Kickstart: A more sustainable love note

Of course roses are red. But could they also be green?

Each year, Valentine's Day prompts romantic gestures and a lot of waste. There's the packaging for candy, shipping costs and plastic film wrapped around fresh flowers. Consultants at BusinessWaste.co.uk estimate Valentine's Day prompts an extra 9 million kilograms of CO2 each year in the United Kingdom alone, and it uses 7,500 metric tons of plastic packaging in the region.

But business owners and suppliers for the floral industry are looking for more ways to be sustainable without killing the romance.

The Sustainable Floral Network calls itself an independent education organization for florists, encouraging them to put a bigger emphasis on locally grown flowers and consider reusable packaging and compostable wrap.

Broekhof USA, part of a Dutch floral supply company, began offering the RecyClear sleeve in 2024, made from 97 percent post-consumer resin, mostly polypropylene.

"Every day, I make conscious choices in my life, but I realize that the impact I make as an individual is much smaller than my influence as an entrepreneur," Broekhof Chief Marketing Officer Lyanne Paardekooper said in a news release. "That's why I, together with our organization, am taking concrete steps towards a more sustainable future."

Autonomous cars promise to let drivers relax while they drive. But what happens if the car crashes and the driver is not in where they're expected to be? Auto supplier ZF Group is introducing an airbag for the footwell of the car to keep feet, ankles and lower limbs safe in a crash.

Standard car safety designs expect a driver's feet to be near the pedals in the footwell. The automotive safety cage is designed around that assumption. But in an autonomous car, a driver can relax and stretch out. That means rethinking the placement of airbags.

ZF's Lifetec division, a maker of passive safety systems including airbags, is creating airbags that deploy near the passenger's and driver's feet — including a "heel airbag" —to cushion the impact and provide stability to reduce the risk of harm to the lower extremities, writes our sister paper Automotive News.

Airbags use a range of plastics for housings and attachments, with a polymer-based fabric.

ZF said the heel airbag can be adapted to almost any vehicle model. It expects the system to go on the market in 2028.

It's been very busy in the world of big M&A deals the past few months, but at least one of them isn't happening.

Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi have called off discussions to join forces. The three Japanese carmakers announced a memorandum of understanding on Dec. 23, 2024, "regarding the consideration of a business integration." They terminated the process Feb. 13.

"Going forward, the three companies will collaborate within the framework of a strategic partnership aimed at the era of intelligence and electrified vehicles," the companies said in a brief announcement.