New Sustainable Collaborative Focuses on Product and Packaging Innovation
Waste Management and McDonough Innovation form initiative to address waste impact of consumer goods
The initiative—the Waste Management McDonough Sustainable Innovation Collaborative—will focus on directly serving producers, manufacturers, retailers and suppliers of packaged goods and products as they strive to advance their sustainability objectives and results. Product and packaging design for recyclability as well as careful consideration of ecological and human health will be among the collaborative’s goals.
“Over the 40 years since consumer recycling began in
“This is a unique new avenue for innovation,” McDonough said. “What we
have previously thought of as ‘waste streams’ can be transformed into
positive, safe, healthy resource reuse systems that bring value to their
communities in many forms. This is a key element of the Cradle to Cradle
vision which chemist
McDonough added: “Designing up from the dumpster is one reason why I am personally very excited to launch the Sustainable Innovation Collaborative with Waste Management. Working together, we will use the tools of design, science and principled business practices in collaboration with manufacturers, retailers, distributors, consumers and recyclers of products and packaging to profitably work toward eliminating the very concept of waste. We can link healthy, safe materials and sophisticated logistics, and this allows us to bring a uniquely valuable perspective for continuous innovation and quality improvement with supply-side and demand-side collaborators.”
The Sustainable Innovation Collaborative broadens the range of consulting experience that both Waste Management and McDonough Innovation already offer to help firms make sustainability-minded decisions and measure results. Business leaders pursuing enhanced design innovation now have a collaborative enterprise to help them make additional strides in their sustainability efforts.
“Over the years, enlightened manufacturers have taken positive and
forward-looking steps to lighten their footprint on the environment,”
said
The collaborative intends to serve companies and communities at all scales and across industries. “We anticipate working with many groups,” McDonough said. “In many ways, that is the point. Every single company and community has some interaction with or contribution to the waste stream that we generate, and therefore they all have a stake in seeking to transform that system and optimize resource use.”
Added Carpenter: “The time has come for top companies to further assert their leadership and for others to build their profiles in sustainable product design and packaging. Via the Waste Management McDonough Sustainable Innovation Collaborative, we’ve created a means to help suppliers revolutionize their waste streams and create material benefits and value for our customers and consumers alike.”
ABOUT WASTE MANAGEMENT
ABOUT McDONOUGH INNOVATION
McDonough Innovation, based in
Source:
Waste Management
Ken Haldin, 770-542-9376
khaldin@wm.com
or
McDonough
Innovation
Kira Gould, 415-690-0182
kgould@mcdonough.com
or
Tim
Gnatek, 415-342-6632
timgnatek@bluepractice.com