Circular economy: bringing ‘closed loop’ into the boardroom…with a bit of help from Dame Ellen

The business case for adopting a ‘closed loop’ approach was previously easy to ignore. But rising commodity prices, expensive energy and increasing landfill costs have done much to push circular economy thinking into the boardroom. And the ‘Dame celebre’ of sailing, Ellen MacArthur, believes she can help it happen faster.

Sustainable food: the Cool Farm Tool and cracking the nut of agricultural emissions

Agricultural emissions account for about 15 per cent of global greenhouse gases, but farming practices and the range of emissions has made it difficult for farmers to tackle them. But what an easy to use tool to calculate them was made available online for farmers to download ?

Green marketing: should we do away with eco labels?

Do green labels serve any real purpose in getting businesses to reduce their environmental impact, or are they just a way for companies to look good?

Six ways to sustainable business success post-financial crisis

A profound change is taking place in the way businesses are run following the financial crisis and some companies and start-ups are already reaping the rewards. So what are the causes of the changes and how are businesses responding? On the input side, capital is scarce, resource prices are increasingly driven by constraints and becoming more volatile, externalities (such as carbon dioxide and water) are beginning to be priced into the economy, new technologies are emerging with increasing rapidity and talent is becoming increasingly discerning – motivated by a ‘higher purpose’ that most companies did not provide before the financial crisis (befic). The output side of the equation is changing as well, with volatile and…

The future of manufacturing: is it going small-scale?

Globalised manufacturing today involves large-scale manufacturing at a handful of strategic locations around the world, but in a carbon and cash-constrained world are we going to see a return to local, small-scale manufacturing?