Ikea is embarking on a massive environmental project this month, introducing corrugated cardboard pallets instead of wooden in a move intended to make its 10 million pallets used annually more sustainable and cost-efficient. The furniture retailer previously tested recycled polypropylene plastic loading ledges as an alternative to wooden pallets. As Bloomberg Businessweek notes, the company could also save an estimated $193 million per year by scrapping wooden pallets. [image via Core77]

Coca-Cola wants you to know that, sure, it could have waited until its initial 2020 target date to guarantee that its PlantBottles would all be made from 100-percent plant-based materials. The company also wants you to know that it has moved up that timetable by several years. This week the beverage giant announced multi-million-dollar partnership agreements with three biotech companies in an initiative meant to achieve that acceleration.

"At 30 percent [plant-based materials in its bottles already], we already have a commercial solution that we've deployed in 20 countries over the past two years," Rick Frazier, Coke's vice president of commercial product supply, said on a media call on Thursday. "We could have taken several years to refine that to 100 percent [with a new process] and then started a slow rollout. But we chose to make a difference immediately," he added.

Of course, this promise doesn't mean Coke will be able to roll out 100-percent plant-based bottles to consumers by then. Or, as the New York Times notes today, that Coca-Cola will beat PepsiCo, which has espoused ambitious sustainability goals in regard to its plant-bottle technology.Continue reading...

Starbucks is ending the year on a high note: it's expanding in China, booming on mobile, and making good on its sustainability promise with a recycled design experiment. The company's hometown of Seattle will see the brand's first location made of "up-cycled" building materials — specifically, four used shipping containers, a hot commodity in architecture and design circles these days.

Starbucks spokesman Alan Hilowitz told the New York Times that the eco-friendly concept may lead to more container stores (not to be confused with The Container Store). It will also be one of a kind for another reason, the first "among the 17,000 Starbucks stores globally in that it will be drive-up and walk-up only with no space to lounge inside."Continue reading...

As people across the globe buy up the Toyota Priuses and electric Ford Focuses and Chevy Volts and switch their cars to biofuels and try to just figure out what is the best way to run cars without sucking up all the oil and polluting the air, there have been a few massive carbon-eating culprits flying around: airplanes.

Virgin Atlantic tried out biofuels three years ago, and is now working on developing the world's first low-carbon aviation fuel with just half the carbon footprint of the standard fossil fuel alternative, as Richard Branson announced last month. Two years ago, KLM completed the first commercial biofuel flight, while Finnair completed the longest biofueled commercial flight in July.

Now, U.S. airlines are finally getting into the greening business. The Guardian remarked how U.S. airlines are "racing" this month "to demonstrate their clean energy credentials, scheduling a number of flights powered partially by biofuels.”Continue reading...

It's been a year since we profiled Recyclebank, and a lot has changed since then. Green activism is now officially social as Greenopolis and Recyclebank have merged to create the largest social recycling system to date.

Greenopolis is the social arm of Waste Management, a leading provider of waste and environmental services, which just made a strategic investment in Recyclebank. WM's stake in Recyclebank gives it access to a community-based green rewards program for its nearly 20 million North American customers.Continue reading...

Panasonic earns its number 10 spot on Interbrand's Best Global Green Brands list, partnering with the government of Singapore to develop Asia’s first public-housing green community. Since the August 1 kickoff of the brand’s collaboration with Singapore’s housing board, the town has gained attention as a “living laboratory for green technology.”

The project will take over Punggol, a former farming and fishing village, starting with 100 households. Using surrounding elements of wind, sun, and rain, Panasonic is providing the technology to enable the community’s total energy solutions. Continue reading...

"Green is not only a commitment, but the responsibility of all enterprises. The public in China already have had this awareness in mind and started the green practices by various innovative means. GDP does not simply mean burning. Energy utilization can be greener and more conservative. Going green is not an impossible dream, but what we are actually doing now. The fulfillment of all the missions requires our innovation and time."

— Zhang Xudong, Brand Director of ENN Group, discusses green innovation in China for Interbrand's Best Global Green Brands report

Ubiquity is one of the main attributes of the modern pharmacy chain. Every time a snippet of desirable urban or suburban or even small-town commercial real estate has cropped up in the US over the last couple of decades, it seems as if a Walgreens or Rite Aid or CVS has been there to snap it up.

Now, Walgreens is pursuing a fascinating strategy for leveraging its “everywhereness” in a big way that could have major implications not only for its brand but also for the future of all-electric vehicles in the United States.

The Chicago-based drugstore giant has pledged to install EV-charging stations at 800 of its stores around the country by the end of the year.Continue reading...