People have opinions about the ways we should address the climate crisis. There are many possible solutions, but however we decide to change, we have to do it now.   People have opinions about the ways we should address the climate crisis. From planting trees for sequestering carbon to updates to the Endangered Species Act, the effectiveness of different initiatives is often questioned. Because time, money, and human resources are needed to implement any plan, it’s a conversation about whether an option is “worth it.”   If we take away one thing from this week’s climate observances, it should be that there is no one silver bullet. Mitigating today’s environmental challenges needs work in many areas.   As climate scientist Michael E. Mann says, “Any viable climate solution must be multi-pronged … [and] fire on all cylinders.”   Here at TerraCycle, our focus is eliminating the w-word (waste) and collecting difficult-to-recycle materials through brand-sponsored recycling programs and our comprehensive Zero Waste Box system. Diverting items from landfills and incinerators, and educating about recycling is our specialty, but we know there are other concepts in the sustainability space with great potential.   Here are just a few interesting things happening around the world:  

Putting captured carbon into new products

  Seltzer and sparkling water fans rejoice: Valser, a beverage company and subsidiary of Coca-Cola HBC Switzerland, is set to release “the world’s first water bottled with carbon dioxide (CO2) pulled directly from the air.”   Beverage companies are among the world's largest users of carbon dioxide; it had been common practice to use the CO2 byproduct from power plants for carbonation  By using direct air capture (DAC) technology to develop food-grade CO2, the industry is poised to offer a way both sequester carbon in the atmosphere and source a key ingredient for their products.   Speaking of carbon capture, another positive production practice picking up steam is a new method of creating concrete (a material that touches nearly every aspect of global infrastructure), which conventionally has a significant carbon and materials footprint, releasing staggering amounts of CO2 in the air.   A company called Blue Planet uses a “low-energy mineralization” process that takes climate-changing carbon out of the atmosphere, dissolves it into a solution, and produces a bicarbonate used for building materials. In addition to doing less harm, this production is one of a growing number that creates a benefit by creating a positive (new product) out of a negative (CO2). Win, win.  

Learning from the experts

  There is no waste in nature, and the earth cycles nearly everything it sustains (if you don’t count humans and all the unabsorbable “stuff” we produce). Recycling is one way we try to better fit in with nature’s activities, and carbon capture is a form of this. Needless to say, nature inspires some of the coolest ways we might fight climate change.   In an increasingly warm world, our day-to-day often entails indoor climate control, which is a matter of public safety and health, and extreme cost. Mick Pearce, an architect from Zimbabwe, is taking a biomimetic approach to designing buildings, inspired by termite mounds and cactus spikes that self-cool by tapping into the science of surface area, absorbing and regulating heat and cold.   Whatever we do about the climate crisis, we have to do it now.   Published Sep 25, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST

Share this concept!   For those who’re a brand new guardian or a been-there-done-that guardian, it’s by no means too late to begin your infants down the trail of wholesome consuming.   Maintaining them away from sugary and processed child meals can make sure you’re setting them up with a more healthy immune system and serving to ingrain in them nutritious consuming habits. And, a profit for all of us, more healthy meals often imply a extra sustainable means of manufacturing them.  

Maintain Infants Away From Fruit Juices

  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises that oldsters assume twice earlier than giving fruit juice to their kiddos.   In a statement put out in 2017, the AAP concluded that fruit juice provides “no nutritional benefits for infants younger than 1 year.” Mainly, the AAP is telling dad and mom to keep away from juice and, as a substitute, introduce recent fruit to your little ones as quickly as they’re in a position to eat them. The AAP explains that fruit juices are stuffed with sugars that aren’t useful to rising our bodies, or any our bodies for that matter. They’ll trigger diarrhea, extreme weight-gain, and dental cavities.   “Families should be educated that, to satisfy fluid requirements, human milk and/or infant formula is sufficient for infants and low-fat/nonfat milk and water are sufficient for older children,” in accordance with the AAP suggestions.  

Make Your Personal Child Meals

  When child is prepared for first bites, many dad and mom select to make their very own child meals. You possibly can be certain that solely what you need shall be going into your candy child’s physique.   Pureeing entire meals means that you can management the elements and the feel of the meals you’re making. You possibly can skinny purees by including breast milk or components. And, as your child will get extra enamel, you can also make the feel chunkier. Purchase natural produce at any time when attainable. My go-to information for organics is the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce.   I saved a meals journal when my women had been little to file all their bites. Because of this, this helped me bear in mind any reactions and meals they cherished to eat. Here’s a puree recipe that handed the style check for each of them. As at all times, seek the advice of your child’s pediatrician for particular meals suggestions. For instance, our physician really helpful beginning off one after the other then step by step introduce new meals.  

Recipe: Natural Root Vegetable Child Meals

  Use natural root greens like candy potatoes, beets, carrots, and so forth for this easy-to-make child meals.  

1. Steam greens for 20-40 minutes (start checking after 20 minutes for desired tenderness). Or, roast veggies within the oven at 400 levels F for 30-60 minutes.
2. Rub off pores and skin and trim off root.
3. Puree in a meals processor or blender and add water, breast milk, or components as wanted for desired consistency.

Extra Child Meals Recipes

  Tasty offers 27 easy baby food recipes together with some wonderful recommendation on child feeding do’s and don’ts.  

Brief on Time? Strive These Prepared-Made Choices

 

White Leaf Provisions

  This family-run organic baby food company takes the stress out of feeding child. White Leaf brings the primary 100 p.c U.S. regeneratively grown and manufactured biodynamic, natural, and GMO-free child meals to retail in the USA. That mouthful merely means they not solely preserve your child’s dietary wants and tiny style buds in thoughts.   White Leaf cares deeply in regards to the environmental affect their product makes. They’ve partnered with TerraCycle to recycle their packaging with hopes to develop packaging that’s utterly compostable and recyclable.  

Glad Household Organics

  Based by a mom of two, Happy Family options two several types of child cereal — every with two flavors.   Clearly Crafted is accessible in oatmeal and oats & quinoa, and Probiotic in multi-grain and oatmeal. Along with cereals, Glad Household additionally provides toddler meals.   The corporate additionally guarantees that 100 p.c of their packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.  

Sprout Natural Child Meals

  Sprout, began by a gaggle of buddies who needed to create natural child meals merchandise, was the primary firm to place child meals in a pouch. They provide fruit, vegetable, and grain blends together with purees made with bone broth. As well as, Sprout additionally has a line of organic toddler snacks.   In early 2019, they teamed up with Partnership for a Healthier America to assist fight childhood weight problems. They’ve pledged that “at least 50 percent of Sprout pouch purees have a vegetable as the first ingredient and will continue to ensure that 100 percent of our pouches contain no added sugars.”  

Gerber Natural Child Meals

  Gerber, based in 1927, now offers an organic option, like fruit and veggie pouches and jars, yogurt blends, grain-based cereals, and snack cookies. Simply search for the natural and non-GMO seals on the packaging.   If you end up with a set of used child meals containers, you may at all times upcycle them. To get you began, listed here are 10 Ways to Upcycle Baby Food Storage Containers.

Just as kids headed back to school this year, nearly 200 corporate CEOs headed back to the board room for the first time in two decades to redefine a corporation. These leaders decided  that besides shareholders, a corporation should benefit customers, employees, suppliers, and communities.   As corporations take action on this pledge, their focus necessarily will move beyond short-term quarterly profits; now longer time horizons and qualitative metrics become necessary ingredients for creating value for these other stakeholders.   Defining a purpose and becoming mission-driven is an important way to get this balance right. Thousands of Certified B Corporations work at the intersection of purpose and profit. Over a million nonprofits do, too. Adopting a mission certainly does not require a change in legal construct, but counter-intuitively it does mean behaving more like a nonprofit. Make your mission matter and leverage it through communication.   One of the top avatars in this space is Patagonia with a mission to support the environment. Well, that’s what the mission used to be. Today, Patagonia more urgently says, “We’re in business to save our home planet.”   Their web site continues, “At Patagonia, we appreciate that all life on earth is under threat of extinction. We aim to use the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imaginations—to do something about it.”   Spend five minutes on the company’s website, and you don’t have to wonder if they really mean it. They’ve pulled products—even bestsellers—that inadvertently caused harm and gone back to their own drawing boards to reinvent.   But that’s not true for all companies. At the opposite end of the spectrum are companies with no mission or a faux mission—for example, the defense contractor that manufactures missiles to “build a more peaceful world.” Huh?   Worse still, as one mission-driven CEO, Tom Szaky of TerraCycle, pointed out to me, are companies with a bad mission. These include companies that plan obsolescence, causing customers and the Earth to bare the costs of excessive consumption.   So what does this balance look like when done right and what can you learn about communicating?  

Dos

1. Do commit to a social impact mission.
2. Do integrate your mission into all departments and enjoy new ways to communicate.
3. Do incorporate your mission into your employer brand strategy.
4. Do open the curtains and be transparent.
5. Do adopt a trustworthy approach.

 

Don’ts

1. Don’t worry about being perfect. Share your failures and what you learn from them.
2. Don’t tell us your company stands for something that your product isn’t.
3. Don’t focus only on quantitative metrics; qualitative metrics count even more. Tell stories.
4. Don’t forget to connect the dots for employees so they can participate and be your best mission ambassadors.
5. Don’t keep your mission siloed away in the CSR office. From front line employees to corner-office dwellers, everyone lives, talks, and embodies your mission.

  Committing to and leveraging your company’s passion for its mission helps you attract customers, talent, and collaborators while driving safety, retention, and profitability. Get the messages right and you expand your mission, grow your business, and make our world a little better.

Deanna Taylor-Heacock of the Good Bottle Refill Shop Many people think that most plastic is recyclable, but 79 percent of all the plastic ever made has ended up becoming waste. As a result, 18 billion pounds of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans from polluted coasts each year. As of Friday, the very uphill battle against all this waste has a new frontier: New Jersey’s very first bottle refill shop, a place where customers can bring a container and fill it up with bulk household products and pay by weight. Such shops have popped up around the country – and indeed, the very concept of bulk shopping has long existed in co-ops and grocery stores such as Whole Foods – but Deanna Taylor-Heacock said the Good Bottle Refill Shop in Maplewood will fill a gap here that she discovered while seeking out a more zero-waste lifestyle. Bulk food shopping is easy to find, but very few shops have refill stations with an extensive collection of household products. “I felt like I could use one hard plastic bottle of Gain my entire life, but I’m buying one each month,” Taylor-Heacock told the Village Green days before the launch of the store, which is part of the General Store Coop’s new flagship location on Springfield Avenue. The store is stocked with numerous products, including hand soap, laundry detergent, dish gel, shampoo, natural hair products, lotion, toilet cleaner, air freshener, massage oil, bath salt, shea nut butter, and even dog shampoo. Taylor-Heacock researched and tested the products to ensure that she was carrying brands that are environmentally friendly and effective. Although she has become very concerned about plastic waste, Taylor-Heacock said her journey began primarily out of concern for her budget. She was constantly going to retail stores to pick up something she needed, and in the process, picking up things she didn’t need. A more disciplined approach to buying, including bulk purchasing when possible, helped her family save $10,000 last year compared to the year prior. “I felt like I was just going from store to store and I hated it,” she said. “I would basically fill my cart and think, ‘I am buying my trash. Everything in here is going to be thrown away.’” Good Bottle comes as momentum for reusable containers grows. Even mainstream companies are looking at ways to reduce plastic waste and testing reusable options. Nestlé has set a goal of making 100 percent of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025. Walmart has laid out a zero-waste vision and is working with its operators to reduce disposable packaging. And another New Jersey company, Trenton-based TerraCycle, is behind an effort with P&G, Unilever and other major companies to marry refillable containers and home delivery. Loop customers can order products such as Tide laundry detergent, Pantene shampoo and Häagen Dazs ice cream to be delivered in glass and steel containers to their house. Empty containers are picked up and refilled by the service, which is currently available in nine states, including New York and New Jersey, as well as Washington, D.C. “The real issue isn’t just plastic – it is the concept of disposability and the ‘take, make, waste’ mentality,” Michael Waas, global vice president of brand partnerships at TerraCycle, told the Village Green. “Truly solving the waste crisis requires designing new, circular systems.” While the company is not releasing sales figures yet, Waas said they have seen “a major increase in the number of people and companies participating in our programs over the last year.” The impact such efforts make is immediate, if initially small. During a soft launch preceding its Friday opening, Good Bottle saved customers from buying 154 plastic bottles – and Taylor-Heacock is continuing to add to that number each day. She hopes that customers will be drawn to a local option where they can come in, take as much of whatever product they need, and return when they need more. She is also curating innovative eco-friendly products such as portable reusable cutlery, a towel roll for reusable napkins and silicon replacements for zip-top bags that people may not know exist. Her biggest challenge is competing with big-box retailers on cost. Even though she is purchasing products in bulk, she has to keep larger margins as a small business than companies such as Amazon.com’s Whole Foods that operate at a much bigger scale. What she offers in return is flexibility: Customers are welcome to bring in their own containers, however small, and test tiny amounts of products before making larger purchases. And as a local business owner, she is available on hand to offer tips such as which products can be diluted with water to help them stretch – to save customers money and get them in the mindset of using less stuff. “You use one ounce instead of a whole cupful,” she said. “It’s a different mindset.” This story was produced in collaboration with the New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub project.

Beauty brand Burt's Bees has teamed up with National Geographic on an initiative to draw attention to the issue of climate change. The US beauty label and the media giant have announced a social media blackout dubbed #NatureBlackout, timed to coincide with the UN Climate Summit. Following the blackout, the brand will appeal to its followers to make a #ChangeforNature pledge on September 26, with each new habit triggering a $10 donation to the National Geographic Society to focus on the reduction of plastic waste in the ocean. "As a brand founded to connect people to nature, we must protect it," said Paula Alexander, Director of Sustainable Business and Innovation at Burt's Bees, in a statement.   "National Geographic is committed to generating solutions for a healthier and more sustainable future," added Valerie Craig, Vice President of Impact Initiatives at the National Geographic Society. "To date, we've awarded more than 14,000 grants for bold, innovative and transformative projects. One of our current priorities is researching solutions to prevent plastic waste from entering the ocean. We're thrilled that for each #ChangeforNature pledge, Burt's Bees will donate $10 to support our efforts to reduce individual plastic consumption and the flow of plastics into watersheds." The beauty industry has seen a wave of sustainable initiatives recently. Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble-owned hair care brand Herbal Essences joined forces with waste management giant TerraCycle to launch a series of bottles comprising 25% beach plastic, while REN Clean Skincare has pledged to become completely "zero waste" by the year 2021. The personal care conglomerate Unilever recently unveiled a three-part plan to target plastic use in the US, including a pledge for 50% of its plastic packaging to be made from post-consumer recycled (PCR) content by the end of 2019, and Lush Cosmetics marked World Oceans Day this year with a limited-edition ‘Shark Fin Soap' that saw 100% of its sales proceeds directed to the Rob Stewart Sharkwater Foundation, which fights for the protection of the underwater predators.

The problem with plastics has reached a tipping point. And whether you're an environmental crusader or just a citizen of the world, the impact on your life is inevitable. As a social impact professional, the consumer behavior implications underlying this movement is one to watch, no matter your impact area of choice. Starbucks has designed, developed and manufactured a strawless lid, which will become the standard for all iced coffee, tea and espresso beverages CREDIT: STARBUCKS Whether it's California imposing a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at large retail stores, companies like Starbucks pledging to eliminate plastic straws or the commitment of leading companies to “lock up” ocean plastics, companies and consumers alike are starting to feel the pressure to change daily plastic use habits. We all know that consumer behavior change is notoriously tricky to achieve. Several brands are trialing a variety of 'refill and reuse' options around the globe to determine the most feasible ways to help customers become more conscious consumers. A few examples of note: PepsiCo Hydration Station Floor Model 2 CREDIT: PRNEWSFOTO/PEPSICO PepsiCo will roll out a new, mobile-enabled hydration platform in select workplaces, universities and hospitality partners as part of their 'Beyond the Bottle' initiative. The platform is made up of three components: a water dispenser, smartphone app and personalized QR code sticker for reusable bottles that allows consumers to set their own hydration goals, track their environmental impact and save preferences like flavors and carbonation levels. Unilever is partnering with Algramo in Chile to deliver home care products directly to consumer homes. CREDIT: UNILEVER Unilever is piloting an app-powered, intelligent dispensing system that uses electric tricycles to deliver homecare products to people’s homes in Chile. Shoppers buy reusable containers for laundry and dishwashing detergent, create an online account and then arrange a free visit of an electric tricycle to make a home visit to refill their product containers. When the tricycle arrives, consumers simply dispense the desired amount and pay per weight. Alaska Airlines asks flyers to #FillBeforeYouFly CREDIT: PRNEWSWIRE/ALASKA AIRLINES As part of their effort to reduce in-flight waste, Alaska Airlines is encouraging flyers to #FillBeforeYouFly by bringing their own water bottle and filling it before they board. As an incentive, the airline will plant a tree for every passenger who brings a pre-filled water bottle onto their flight and posts a photo to social media tagging @AlaskaAir with the hashtag #FillBeforeYouFly. Unilever's first deodorants to be circular by design are made from stainless steel and developed to last forever. UNILEVER Global recycling organization TerraCycle unveiled a new "circular shopping platform" called Loop that replaces single-use disposable packaging with durable, reusable packaging on products ranging from ice cream to deodorant. Companies piloting the platform include Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, Mondelez International, Nestlé, Danone, and UPS. Consumers buy online and products are delivered in a reusable tote. Once finished, Loop picks the product container up from their home, replenishes the products and returns the refilled shipping tote back to the consumer’s doorstep. Whether you're involved in environmental issues such as the impact of plastics or not, the trend is clear: consumer behavior change can make a significant impact on a wide variety of causes. The companies and nonprofit organizations that will ultimately earn consumer attention are those that help make these behavior changes a bit easier to adapt by effectively leveraging innovative partnerships and available technologies.

Features

• Holds up to 55 lbs of dry cell batteries.
• Each UN certified container comes with a Life Latch lid, a poly liner, tie, instructions, terms & conditions, and a pre-paid return shipping label. Tape for covering battery terminals per DOT regulations also included.
• Access exclusive online features including recycling reports, container tracking, and certificates of recycling.
• Only sold in the United States. Not available in Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, or Puerto Rico.
• Recycle various types of dry cell batteries include alkaline, nickel cadmium, lithium & lithium-ion, nickel metal hydride, iron, zinc carbon, silver, and Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS), as well as AA, AAA, C, D, and 9-volt.
• See more on Amazon...

Brand: EasyPak   |   Manufacturer: TerraCycle Regulated Waste Item Dimensions: 11 x 11 x 11 inches (27.9 x 27.9 x 27.9 cm)   |    Amazon Price: $120.00 | as of 12/09/2019(9:03pm pst) Availibility: Usually ships in 1-2 business days List Price: $120.00 See Amazon Reviews | Add to your Amazon Wishlist  

Just as kids headed back to school this year, nearly 200 corporate CEOs headed back to the board room for the first time in two decades to redefine a corporation. These leaders decided  that besides shareholders, a corporation should benefit customers, employees, suppliers, and communities.   As corporations take action on this pledge, their focus necessarily will move beyond short-term quarterly profits; now longer time horizons and qualitative metrics become necessary ingredients for creating value for these other stakeholders.   Defining a purpose and becoming mission-driven is an important way to get this balance right. Thousands of Certified B Corporations work at the intersection of purpose and profit. Over a million nonprofits do, too. Adopting a mission certainly does not require a change in legal construct, but counter-intuitively it does mean behaving more like a nonprofit. Make your mission matter and leverage it through communication.   One of the top avatars in this space is Patagonia with a mission to support the environment. Well, that’s what the mission used to be. Today, Patagonia more urgently says, “We’re in business to save our home planet.”   Their web site continues, “At Patagonia, we appreciate that all life on earth is under threat of extinction. We aim to use the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imaginations—to do something about it.”   Spend five minutes on the company’s website, and you don’t have to wonder if they really mean it. They’ve pulled products—even bestsellers—that inadvertently caused harm and gone back to their own drawing boards to reinvent.   But that’s not true for all companies. At the opposite end of the spectrum are companies with no mission or a faux mission—for example, the defense contractor that manufactures missiles to “build a more peaceful world.” Huh?   Worse still, as one mission-driven CEO, Tom Szaky of TerraCycle, pointed out to me, are companies with a bad mission. These include companies that plan obsolescence, causing customers and the Earth to bare the costs of excessive consumption.   So what does this balance look like when done right and what can you learn about communicating?

 

Dos

1. Do commit to a social impact mission.
2. Do integrate your mission into all departments and enjoy new ways to communicate.
3. Do incorporate your mission into your employer brand strategy.
4. Do open the curtains and be transparent.
5. Do adopt a trustworthy approach.

 

Don’ts

1. Don’t worry about being perfect. Share your failures and what you learn from them.
2. Don’t tell us your company stands for something that your product isn’t.
3. Don’t focus only on quantitative metrics; qualitative metrics count even more. Tell stories.
4. Don’t forget to connect the dots for employees so they can participate and be your best mission ambassadors.
5. Don’t keep your mission siloed away in the CSR office. From front line employees to corner-office dwellers, everyone lives, talks, and embodies your mission.

  Committing to and leveraging your company’s passion for its mission helps you attract customers, talent, and collaborators while driving safety, retention, and profitability. Get the messages right and you expand your mission, grow your business, and make our world a little better.

Tom Szaky hat ein klares Ziel: Er will Müll komplett abschaffen. Mit seiner Firma macht er sogar die unrecylebarsten Dinge verwertbar - sogar Zigarettenstummel und Kagummis. Doch was taugen seine Ideen wirklich? "Galileo" hat den Abfall-Visionär getroffen

Beauty brand Burt's Bees has teamed up with National Geographic on an initiative to draw attention to the issue of climate change.       The US beauty label and the media giant have announced a social media blackout dubbed #NatureBlackout, timed to coincide with the UN Climate Summit. Following the blackout, the brand will appeal to its followers to make a #ChangeforNature pledge on September 26, with each new habit triggering a $10 donation to the National Geographic Society to focus on the reduction of plastic waste in the ocean. "As a brand founded to connect people to nature, we must protect it," said Paula Alexander, Director of Sustainable Business and Innovation at Burt's Bees, in a statement. "National Geographic is committed to generating solutions for a healthier and more sustainable future," added Valerie Craig, Vice President of Impact Initiatives at the National Geographic Society. "To date, we've awarded more than 14,000 grants for bold, innovative and transformative projects. One of our current priorities is researching solutions to prevent plastic waste from entering the ocean. We're thrilled that for each #ChangeforNature pledge, Burt's Bees will donate $10 to support our efforts to reduce individual plastic consumption and the flow of plastics into watersheds." The beauty industry has seen a wave of sustainable initiatives recently. Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble-owned hair care brand Herbal Essences joined forces with waste management giant TerraCycle to launch a series of bottles comprising 25% beach plastic, while REN Clean Skincare has pledged to become completely "zero waste" by the year 2021. The personal care conglomerate Unilever recently unveiled a three-part plan to target plastic use in the US, including a pledge for 50% of its plastic packaging to be made from post-consumer recycled (PCR) content by the end of 2019, and Lush Cosmetics marked World Oceans Day this year with a limited-edition ‘Shark Fin Soap' that saw 100% of its sales proceeds directed to the Rob Stewart Sharkwater Foundation, which fights for the protection of the underwater predators.