Day: July 29, 2021

If you’re someone who has a reusable coffee cup (and remembers to use it), has a compost at home and regularly engages in meat-free mondays, then you might have heard of the phrase the Circular Economy (CE) before.  While most people assume that the CE is just about recycling (and no shade if you do), it actually goes much deeper than that—in fact, recycling is the last resort when it comes to an ideal CE. To put it simply, the theory behind the CE is about transforming our current linear consumption model (Take-Make-Waste) into a circular one that keeps products and services in use for longer (well, forever) to reduce environmental impact and protect precious natural resources. The benefits of the CE are endless, but in short it enables us all to consume more consciously, without compromising on quality, cost or experience.

Prominent Northeastern grocery store chain Hannaford Supermarkets made headlines recently by declaring that for an entire year it had not sent any spoiled or outdated food to landfills, where the organic decomposition process produces methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Instead, Hannaford, which operates in New England and New York, is contracting with an anaerobic food reprocesser to strip the food from its packaging, mix it with microbes and manure, and turn it into fuel, fertilizer and bedding for dairy cows.

Time is running out for the world to address the impact and effects of climate change. Thankfully, political leaders and businesses are focusing their attention on the crisis — and the green finance movement is gaining traction globally as investors and financial institutions work to mitigate climate change by funding projects tied to sustainability objectives. This event features conversations between Insider senior editors and financial market leaders and investors about funding sustainability, the path to double profit, and the latest green finance trends to get the world to net-zero carbon emissions.

Prominent Northeastern grocery store chain Hannaford Supermarkets made headlines recently by declaring that for an entire year it had not sent any spoiled or outdated food to landfills, where the organic decomposition process produces methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Instead, Hannaford, which operates in New England and New York, is contracting with an anaerobic food reprocesser to strip the food from its packaging, mix it with microbes and manure, and turn it into fuel, fertilizer and bedding for dairy cows.

Today, the Clorox-owned personal care brand announced plans to be Net-Zero-Plastic-to-Nature by 2021 and shared updates on packaging improvements, new product launches, waste elimination initiatives, and smart partnerships—all part of the Burt’s Bees plan for circularity. “The challenges of the pandemic have only heightened the importance of protecting nature as a resource, for the health of people and all life on Earth,” ​Burt’s Bees Senior Director of Sustainability Paula Alexander, points out in today’s media release about the personal care brand’s latest sustainability goals. “That’s why we’ve chosen to focus on systemic changes across our supply chain while working toward a circular economy—to enable a more connected and stable relationship between people and nature,” ​she says. The brand is using Plastic Waste Reduction Standards established by the non-profit climate action and sustainable development organization Verra​ as well as those outlined by The 3R Initiative​ (in partnership with EA, South Pole and Quantis).