Food-service operations were poised to surpass manufacturing in total employees—and then Covid hit. Now they’re transforming with smaller staffs and automation.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-16/restaurant-jobs-take-factory-like-turn-in-tight-labor-market
Category Archives: retail
Air Protein creates fake steak from CO2 that replicates taste and texture of meat
While beef generates 70 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions for every kilogram produced, while also causing widespread deforestation, Air Protein founder Lisa Dyson claims that its protein production emits far less carbon and doesn’t require land or animals.
“We look at the analysis from cradle to gate, prior to when the product is consumed,” she told Dezeen. “On this basis, our vision is to build the first carbon-negative meat company.”
https://www-dezeen-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.dezeen.com/2022/04/14/air-protein-meat-alternative-recycled-carbon-dioxide/amp/
Redefining ‘Sustainable Fashion’
“Sustainable,” implies “able to continue over a period of time,” according to the Cambridge Dictionary. “Fashion,” on the other hand, implies change over time. To reconcile the two is impossible. No wonder striving for net-zero emissions makes us all feel like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills.
Because there is no simple answer to solving fashion’s role in climate change. Even the obvious one — don’t make, or buy, any new stuff, and don’t throw away any old stuff — has negative implications for employment, know-how and self-definition. (After all, people have been adorning themselves to express themselves for pretty much as long as they have understood themselves as “selves.”) The crucial issue for each of us, no matter which side of the equation we are on, is thinking about and understanding the effects of the choices we make, so we can make better ones in the future.
Travel transitions from being destination-based to being interest + taste category driven (Airbnb)
Coca-Cola turns to refillable glass bottles in fight against inflation
To prepare for the expected drop in consumer purchasing power, Coca-Cola said it was expanding the distribution of cheaper returnable or refillable glass bottles in emerging markets in Latin America and Africa.
https://www.reuters.com/business/coca-cola-beats-quarterly-revenue-expectations-2022-04-25/
Starbucks wants to become the gas station of the future for EVs
In the pilot, Starbucks will test usage rates and decide whether it wants to expand the service nationally as part of its larger sustainability plan, which is aiming to eventually make the company “resource positive,” including a goal to capture more carbon than it emits.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90730929/starbucks-wants-to-become-the-gas-station-of-the-future-for-evs
Why Nike Is Making Shoes You Can Take Apart
The ISPA team tackled the disassembly challenge. “Designed in partnership with engineering, digital product creation and development, these shoes are completely informed by method of make — it really is a case of form following function,” says Darryl Matthews, VP, Catalyst Footwear Product Design. “Our hope is that these ideas and aesthetics become normalized, accelerating our ability to imagine how shoes will continue to evolve in the future.”
https://news.nike.com/news/nike-ispa-link-link-axis
Why cross-reality retail design is the next innovation frontier
Drawing on new technologies and neuro-scientific breakthroughs, there is now a huge opportunity to envisage a future of retail in which spatial environments and in-store journeys are truly conscious of their occupants
https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/blog/why-cross-reality-retail-design-is-the-next-innovation-frontier
Inside LVMH’s biggest sustainability plan yet
Capelli says LVMH is experimenting with new material innovations and dye technologies, and plans to soon showcase some “first experimentation” with Colorifix, a startup that uses synthetic biology to replace industrial chemical dyes with nature-friendly alternatives. Much of the other work that LVMH is doing is internal, he explains. The company plans to share sustainability details with consumers at the product level eventually; that will be a slow rollout, with a goal to share some level of information for all products by 2026 and for all products to be “regeneratively designed” by 2030.
https://www.voguebusiness.com/sustainability/inside-lvmhs-biggest-sustainability-plan-yet
Amazon is still struggling to make drone deliveries work
Last year, a Wired report revealed that Amazon’s drone delivery operation is struggling just as much in the UK, despite making its first-ever drone delivery near Cambridge in 2016. Wired’s report suggests that the UK outfit is marred by some of the same issues described by Bloomberg, including a high turnover rate and potential safety issues. At a UK-based facility for analyzing drone footage for people and animals, one worker reportedly drank beer on the job, while Wired said another held down the “approve” button on their computer regardless of whether there were hazards in the footage or not.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/11/23020549/amazon-struggling-drone-deliveries-prime-air-bezos
Analyzing Trends with Tim Stock 