Sustainability News and Trends – February 2022

Posted by | Fuld & Company

For the latest and most important sustainability news and developments from November and December 2021 please see below for all the key stories.

For a PDF version of this news please get in touch.

National Governments’ Announcements

A summary of the key announcements by national governments in relation to sustainability is as follows:

Companies Making Sustainability Linked Acquisitions & Investments

Some of the key sustainability linked acquisitions and investments have been made by the following companies.

Key Sustainability News

A summary of the key sustainability news that has occurred over the past month is listed below.

14 JANUARY 2022: Maritime

blueOASIS has chosen atNorth Partners to leverage their support to deliver HPC and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solution for the maritime industry

• blueOASIS, an ocean sustainability consultancy, and atNorth, the Nordic data center services company, have agreed to enhance decarbonization of the maritime industry
• The agreement between the companies will help to develop a ‘Sustainable High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Sluster’ in Iceland which will help blueOASIS to handle big data on a large scale
• blueOASIS works on multiple projects to boost the decarbonization of the maritime industry, for which the company has chosen atNorth’s robust HPC infrastructure support

13 JANUARY 2022: Energy

Japan and Thailand have entered into a deal to pilot a new energy initiative to encourage decarbonization

• Japan plans to support Thailand to introduce new energy initiative towards efforts to promote decarbonization
• Under the deal, both the countries have planned an extensive long-term program that will be launched towards green technology to help promote investment in the energy sector
• The agreement also throws light on the significance of global energy transition to provide opportunities for energy trade and investment between the two nations

11 JANUARY 2022: Environmental Sciences

Net Zero Markets has planned to introduce a carbon emission reduction contract – GER – on European and Singapore energy exchanges

• Net Zero Markets, a company that develops next-generation environmental market risk management tools, products, and contracts, has agreed with the European Energy Exchange (EEX) and AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) to list the company’s program – Global Emission Reduction (GER)
• The deal makes GER – an innovative approach to address the issues of the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) – available across multiple time zones to global VCM participants
• GER is based on the existing standards with innovative features that align with global net-zero targets of the industry

08 JANUARY 2022: Fashion

New York is planning to introduce Nation’s first fashion sustainability law for all medium-to-large-sized fashion brands

• New York is planning to become the first state in the US to require global fashion brands to disclose their climate and social impacts under the new fashion sustainability legislation
• The state is ready to introduce the first fashion sustainability law in the nation under which fashion brands with more than $100 million in annual worldwide revenues that do business in New York need to take action to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions

• If passed and signed into law, the failure to such compliance would be fined up to 2% of revenues of $450 million or more

22 DECEMBER 2021: Energy, Technology

Repsol and Amazon have partnered with each other to support their sustainability goals

• Amazon, an American MNC which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and AI, and Repsol, a Spanish energy and petrochemical company, has allied to support each other’s sustainability goals
• Under the agreement, Repsol will help Amazon reach net-zero carbon by 2040 and power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2030, by providing Amazon Web Services with 234MW of solar and wind power from Spain
• In return, Amazon will support Repsol’s digitalization pillar of 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, by offering new cloud services to advance its digital transformation

21 DECEMBER 2021: Finance

Zumo Money launched a pilot project ‘Zero Hero’ to support crypto industry decarbonization efforts

• Zumo Money, a crypto wallet and payments platform, has launched a program – ‘Zero Hero’ – that provides its customers a more sustainable alternative to hold and own Bitcoin
• The program works by exchanging all in-app Bitcoin purchases with verified renewable energy certificates promoting digital procurement of clean energy
• The launch forms part of the company’s broader approach encompassing the crypto industry’s path to net-zero by 2030 and the company’s path to net-zero by 2035

17 DECEMBER 2021: Logistics

FedEx has received its first batch of 500 electric trucks from General Motors as part of the company’s sustainability drive promoting green logistics

• In a major step towards green logistics, FedEx- an American MNC focused on transportation, e-commerce, and services, received its first fleet of 500 electric trucks from General Motors
• The delivery of ‘EV600’ trucks is made by BrightDrop, GM’s newly formed EV unit, that has designed these trucks solely for delivery purposes, as they represent a big commitment to sustainability for the global carrier- FedEx
• As part of the company’s sustainability drive, FedEx aims to buy only electric delivery vehicles after 2025 and also plans to electrify its entire delivery fleet by 2040

16 DECEMBER 2021: Music

Major music label groups in the UK like Ninja Tune, Warp Records, and K7 have joined the new music climate pact that aims to reduce carbon emissions of the music industry by 2050

• As part of a new drive by various UK music labels, that pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, label groups like Ninja Tune, Warp, K7, and others have joined the Music Climate Pact
• The new pact is also pushing many more organizations within the music industry to sign up throughout 2022, where label groups like Beggars (XL, Rough Trade, 4AD) and Secretly (Ghostly, Jagjaguwar) have also joined
• It encourages organizations in the music industry to take both collective and individual actions to reduce greenhouse emissions, while also supporting musicians who speak out about issues concerning the environment

For a PDF version of this news please get in touch.

Tags: Sustainability