The Cool Down

🍳 Big skillet news: 80% of consumers are open to making their kitchen habits more sustainable. At The Cool Down, we’re seeing big trends around what we eat and how we cook. Just to name a few: There's the growing awareness about how much money we throw away by wasting food (over $700 per year), as well as the ever-increasing interest in induction stoves — as a safer alternative to gas stoves and because they can boil water really fast. Given that most of us spend around 60% of our time at home, the changes people make to be more sustainable can have a huge positive impact. So we ran a flash poll to understand what sustainable cooking changes mainstream America is willing to try. 📊 Get the full data breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/eE3f2Zgf 👀 And don't forget to subscribe to our weekly Business Edition newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eHirU2Yg

Millions of The Cool Down readers are eager for a cleaner, better future — and innovative tech startups lay out a clear, exciting path to reach that. While young climate-based companies may not have legacy brand value or a vast user base, they do have something just as valuable: the inherently cool ability to make waves by disrupting the status quo. Not an exhaustive list by any means, but a few startups that have caught our eye … 🦄 “Green unicorns” like rescued-food grocer Misfits Market [https://lnkd.in/eFCGhP9s], e-bike company Rad Power Bikes [https://lnkd.in/eB9yiaav], and community solar startup Arcadia [https://lnkd.in/gXhZWf6y] — all valued at over $1 billion. 📍 Local startups like Paleblue [https://lnkd.in/g4URPT4s] in Park City, Utah, and Ridwell, a recycling company that started as a father-son project [https://lnkd.in/eAApsrv3]. 🤝 While many of these climate startups are still relatively new on the scene, some have already become the go-to for partnerships with big brands: ✅ Redwood Materials, a battery recycling startup run by one of Tesla's co-founders, has partnered with Toyota Motor Corporation to give Prius hybrid batteries a new lease on life. [https://lnkd.in/e44QtYtj] ✅ TERSUS Solutions, which uses a “waterless” washing machine to clean clothes for resale, has caught the eye of REI, Patagonia, New Balance, and The North Face. [https://lnkd.in/gRbyZ4QE] ✅ C16 Biosciences, which aims to disrupt the $60 billion global palm oil industry, is working with British skincare brand Haeckels to offer the first-ever soap bar made with a science-based palm oil alternative — and they just launched a new sunscreen this past week. [https://lnkd.in/eA6ScvXG] + [https://lnkd.in/ePWnVUY6] 👉 Check out the full list here: https://lnkd.in/eccDSYtN #startups #sustainability #climatesolutions

The collab continues! 👇

Can confirm: Your spouse will thank you for donating those cargo shorts you've been wearing since '95.

Great behind-the-scenes walkthrough of how IKEA is making sustainable living an affordable option. Thanks for your insights, Karen Pflug!

We broke some news from Starbucks today! Check it out👇

Are you motivated by carrots or sticks? The New York Times just highlighted Copenhagen’s new reward-based system for climate action [https://lnkd.in/e_uKPvMp] and it's a fascinating read. Rather than visiting fees (Venice), alcohol restrictions (Majorca), and vacation rental bans (Barcelona), Copenhagen’s goal is to make “climate-friendly action a currency for cultural experiences.” What does that look like? Biking to the city’s ski slope built on its new waste-management center (golly, we don’t deserve Copenhagen) gets you free ski time. A 30-minute beach cleaning session gets you a free lunch at a local surf school. Plus something called “plogging”? that gets you free pastries. At The Cool Down we’ve seen similar momentum toward 🥕 rewards, not sticks — especially when it comes to stories guiding users toward circular services like recycling old tech and clothing. What does that look like? 🗑 This week we highlighted the fast-growing startup Trashie — which rewards you with movie and food delivery credits (and more) for sending in your old clothes. CEO Kristy Caylor believes we can tackle the huge problem of textile waste "in a positive, uplifting … way where it doesn't feel hard or difficult or depressing." Full article here: https://lnkd.in/etJXUkXv 💾 Not to mention, there’s the king of the three-ring binder, Staples, and its new initiative to recycle nearly everything — while paying customers for it. You can now get discounts or points by dropping off batteries, printer cartridges, SodaStream canisters, even entire computers and fax machines 😶 Staples Senior Vice President of Merchandising Brian Coupland told us: “We can pinpoint when [customers] start recycling and frankly become more loyal to the brand. … It is very fulfilling for what we're trying to accomplish for the environment and certainly from the health of the business." Full article here: https://lnkd.in/eVUHxKV7 ➡ From a business perspective, making it easy and rewarding for customers to participate in initiatives can build new revenue streams and brand loyalty. ➡ From a personal perspective, let's all go to Copenhagen. #climatesolutions #travel #sustainability #marketing

We’ve seen the studies showing in-person work leads to collaboration & fresh ideas. As a remote-first company, we take that very seriously. That’s why we held our latest offsite on a haunted island in the East River. Totally serious here. We’ve done the whole climate-controlled hotel and conference rooms rigamarole, and this time we knew we wanted something a little more out of the box. Now, did we know it was going to be during the infamous heat dome? And did we know Governors Island is notoriously spooky because of the Civil War jail right by our tents? We did not. But don’t worry — we’ve heard from virtually all our team members that they had fun. Highlights included: 🤝 Finally meeting our newest coworkers in person Aaron Tabas, Ilse A., Charlotte Salley 💡 Holding some surprisingly spicy competitions for the greatest “clean future” video hooks  📌 Soaking up the EV wisdom of Sue Callaway and David Gray — and the iconic Green Giant insights of Freya Williams ⛴️ Generating new content strategies just by sitting together on the ferry 🥑 Team dinners with island breezes, right in the heart of NYC Plus only one rat sighting. Bottom line: Company offsites can always be beige and boring. But we highly recommend taking the road less traveled.

Slow food, scootch over. "Slow furniture" is joining the party. In an exclusive conversation with Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ingka Group (IKEA's largest franchise retailer), we get the deets on Ikea's emphasis on sustainable food, furniture, and even throw pillows — on a global scale: [https://lnkd.in/ea6yKs2F]

Sneak peek of this week’s Business Edition newsletter: Can collaboration be a competitive edge? A few examples that point to Yes: 🥑 Albertsons x Uber: Supermarket chain Albertsons has teamed up with Uber to get excess food waste from its supermarkets to nonprofits and food banks by treating each donation like an Uber Eats order. [https://lnkd.in/gMDvE8HZ] 👕 Gap x H&M: A group of fashion brands are going Dutch to share the cost of reducing supply chain pollution, which currently amounts to about 99% of the industry’s total pollution. [https://lnkd.in/eGbDKdWS]   👟 Allbirds x adidas: With Allbirds’ expertise in low-carbon sneaks and Adidas’ prowess in high-performance footwear, these industry rivals have created an ultra-light running shoe with a close-to-carbon-neutral footprint. [https://lnkd.in/djxYc4F] Plus we talked with Todd Cline over at Tide about its extensive collaborations (from the NFL to Malcolm Gladwell ) to nudge people to wash their clothes on cold. Get the full edition here: https://lnkd.in/epr8AG-h #climatesolutions #sustainability #marketing #innovation