Ingeo Earth Month Ends with 2011 Leader of Change Nomination for Foundation of Social Change & UNOP

 

The month-long celebration of Ingeo, a plastic made from renewable plant material, not oil, stretched across three continents and involved thousands of people with innovative and sustainable consumer products through the travelling Ingeo Innovation Gallery.

 

Brands participating in Ingeo Earth Month included Bioserie, Coca-Cola, Danone, Earth’s Best, Electrolux, Elements Naturals, Frito-Lay, Henkel, Shiseido, Stonyfield, Target, and Walmart.

 

            MINNETONKA, Minn., August 2011 — Ingeo^™ Earth Month 2011 closed with NatureWorks nominated as a Leader of Change, a prestigious award instituted by the Foundation for Social Change and the United Nations Office for Partnerships. The award recognizes visionary executives of companies, financial institutions, and advocacy groups that have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to the pursuit of sustainability whereby environmental and social performance are embedded in the competitive strategy of the organization. The 2011 Leader of Change award ceremony will take place on October 6 at the annual “Global Conference for Social Change: Turning Social Responsibility into Business Opportunity” in New York City.

            “We’ve nominated NatureWorks as a 2011 Leader of Change because the organization embodies a compelling sustainability proof point,” explains Louise M. Guido, CEO Foundation for Social Change.  “NatureWorks is not a longstanding,  conventional company that decided to ‘go green,’ this is a company actually founded – just 10 years ago – on the simple principle of selling sustainable performance products, giving contemporary industry a new way to do business, and offering today’s consumer a new choice. And, as their Ingeo Earth Month project demonstrates, the early bet on environmental performance is clearly paying off.”

            The 2011 Ingeo Earth Month program took the Ingeo Innovation Gallery, a showcase of the latest in low-carbon-footprint consumer products, to three locations in the United States (New York, Minneapolis, and Boulder) and to stops in Europe (Interpack) and Asia (Chinaplas). Inspired by the United Nations Earth Day, Ingeo Earth Month – in its seventh edition in 2011– has grown over the past seven years, reflecting the importance of showcasing product innovation through the practical application in everyday consumer products of plastics and fibers made from plants.

            The traveling Ingeo Innovation Galleries, and its world-known ambassador brands, have succeeded in creating visibility and interest around a theme ─ responsible product innovation ─ sometimes seen as just another green-inspired theory, rather than a real and present, practical business strategy. Today, there are hundreds of products being made with Ingeo, from plastic cups to iPhone covers, and the Ingeo Innovation Gallery represents a selection of this fast-emerging business sector. 

            “This year’s Ingeo Earth Month celebration has been the most successful to date,” says Marc Verbruggen, NatureWorks president and chief executive officer. “We created real interest and awareness around innovative and sustainable product innovation and have gathered the support of a number of leading organizations in the field, including LOHAS, Climate Action, and European Bioplastics. We’d like to sincerely thank everyone that has worked to ensure that projects like Ingeo Earth Month grow more successful every year. We are honored by the Foundation of Social Change and United Nations Office for Partnerships nomination as a 2011 Leader of Change.”

            NatureWorks is already working on its next key events – the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) climate change conference (COP 17) in November, and the third edition of the Innovation Takes Root conference in February 2012.

 

Global Conference for Social Change and Women & Girls Education Summit

October 5-6, 2011

One United Nations Plaza | 1st Avenue at 44th Street | Millennium UN Plaza Hotel | New York, NY 10017