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7.12.2010 Big brands collaborate to innovate

Brand owners like Nike, Starbucks and SABMiller are taking an increasingly collaborative approach as they pursue eco-friendly innovation. Sportswear giant Nike recently unveiled an Environmental Apparel Design Tool, with this software showing how well prospective products perform in terms of reducing waste and sustainable material use. Based on a $6m investment and seven years of development, this system has been made accessible to external companies in a bid to foster universal standards. "Over the past four years it has proved to be invaluable at Nike and has helped us create products with a higher sustainability standard," said Hannah Jones, Nike's vp, sustainable business and innovation.

Elsewhere, coffee house chain Starbucks has established the aim of ensuring every cup can be reused or recycled by 2015. Having already incorporated office paper in its cups since 2006, Starbucks hopes to take a major step further following a successful six-week trial. "This innovation represents an important milestone in our journey," said Jim Hanna, Starbucks' director of environmental impact.

Elsewhere, SABMiller and Innovia Technology joined forces to predict what the brewing market could look like in three decades. The worst case scenario was "marginal survival", offering restricted access to water, surging energy costs and frequent migrations of people, with one possible response being a mobile brewery carried on a ship. "The descriptions are intended as food for thought rather than as blueprints for building new facilities," said Rob Wilkinson, director of Innovia. "However, the example of the brewery on a ship is entirely feasible." Under the "energy deprived" option, water was readily available but energy costs were high, so SABMiller may use its plants as community hubs, sharing resources with farmers. The introduction of a "continuous brewing system" might overcome water scarcity and low energy prices, while the "plentiful supply" schema made reducing emissions, and similar strategies, the priority.

B.L. 7.12.2010