Throughout the week, our team posts articles to a channel in Slack called #read-this. This helps us stay up to date on the ongoing trends in food mobility – the equitable and sustainable movement of nutrients through communities, from cultivation to consumption and value recovery.
It’s all happening! The sustainable shifts we’ve been anticipating for years is starting to show up in boardrooms and on the shelves as companies are finding ways to make earth friendly changes and appeal to environmentally-conscious buyers. This week, we shared a few ways companies are changing to differentiate themselves as sustainable brands.
1. A Sustainability Revolution Is Coming, Are Leaders Ready?
Making a dent in sustainability efforts requires organizations to take a leap of faith, looking beyond quarterly financial drivers in favor of making long term progress. This article discusses how more and more companies are committing to carbon neutrality goals, driving the need to think more long term as an organization.
It discusses some ways to decentralize the sustainability goals in an organization, including ideas like this:
“Establishing the right culture to achieve sustainability is not about the norms in the C-suite; it is about the people who will make decisions every day to align the business with that objective.”
2. Brands are starting to add carbon labels to their packaging
While it’s still difficult to accurately measure carbon emissions, it’s not stopping brands from sharing their carbon footprint estimates with consumers. This article discusses carbon labeling and how some brands (like Oatly, Just Salad and CocoKind) are using their carbon footprint as a visible brand differentiator.
3. Principles for Designing Sustainable Services
While it’s still difficult to accurately measure carbon emissions, it’s not stopping brands from sharing Design principles have been around for years, helping teams to create products using consistent decision making criteria. This article shares eight principles for designing sustainable services for teams, stating that their goal is that, “…it will soon become second nature for everyone who designs services to consider and maximize their environmental impact.”
4. Announcing the Beyond the Bag Challenge Winners
While it’s still difficult to accurately measure carbon emissions, it’s not stopping brands from sharing
In 2020, Ideo partnered with Closed Loop Partners to ask the question, “How might we transport goods from retailer to destination in a way that is compatible with diverse retail systems, delivers ease and convenience for customers, and reduces environmental impact?”
This article presents the winners of the challenge, who each receive a portion of the $1 million in prize money and are eligible for additional financial support to support testing, piloting and scaling efforts. The ideas are awesome and we hope they’ll continue to advance!
5. Meijer’s Rollout of Flashfood Waste Reduction Program Sees Finish Line in 2021
While it’s still difficult to accurately measure carbon emissions, it’s not stopping brands from sharing
In 2020, IDEO partnered with Closed Loop Partners to ask the question, “How might we transport goods from retailer to destination in a way that is compatible with diverse retail systems, delivers ease and convenience for customers, and reduces environmental impact?”
This article presents the winners of the challenge, who each receive a portion of the $1 million in prize money and are eligible for additional financial support to support testing, piloting and scaling efforts. The ideas are awesome and we hope they’ll continue to advance!