Responsible Production & the Circular Economy

Circularity is embedded in the way we do business at Schneider Electric because of the inherent ROI. Having circularity built into our business operations and processes, we realize more efficient resource management and a resilient supply chain, while enhancing our customer’s loyalty by providing an end of life commitment to reuse and decommission products; further turning waste into worth.

Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC) and Whole Kids Foundation (WKF) are thrilled to announce that a second round of Farm to School Canada grants, valued at up to $10,000 each, will be delivered to 33 schools across British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, bringing more of the local harvest into the minds and onto the plates of students across the country.

SCS Global Services (SCS), a leading international third-party certifier of environmental claims, has certified that MillerCoors Milwaukee Brewery and the Global Water Center conform with the requirements of the Alliance for Water Stewardship International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard), the first-ever comprehensive global standard for measuring responsible water stewardship across social, environmental and economic criteria.

A self-proclaimed “complexity junkie,” Monique Oxender, Keurig Green Mountain’s Chief Sustainability Officer, doesn’t bat an eye at tackling big, complicated issues. From the future of coffee to the recyclability of Keurig’s pods, Oxender and her team have provided innovative solutions to complex issues across the value chain — all while embodying Keurig’s signature focus on collaboration.

This case focuses on Dell’s efforts to develop an open-source, scalable, and cost-effective supply chain capable of delivering ocean plastics waste to its production facilities, and potentially to those of partnering companies through a consortium. Piyush Bhargava, vice president of global operations at Dell and leader of Dell’s Ocean Plastics Initiative, must deliver a strategic plan for how to proceed with the initiative but has three primary challenges: (1) how to deliver “additionality”, (2) how to operationalize an ocean plastics supply chain at scale, and (3) how Dell should approach developing a consortium to ensure meaningful demand for the material.

Smithfield Foods’ Foodservice team proudly partnered with Johnson & Wales University (JWU) to train and educate the next generation of chefs on the versatility and sustainability of pork this spring.

In its new annual corporate sustainability report, Catalyst for a Better World, Ecolab Inc. (ECL) highlights how it helps customers reduce water and energy use, ensure clean hospitals, hotels and restaurants, and safely produce the world’s food and energy.

What is meant by “enlightened self-interest,” and how does it inform consumer decisions? Shel Horowitz, a profitability and marketing consultant for green and sustainable businesses, thinks that moving forward, more and more of us will be doing our own legwork when it comes to making well-informed purchasing decisions. Furthermore, he thinks that more socially-responsible consumer choices have a hidden bonus: more profit. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Horowitz about the ripple effect of socially-responsible business practices into developing nations, talk about the business edge that comes with being a socially responsible company, and break down the role of the general public in all of this.

In the first of a series of interviews with the sponsors of the Sustainability Awards 2018, Georg Müller-Hof, VP marketing, introduces Avery Dennison’s sustainability vision to Packaging Europe.

For me, one of the key lessons from our program is that partnerships and a sustainable business model are key to making single-use recycling programs successful. The work to get to where we are today has been challenging but also rewarding – especially when you are working with truly innovative companies who are determined to find solutions to a difficult problem.