The idea of running a pay-what-you-can organization is generally laughed at as a business model, but Panera is proving skeptics wrong. So far, the St. Louis-based company has three such eateries and they are turning a profit, according to the Chicago Tribune.

This week Panera opened its fourth pay-what-you-can Panera Cares location, in Chicago. Founder and co-CEO Ron Shaich tells the Trib that the neighborhood that it's the perfect community for such a business because it has “million-dollar townhomes and people on the street."

"When you walk in, it's the full Panera experience," Shaich, who hopes to open a new Panera Cares cafe each quarter, told the Trib. "When you go into a soup kitchen, the energy is so negative and the food is institutional and the experience is institutional."Continue reading...

Even rock bands like Pearl Jam are turning to UPS for logistics help in sustainability. The brand recently partnered with UPS to devise a carbon-reducing transportation strategy for its 20th anniversary tour. It's all in a day's work for Arnold Barlow, Senior Manager of Sustainability Solutions for UPS’s Customer Solutions group, and his colleagues.

“UPS delivers 16 million packages a day, 3 billion annually,” says Barlow, who spoke about "Innovations in Sustainable Packaging" at last week's Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego (for which brandchannel was a sponsor), about the sheer scope of what UPS faces daily. “About three or four years ago, customers using our test lab in Chicago began asking us about which packaging materials were the most sustainable. We didn’t have the expertise, so we took it upon ourselves to become experts.”

Arnold told us about the company's journey to today’s status as a leader in sustainable packaging and his role as steward of the brand’s Eco Responsible Packaging Program.Continue reading...