‘Supply Chain’ In Depth

PepsiCo Wants to Make Tropicana Orange Juice Greener

Posted by Kathryn Siranosian March 18th, 2010 View Comments

Earlier today, PepsiCo announced that it is launching a new pilot program to reduce the carbon footprint of its Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice.

About a year ago, the company released results of a lifecycle analysis (LCA) it had completed on the juice. That data, compiled in partnership with the Carbon Trust, revealed that each half-gallon of orange juice emits the equivalent of 3.75 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. (Need a point of reference? Consider this: Burning one gallon of gas creates 20 pounds of CO2.)

By completing the LCA, PepisCo also discovered that the largest single source of carbon emissions in the production of the drink came from the growing process. Specifically, about 35 percent of Tropicana Pure Premium’s carbon footprint derives from fertilizer use and application in the orange groves.

So now, Tropicana is going to team up with one of its long-time growers, SMR Farms in Bradenton, Fla., to test two lower-carbon fertilizers. If successful, the company estimates that this change could reduce the total carbon footprint of Tropicana Pure Premium by as much as 15 percent.

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Many Hospitals Now Safely Reuse ‘Single Use’ Medical Devices

Posted by Kathryn Siranosian March 12th, 2010 View Comments

Health care is the second largest contributor to waste production in the United States.  (The food industry holds the dubious distinction of being the first largest contributor.) So, it’s significant that more than 25 percent of U.S. hospitals now reprocess medical devices as a way to decrease waste –and cut costs.

But, does the phrase “reprocessed medical device” make you cringe?

It shouldn’t.

After all, this isn’t a post about re-using tongue depressors or cotton swabs.

It is, by contrast, a post about a new trend among hospitals to use regulated, quality-control standards to recalibrate, clean, sterilize, remanufacture and test certain pieces of medical equipment, such as particular non-invasive items (compression sleeves, pulse oximeters, e.g.), operating room devices (trocars, harmonic scalpels, e.g.) and electrophysiology equipment (EP catheters, e.g.).

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Are Big Box Stores Advancing or Detracting Sustainability Efforts? Yes.

Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor February 24th, 2010 View Comments

five year anniversary

Since TriplePundit.com launched in 2005, Walmart and other big box stores have gone through quite a metamorphosis in the eyes of many pundits of triple-bottom-line business. In fact, 2005 was the same year that Walmart launched the first of a growing list of initiatives aimed at simultaneously reducing its environmental impact and its operating expenses.

But the decision to do things such as boost the fuel efficiency of its trucking fleet and to aggressively reduce energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste from its stores, wasn’t all driven by efforts to lower operating expenses and portray itself as a jolly green giant. Walmart was, and still is, working off the high environmental—not to mention societal—cost of its low prices. And while it’s taking many meaningful steps forward, in terms of sustainability, how can it erase the impact of millions of metric tons that the 100 million weekly Walmart shoppers emit as they drive to and fro the massive stores?

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Crate & Barrel Warehouse Robots Cut Carbon Footprint of Retail

Posted by Kathryn Siranosian February 18th, 2010 View Comments

Can robots from MA-based Kiva Systems turn warehouses green?

Crate and Barrel thinks so.

So far, most companies have installed Kiva warehouse automation systems because they want to improve efficiencies and cut costs.

But, Crate and Barrel is betting that there’s even greater potential. The company recently purchased a Kiva system for its Tracy, Calif. Distribution Complex (DC), and it’s especially keen to see how these innovative robots can help drive carbon footprint reductions.

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Interview: Brilliant Earth

Posted by Nick Aster February 15th, 2010 View Comments

I’ve always thought of the diamond industry as only slightly less destructive than the cocaine industry in terms of ecological and societal impact. I realize that’s a slight exaggeration, but anyone who’s seen Blood Diamond or watched some of these painfully manipulative advertisements knows where I’m coming from.

Diamonds may not be forever, but they’re not going out of style any time soon, and neither are the jobs and communities that depend on the industry. The reality is that some folks in the diamond industry are trying their hand at cleaning up their act – avoiding diamonds that fund wars, reducing the impact of mining, and re-investing in the impoverished communities from which diamonds often come. We’ve heard from our friends at the Clarity Project a few times on 3p, and thought it only fitting to give some space to another diamond retailer, Brilliant Earth.

I interviewed Brilliant Earth’s co-founder Eric Grossberg and he and his team had quite a lot to say about their history and how they’re working to make diamonds a more sustainable proposition – in their own words:

3p: Tell me a little about Brilliant Earth, in your own words. Why was it founded?

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Selling a Sustainable Valentine: Four Promising Trends

Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor February 12th, 2010 View Comments

photo: elineof

Ironically, the backstories behind the most popular Valentine’s Day gifts—flowers, chocolate and jewelry—are not always warm and cuddly. Roses are often grown in far-flung corners of the world using water- and chemical-intensive methods before they’re shipped thousands of miles to consumers in the US and Europe. Conventional chocolate has unsavory connections to child labor, used for cocoa harvesting. And diamond mining in some parts of the world has a history tied to funding brutal wars.

But fortunately, socially-responsible entrepreneurs have in recent years seen ripe opportunities for sourcing and marketing these products in a sustainable, low-impact and conflict-free manner.

Flower power
Some roses have a very tainted past by the time they reach a vase on the mantle. Environmental groups have called out floriculturists in a number of regions, including Lake Naivasha in Kenya, where flower farms have contributed to water quantity and quality depletion.

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B9’s Carbon Free Cargo Ships: Wind and Biofuel Powered Shipping

Posted by Carly Smolak February 12th, 2010 View Comments

While many of us greenies espouse the virtues of supporting local economies, occasionally we (ehem, I) want that Piemonte Barolo or a block of Basque blue cheese. And with China leading the global charge in production of renewable infrastructure and equipment, it’s looking like going green will far from diminish the need for international commerce.

Today, international shipping is an extremely unregulated and dirty industry that is responsible for between three and four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. However B9 Shipping, a subsidiary of the UK’s largest independent operator of wind energy, is embarking an a new voyage to “demonstrate the potential of embracing a commercially viable carbon free future to deliver clean shipping solutions for a cleaner planet.”

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Four Green Trends in Business in 2009

Posted by Sarah Lozanova February 11th, 2010 View Comments

Greener World Media recently published its third annual State of Green Business Report. The document examines numerous indicators and data to determine trends in the green business arena.

Four of these green trends are:

Radical transparency goes mainstream:

The information age and the environmental movement have actually collided. Tons of information is available about products, including the materials and ingredients used. Websites like GoodGuide.com have a mobile application for shoppers on the move. More non-profits than ever, such as Climate Counts are ranking companies on their environmental performance, helping to make informed purchases. Many organizations are demanding more from their supply chain, knowing that this is the new frontier of the environmental movement.

“There are many companies that have done a lot on climate change internally with their own operations and what they are now doing is starting to look at the companies in their supply chain,” says Sonal Mahida, vice president of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in the United States. “We’re working with a number of companies on those issues, such as PepsiCo, IBM, and Walmart.” This often begins by asking tough questions of suppliers.

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Nike Benches Carbon Offsets, Looks to Score with Teleconferencing

Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor February 4th, 2010 View Comments

Late last month, Nike released its fiscal 2007 to 2009 Corporate Responsibility (CR) report, in which it laid out its plans to move away from purchasing carbon offsets as a means of lowering the carbon footprint left by its business travel activities, reports Green Inc.

Instead, the shoe maker is investing in technology that will allow it to replace some travel with virtual meetings. “In FY09 we made a strategic decision to move away from offsets and instead focus on reducing miles flown,” says the report. Aside from reducing the carbon emissions generated through travel, the company also pointed to lowering its travel-related expenses, better employee productivity (thanks to less time spent traveling) and a better “work/life balance” for employees as other reasons for the change.

In FY10, Nike plans on increasing its investment in teleconferencing technology by 15 percent, over its FY09 spending. And in FY11, it wants to have 200 videoconferencing systems in place at Nike offices around the world.

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Focus on Product Stewardship Shifts Waste Disposal Responsibility to Manufacturers

Posted by Cory Vanderpool February 2nd, 2010 View Comments

Most manufacturers of products that contain hazardous substances, like toxic mercury, cadmium, nickel, arsenic and lead, don’t think much about the end of their products life cycle. The onus to properly dispose of many banned substances is predominantly on the consumer. The problem with this scenario is that people still dispose of batteries, fluorescent lights, needles, cell phones, radios, computers and even televisions, through regular waste streams. In California, for example, citizens who throw batteries or CFL lights in the trash are creating a major headache for the waste management authority. Local governments frustrated with the burden, and the financial repercussions that result from it, are finally taking a stand and pushing back.

During the past year lawmakers in Maine, California, Minnesota and Oregon have proposed ways to start shifting the burden of waste disposal from the public to the private sector. The idea centers around “product stewardship” which means that manufacturers themselves would be required to pay for collecting, recycling and disposing of designated products after their consumers are through with them.

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UPS Adds 245 CNG Trucks to Its Green Fleet

Posted by Kathryn Siranosian January 27th, 2010 View Comments

Last week, UPS announced it has deployed 245 new delivery trucks powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to cities in Colorado and California.

The vehicles are part of UPS’s continued effort to:

• reduce its emissions from the use of fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel,

• lower its carbon footprint, and

• offer an immediate competitive advantage to small- and medium-sized businesses looking to green their supply chains.

In fact, UPS now operates one of the largest private fleets of alternative fuel vehicles in its industry–more than 1,900 in total with these additions.  This heterogeneous “green fleet” utilizes multiple alternative fuel technologies, including CNG, hydraulic hybrid, hybrid-electric, electric, liquid natural gas, liquid petroleum gas and propane.

“At UPS, we employ a ‘rolling laboratory approach’ to test the benefits of multiple technologies rather than committing to one,” explains Steve Leffin, Corporate Sustainability Manager at UPS. “This is ultimately what allows UPS to invest smartly and investigate ways to be as efficient as possible, so that our customers benefit from that efficiency–in time, cost and footprint.”

So, why is the company specifically adding CNG trucks now?

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Recycle Match: The eBay of Recycling?

Posted by Paul S January 8th, 2010 View Comments

startup-friday.jpg

Waste. Every company creates it, in some form or another. For some materials, the path to recycling is clear – paper, plastics, and industry specific waste that has a known reuse within your sector or a related one.

But what about the less obvious materials, the ones for which you have no feasible reuse, and therefore pay disposal fess, month after month? Is that the end of story, a “necessary evil” you must resign yourself to?

Not if Recycle Match can help it.

Much like eBay has created a global market on the consumer items that previously sat in people’s homes or were thrown away, Recycle Match seeks to match up those who generate either one-time or regular streams of hard-to-recycle materials, with those seeking that material for their own use.

The source company gets revenue from that which they previously paid to have taken away, and the recipient finds a resource they need, likely at a lower cost, and definitely with less of an impact on the environment.

What does Recycle Match get out of it?

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Will Electric Carmaker Bring More than Jobs to Elkhart Indiana?

Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor January 6th, 2010 View Comments

The recession hit Elkhart, Ind., especially hard.  In fact, the town became somewhat of a poster child of the recession, thanks to a news series produced by MSNBC. But a glimmer of hope emerged for Elkhart on Tuesday, when the Norwegian electric carmaker Think said it will open its first American assembly plant there.

The New York Times’ Green Inc blog reports that the Think assembly line should be up and running in early 2011, and its annual production could hit 20,000 cars by 2013. Most importantly for Elkhart, the plant should employ more than 400 workers when it’s fully online.

According to Elkhart Truth, the town’s local paper, Think plans to invest  more than $56 million in the new plant–some of which, will be in the form of a Department of Energy Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan. In the first phase of build up, 100 new jobs are expected and the Elkhart Truth reports that these will pay an average of $16/hour.

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Top 10 New Green Ideas to Watch in 2010

Posted by Kathryn Siranosian December 30th, 2009 View Comments

As part of their end-of-year Trend Report, JWT recently published “100 Things to Watch in 2010,” an intriguing list of predictions based on the observations of the company’s Trend Scouts stationed throughout the world.

Of these 100 things, one-quarter are decidedly green –a healthy percentage which, according to Ann Mack, Director of Trend Spotting at JWT, indicates that sustainability as a business concept is “here to stay.”

“We didn’t go in looking for a quota of things for any particular category,” Mack explains, adding that the final list of 100 was culled from more than 200 original submissions. “The fact that so many on the list are green shows that the environmental movement is not a flash in the pan. Instead, it has real weight and momentum, and both consumers and retailers realize that. Companies have to get up to speed fast, if they are not already, to make themselves more environmentally-friendly and attractive to the consumer.”

Of the 25 green items on JWT’s list, we whittled it even further, creating this short list (in alphabetical order) of the Top 10 New Green Ideas to Watch in 2010:

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