The Cool Down

🏁🦃 Trend roundup for Nov 18-22: The business x sustainability stories that our 35M+ monthly audience is clicking on 👇 🚗 Our audience is all in on EV innovations — especially when it comes to charging stations and range anxiety --> A big story this week was about California unveiling its first-ever 24/7 EV charging center that's touted as a 'community destination' [https://lnkd.in/eA3W52qX] 💚 Hope for the future — and relief that Gen Z is so smart --> We loved to learn about this Italian teenager who just became the first person to create a working fusion reactor in a school setting, getting us one step closer to unlimited energy [https://lnkd.in/ebrRMM_s] 💾 Sustainable tech is good for the planet (and page clicks) --> Our audience is super stoked about advancements like Apple's first-ever carbon-neutral Mac mini, made with recyclable and renewable materials [https://lnkd.in/e8UkhV7e] What sustainability stories caught your eye this week? #climatesolutions #sustainability #news

🍕 🔍 Newsflash for brands: Ingredient transparency is becoming a must-have for engaged consumers prioritizing their health and safety — and new tech is enabling the momentum like never before. In this edition, we’re unpacking how shoppers are getting savvier and more active about the ingredients and products they’re using and ingesting — and how brands can meet them where they are. 🥕 Plus, an exclusive interview with Julie Chapon, co-founder of the wildly popular food transparency app Yuka, about the new accountability feature it just rolled out.

How2Recycle® (H2R) — the 800-plus-brand coalition behind the "chasing arrows" ♻️ label you see on most products — just launched a major change. Enter: a new dynamic label with a QR code on it so that you get a clear-cut answer on whether a product can be recycled in your specific region. Paul Nowak, the executive director at GreenBlue Org (which runs the How2Recycle coalition) walked us through how the new QR code works and which brands have already started using it. Get the full story here: https://lnkd.in/epAhPB6s #climatesolutions #recycling #innovation

🎁 For anyone who needs a break from politics 😜 sharing The Cool Down's holiday gift guide -- let's focus on supporting local and small businesses and companies who are doing good things in the world. 🎁 Some of our favorite unique, high-quality gifts include: ✍ Paper Culture for holiday cards 💋 Personal care and beauty products from Poppy & Pout, MOB Beauty, Axiology Beauty and more 🍫 Chocolate from Tony's Chocolonely and food from Daily Harvest and Martie 👜 Purses and packs from Rothy's and Cotopaxi 🧦 Socks from Conscious Step, Bombas and Pacas™, Inc. 🪄 Experiences from Uncommon Goods like pet portrait painting & magic shows 🐻 Cozy blankets from Bearaby Our full list is here: https://lnkd.in/gTfiapGA Any that you would add to this list? Hope this gives you some inspiration 💚 #holidays #sustainable #gifting #gifts

#hiring post 2/2 this week ... we're on the lookout for a video producer! TCD is on a mission to help more Americans feel connected to the cleaner, cooler future that's being built around us every day. You can learn more about the position here: https://lnkd.in/evQMdq6F Know you'd be an asset to the team? We encourage you to apply and share 💚

🌊 Expect to see more polybags made out of ... seaweed soon. This fall, the material innovation startup Sway announced a ground-breaking collaboration with prAna, Faherty Brand, Alex Crane, and other clothing brands to swap plastic packaging for fully compostable polybags. Yes, that means they're eligible for industrial composting initiatives — and you can even compost them *at home* Sway reports that around 160,000 plastic bags are produced every second, and that leads to an incredible amount of waste polluting our oceans, parks, and other community spaces, as well as contributing to overcrowded landfills. That's partly because traditional plastic bags are typically made using dirty fuels such as oil and gasoline and can take 800 years to break down. However, this new seaweed-based polybag can decompose in six months or less while adding crucial nutrients back into the soil. 💡 Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eZfBxnsd #climatesolutions #innovation #plastic

Fun news: We're #hiring a new Social Video Content Creator :) TCD is on a mission to help more Americans feel connected to the cleaner, cooler future that's being built around us every day. We're looking for freelance video content creators to help produce engaging, short-form videos to grow our social media following. Know you'd be an asset to the team? We encourage you to apply and share 💚

#AI has taken a lot of knocks recently for its extensive energy usage — but sometimes that power-hungry nature can be justified as a force for good. Like when it's used for almond farming 👩🌾 The snack bar maker KIND uses tens of millions of pounds of water-thirsty almonds every year, and the company is looking to make its almond farming process as sustainable as possible with innovative tech like heat-mapping the soil through AI and natural water efficiency methods. "When we're thinking about sustainable agriculture, what we're really [asking is] 'how do we feed people with less inputs?' and that is a really, really tricky problem," Caitlin Birkholz, who focuses on sustainability agriculture for Mars (Kind's parent company), told The Cool Down. What Kind is seeing in realtime is that AI tech can now reduce the amount of fertilizer needed per tree, for example, by identifying with a heat map where there's good soil and where there's bad soil — and only fertilizing the areas that need it. "If I'm able to use AI to figure out ways to improve the efficiency, I can actually reduce that amount of fertilizer, and that is good for the planet [and] good for people's pocketbooks," Birkholz noted. 🙌 Big thanks to Lindsay Philpott and Caitlin for their insights on #regenerativeagriculture and the deets about what's new at the KIND Almond Acres Initiative in California. 👉 Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/euNMC5-A

🏁 Trend roundup for the last week of Oct 🎃🏁 The business x sustainability stories that our 35M+ monthly audience is double clicking on 👇 🌤️ Solar is capturing hearts and minds, again and again —> Heavy hitting stories this week include this first-of-its-kind *floating* solar power system: https://lnkd.in/ecNMc6gi 🥤 We love to hate single-use plastic  —> A new styrofoam ban in Washington State is getting the attention it deserves: https://lnkd.in/eE2iwYzd 🥩 Staying sharp on the connection between food and health —> New research shows that reducing unprocessed red meat intake could greatly reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases: https://lnkd.in/eJZHuAy3 💚 BONUS: Over on instagram, this story is popping off ... about how Chobani has created a self-stable “super milk” for disaster relief. Another great example of how businesses using their resources for good can bring in a wide net of loyal customers. —> [https://lnkd.in/eYdXxFkJ] And for deeper dives into the trends we're seeing at The Cool Down, sign up for the free Business Edition newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eHirU2Yg

♻ 👕 Not only is #circularity critical to achieving climate goals, but it’s become a real expectation for the next generation of consumers, and it’s even becoming a law in some states. In this edition, we’re unpacking how brands can use circularity strategies to drive business results, boost customer loyalty, and help the planet. Plus, highlights from a few key companies that have stuck the landing on this.