Cradle To Cradle

More articles on the controversy surrounding bottled water can be found here! Water is water, right? Not quite. The container and the source of the beverage distinguishes how water is perceived in the marketplace. Recycled or reusable? Spring or municipal? The photo is of Nestlé Waters CEO, Kim Jeffrey and myself after the Opening Keynote [...]

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Brad Pitt saw this as an opportunity to make a single powerful statement that would address three distinct but equally compelling issues:

* Social justice. These people matter, even if they don’t have money
* Robust homes: Homes can be designed to withstand this type of storm.
* Sustainability: All of this can be done in a low impact, sustainable manner.

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In high school, we were warned against using marijuana, not necessarily because marijuana itself was that bad for you, it was the fact that the use of marijuana would lead to other, more unhealthy drugs.  It was referred to as a “gateway drug.” The concept is equally applicable to many other aspects of life.  Running [...]

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The first non-profit resource for companies seeking to make their products safer and more sustainable was officially launched today at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. The Green Products Innovation Institute (GPII) will provide certification of consumer products using the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) protocol of product life-cycle analysis created by William McDonough and Michael Braungart of McDonough [...]

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With all the talk and shtick over “green” products, it’s easy to forgot that Tom’s of Maine has long been a leader in natural consumer products and sustainable business practices.  Started in 1970 with a $5000 loan, the company’s products now take shelf space at 40,000 retail outlets, including Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.  From [...]

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Biomimicry is a great design discipline for making cradle-to-cradle products, but it’s also a handy tool when it comes to developing sustainable businesses, explains Gregory Unruh in his new book, Earth, Inc., out this month on Harvard Business Press. The book describes how business leaders can learn from nature’s way of getting things done, sustainably. [...]

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The packaging industry is really charging forward with all sorts of innovative, recyclable materials these days, but one of the best and easiest ways to make packaging sustainable is to simply reuse it.  That’s what Columbia Sportswear is doing as part of its recently-launched ecommerce program. Six weeks ago, the Portland, Ore.-based outdoor clothing company [...]

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If you’re reading this, it’s pretty likely you recycle. You sort. You do your best (most of the time) But what about those plastic Scotch Tape dispensers you use? Most recyclers don’t take them. You don’t have much use for them, being empty. What do you do? Toss them in the recycle bin and hope [...]

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When the notice landed in my inbox that the EPA would be holding regular green bloggers roundtables, I was stoked. A chance to engage with one of the world’s biggest government agencies dedicated to environmental protection? How cool! The e-mail included a list of suggested topics they planned to cover: sustainable design, solar energy, indoor [...]

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By Tobias C. Schultz As the surf community has been made aware of its own environmental footprint, the interest in creating a surfboard from “green” materials has grown exponentially. But without a life cycle assessment of the baseline materials used in surfboard manufacture, it is impossible to make informed decisions to reduce the footprint of [...]

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I’m back in the saddle after two weeks of MBA finals. Thanks so much to Scott Cooney for filling in for me on my weekly duties. Onward! First and foremost, to all our readers in the Bay Area, the 3p team is honoring four local business authors and kicking off the summer with a happy [...]

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I’m pleased to tell you that I’ll be representing 3P at this year’s Greener by Design conference, May 19th-20th in San Francisco. The conference is being put together by our friends at Greener World Media. Greening the design process is an important challenge for the sustainability movement – and a critical piece of any business [...]

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It’s going to take perhaps a generation of dedicated effort, but ecological principles and healthier, more sustainable life and work styles are being incorporated into architectural and community design to a degree and at a scale that’s never been the case before. Firms like WM+P have been at the forefront of this wave of change.

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New cleaning company is raving success. Offers cradle-to-cradle products in top designer packaging.

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Reusable packaging companies have been around for while, but with more and more companies concerned about climate change, reusable packaging appeal is growing throughout the U.S. Reusable plastic containers are now used at companies like Pepsi, Walmart, Safeway, Ghirardelli Chocolates and John Deere to protect and transport everything from tractors to fresh vegetables with great [...]

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Aveda, the beauty company owned by Estee Lauder, recently launched a bottle cap recycling program after a survey it conducted revealed that most caps end up in landfills. The company asks salons and stores that sell its products to partner with them by saving caps, and in turn it uses the caps to make new [...]

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c2c is rocking the place out here in the Neths.

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The sustainability of computer bag companies probably hasn’t been one of the eco-movement’s largest worries, but it is great to see some companies giving it a shot. Brenthaven is a popular computer bag company, especially among Apple owners. The company’s new slogan is “zero impact,” a philosophy that centers around the protection of your computer, [...]

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