Tom Idle
Virgin
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Tom:
Play-Doh: why you can't get enough of the smell
The news was certainly unusual. But the efforts made to “protect an invaluable point of connection between the brand and fans for years to come,” as the firm’s senior VP of global marketing Jonathan Berkowitz put it, was not surprising. You see, smell is incredibly important to brands that create products, experiences and services, and then sell them to us. And that’s because when we detect a… → Read More
Renewal Mill: Turning By-Products Into More Nutritious Food
Through its proprietary technology, the company transforms organic, high-fiber food by-product streams into nutritious raw ingredients. → Read More
Soap Recycling Creating Win-Win-Win for Hotels, Women, Developing Communities
Eco-Soap Bank is a thriving non-profit operating in 10 countries and employing more than 150 women in developing communities, who collect leftover hotel soap, recycle it, sterilise it and then distribute it into their villages. Clinics, schools and individuals that could not previously afford soap can now get it at half the market rate. And the 960 hotels that have donated their soap are… → Read More
Buddha Boxers Use Bamboo for Comfort and Sustainability
Consider the fashion sector for a moment, and specifically one of the backbones of the industry: cotton.As the most widely used natural fibre used in clothing today, it is a hugely important crop. And more than 100 million smallholder farmers and their families rely on cotton for a living, with 90% of those farmers living in the developing world. → Read More
Be More Toddler: Ella's Kitchen Founder on the Key to Business Success
(3BL Media/Justmeans) — The organic baby food market is about to explode even further.While the global market is expected to account for $5.6 billion by 2020, representing an annual growth rate of more than 10%, the market in the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) is projected to reach $3.5 billion, a growth rate of a staggering 19.5% between now and 2020. → Read More
Be More Toddler: Ella's Kitchen Founder on the Key to Business Success
(3BL Media/Justmeans) — The organic baby food market is about to explode even further.While the global market is expected to account for $5.6 billion by 2020, representing an annual growth rate of more than 10%, the market in the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) is projected to reach $3.5 billion, a growth rate of a staggering 19.5% between now and 2020. → Read More
How a German Startup Is Making the ‘Magic of Light’ Affordable in Developing Countries
Some two billion people around the world don’t have a reliable electricity source to meet their daily energy needs. In the 90 percent of households in rural Tanzania, Kenya or Rwanda that don’t have electricity, they use kerosene lamps, batteries or - if they’re very wealthy - a generator. Mobisol is hoping to change that by scaling solar power in Africa with the help of mobile phones. → Read More
New Platform Enables Entire Food Value Chain to ‘Takestock,’ Redistribute Would-Be Waste
From 10kg of blueberries to 10-litre tubs of mayonnaise and handmade farmhouse cheese, surplus food is now up for grabs eBay-style, thanks to a new UK-based platform. Using the principles of the infamous auction site, Takestock applies the transaction to solving food waste. The online trading platform efficiently connects owners of surplus stock with buyers, rather than scrapping it. → Read More
Wildlife extinction threat
What else is at risk? Elsewhere in Australia, warmer temperatures and decreased rainfall is bad news for marsupials like the Lumholtz tree kangaroo and the yellow-footed rock wallaby, which prefer a cool, moist environment. Another cute mammal at risk of going MIA is the American pika, which is trekking further up its chilly mountain home to avoid overheating even in fairly mild temperatures.… → Read More
Our Use of Eco-Labels Is Set to Soar – For Products, Brands ... and People?
Certification, standards and labels have long provided an effective mechanism for raising awareness around a range of sustainability issues pertaining to consumer products. However, the use of standards and their associated labels has had its detractors, with many commentators bemoaning the fact that the creation of consumer-driven certified products and services has its limitations. Now, a new… → Read More
Jargon buster: Everything you need to know about socially responsible investment
Well, socially responsible investment (SRI) – where enlightened investors care about people and planet, rather than just making a quick buck – might have been around the last few decades, but it certainly no longer sits on the sidelines. A SRI investment is one that is considered to be socially responsible because of the nature of the business the company conducts. These might be investments… → Read More
Tom Cridland: Entrepreneurship Must Be Taught in Schools in Wake of Brexit
Rather than be sucked into the doom and gloom currently engulfing the UK business community, sustainable fashion entrepreneur Tom Cridland is keen to focus on the positives. In an effort to encourage governments to place a greater emphasis on business training in the education system, proceeds from Tom Cridland's new Entrepreneur's Shirt will benefit startups and entrepreneurs in Britain and the… → Read More
6 big ideas that might just save humanity
One of these is to change the rules which are applied to money. We could have ‘short money’ (which would have a ‘use by’ date and be spent on day-to-day things) and ‘long money (more suited to infrastructure investment and projects with a long term payoff). “Applying demurrage – a mechanism for creating such distinctions – universally would naturally discourage people from sitting on money, and… → Read More
ByFusion: Creating the Building Blocks for Tackling Ocean Waste
ByFusion takes plastic waste in any shape or form, feeds it into its machine (kind of like a giant washing machine) and creates blocks, known as RePlast. These are the same size and shape as the conventional concrete blocks most commonly used in US construction projects. And while they are not able to carry out the same job as concrete (after all, they are still made out of plastic and will… → Read More
Heineken’s zero-carbon brewery offers a glimpse at the future of beer-making
If ever there was an industry where you might expect companies to struggle to reduce their impact on the planet it is in beer-making. Relying on a huge energy and water intensive process to create the brews we know and love, this is a sector renowned for its hefty environmental footprint. According to a report by the University of Surrey, our consumption of beer and wine accounts for around 1.5… → Read More
Why corporate sustainability scandals could be a blessing in disguise
VW’s domination of the news media no doubt contributed to the Eco Pulse responses. So too have the various crises engulfing the popular fast food chain Chipotle. An outbreak of E.coli, the suspension of its major pork supplier for breaking animal welfare protocols and the Center for Consumer Freedom’s decision to take out a page ad in the New York Post declaring Chipotle’s food to be unhealthy… → Read More
The trouble with phosphates (and why their demise is good news for fish)
And it is a great result for the environment. The use of more than 14,000 tonnes of phosphate a year will be eliminated, and the carbon impact of the products will be cut in half thanks to the removal of the energy-intensive phosphate mining process in the supply chain. So, what’s the problem with phosphates, anyway? Of course, what goes into our dishwashers flows out of our homes and into… → Read More
A World First: Step Inside Heineken's Zero-Carbon Brewery
In the postcard-perfect town of Göss, a two-hour drive south of Vienna, is the Gösser Brewery, one of more than 165 breweries owned and operated by the Heineken Group, the world’s third-largest beer maker. And it is here that Heineken is proudly boasting to have created the world’s first large-scale zero-carbon brewery. → Read More
Why we should be worried about cobalt, your smart phone’s secret ingredient
We’re obsessed with our smartphones. If the latest research is to be believed, 46 per cent of smartphone owners say its something “they can't live without”, with 65 per cent of us checking our phones within 15 minutes of waking up, and again 15 minutes before going to sleep. In fact, if you’re of the millennial generation, there’s a very good chance (87 per cent) you have your beloved device at… → Read More
It’s good to give: the continued rise of corporate volunteering
But beyond pay and benefits, what matters most to them is the company’s work culture and purpose. Volunteering offers an easy way to present brand values and foster community engagement at the same time. A recent survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that 65 per cent of people are more likely to work for an employer that encourages and promotes… → Read More