Business
Looking for positive and inspiring business stories? From green operations to employee rights, from innovative corporate structures to diversity and inclusion, the Business section at The Optimist Daily has got the latest innovative solutions from the corporate sector.
Recycling can be confusing for consumers. This company is out to change that
Each year, people trash 12 billion tons of flexible plastic packaging, according to the consultancy Resource Recycling Systems. Cheap and ubiquitous, items like grocery, dog food, and snack bags are recyclable in theory but are often made from layers of different materials that are too costly and Read More...
Multinational retailer Urban Outfitters will start renting out clothes
The sharing economy is now making its way into the fashion industry as Urban Outfitters, a multinational retail company, looks to rent clothes to younger shoppers. In an effort to boost engagement with millennial-age consumers, the 49-year-old retailer is launching a new company called Nuuly by Read More...
How does your company rank when it comes to employee treatment?
If you were to ask the average American worker what the top priority for the company they work is, they’d likely tell you their employer cares most about its shareholders, then at a distant second, its customers. The workers themselves come last. That’s what Just Capital, an organization Read More...
LEGO now runs only on renewables thanks to wind turbine built with LEGO pieces
Everyone knows that LEGO is all about building things, but it turns out their magic also extends brick by brick to positive systemic change. Recently, the 86 year-old multinational company met its goals of having all its production facilities powered entirely by renewable energy, three years ahead Read More...
Ikea is hopping on the plant-based meat bandwagon with new vegan ‘meatballs’
Ikea is known around the world for two things: its furniture and its meatballs. Indeed, along with the BILLY bookcase and the POÄNG chair, meatballs are one of the company’s bestselling products, with roughly a billion meatballs sold per year. Now that a number of restaurants and fast-food Read More...
Another major retailer is removing harmful plastics from shelves
One of America’s largest dollar store chains, Dollar Tree, has signed onto a program that would help the company phase out heavy metals such as lead and harmful chemicals including the plastic additives bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. For a discount store that serves millions of Americans with Read More...
One of the world’s biggest manufacturers is set to go carbon neutral by 2020
If we want to have any chance at successfully mitigating the worst effects of the climate crisis, we’re going to need companies to recognize the realities of climate change and readjust their business strategies accordingly. Recently, German automotive supplier Bosch did just that, announcing Read More...
Why having neurodiverse employees can give a company a competitive advantage
Yesterday we ran a story about how Goldman Sachs’ plans to hire job candidates on the autism spectrum as a way to boost diversity. As it turns out, doing so could also boost productivity within the company. Because neurodiverse people are wired differently from “neurotypical” people, they may Read More...
Whole Foods to become first national grocery chain to say bye to plastic straws
The movement to ban straws and other single-use plastics to protect our environment is growing bigger by the day. So far, 127 countries and counting are working to enact bans on single-use plastics, including straw bans. Cities like Seattle jumped on the plastic-free bandwagon last year, and Los Read More...
More companies across the US are hiring neurodiverse employees
At the Optimist Daily, we are proud to celebrate neurodiversity— the idea that neurological differences are to be recognized and respected as any other human variation. That’s why we are pleased to see that Goldman Sachs has become the latest company to target job candidates on the autism Read More...