More companies try to reduce pollution

World Today

What was once an off-beat concept is now very much mainstream: sustainable businesses. From huge corporations to brand new startups, the desire to be more environmentally and ethically focused is a priority.

CCTV’s May Lee shows us how one company is proving that one person’s trash is another’s treasure.

 

At Apple’s latest event, going green was showcased more than ever.

“Just last year we reached our goal using 100 percent renewable power to power our operations in the United States as well as our offices and stores in China,” Lisa Jackson, vice president of Apple’s environment, policy, and social initiatives, said.

From technology giants like Apple to apparel maker Patagonia, a growing number of businesses around the world are making sustainability a priority. Quite a difference from just ten years ago.

“People thought we were in the lunatic fringe back then and now, a decade later, we’re the hippest, hottest, happening, latest thing, the sustainability industry,” Molly Lavik of the Sustainable Business Council of LA said.

Fueling the trend is consumer demand for more sustainable and ethically produced products, and

Take for example billboards. They are everywhere, especially in Los Angeles. The average lifespan of a billboard is just 4 to 6 weeks and after that, they’re tossed into the landfill.

But one company is repurposing them and making them into one-of-a-kind products.

Aric Avedissian and his brother Alec are founders of Rareform, a 3-year-old company that turns giant vinyl billboards into bags and accessories. It all started on a trip to El Salvador where Alec saw billboards being repurposed as roofing and bags.

“I was super stoked on it, my brother and I grew up in Ventura county where we grew up surfing, and so we said, ‘Let’s make a surf bag out of that same material,” and it kinda went from there,” Alec said.