SUPPLY CHAIN -
The palm oil industry is undergoing a major transformation with public and private stakeholders ramping up efforts to make sustainability an industry mainstay. Last month Greenpeace suspended its active campaign against IOI Group after the palm oil producer announced plans to eliminate deforestation and exploitation from its supply chain. And earlier this week, BNP Paribas rolled out a new palm oil policy that sets responsible palm oil production as a pre-condition for financing.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
There’s no stopping the circular economy. Both the public and private sector continue to drive circular innovation towards the mainstream, offering new opportunities for budding disruptive businesses to gain exposure and scale up operations.
Italian banking group INTESA Sanpaolo hosted its 101st Start Up Initiative, in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in London last week, providing budding circular innovators with the opportunity to present their ideas on a global stage.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
This month BNP Paribas, the world’s seventh-largest financial institution, announced a new palm oil policy that sets responsible palm oil production as a pre-condition for financing. The policy requires that companies receiving financing protect forests and indigenous people.
WASTE NOT -
Closed Loop Fund (CLF) has released the results of its latest impact report, which highlights recent successes such as the diversion of 100,000 tons of materials from landfill, a 230,000 metric ton reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the creation of more than $530,000 in economic benefits to municipalities.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Circular initiatives may be on the rise, but an impending commodity crisis for cobalt indicates that we still haven’t learned our lesson as far as resource depletion is concerned.
The ferromagnetic metal is primarily used in the preparation of magnetic, wear-resistant and high-performance alloys and is a critical component of batteries designed for electric vehicles, laptops, smartphones and a host of other electronics.
And we’re running out.
COLLABORATION -
A new study released by the Better Than Cash Alliance has revealed how agriculture nonprofit One Acre Fund and Citi Inclusive Finance have cut payment losses and collections costs by over 80 percent for smallholder farmers in Kenya by successfully digitizing loan repayments. According to the report, the move has significantly boosted transparency and efficiency, thereby driving economic opportunity and financial inclusion for thousands of farmers and their families.
NEW METRICS -
To make it easier for companies to reduce their environmental impacts, businesses such as Kering, Interserve, Mars and Asda have banded together to develop a new healthy ecosystem metric designed to support companies as they make the transition to a more sustainable business model.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
For several years now, Bob Willard, former IBM exec and current sustainability “guru,” has been working to create a resource to help sustainability champions break through to senior leadership and accelerate change within the business world. Last week, on day one of SB’17 Detroit, it officially launched.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
When it comes down to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, more and more investors are looking at how companies perform on human rights. Guarding long-term investments against a potential fallout from social grievances has become part of their fiduciary duty.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
While the adoption of carbon pricing is on the rise, members of the We Mean Business Coalition, including Barclays, Bank of America and Hermes Investment Management have introduced the world’s first investment-grade carbon pricing system for the power sector — which accounts for one-quarter of global emissions — in an effort to accelerate the transformation needed to limit global warming to a 2°C scenario.
COLLABORATION -
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Fund and the Permanent Mission of Peru to the United Stations have revealed the results of their new program to improve working conditions of quinoa producers in the Peruvian regions of Ayacucho and Puno.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
By 2050, $40 trillion will change hands in North America alone – the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history – and the effects will transform the world as we know it.
This is Joel Solomon’s opening gambit as he launches his passionate and persuasive primer on The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose, and Capitalism, published this month (New Society Press, co-authored by Tyee Bridge).
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
California-based startup Bluon Energy, creator of an energy-efficient replacement refrigerant for existing HVAC-R systems, has scored new investors and a board advisor to boost awareness of the role its refrigerants can play in the fight against climate change and to bolster sales. This comes at a time when existing HVAC-R refrigerants used by the majority of the US and the world are becoming obsolete due to federal regulation and global phase-outs.
LEADERSHIP -
With more than 60 governments and 1,200 businesses now pricing carbon emissions, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) and a group of 200 organizations have issued a global call to action for the establishment of an international carbon pricing system, in an effort to achieve the 2°C target outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement.
PRESS RELEASE -
For companies, direct water costs generally represent a marginal expense which can sideline any decisions to invest in better water resource management. If we compare the risks related to water and energy, an investment to improve energy efficiency would allow for a quick and significant return on investment while reducing environmental impacts; however, investing in better water management, generally leads to higher OPEX without a direct financial benefit.
PRESS RELEASE -
Paper products giant Kimberly-Clark has announced plans to build a $75 million combined heat-power plant at its Mobile mill, which they say will increase the plant's efficiency while decreasing long-term costs and emissions.
The plant will generate electricity with a natural gas turbine and the exhaust gas will be rerouted to make steam for the plant's operations. It's a technique, sometimes called cogeneration, that's been used by many paper mills throughout the country in recent years to run more efficiently.
Todd Visscher, manager for Kimberly-Clark's Mobile mill, said the improvements will strengthen the Mobile Mill's position with Kimberly-Clark as a strategic manufacturing location.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
What if there was an easier way to connect revolutionary solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges with the capital needed to initiate real change? That’s exactly what the Global Opportunity Explorer sets out to do.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Just months after launching its new S&P Green Bond Select Index, which measures the performance of green-labeled bonds that finance sustainability projects, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Trucost have announced the publication of the S&P Dow Jones Indices
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
In an effort to boost capital investments geared towards recycling infrastructure and the development of the development of the circular economy, the Closed Loop Foundation has launched a new research initiative.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Cutting-edge isn’t exactly the word that comes to mind when it comes to the capital of Catholicism — the Vatican — but Stephen Forte is gearing up to change that. The entrepreneur and Fresco Capital founder is launching a new startup accelerator in Rome this summer that aims to change social impact investors' perception of mission-driven, for-profit startups — companies that have social missions at their core.