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Source: Product Design & Development.net By: Alan Nicol, Executive Member, AlanNicolSolutions

If we choose to use cost trade-offs as justification for the expense, the time, the effort, or the long-term decisions that support the Lean strategy and methodology, then we must have a solid value stream structure. Without our production and business systems aligned to the value stream, we cannot correctly and accurately assign cost or account the true cost of production and waste. This is a very important understanding that is very often missed or ignored.
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Source: GRIST.com

By Auden Schendler and Michael Toffel Grist guest contributor

Green initiatives are ubiquitous these days, implemented with zeal at companies like Dupont, IBM, Walmart, and Walt Disney. The programs being rolled out — lighting retrofits, zero-waste factories, and carpool incentives — save money and provide a green glow. Most large companies are working to reduce energy use and waste, and many have integrated sustainability into strategic planning. What’s not to like?

Well, for starters, these actions don’t meaningfully address the primary barrier to sustainability, climate change. According to the International Energy Agency, without action, global temperatures will likely increase 6 degrees C by 2100, “which would have devastating consequences for the planet.” This means more super droughts, floods, storms, fires, crop failures, sea-level rise, and other major disruptions. “Sustainability” simply isn’t possible in the face of such a problem, as Superstorm Sandy demonstrated.

So despite perceptions that “sustainable business” is up and running, the environment reminds us we’re failing to deal with the problem at anywhere near sufficient scale. Because climate change requires a systemic solution, which only governments can provide, firms serious about addressing it have a critical role well beyond greening their own operations. They must spur government action. But few are.
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Source: Aljazeera news as posted on Yahoo News!

A hidden epidemic is poisoning America. The toxins are in the air we breathe and the water we drink, in the walls of our homes and the furniture within them. We cannot escape it in our cars. It is in cities and suburbs. It afflicts rich and poor, young and old. And there’s a reason why you have never read about it in the newspaper or seen a report on the nightly news: it has no name – and no antidote.

The culprit behind this silent killer is lead. And vinyl. And formaldehyde. And asbestos. And Bisphenol A. And polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). And thousands more innovations brought to us by the industries that once promised ” better living through chemistry “, but instead produced a toxic stew that has made every American a guinea pig and has turned the US into one grand unnatural experiment.

Today, we are all unwitting subjects in the largest set of drug trials ever. Without our knowledge or consent, we are testing thousands of suspected toxic chemicals and compounds, as well as new substances whose safety is largely unproven and whose effects on human beings are all but unknown. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) itself has begun monitoring our bodies for 151 potentially dangerous chemicals, detailing the variety of pollutants we store in our bones, muscle, blood and fat. None of the companies introducing these new chemicals has even bothered to tell us we are part of their experiment.
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Source: Waste & Recycling News.com

As more cities adopt citywide composting programs to divert food waste from landfills, the market for compostable products continues to expand.

But with so many companies in the market making unverified claims about their products, the meaning of the term “compostable” has become muddled for consumers.

“There’s a lot of confusion with what’s compostable and what’s not,” said Doug Hill, general manager of EcoSafe Zero Waste, a compostable product manufacturer.

In the absence of a federally mandated certification process for compostable products, manufacturers can label their products as “compostable” or “biodegradable” without any scientific verification that the product will break down.

Agencies like the Federal Trade Commission attempt to regulate deceptive “greenwash” marketing techniques, but it’s not always easy to prove a product’s label is misleading.
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Source: Environmental Leader.com

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has released Eco4Biz – a toolkit aimed at businesses looking to assess, measure and value the natural resources they use.

The toolkit has been released in report form and is titled Eco4Biz – Ecosystem services and biodiversity tools to support business decision-making. WBCSD says that the report is a “one-stop resource kit” to help environmental managers and companies navigate and choose from a range of available tools to better understand how they rely on nature, leading to more informed and better sustainability decisions.
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