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Global goods giant commits to drastically reducing plastic packaging by…

Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & Environmental

Global consumer goods giant Unilever has announced an aggressive program to reduce the level of plastic waste it creates through the use of its products. According to a statement by the company, it is making efforts to create a "circular economy" for plastics. These efforts are mostly commitments between the brand and those it serves. Specifically, by 2025, it says it plans to reduce its use of virgin plastic — plastic that has never been used for any other purposes nor has been previously recycled — by half. It will also reduce its use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 total tons.

Surveys: High school graduates need more life skills, less test prep

Sheilamary Koch Education

Real-world skills warrant more emphasis in high school claim students, employers, parents and other adults in three nationwide surveys conducted this June. While 83% of the students surveyed do plan to go to college, they’d like to see less focus on college-entry exams and more on practical skills like personal finance and tax preparation. The surveys, funded by the Kansas City, Missouri-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, polled a demographically diverse sampling of over 2,000 people from across the country.

California’s PG&E risks outages amidst bankruptcy

Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & Environmental

Recently, the legally embattled Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) agreed to pay billions to compensate for faulty equipment-induced wildfire damages throughout the state of California. Last week, the company instituted power outages as a proactive way to prevent wildfires. Conveniently, any front-end money saved in the outages can go towards back-end damage expenses, which keep accruing as the company collaborates with meteorologists and the National Weather Service to suspend services in the name of wildfire prevention.

All eyes on ‘very low GWP’ HFOs in the UK

Andrew Gaved Retail

Refrigeration experts in the U.K. have called for the industry to embrace the potential of "lower flammability" hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO) blends, as the F-Gas regulations continue to drive the European market towards lower-carbon solutions — and as the Kigali amendment begins to do the same for the global market. The call has been driven by supermarket giant Asda (part of the Walmart group), which has successfully conducted an in-store installation with the refrigerant R454A, an HFO with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 238.

What’s driving diesel: 3 trends in engine development

Bianca Gibson Manufacturing

As the world turns, so does engine technology. The industry has experienced a great deal of change since Tier 4 Final standards for off-road equipment were introduced. Continuous efforts have been made to increase power, efficiency and reliability of diesel engines, all while keeping total cost of ownership down. How have manufacturers stacked up to meeting these tremendous challenges? A recent webinar, "What’s Next in Engine Development?" hosted representatives from Perkins, Genie Industries, John Deere and Kohler to discuss the demands fueling trends in diesel engine development.

View from Europe: HVAC and Brexit

Andrew Gaved Manufacturing

As U.S. readers are no doubt aware, the U.K. is still in the throes of trying to leave the European Union, a process we now universally describe in a single word: Brexit. It is not my place here to go into the political machinations that have been going on for the last three years as the country has attempted to negotiate a legal exit from the EU. My purpose, instead, is to report on the challenges that the HVAC industry faces because of the threat of Brexit. What the industry fears is the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

Doors on fridges debate heats up again in UK

Andrew Gaved Waste Management & Environmental

The debate around whether to make it mandatory to have doors on all display refrigerators in the U.K. has been reignited by a combination of carbon targets and public pressure. While supermarkets in the U.K. have historically been resistant to adding doors to fridges because of fears that they will impact purchasing, the mounting pressure on the U.K. to reduce energy to meet long-term carbon targets has put the subject back on the agenda. However, many merchandisers cling to the belief that the addition of doors to their chiller cabinets will negatively affect the purchase of goods by presenting a "barrier" to browsing.

Which industries will benefit most from the industrial internet of things?

Joseph Zulick Science & Technology

A common statement among historians of the 1849 gold rush was that the people who were most likely to make the most money were the ones who made tools for the miners and not the actual miners themselves. As industries like transportation, manufacturing, technology, energy and healthcare pursue success with the industrial internet of things (IIoT), this colloquial wisdom stands true. IIoT equips these sectors with the information and data to operate their businesses more effectively.

Infographic: The cost of downtime

Brian Wallace Science & Technology

When the system stops, so does business. So, it is in your interest to resolve any problem as quickly as possible, and more than that, to prevent downtime in the first place. This is where infrastructure monitoring comes in. Every operating system is unique, and if you have a mixed IT infrastructure, you need a server monitoring service that caters to them all. There are several ways to look after your IT infrastructure. Learn more with this infographic.

Dentistry of the future? An army of miniature robots could wipe out tooth…

Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental Healthcare

What if, with one marching order, a swarm of micro-robots (directed by magnets!) could break apart and remove dental plaque from a tooth? A cross-disciplinary partnership among dentists, biologists and engineers agree that it’s possible in the very near future. A team of scientists from the three fields at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a microscopic robotic cleaning crew. With two types of robotic systems the scientists showed that robots could ably destroy biofilms, the sticky amalgamations of bacteria enmeshed in a protective scaffolding.