Today, Repurpose Global, a platform that empowers
businesses to eliminate plastic pollution and accelerate circular solutions,
launches its Reuse Outcomes Fund — a $1 million fund designed to catalyze
equitable access to reuse and refill solutions, leveraging outcomes-based
financing to address the global plastic pollution crisis.
Plastic pollution poses a significant threat to all life on Earth. According to
a recent UN report, Turning off the
Tap,
transitioning to a truly circular
economy
represents the most effective approach to combating plastic pollution — with an
approximately 70 percent reduction achievable through reuse, refill and new
delivery models. And a November 2023 report from the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation, Unlocking a Reuse Revolution,
asserts that scaling a reusable-packaging
economy
could lower both GHGs and water use by up to 35-70 percent compared with our
current, linear model still dependent on single-use plastics.
However, the reuse movement encounters several complex barriers — including
inadequate
infrastructure,
high cost of adoption, and a lack of access to flexible financing for
early-stage innovators — which have hindered widespread adoption.
The Reuse Outcomes Fund aims to finance the deployment of critically lacking
reuse and refill infrastructure — especially focusing on engaging consumer goods
sectors with high single-use plastic intensity such as FMCG, food
service
and
delivery,
retail
and e-commerce. Within these
sectors, the new fund will target three promising solution archetypes:
-
the exciting potential of cultivated, fermented and plant-based protein innovation
Join us as Aleph Farms, the Better Meat Co, the Good Food Institute and Plantible Foods discuss the latest advancements in cultivated, plant-based, and fermentation-derived proteins — and how incorporating alternative proteins can help brands significantly reduce environmental impacts, while conserving natural resources — Tuesday, Oct. 15 at SB'24 San Diego.
infrastructure for refilling water and other
beverages
-
reuse & reverse-logistics models for food and grocery delivery
-
and returnable
packaging
in e-commerce and physical retail.
“At Repurpose Global, bringing people together to create systems change
against the most pressing social and environmental issues facing our world
has been our mission from day one, and this new commitment to advancing the
reuse movement is a timely and critical extension of that mission,” said CEO
& co-founder Svanika
Balasubramanian.
The Reuse Outcomes Fund is dedicated to creating a circular economy
accessible to all — with a particular focus on solution models that serve
low- and middle-income communities in the United States, Canada and
India. The new fund will also operate based on a pioneering theory of
change revolving around Outcomes-Based
Financing
— a blended-finance
approach
in which, unlike traditional philanthropy or profit-oriented investments,
Repurpose Global will fund the implementation of reuse solutions with the
sole objective of achieving measurable, additional and verifiable
environmental outcomes (e.g. tonnage of plastic waste avoided), prioritizing
impact return over financial return, in an effort to ensure that the most
effective and impactful solutions receive the support they need.
In addition to scaling solutions directly, the Reuse Outcomes Fund will also
aim to tackle systemic challenges associated with increasing penetration of
reuse and refill. As a part of the Fund, Repurpose Global will help advance
the development of high-integrity frameworks and implementation standards,
aimed at guiding the scale-up of waste-reduction models worldwide. The
organization will also build knowledge repositories that document project-implementation best practices, making
them transferable and replicable.
“Imagine a world where everything we use can be given another life — where
fridges stocked with single-use products are replaced with refill stations
in every convenience store you walk into, and where the ‘Milk Man’ model of
delivering essential goods is the norm as opposed to the exception,“ shared
Peter Wang Hjemdahl,
Chief Innovation Officer & co-founder at Repurpose Global. “This vision,
where reuse beats single-use and is accessible not only globally but for all
strata of society, is the guiding philosophy that underpins our new Reuse
Outcomes Fund.”
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Feb 13, 2024 9am EST / 6am PST / 2pm GMT / 3pm CET