemical […]
Mushroom Packaging: Don’t Throw It Out! Compost It! Read More 👉
Earlier this month, Proctor & Gamble announced plans to use renewable, sustainable, sugarcane-based plastic for packaging on its Pantene Pro-V, Covergirl and Max Factor brands. I’m happy to see that P&G did its research and chose not to use corn-based plastic. Corn-based plastic has been all the rage lately and can be found in everything
P&G to Use Sugarcane-Based Plastic Packaging for Beauty Brands Read More 👉
The words “pharmaceutical company,” “sustainability” and “Corporate Social Responsibility” rarely go hand in hand, but a global Pharmaceutical Company boasting local impact in the Pittsburgh region might just be what the Doctor ordered. Bayer recently released it’s 2009 Sustainability Report and with it some lofty goals for Bayer’s operations in the Pittsburgh region, among them a
“Bayer-ing” It All – How Bayer Reports on Sustainability Read More 👉
In a WSJ op/ed entitled “The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility,” University of Michigan strategy professor (Ross School of Management) Aneel Karnani argues that CSR fails when it is not a by-product of profit maximization. Karnani goes deeper to note that there exists a grave fallacy in CSR investment when a business model is not
WSJ: The Illusion of Corporate Social Responsibility Read More 👉
Feller-gatherer harvesting trees in the FSC- and SFI-certified forests of the Adirondacks for Finch Paper Recently, I blogged about a trip I made to Finch Paper in Glens Falls, NY, where I got to see sustainable forestry and integrated, environmentally sensitive papermaking in action. One of the most powerful images in my mind from the
Minimum Impact Logging? Read More 👉
Hot off the presses comes Net Impact’s rather comprehensive report on business schools focusing on “sustainability” programs. “Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.” The organization is active on campuses and
Net Impact Publishes Business As UnUsual 2010 Report Read More 👉
Yesterday I took a little bit of a swipe at Bon Appétit Management’s cage-free SHELL egg commitment asking whether or not such move could push the $590 billion commercial food-service market to raise animal welfare standards nationally. Today Bon Appétit (BAMCO) is back in the news with a compelling initiative that preserves summer produce for
Ohio Takes on California in a Winter Produce Gambit Read More 👉
Last Sunday’s New York Times Week in Review section took a look at burgeoning cage-free regulations for egg-laying hens in California, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Florida and Maine. Currently only 2% of America’s hens are raised outside of battery cages (8 x 8 inches allotted to each bird; 6 birds to a cage). After
Do Cage-Free Eggs Matter? Read More 👉
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on the minority stake that Coca-Cola had taken in Honest Tea. As a follow up to a New York Times small business case study, the article looked at how a small business built on specific social and environmental standards would fair with investment from a large beverage
What Coca-Cola Can Do to Your Brand Read More 👉
With the beginning of the Fall 2010 semester right around the corner, I wonder how many new MBA candidates will start the year wearing green? In July I read a post on CSRwire entitled “Will Green MBAs Save the Planet?” by Elaine Cohen which commented on a recent trend in Business Schools. Apparently the number
Are We “Green-washing” our MBAs? Read More 👉
How does recycled paper get from your office’s blue bins to the shelf at the office supply store? Here’s an overview of the whole paper recycling process.
What Happens to All That Recycled Paper, Anyway? Read More 👉
Today kicks off the American Business Conference’s 4th part of a global series of Sustainable Agricultural Summits. And what better city for this summit to take place, but San Francisco. California is home to 81,500 farms and ranches and tallied revenues of $36.2 billion last year alone. That figure represents 11.2% of the nation’s total.
A Meeting of the Minds: Sustainable Agricultural Summit Begins Read More 👉
I just spent three days at Finch Paper, one of the few remaining small, integrated paper mills in the country. Nestled in the Adirondacks, the Glens Falls, NY company invited a few industry analysts to tour their mill and forests and get an inside look at their environmental commitment. Finch Paper is one of the
If Cutting Trees Is Bad, Why Are Foresters Helping Them Do It? Read More 👉
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has become a nearly $3 trillion dollar industry in the United States. Investors in SRI use screening and shareholder advocacy to influence corporations to improve their environmental practices, social impact and governance issues. What I was surprised to find out was that community investing is the fastest growing area of SRI.
CDFIs: Community Investing as Part of Your SRI Portfolio Read More 👉
Federal Government Asks Fletcher Allen to Teach the Nation How to Scale Local Sourcing in Healthcare (Part II: Taking Local From Trendy to Essential) “The Hospital That Heals The Earth” is a two-part series on the intersection of sustainability innovation and healthcare at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vermont. Part 1 of the series
The Hospital That Heals The Earth (Part II) Read More 👉
Vermont Hospital Wants To Be The Greenest Health Care Facility in the US — And Makes a Convincing Case (Part I: Mainstreaming Sustainability) Sustainability, clean energy investment, green jobs and health care reform have all been resounding themes of the first 18 months of the Obama administration. But rarely do we conceive of healthcare reform
The Hospital That Heals The Earth (Part I) Read More 👉
So the US government decided to sneak a rider into the Financial Reform Bill in an attempt to address the issue of conflict minerals coming out of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The goal is to dry up revenue that fuels rebel fighting in the region. As I mentioned in Part I last
Conflict Minerals: The Plot Thickens with the Help of Capitol Hill (Part II) Read More 👉
Indeed, sustainable business makes for strange bedfellows. Just this week, Seventh Generation announced it will soon offer its environmentally-friendly products in more than 1500 Walmart stores nationwide and on Walmart.com. And according to Treehugger, this is a complete about-face for the “esteemed nontoxic, enviro-friendly household product maker”. Not so long ago, Seventh Generation refused to
Walmart and Seventh Generation Join Forces to Bring Sustainable Products to the Masses Read More 👉
While many companies are still try to figure out what their CSR strategy is (or in some cases, what CSR is period), lumber and paper giant Weyerhaeuser has recently issued its 2009 Sustainability Report. Weyerhaeuser was an early adopter of the voluntary Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) report. The company started publishing a report of their
Weyerhaeuser and GRI Reporting Meet Again Read More 👉
I recently watched FUEL and thought: Why have I not seen this before??? FUEL is a 2008 documentary on America’s dependence on foreign oil which explored a possible solution to the looming energy crisis. I had three overwhelmingly strong and immediate responses from watching this film. First, we have some extremely intelligent and passionate people
“FUEL” for thought: We all have Responsibilities. Read More 👉
A recent United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)/Accenture study of 766 corporate CEOs has found that 93% of executives surveyed believe that sustainability will be a key factor in the future of their businesses. So, I suppose CSR is the new Tiger Woods for the global management consulting behemoth?
Accenture Joins McKinsey in the Battle Cry for Corporate CSR Read More 👉
Summer travel doesn’t always have to entail long airport security lines or expensive fill-ups at the pump. In fact, you can see much of the East Coast for as little as $1 ! Here’s one way…
Travel Green! An eco-friendly option. Read More 👉
Since 1997 the United States government has enforced economic sanctions on Sudan, by keeping American businesses from working with Khartoum and the al-Bashir government. This was due to the fact that Sudan was placed on the list of “state sponsors of terrorism”. Of course, this was a number of years before the genocide in Darfur
Doing Business in Sudan Read More 👉
Piggy-backing on my recent post regarding Pittsburgh’s # 6 spot in a sustainability ranking of most sustainable metros conducted by Site Selection magazine, I wanted to point out that the United States is not to be found on the “top ten list” of its sustainable nations. This news is not surprising. A similar ranking regarding global
Where does the U.S. Stand on Sustainability? Read More 👉
