Group items tagged

The team, at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa, is using coffee grounds to clean water, turning the grounds into a foam that can remove heavy metals like mercury. "We actually take a waste and give it a second life," says materials scientist Despina Fragouli. Her team took spent coffee grounds from IIT's cafeteria, dried and ground them to make the particles smaller. They then mixed the grounds with some silicon and sugar. Once hardened, they dipped it in water to melt away the sugar, which leaves behind a foam-like material.

Harvest Power Inc. has opened a plant at Walt Disney World to convert food wastes from restaurants, supermarkets and others into electricity and fertilizer.

Chipotle is under pressure from shareholder activists who want the company to publish an annual report on its food sourcing, energy use, waste and labor standards. The proposal, due for a vote at Chipotle's shareholder meeting in May, is important given the brand's focus on green marketing, explains Adam Kanzer, managing director at Domini Social Investments. "They've really put their brand behind this message of sustainability and better farming techniques and cleaner agriculture," he says. "We want to understand: Is it true? How is it done? How do you manage it?"

Hilton Worldwide launched a 3-year commitment to develop a water stewardship strategy, expand its global sustainable seafood efforts, reduce food waste within its operations and supply chain, and accelerate the integration of renewable energy. The company has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to help facilitate this commitment.

Working with WWF will help Hilton Hotels and Resorts to improve seafood choices, food waste, and other issues at thousands of sites worldwide.

From a real-time view into deforestation to an innovative approach to delivering fresh food while minimizing waste, here are sites to watch this year.

Walmart launched a new sustainable agriculture strategy emphasizing locally sourced produce, sustainability training for farmers, and supply-chain environmental assessments. The company will also seek to reduce food waste in stores, purchase sustainable palm oil, and avoid Brazilian beef linked to Amazon deforestation.

Over the past few years, so-called ugly fruit and vegetables have been gaining a host of admirers. Now, Wal-Mart has officially joined the bandwagon. Starting this week, America's largest grocer says it is piloting sales of weather-dented apples at a discount in 300 of its stores in Florida.

Walmart is one of the companies diverting tons of excess food to farmers in southwestern Pennsylvania who are turning it into usable compost in their fields. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports

A biogas process being used in Turkey reduces plant operations while providing potato farmers with more sustainable soil nutrients.

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has announced the winners of the third Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge. 138 design professionals and students in 19 countries worked to submit 79 entries for this third round of the contest, which challenges design students and professionals to apply Cradle to Cradle principles to conceptualize and develop product solutions that can help drive the circular economy. More than 230 designers from 30 countries have participated in the Challenges to date.