CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Orange Fiber and Keel Labs are platforms for exploration and innovation that can reverberate across the fashion industry and prove that sustainable feedstocks and production processes can create both financial and planetary prosperity.
CLEANTECH -
Inspired by nature, SolarBotanic’s solar trees use leaf-shaped, thin-film, photovoltaic nanotechnology to harness both sun and eventually wind energy to power houses, charge EVs or be stored for future use.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
New survey finds 83% of US consumers value brand product transparency, but only 47% feel they have the information to make sustainability-based purchasing decisions. Impact labeling will begin with Garnier products and roll out progressively across L'Oréal's brand portfolio.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Offsetting initiatives are becoming increasingly popular
among businesses looking to be seen as leaders in sustainability. However — while the approach can be an interim solution for operations that can’t be fully decarbonized — companies must focus first on working with their supply chain to identify where immediate changes can be made.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Campbell's — and many other companies’ — current 401(k) options have employees investing millions in fossil fuels and deforestation through Vanguard, which has just announced it has left the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative.
NEW METRICS -
NatureMetrics says new platform represents breakthrough in understanding and managing our impact on nature — providing simple, standardized metrics to track and report on site-based nature impacts.
COLLABORATION -
The first COP took place in 1995 — 27 years later, and it’s easy to understand the scepticism. We’re still quite a long way from universal adoption by all nations and private sector actors of net-zero strategies that align with the urgent timescales science tells us are needed. But no other issue brings 198
nation states together in this way.
WALKING THE TALK -
In 2021, WSL launched WAOO to protect and conserve surf ecosystems around the world. Over the 2022 tour season, it collaborated with community organizations, indigenous groups, surfers and others on activations including replanting native coastal vegetation in Hawaii, removing plastic pollution from Indonesian waterways, and restoring coral reefs in Tahiti.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
"The Cookbook in Support of the United Nations: For People and Planet" features 75 recipes divided into sections on food systems, biodiversity, sustainable
consumption, food and climate change, and food waste — and shares each dish’s carbon footprint.
WALKING THE TALK -
Why have the collective efforts of national governments, NGOs, forward-looking companies and citizens had so little impact on curbing carbon emissions? Here are three reasons why high-level pledges are not translating into concrete actions — and what’s needed to break through.
WALKING THE TALK -
COP27 ended with an agreement to create a funding facility to compensate vulnerable nations for ‘loss and damage’ from climate disasters; but weakened language around the phase-out of fossil fuels opens a dangerous loophole that could threaten decarbonization before it’s too late.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The USDA has awarded Bridgestone $35M to grow its investment in desert shrub guayule to advance a climate-smart domestic rubber industry and offer a water-smart solution amid the ongoing drought in the Southwestern US.
CLEANTECH -
The company reports progress in its climate goals, as well as its work to support local communities and increase equitable access to snow sports and
recreation.
WALKING THE TALK -
From COP27, we see more and more business initiatives focused on not only reaching sustainability, but averting a climate crisis and achieving nature positivity — but have climate-fueled forest fires already nullified our chances at an effective carbon market?
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Texas-based small-business shipper, in partnership with South Pole, will offset merchants’ shipping emissions by funding a renewable energy project in Oklahoma.
LEADERSHIP -
According to new Capgemini research, execs recognize the urgency for climate action; but limited impact is visible on the ground so far as they lack an overarching strategy, clarity on the business case and coordinated implementation.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The Brazilian cookware giant released its first comprehensive sustainability and environmental impact review, detailing its progress toward and ongoing pursuit of sustainability.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
New research from Forum for the Future and four healthcare giants calls on businesses, policymakers and the finance community to accelerate progress against the mounting threats to human health from the climate crisis.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
By supporting smallholders to access agricultural innovation on their farms and in their communities, it will enable them to both thrive in a changing climate and contribute to tackling its causes.
NEW METRICS -
One of many recurring themes at SB’22 San Diego was the need for a new lexicon and new metrics for the regeneration movement, which more accurately reflect the level of work and transformation needed to not only avert climate collapse but to enable a flourishing future for all.