Category - trends technology

Implementation of digital technologies for a circular economy and sustainability management in the manufacturing sector

Implementation of digital technologies for a circular economy and sustainability management in the...

How companies benefit from circular economy

Converting a company to a circular economy is an important step but many business leaders aren't...

Implementation of circular economy strategies in product development

Considering aspects of the circular economy right from the product design stage is the most...

Digital Product Passports: Pioneers for Sustainable Economy

Whether climate protection, circular economy, or resource efficiency, without transparent value and...

Digital technologies for sustainable product management in a circular economy

The increased use of digital technologies is considered as a key enabler for a more sustainable and...

Digital battery passports to enable circular battery ecosystems in Europe

The industry driven debate on digital battery passports as enablers of a circular economy has...

The Digital Product Passport – a prerequisite for a Circular Economy

The concept of the circular economy is gaining more and more prominence on the agendas of...

Sustainability and Compliance Trends Study

The world’s largest sustainability and compliance trends survey entered its fourth round, with over...

Sustainable Product Development in a Circular Economy

The concept of circular economy is of great interest to companies since it provides a framework to...

Using blockchain to achieve the SDGs and solve social challenges

Insights into the INATBA Blockchain for Social Impact Report

Circular Economy Implementation in Businesses – Cross-sectoral findings

by Lukas Stumpf, Josef-Peter Schöggl, Rupert J. Baumgartner

Sustainability and Compliance Trends 2020 With a Focus on the Automotive Industry

The pandemic crisis heavily influenced the year 2020, which likely also impacted iPoint’s Trends...

How sustainable is the Circular Economy?

Josef-Peter Schöggl, Lukas Stumpf, Rupert J. Baumgartner

Carbon transparency – an opportunity for companies and the environment

Goals and benefits of carbon transparency The transparency of carbon emissions and the climate...

Maximizing Products’ Sustainability Performance and Circularity with Digitalization – Update on Research Activities

Anything but a standstill is currently happening in the Christian Doppler Laboratory for...

Digitalization and collaboration – A look into the Future

More than 65% of consumers are worried about climate change, and take social and environmental...

I care, you care, we care: The iPoint CARE principle

Many of our customers say that we’ve simplified the complex processes of digitalizing the...

From Compliance to Sustainability – The iPoint Suite

iPoint’s software covers a lot of ground. In combination, our software products provide a broad...

Data – the raw material required for good decision making in the transition to a Circular Economy

Properly utilized data is a valuable resource. In our increasingly digital world, most efficiency...

Expanding compliance processes and tools to better manage sustainability

Many companies voluntarily go beyond regulatory requirements, setting higher expectations and...

Blockchain for Sustainability & Social Impact: Help Us Map the Ecosystem!

In the past few years, we’ve seen a plethora of projects and initiatives emerge, focusing on...

End-to-end material lifecycle management is key

When it comes to materials in products, what we call “end of life” is also the “beginning-of-life”....

From compliance to sustainability: a natural path to managing material lifecycles

Meeting all local and global regulatory requirements is a must for all companies doing business in...

The current state of material compliance management

Materials and substances used in manufacturing plants need to comply with health, safety, and...

We are living in a material world

Materials and substances are the fundamental building blocks required to produce bigger components,...

Maximizing Products’ Sustainability Performance and Circularity with Digitalization – Part 3/3

Continuous meetings with the (industry) partners of the CD-Lab are key to fostering knowledge and...

Maximizing Products’ Sustainability Performance and Circularity with Digitalization – Part 2/3

The Christian Doppler Laboratory for Sustainable Product Management is a 7-year project with a...

Maximizing Products’ Sustainability Performance and Circularity with Digitalization – Part 1/3

To support the ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan adopted by the European Union, the...

Can Digitalization help to save costs related to Sustainability & Compliance?

The Sustainability and Compliance Trends Survey 2019 is one of the largest global surveys on...

The Cost of Compliance & Sustainability – How companies’ spending evolved in 2019

The Sustainability and Compliance Trends Survey 2019 is one of the largest global surveys on...

Compliance or Sustainability – What is more important for businesses?

After our successful survey 2018 with more than 450 participants, we decided to carry on with our...

The Global Medical Device Industry – a spotlight on India and China

Japan has one of the highest geriatric populations in the world and because of that they have a...

Medical Device Industry – Trends in 2020

Several global companies from the Medical Device industry like Becton Dickinson, Roche, Emerson or...

Enterprise Blockchain 2028

Gartner: Corporate Blockchain Won’t Take Off for Another Decade Hype comes with a placebo effect,...

How to build a sustainable car?

What are the challenges for the implementation of Sustainable Product Development in the automotive...

Achieving transparency starts with digitalization – How blockchain can deliver social, economic and environmental benefits

It is hard to argue that industrialism didn’t improve the world.

German Battery Forum 2019: a round-up of congress highlights

Andreas Genest from ifu Hamburg, Member of iPoint Group, attended the BatterieForum Deutschland...

How to bring transparency into the supply chain

More and more people are consuming more consciously and want to know where a product they buy comes...

Sustainability and Compliance Trends – What Kept Companies Busy in 2018?

At the beginning of 2018, iPoint started to conduct a survey on Sustainability and Compliance...

Smart Microorganisms at Work: Turning Waste into Bioplastic

How a waste product like pentose wood sugars is transformed into bioplastic and can be used as a...

Blockchain for Circular Supply Chain

Blockchain technology enables us to digitize and streamline the supply chain workflows to improve...

Kongress-Highlights des BatterieForum Deutschland

Andreas Genest von ifu Hamburg, Member of iPoint Group, nahm vom 23. bis 25. Januar am...

Clevere Mikroorganismen am Werk: Aus Abfall wird Biokunststoff

So genannte Biokraftstoffe der ersten Generation basieren auf Materialien wie Mais, Zuckerrohr,...

Towards a Digital Circular Economy

Take – make – use – dispose is causing increasingly scarce resources, environmental pollution and...

Digital Circular Economy – The Digital Revolution of the Circular Economy

In contrast to the linear economy (take, make, use, dispose), the circular economy approach does...

Interview with “Germany’s most sustainable large-scale enterprise 2014”

Marko Schnarr works for the environmental office at Miele, the well-known manufacturer of household...

Photovoltaking the future.

You might have noticed that the world is currently undergoing an energy transition – from fossil...

Wasting food: a brief guide.

With the human population on this little planet of ours expected to grow to over 9 billion in the...

Enhancing urban mobility: Anyone for bicycle freedom?

As discussed a couple of weeks ago in this blog (here), cycling has long been understood as a...

A taste of Velo-efficiency

I once read that a human being on a bicycle is the most efficient means by which any animal has...

The TTIP: Partnership or legal straitjacket?

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership(TTIP) currently under negotiation between the US...

The Circular Economy: Another ‘Industrial Revolution’?

The big boys who meet at the annual World Economic Forum at Davos aren’t really into warm fuzzy...

From footprints to handprints: clutching at straws?

A couple of years ago TIME magazine rated Handprints among the “10 ideas that are changing your...

How fashionable is industrial ecology?

Once a year, selected master’s degree students from some of the world’s leading design schools –...

A Disruptive EU? : Environmental Technology Verification Comes to Europe

An innovation with a proven track record is hardly an innovation.

Product environmental footprinting: Harmonization or proliferation of standards?

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a means of determining the environmental impact of a product,...

Chance or Catastrophe? Towards a Constructive Media Coverage of Climate Change

Instead of using the opportunity to promote a low-carbon society, media reports of global warming...

Long-Distance, Low-Impact? Inside Cargo Ship Travelling

As I sail through the English Channel and complete my last miles around the world on a reefer...

How to Get Maximum Greenhouse Gas Reductions in Emerging Economies, Part II: India, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea

Last week, I critically reviewed the term emerging economy and concluded that, given the lack of an...

A Truly Green Building Sector? Sustainable Housing Challenges in Northern Europe

Throughout its lifespan, a building affects the environment in a multitude of ways. How our house...

5 Clear-Cut Economic Benefits of Sustainability Reporting

Business is not responsible for society. Business is society. Entrepreneur, manager, employee,...

Who’s Happier – The Proactive Lohas or the Spontaneous Hedonist?

The perception that pro-environmental behaviour has negative effects on well-being has made it...

The Truth About the Dragon: China’s Future is Inevitably Green

What if every person in India drove a car? What if all Chinese were to live in their own 3-bedroom...

100% Renewables? How Germany’s Energy Transition Is Taking Shape

What happens when an entire country decides to phase out nuclear and fossil energy? When this...

Green Jobs, 80% Renewables in 2020, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Brief season’s greetings from knowtheflow, with a thought that I was delighted to discover in the ...

10 Appropriate Indicators to Measure Green Growth in Industry

Green Growth, Sustainable Growth, Green Economy – All of these concepts require decoupling. A...

The Outweighed Efficiency Gain – 13 Rebound Effects in Detail

According to Tilman Santarius, one essential concept is missing in all the scenarios that lead...

19 Industry Reports – How Global Compact Promotes Efficiency

Energy costs are on the rise. Their increase is so steady that now even the United Nations has...

5-Fold Increase in Efficiency – Not Delusional at All

Some of my recent articles have circled around an apparent antagonism between different schools of...

Why Environmental Regulation Is Not Scaring Off Industry – On Declining Evidence for Pollution Haven Theory

Some say strict environmental regulations in individual countries are useless, especially from a...

Better, Different, Less – Green Economy Revisited

“Post Growth Economy or Resource Efficiency Revolution – How Should We Face the Limits of Our...

Carbon Neutral World Cup? Green Stadiums? Really?

Fancy pictures of green stadiums have been fast to hit the media since FIFA’s decision to give the...

Integrated Reporting: How Business Can Transform Society through Serious Sustainability Communication

It goes without saying that providing investors and shareholders with financial performance data is...

Let’s Take the Green Economy in Hand Ourselves – The Conclusion From Rio+20’s Failure

Only 16.7% of Global Energy Consumption Is Renewable – Ways for Industry to Increase This Share

You know studies. You know reports. You know data collections. But you don’t know Ren21? You...

More Than Ecosystem Dynamics – Understanding the Different Concepts of Resilience

There are these technical terms – complicated words with Latin origins – that experts have used for...

The 8 Most Specific LinkedIn Groups for Industrial Ecology

The social media marketing hype seems to be declining, whereas a seemingly infinite flood of mobile...

A Challenging Task: Promoting Energy Efficiency in Tajikistan

knowtheflow: Marjolaine, you work for the French organization GERES, which deals with promoting...

The Five Most Important Changes for Global Sustainability: Living Planet Report 2012

We live above our limits, the planet does not provide sufficient resources for our consumerist...

To Harvest Green Business, Feed Eco Incentives to the Decision Makers

Incentive-based pay isn’t new; it’s been around for centuries. Ship captains transporting...

The OECD Turns Green – Why Saving the Planet Pays Off

Continued degradation and erosion of natural environmental capital is expected to 2050, with the...

“Everybody Should do Their Share” – The Long Road to Sustainability in Turkey

knowtheflow: Prof. Dr. Inci Gökmen, you offer a course named “Sustainable Living and Green...

Post Growth Economy or Resource Efficiency Revolution – How Should We Face the Limits of Our Planet?

Economic growth is a means of producing wealth. No doubt about that. However, there are two central...

What is an Environmental Product Declaration? And What is it Good For?

When talking about product labels that deal with the environment, it is often argued that there is...

The Path to a Green Economy – Lessons From Germany

What green economy deals with is the idea of running our businesses in a sustainable way. All of...

What Conclusions Can We Draw From Tesco Dropping its Carbon Footprint Labeling?

A week ago, the Guardian published the news that the Tesco grocery store chain dropped its plan to...

Stayin’ Alive: Survival Strategies for 2012

If you read these lines, it is more than likely you are still alive. And if you read these lines,...

Celebrate a Carbon Neutral Christmas!

Anyone not noticed it? Yes, of course, it is December – another annual epidemic of Christmas...

Material Flow Based Process Systems Engineering

I have been waiting for this for far too long, but finally it has been written and it deserves your...

Students Often Responsible for Changes

It’s international Students‘ day today.

Encouraging Ecological Forest Management

The inventor of sustainability, says the legend, was Hans Carl von Carlowitz, a mining...

Carbon Neutral Cities (2) – 3 Ways to Assess a City’s Emissions

Two weeks ago, in part one of this article, we got an idea of the measures that are being taken to...

Carbon Neutral Cities – Where? When? How?

The city of Seattle recently announced a new goal for 2050: Achieving complete carbon neutrality....

Celebrations, come on, let’s celebrate and have a good time. And don’t think about tomorrow…?

Do you know what day today is? Yes, it is google’s 13th birthday. But this is not what I want to...

What’s What: Understanding the ISO 14000 Family Of Standards

Back in the year 1987, the International Organization for Standardization introduced a number of...

Kuznets and Kondratieff or Tunneling through the Curve

At the LCM in Berlin I was impressed by the speech of Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker. Within his...

Social Media Users Willing to Pay More when Company is Responsible

Social media users are more ethically and environmentally aware, in relation to their pattern of...

Biomass Lagging Behind Prospering Wind and Solar Markets

The newest Country Attractiveness Index for Renewable Energy, conducted by Ernst & Young, rates...

Key Elements for your Sustainable Social Media Strategy

From a corporate perspective, the relevance of Social Media within a Sustainability Strategy has...