Tuesday

Doing More with Less


By Joel Makower via Green BuZZ


Doing more with less. That seems to be a common theme among companies in 2009, which is shaping up to be the Year of Living Frugally. Companies aren't necessarily cutting back (though many are), but they're learning how to be more efficient than ever. That includes ever-more-efficient resource use -- and reuse. Hence, this week's feature story, about corporate "dumpster diving," in which a range of companies are finding treasure among trash.

Companies are also getting better at closing the loop, as Zeftron Nylon's Richard Ranke told GreenBiz.com associate editor Jonathan Bardelline in this week's GreenBiz Radio. The company is turning used carpet back into "virgin" nylon, and back into new carpet, transforming a liability -- used carpet -- into an asset.

There's certainly no dearth of detritus. Consider e-waste, of which some 66.5 million pounds were recycled last year by major manufacturers and retailers, according to new EPA data, a 30 percent rise from 2007. That's good news -- to a point. In our upcoming State of Green Business 2009 report ... Read More
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cradle-to-cradle ::.

CRADLE-TO-CRADLE
A phrase invented by Walter R. Stahel in the 1970s and popularized by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their 2002 book of the same name. This framework seeks to create production techniques that are not just efficient but are essentially waste free. In cradle-to-cradle production all material inputs and outputs are seen either as technical or biological nutrients. Technical nutrients can be recycled or reused with no loss of quality and biological nutrients composted or consumed. By contrast cradle to grave refers to a company taking responsibility for the disposal of goods it has produced, but not necessarily putting products’ constituent components back into service.


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