Fenway Park goes green (and not just the monster)

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Wally the Green Monster for Bold TypesChris Morris for The Boston Globe

The Green Monster is going to get a bit greener and cleaner this Marathon Monday. And, thankfully, this will have nothing to do with the recent flu-related fumigation efforts in the clubhouse.

After the Red Sox take on the Tampa Bay Rays on Patriots Day, a huge "Zero-Waste" sorting effort will commence, with volunteers going through bags of ballpark trash to remove recyclable products and organic material.

Both Wally and Tessie will be on hand to cheer on the volunteers as they sort the excess hot dog buns and beer cup debris.

Fenway Park has recycling and composting on site, but the bins are not used as widely as they could be, said Michelle Lee Guiney, who runs sustainability initiatives for Waste Management, the park's trash-removal company. A typical game day generates over 7 tons of trash, and Lee Guiney hopes that about 80 percent of the waste created during the game will be diverted from the landfill.

She said this is the latest in a series of environmental initiatives at the park that have led the Red Sox organization to be named the 2016 Recycler of the Year by MassRecycle. (John Henry, the principal owner of the Red Sox, is also the publisher of The Boston Globe.)

Fenway isn't the first Major League ballpark to try such an ambitious environmental effort. The Seattle Mariners have eliminated trash cans at Safeco Field, replacing them with recycling and composting bins. Lee Guiney would love to see that at Fenway: "Sports lends itself to competition," she jokes.

The volunteers on Monday will get a fitting reward: An upcycled T-shirt. Outdated gear from the team store (think passé Cowboy Up T-shirts) will be turned inside out and silkscreened with a Zero Waste logo. Guiney said that, like expired food, T-shirts celebrating old wins fall out of favor.

"In the environmental industry we're always thinking of creative ways you can use expired product, whether perishable or nonperishable," she said. — JANELLE NANOS

CEOs go back to college

The list of this year's area commencement speakers is still coming together, but it's shaping up to include high-profile entrepreneurs and business leaders. Smith College's Class of 2017 will hear life advice from none other than media mogul Oprah Winfrey. The founder and CEO of Harpo Productions is also slated to receive an honorary degree at the May 21 ceremony. Perhaps Winfrey will take the opportunity to announce a run for president in 2020?

At Harvard's May 25 commencement, one of its most famous dropouts will finally get a degree, sort of. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to receive an honorary degree as well as deliver the commencement speech.

Another big name imparting words of wisdom cycle will be Apple CEO Tim Cook, over at MIT on June 9.

Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal, half of the founding members of the hipster eyewear company Warby Parker, will dole out advice to Northeastern University's graduate students May 5.

Also hoping to inspire the next generation is Robert B. Stein Jr., CEO of Kalibrate Technologies, a UK company, on May 20 at Western New England University. — KATHELEEN CONTI

Sam Adams’s latest stand

Jim Koch never shies away from taking potshots at the big beer titans Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors. So the Boston Beer Co. chairman's April 7 column in The New York Times wasn't necessarily surprising. But it still had the industry talking, especially with the Craft Brewers Conference taking place in Washington, D.C., this week.

Koch took aim at his bigger rivals by pushing the US Department of Justice to put the brakes on craft-beer acquisitions that AB InBev and MillerCoors might make.

He mentioned AB InBev's recent purchase of Karbach, one of the largest craft brewers in Texas, and said the DOJ allowed "the damage to continue" by approving the deal. Koch went so far as to suggest this trend could lead to the demise of the craft beer revolution.

James Arndorfer, a MillerCoors spokesman, didn't waste any time before firing back on his company's blog. He accused the maker of Samuel Adams of becoming "an establishment player that is losing share and drinkers to a new generation of craft brewers," a reference to recent sales declines at Boston Beer.

Arndorfer conceded a craft beer shakeout could be coming, but said the two giant brewers aren't to blame. Competition, after all, is stronger than ever.

Koch is making his case now because there's a new administration in charge in Washington.

And he insists he's not afraid of all the upstarts.

"Competition is good, it makes you better," he says. "Doing it by buying up the competition with big bags of money doesn't." — JON CHESTO

Boring, huh? But they sell

MM.LaFleur , the women's clothing startup that began on the Internet, hawking just seven women's dress styles, is opening brick-and-mortar locations, including its first Boston storefront pop-up shop, on Newbury Street.

The shop, catering by appointment to women who don't have the time or the inclination to browse store racks, will be an extended pop-up, open from April 19 through Dec. 21 as the company tests the local market.

Sarah LaFleur, the business's 33-year-old chief executive and a Harvard graduate, said the brand fits Boston's fashion ethos, with its selection of sedate, not-too-showy suits, sheath dresses, and cardigans for "purposeful women." The store even sells pants with adjustable hems for heels or flats.

All of the styles are created by cofounder Miyako Nakamura, the former head designer to Zac Posen.

LaFleur said fashion editors have told her the clothes are boring, but the company's growth says otherwise. Started in 2012 with $35,000 in cash from her parents and $35,000 of her savings, the business now has more than $10 million in financial backing, from friends and private investors.

"We've done many, many pop-ups, but this is our first long-term pop-up," LaFleur said. "There is a healthy force of professional women in Boston who do have more conservative clothing needs." — MEGAN WOOLHOUSE