Zara has made its first major incursion into sustainable fashion with the launch of its first ‘green’ clothing capsule collection under its ecolabel Join Life. The new launch is the first time it has presented a full seasonal collection through the brand, which is made from organic cotton, recycled wool, recycled polyester and Tencel. The company has also confirmed all the factories producing the Join Life clothes are powered by renewable energy and use water-efficient manufacturing processes. In addition, the range’s tags, bags and shipping boxes are all made using recycled materials and there are plans for clothing donation boxes to be introduced to Zara’s US stores to encourage customers to recycle their old clothes. It is the brand’s first big marketing push in the sustainable fashion field. (Business Green)
Dunkin’ Donuts is still serving coffee in Styrofoam cups 6 years after saying it would stop
In a 2010 report, Dunkin’ Donuts said it considered its use of foam to be “the most prominent sustainability issue we must deal with.” In a follow-up report two years later, the company said it was still searching for an alternative to foam. Six years after declaring that replacing foam cups was the company’s “#1 sustainability priority,” a majority of Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants still serve coffee in cups made of polystyrene, one of the most environmentally unfriendly materials. Because of this many municipalities across the country are banning it. In those places the company has introduced cups made of a recyclable plastic called polypropylene. “We are not prepared to transition fully out of foam at this time,” said Christine Riley Miller, Dunkin’ Brands’ senior director of corporate social responsibility. But other companies, such as McDonald’s were able to make the switch from foam to paper cups and Starbucks’ hot cups are made with 10% recycled paper fibre. (Business Insider)
Energy
ASEAN member states chart course to renewable energy future
ASEAN member states are currently on track to source 17 percent of their combined total primary energy supply from renewables by 2025. To help enable the needed energy transition, the International Renewable Energy Agency and the ASEAN Centre for Energy gave Ministers an analysis which provides detailed technological and sectoral options for ASEAN countries to close the gap between the current and targeted share of renewables. According to the research, the combined energy demand of the ten ASEAN member states will grow 50 percent by 2025. This will increase emissions by 60 percent and generate USD 225 billion per year in associated health and pollution costs. “While the share of renewables each member state can realistically achieve varies, the fact remains that all ASEAN countries can contribute to the 23 percent goal in their own way,” said Dolf Gielen, Director of IRENA’s Innovation and Technology Centre. (Eco-business)
Environment
Scientists say amazon biodiversity and indigenous knowledge could help fuel fourth industrial revolution
Scientists say that the Amazon’s rich diversity of life and the knowledge of its indigenous peoples could be paired with recent advances in biological, digital, and material science technologies to further fuel the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In a recent article, a team of researchers argue for “a new development paradigm” in which we “research, develop, and scale a high-tech innovation approach that sees the Amazon as a global public good of biological assets that can enable the creation of innovative high-value products, services, and platforms.” Carlos Nobre, leader researcher, and team say that the significant reductions in Amazon deforestation opens up the possibility of ushering in a new, sustainable economic development paradigm. He is leading a multidisciplinary group whose aim is to set up public-private partnerships in order to bring together research and development centres, universities, and businesses to make economic use of the Amazon’s diversity of living plants, animals, and insects. (Mongabay)
Employees
Millions in U.S. climb out of poverty
More than seven years after the recession ended, employers are finally being compelled to reach deeper into the pools of untapped labour, creating more jobs, especially among retailers, restaurants and hotels, and paying higher wages to attract workers and meet new minimum wage requirements. Poverty declined among every group. But African-Americans and Hispanics experienced the largest improvement. Also government programs have kept tens of millions from sinking into poverty year after year. But a main driver behind the impressive 1.2 percentage point decline in the poverty rate, the largest annual drop since 1999, was that the economy finally hit a tipping point after years of steady improvement. Overall, 2.9 million more jobs were created from 2014 to 2015, helping millions of unemployed people cross over into the ranks of regular wage earners. However, about 43 million Americans are still officially classified as poor, and countless others up and down the income ladder remain worried about their families’ financial security. (New York Times)
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