52 REAL-LEADERS.COM / FALL 2022 ECO INNOVATION AWARDS 2022 21. NO EVIL FOODS PLANT BASED & PLASTIC NEGATIVE In 2020, No Evil Foods expanded its focus from what its products are made from, to what they're packaged in. It became the world's first plant-based meat brand to offset 200% of its plastic packaging and became Certified Plastic Negative. The new packaging is printed using 100% renewable wind power and uses vegetable-based inks that have 40% fewer volatile organic compounds than conventional inks and are composed of 100% natural and renewable oils. In 2022, it transitioned to Sustainable Forestry Initiative-certified paperboard. To date, No Evil Foods has diverted over 16,000 lbs of plastic from landfills and avoided over 10,000 lbs of CO2 emissions. NoEvilFoods.com 20. CLOVER SONOMA FOSTERING SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION IN DAIRY PACKAGING Clover Sonoma is a thirdgeneration, family-owned and operated conscious dairy based in Petaluma, California. This certified B Corp recently announced the first fully renewable plant-based milk carton and the first post-consumer recycled (PCR) gallon milk jug in the United States as part of its focus on sustainability and packaging innovation. Packaging will continue to be a big part of its focus as it tries to find sustainable ways to decrease the use of fossil fuels, utilize less plastic, and encourage recycling. Clover Sonoma’s fully renewable milk carton and PCR gallon milk jug will be transitioned to its entire organic fluid milk line by 2025. CloverSonoma.com KRISTINA SKIERKA, CEO FAST, AFFORDABLE, CLEAR ENERGY ACCESS FOR ALL Utilities 2.0 is Power for All’s strategic initiative that builds the case for the integration of centralized utilities and decentralized microgrid companies as an innovative and eco-friendly route to universal energy access. By catalyzing the research, engineering, regulation, and political will to realize the utilities of the future, the U.2.0 pilot will lead to Uganda’s first interconnected mini-grid. "We can’t change businessas-usual with more business-as-usual; if we want to transform systems, we must change the leadership of those systems," says Skierka. "Leaders who concentrate power or focus on empirebuilding are limiting their organization’s impact. Transformational change — especially transforming a global energy system that has left millions without power — requires movement-building. Don’t get too comfortable. Challenge your assumptions, proactively expand your knowledge base, and regularly seek out opinions different from your own. Work across teams to encourage diversity of opinions and experiences; creativity and innovation will grow organically from this kind of collaboration. If we choose to work with people just like ourselves inside or outside of our companies, we will only have mirrors of our behavior, not windows to how we impact those around us." PowerForAll.org 22. POWER FOR ALL TECH THAT TURNS WASTE INTO A RESOURCE ALBERT DOUER, CEO UBQ™ is a bio-based thermoplastic converted entirely from unsorted household waste, including all organics. The novel cost-competitive raw material is a sustainable substitute to petroleum-based plastics, concrete, and wood in 23. UBQ MATERIALS the production of thousands of durable applications. It is a relatively small change — a material formulation — that can result in a significant carbon footprint reduction and enable manufacturers to meet their sustainability goals. "Transformational leadership is not limited to the Bezoses or Musks of the world," says Douer. "Perhaps, there is no better example of impactful leadership than the immigrant family. What is more transformational than a family picking up their entire lives, leaving familiar surroundings, and building a new life in an unknown and unfamiliar place? True leadership is like leading the way through a dark and dank swamp. It is tough and comes with many challenges. The best thing to do to generate effective action: Stop talking. Stop describing the problem. Stop explaining why solving the problem is difficult. Work on finding solutions. Society comes together when working to actualize important goals and endeavors. The larger the goal or the larger the risks (such as in climate change), the more important collaboration becomes. Businesses are particularly suited for societal collaboration because they are already organized and have resources to achieve concrete results. In fact, they are, themselves, examples of societal collaboration. The bigger challenge is how to organize these collaborations so that it does not stifle competition, and the emergence of new ideas and solutions." UBQMaterials.com
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