In the last month, I’ve had the opportunity to present Cradle to Cradle design principles and the Comet Way to the people of Brazil, help push Benefit Corporation legislation in New York State, and present on progressive business strategy at the Healthy NY conference to policy makers, academics, and business people.  Then, back at Comet, we kicked off a new R&D effort in new wood adhesives in collaboration with researchers from the University of Vermont: Professor Mingruo Guo and his two PHD students, Wenbo and Guorong (shown above).

The Benefit Corporation legislation passed unanimously by the house and senate of NY.  On the eve of the bill being vetoed many of us barraged the governors office with phone calls until it was signed by Governor Cuomo.  Definitely want to thank G Cuomo for taking a leadership role and big thanks for efforts of the B LAB and businesses in support.

The legislation that passed paves the way for Comet and fellow B Corporations to be recognized legally as an asset to communities and the environment.  We hope that with this legal entity in effect, government will begin to channel funds toward businesses doing good for the economy, environment, and community instead of large multinational businesses that do not need any more subsidies and have arguably led to the the downturn that we are in right now.

Today December 14, 2011, we are kicking off the R&D efforts in full effect.  The above photo show’s University of Vermont PhDs Wenbo and Guorong testing out a new glue formula.  We pressed several blanks and had our presses heated up to 160 C to test some of the gnarlier stuff.  The glue that we are working on will be totally waterproof and able to be boiled for 4 hours.  That will assure that it can take any heat or cold scenario normal conditions on Earth.  The glue is zero VOC and zero Formaldehyde.  One of them is edible, although not appealing.  Bob from e2e Materials joined us, and together we discussed what this research could mean for the next generation of skateboard manufacturing.

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