2Sustain

Amazon.com has launched the next phase of its “Frustration-Free Packaging” initiative.

Now, electronics manufacturers Kingston and Monster are on-board, offering dozens of their top-selling items in new easy-to-open, environmentally friendly packaging.

Amazon introduced Frustration-Free Packaging back in November 2008. This March, the company added innovative features on its website that allow customers to rate the packaging used by both Amazon and product manufacturers. Since then, tens of thousands of customers have provided feedback, which Amazon says it is using to improve the way products are packaged and shipped to customers.
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Yesterday, AMR, the parent company of American Airlines and its regional affiliate, American Eagle, released its first fully-integrated Corporate Responsibility Report.

This is the first triple-bottom-line report issued by a U.S.-based passenger airline that meets the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Level C reporting.

The 90-page document, “Global Community, Global Commitment,” provides insight into AMR’s environmental, social, and economic performance in calendar year 2008. Highlights of the report include:

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New research from IGD shows that manufacturers of organic foods have been able to hold onto a core group of shoppers, despite the downturn in the economy.

According to the IGD survey, 19% of shoppers in the UK have maintained their spending on organics. Another 9% said that they will buy more organic foods once they have more money to spend.

“There remains a strong core of dedicated organic shoppers – nearly one in five of the UK population – who are maintaining support, regardless of the economy,” Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of the IGD, told Just-food.com (registration required). “Even better news for the organic movement is that these supporters tend to be younger and more affluent – supporting our view that the organic market is experiencing a dip rather than a collapse.”

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New research published in the online version of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicts that U.S. crop yields will suffer a devastating blow if temperatures rise due to climate change.

In the paper, “Nonlinear temperature effects indicate severe damages to U.S. crop yields under climate change,” Dr. Michael Roberts, an agricultural and resource economist at North Carolina State University, and Dr. Wolfram Schlenker, an assistant professor of economics at Columbia University, estimate that yields of three of the most important crops produced in the U.S. –corn, soybean, and cotton– could decrease by 30 to 46% over the next century under slow global warming scenarios.

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Here’s a low-carbon idea that I’ll bet you haven’t thought of yet: room temperature ice cream.

That’s right: ice cream that could be manufactured, transported, and sold without the need for freezing.

Can you imagine how much energy could be saved if consumers could buy ice cream at room temperature and then freeze it for themselves at home?

Unilever, the world’s largest producer of ice cream and owner of the Ben & Jerry’s brand, is hoping to develop just that sort of product, according to a report at TimesOnline.
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