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Businesses
are increasingly seeing sustainability
as a precompetitive issue |
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Global
companies must produce more with less
and collaboration is key to achieving
this
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Smart companies see the importance of
collaboration
Businesses are working together to ensure
that natural resources are available
for generations to come. Photograph:
Alamy
The Oromo of Ethiopia have a saying:
"You can't wake a person who's
pretending to sleep." Recent
reports tell us we are consuming
natural resources at a rate faster than
the Earth is replenishing them. The
data shows we are currently consuming
the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support
human activities.
For bankers, this is equivalent to living
on the principle; for farmers, it is
like eating your seed. We are quite
literally eating the planet.
Another recent scientific
study shows that we're even dipping
into areas that were previously considered
untouchable to meet a growing global
appetite. Indeed, the study points out
that since 1900, 89 areas, previously
designated as "protected areas"
have seen that status relaxed or even
removed for various reasons, but centred
on access to and use of natural resources.
And this is now. By 2050, UN experts
agree there will be three billion more
people on the planet, each with an average
of 2.9 times more income, consuming
twice as much. These trends illustrate
a future without enough food and raw
materials to meet growing demand.
Jason Clay is senior vice president
of market transformation at WWF
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more .....
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To
accelerate the growth of bio-based
polylactic acid in packaging |
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Recent
developments of Dupont include the adoption
of DuPont™ Biomax® Strong 120
to help accelerate the growth of bio-based
polylactic acid (PLA) polymers in packaging.
Biomax® Strong 120 is a copolymer
designed to modify Polylactic Acid (PLA)
for improved toughness properties.
According to DuPont
research into new materials and opportunities
for sustainable packaging, the advanced
polymer modifier Biomax® Strong 120
can help overcome the limitations that
hold back the widespread use of bio-based
polylactic acid (PLA) in packaging. As
well as delivering significant toughening
effects in brittle PLA materials, the
modifier also reduces film noise and cuts
power consumption while increasing thermal
stability during extrusion.
Read more .....
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Incineration
- The burning question |
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Written
by Sterling Anthony, CPP
What stance should the packaging community
take on incineration?
Waste-to-energy (WtE) incineration is
a hot topic in the sustainability debate,
inflaming passions on both sides and too
often producing more heat than illumination.
The packaging community (suppliers and
users) seems to want to stay above the
fray, content to publicly embrace the
less controversial alternatives: recycling,
reduction, and reuse (the 3Rs). This arms-length
approach is ill-advised, given that packaging
is a component of municipal solid waste
(MSW) and that there's a nationwide network
of incinerators that burn MSW to produce
energy. So as long as there are incinerators
burning MSW, packaging will be judged
in relation to the process. If the packaging
community doesn't define its stance, it'll
have its stance defined for it, and it
may not like the definition.
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more .....
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Industrial
Biotechnology Turning Process Engineering
into Profits |
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The
promise of producing chemicals from renewable
feedstocks is becoming a reality thanks
to advances in metabolic engineering and
process development. Several biobased
plastics are already being produced at
commercial scale, and many biochemical
firms are in the late stages of process
development. The introduction of lower-cost,
biobased versions of existing chemicals
and promising new platform chemicals could
help the ag-rich U.S. stay competitive
in the global marketplace.
Executives expect chemicals produced via
bioprocesses to eventually replace at
least 15% of the current chemical production
base, although levels of penetration and
timelines vary greatly. The
fact that many bioprocesses are already
cheaper than equivalent
petroleum-based production .....
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Metabolix
grasping for profits in renewable
plastics |
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NEW
YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - Metabolix Inc
(MBLX.O)
is betting biodegradable beach toys and
agricultural mulch films will help it
revolutionize the plastics industry, though
the company's weak financial history is
starting to try Wall Street's patience.
Metabolix uses polyhydroxyalkanoate chemicals,
or PHAs, to make plastics that decompose
naturally. PHAs are found in plant cells
and are eaten by bacteria.
Rather than clogging a landfill, a plastic
item made from PHAs will just become lunch
for a microorganism, and you won't have
to worry about Flipper choking on that
toy shovel your kid accidentally left
at the beach.
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Unilever
Leads Sustainability Rankings |
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Unilever has topped rankings of the companies
most committed to sustainability, in a
poll carried out by consultants SustainAbility
and researchers GlobeScan.
The poll asked 559 qualified sustainability
experts from business, government, non-profits
and academia to name large companies that
are “committed to sustainable development,
seeing strategic advantage in pursuing
policies and actions which go beyond the
requirements of environmental and social
legislation.”
Unilever was chosen by 15 percent of respondents,
followed by .......
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USDA
Awards NatureWorks First Certified
Biobased Product Label for Plastics |
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Ingeo™
resins USDA certified 100 percent biobased
carbon content
MINNETONKA, Minn., April 1, 2011
-- Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen
Merrigan announced today that NatureWorks
is one of the first 11 companies approved
to use USDA’s new product label
on its certified bio-based Ingeo products
under the department’s BioPreferred
program. The announcement was made at
a bio-based product meeting held in Glenwillow,
Ohio.
NatureWorks’ Ingeo biopolymer –
made from plants not oil – is the
market-leading material among a new generation
of fibers and plastics that provide low-carbon-footprint
products. With the BioPreferred label,
Ingeo resins are now USDA certified as
containing 100 percent biobased carbon
content.
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PepsiCo
Develops World's First 100 Percent
Plant-Based, Renewably Sourced PET
Bottle |
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PURCHASE,
N.Y., March 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Building
upon its heritage as an innovator and
leader in environmental sustainability,
PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) today announced it
has developed the world's first PET plastic
bottle made entirely from plant-based,
fully renewable resources, enabling the
company to manufacture a beverage container
with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.
PepsiCo's "green" bottle is
100 percent recyclable and far surpasses
existing industry technologies. The bottle
is made from bio-based raw materials,
including
Read
more .....
Pro-Europe
Spring Newsletter
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