Sustainable Apparel Coalition Adds Materials Web Tool

Read the full post at Environmental Leader.

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has launched the Materials Sustainability Index (MSI) web tool as a new component to the Higg Index suite of sustainability tools for the apparel and footwear industries.

The interactive platform visualizes and compares the quantitative section of the MSI scores used in the Higg Index. The goal of the MSI web tool is to increase transparency into how the quantitative scores of the MSI are derived, as well as allow a means for anyone in the public domain to submit new data to the SAC to improve the quality of the scores. It is open-source, allowing users to contribute new data, help improve the quality of current data and access the data underlying the MSI scores.

 

Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition Now Accepting Applications

The Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition for Ultra-Low-Energy-Use Appliances and Equipment supports faculty-lead student design teams at U.S. universities to design, build, and test ultra efficient product prototypes and/or prototypes that greatly reduce the cost of ultra-efficient products. The dual objectives of the Competition are to support the development of next-generation prototypes and the next generation of scientists and engineers who will design them.

The application process for team funding for the 2013/2014 Academic Year Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition  was opened in May, 2013. Proposals will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. The Request for Proposal (RFP) will close on July 8, 2013.  Final selections will be announced to the public in August, 2013. Application materials are available at http://maxtechandbeyond.lbl.gov/apply.

 

Nike, Adidas and others aim for less toxic supply chains

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

In 2004, a group of forward-thinking fashion and athletic brands with restricted substances lists (RSLs) — featuring major players Adidas, C&A, Gap, Levi’s, Marks & Spencer and Nike — formed an industry working group with the aim of reducing the use and impact of harmful substances in the apparel and footwear supply chain.

Nine years later, the Apparel and Footwear International RSL Management Group (AFIRM) is 18 members strong and continuing its mission by creating and distributing new and innovative tools for supply chains around the globe and by hosting seminars to educate its global supplier base on ever-evolving best practices in chemical safety management.

 

The business of bio-inspired design grows in the Empire State

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

A New York program is incubating bio-inspired technology by funding companies seeking to harness its genius.

 

How Playworld Systems makes outdoor play sustainable

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Playworld Systems, a leading manufacturer of imaginative playground and fitness equipment, is committed to measurably reducing its impact on the environment. The company’s aggressive action to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) helped Playworld Systems become the first and only playground manufacturer to have its products Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver.

McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) interviewed Curtis Cleveland, director of environmental and materials engineering of Playworld Systems.

 

 

Better by Design: Evolving EPR fees call for better design choices.

Read the full story in Recycling Today.

Does establishing fees in EPR systems effect whether producers choose to manufacture their products using materials that have a smaller environmental impact?

 

The carbon footprint of your running shoes

Read the full story at SmartPlanet.

A typical pair of running shoes comprises 65 discrete parts, requiring more than 360 processing steps to assemble. During its lifecycle, the pair will generate 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions — that’s like keeping a 100-watt light bulb on for a week.

But where does the majority of that footprint come from? The results will help shoe companies identify ways to improve designs and reduce shoes’ social and environmental impact. MIT News reports.

 

Steps Towards Enhancing the Sustainability of Packaging

Read the full story in Environmental Leader.

Sustainable packaging encompasses multiple initiatives, including producing effective solutions with minimum resources, protecting the product, transport efficiency and effective end of life management.  What’s encouraging is that each of the aforementioned can be accomplished one step at a time.

Implementing incremental changes towards sustainable packaging can often achieve a more robust outcome towards comprehensive sustainability than holding off on a product’s release until a complete redesign can be made. It all depends on brand owners’ objectives, including their knowledge of consumer preferences, impact from supplier scorecards, and their own internal sustainability goals.

One caveat, no matter what the company decides to include in its sustainability mix, there will be no greater backlash than the waste of fully-costed products.   These are products that have been manufactured and transported to a retailer only to never be purchased due to a variety of reasons, such as a packaging defect or damage – which can endanger the integrity of the product inside. To balance performance and sustainability, product manufacturers should consider the following points:

 

 

Kickstarting: A Desktop Mill For Carving Your Own Circuit Boards

Read the full story at Fast Co.Design.

3-D printing seems limitless. You dream it, you build it. But mostly, 3-D printing is only good for making inert plastic shapes. What if you want to build whole, blinking, glowing, communicating gadgets?

The Othermill, by Otherfab, is a desktop mill that wants to do for circuit boards what the MakerBot has done for physical objects. Namely, the mill could enable you to create highly accurate, totally custom electronic guts to fit inside the unique spaces of bespoke gadgetry.

 

Is Waste-Free Packaging on the Horizon?

Read the full story from Earth911.

Each year, we throw away over 70 million tons of packaging waste, which takes up a significant chunk of landfill space. Package designer Aaron Mickelson decided to tackle this problem for his masters thesis project at the Pratt Institute and came up with what he calls The Disappearing Package.