LONDON—Ethical Corp. has published a briefing which explores the business case for advancing social purpose using insight and evidence from Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer at Interface and Franz Paasche, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at PayPal— which can be accessed here. Focusing on Interface’s Climate Take Back program and PayPal’s Working Capital, this briefing offers six pages of expert response and analysis to provide comprehensive insight into the social purpose business case including these key issues: How to convince your leadership team on social purpose; How sustainability is driving revenue; and The benefits of social purpose on your...

SAN FRANCISCO—Bamboo and palm interior finishes manufacturer Smith & Fong announced the launch of Simla, a new hybrid panel derived from both coconut and sugar palm, according to company founder and CEO Dan Smith. “The history and culture of India offer wonderful inspiration for new designs and motifs in palm,” Smith said. “Simla is a colonial era hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas that functioned as the summer capital during British rule. It is today still sprinkled with lovely old wooden cottages from this period, and the design we have chosen is reminiscent of some of the weathered siding and...

MUSKEGON, MICH.—EarthTronics, dedicated to developing innovative energy-efficient lighting products that provide a positive economic and environmental impact for its customers, now offers a new high-performance T8 double-end direct-wire LED Type B, 15-watt EarthBulb that provides greater than 60 percent energy savings. By removing the ballast from the equation, direct-wire T8 lamps easily save up to 5 additional watts of energy per lamp. When replacing 32-watt fluorescent T8 lamps, this new direct-wire solution saves 18 to 22 watts of savings per lamp, resulting in 60 to 70 percent savings, depending on the type of ballast removed from the circuit. The new,...

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS–Industry awards continue to stack up for Friedrich Air Conditioning Company’s VRP (Variable Refrigerant Packaged) Heat Pump system. Most recently, Friedrich’s VRP system was named a Silver Award Winner for Excellence in the Indoor Air Quality category by The Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration News (ACHR News) magazine. Friedrich was honored as part of the magazine’s 14th annual Dealer Design Awards Program, as judged by an independent panel of contractors. Unlike other systems, VRP is earning notoriety as a total HVAC solution that utilizes a Precision Inverter compressor that gives it exceptional performance, increased efficiencies of up to...

NORWALK, CONN.—Metroflor Corp. has shared a video series of the panel its Chief Sustainability Officer Rochelle Routman moderated at the Sustainatopia May 2017 conference in San Francisco. Entitled “The Voice of New China”, the discussion features panelists Simon Xia, Metroflor’s Shanghai General Manager and Factory Sustainability Coordinator, and Jin Song, General Manager of Elegant Plastics, a primary factory of Metroflor’s LVT floors. The panel covers a wide array of subjects regarding the manufacturing environment in today’s China including sustainability and transparency, energy and water efficiencies, and the factory workers’ experience, as well as an audience question and answer session. The...

CHICAGO—PureCycle Technologies, in partnership with consumer goods company P&G, hosted the ribbon-cutting for a plant that will restore used polypropylene (PP) plastic to “virgin-like” quality with a recycling method that is one of a kind. The new plant will enable consumers to purchase more products made from recycled plastic. The patented technology was born in P&G labs as one of many innovations with meaningful sustainability benefits. P&G licensed the technology to PureCycle, a portfolio company of Innventure, a Wasson Enterprise Partnership that commercializes disruptive technologies. Founded in 2015, PureCycle is opening a small-scale plant in Lawrence County, Ohio where they...

KOHLER, WIS.—Kohler Co. was awarded the US Water Prize for its water conservation efforts by the US Water Alliance during its One Water Summit in New Orleans. The Water Prize is presented annually in five categories, including a private sector organization for outstanding achievement in advancing sustainable solutions to water challenges. Water Alliance leaders recognized Kohler as this year’s private sector honoree for its development and promotion of water-efficient products that meet the EPA’s WaterSense efficiency requirements. “Since 2011, the US Water Alliance has worked to advocate for the true value of water and promote policies and practices that ensure safe...

TORRANCE, CALIF.—LEDtronics introduces its latest generation of UL-Recognized LED PLL Lamps to replace old-technology fluorescent CFLs. These LED lamps can be directly retrofitted with a simple ballast bypass into existing 4-pin, inline PLL fluorescent fixtures. Applications include ceiling lights in offices, schools, hallways, retail store display lighting, undercabinet lighting, sign backlighting, wall sconce lighting, workspace or cube lighting, and many more. The PLLxxSC series lamps come in 9-inch, 13-inch, 16-inch, and 22-inch lengths, and feature an inline 4-pin 2G11 base. The power consumption ranges from only 9 up to 22 watts, to replace fluorescent lamps of 18 to 50 watts....

READING, PA.—Ambius, a global leader in interior landscaping, was honored with 25 awards at the 2017 International Plantscape Awards Celebration at Cultivate ’17. The Awards ceremony was held on Sunday, July 16 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. The company’s 25 award wins break its own record for wins by a single firm, which it previously set with 17 wins at Cultivate ’16. These awards honor the Ambius team’s commitment to innovative design, client service and professionalism in the interior plantscaping industry. Eighteen separate designers were honored for their work, taking home nearly 40 percent of...

DALTON, GA.—J+J Flooring Group marked continued progress towards its environmental performance goals according to the company’s fifth annual corporate sustainability report. Titled Building Momentum, the report covers the company’s environmental and social responsibility investments and progress during the 2016 fiscal year. Highlights from the report include a 23 percent reduction in the company’s energy consumption since 2010—an achievement that exceeds J+J’s 20 percent reduction goal four years ahead of the company’s 2020 deadline. The milestone follows the company’s 2014 achievement of Zero Waste to Landfill Certification, six years ahead of its 2020 goal. The milestones are part of J+J’s 20/20 Vision,...