Sustainability News and Trends – May 2022

Posted by | Fuld & Company

For the latest and most important sustainability news and developments from March and April 2022 please see below for all the key stories.

For a PDF version of this news please download here.

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-APR-2022: Consulting

Setting new sustainability targets, Bain & Company plans to achieve net-negative carbon status in 2022

• Bain & Company, an American management consulting company, is looking for more ways to achieve sustainability through a new target of achieving net-negative-carbon status in 2022 by offsetting more than 100% of its Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions this year
• The company intends to achieve its target through a carbon footprint calculation process with special focus on reforestation and forest management projects in Mexico, China, Guatemala, Ghana, US and Uruguay
• Company has helped more than 600 sustainability and corporate responsibility projects and has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 84% over the past 11 years by converting to 100% renewable electricity

12-APR-2022: Fashion

To address climate change, Adidas and Allbirds have collaboratively launched a new model of superior low-carbon performance shoe

• Adidas and Allbirds, designers and manufacturers of shoes, clothing and accessories, have collaboratively launched a new set of superior low-carbon performance shoes
• Each pair of these newly launched shoes have a carbon footprint of only 2.94 kg CO2e, created with 63% less emissions during production process, which is an evolution of the former version FUTURECRAFT.FOOTPRINT
• Among many other green and clean features of this variant, few include a midsole, tongue and heel made of 17% plant-based sugarcane content and a sock liner made of 46% bio-based sugarcane, while all other stuff used in making includes at least some percentages of recycled materials

07-APR-2022: Sports

Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has announced new financial sustainability mandates for the European Football Clubs

• UEFA Champions League establishes new sustainability regulations under which top European clubs will be restricted to spending no more than 70% of their revenue on their squads, limiting expenditure on wages, transfers and agent fees
• Under the new regulations that will come into force in June 2022, the target of 70% would be expected to be achieved gradually over 3-year time falling from 90%
• The association has doubled the limit of acceptable losses over the span of 3 years from 30 million euros to 60 million euros

04-APR-2022: Logistics

Reflecting on reducing the carbon footprint of customers’ shipments, J.B. Hunt has launched “CLEAN Transport” program

• To help customers reduce their carbon footprint, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., an American transportation and logistics company, has launched a new program “CLEAN Transport” to enable customers acquire carbon offset credits for emissions from by their shipments
• The program verified and registered with recognized organizations such as the American Carbon Registry, Verra, Gold Standard and Climate Action Reserve, is presently available for Company’s Intermodal customers only, expected to expand to additional service areas as it grows
• The program would provide the participants with data reflecting the amount of carbon offsets required to achieve a “carbon neutral shipment”

04-APR-2022: Finance

To facilitate existing and future eligible green projects, Equinix has launched 4th round of green bonds worth $1.2 Billion

• With the aim of continued advancement in sustainability initiatives, Equinix, an American MNC specializing in Internet connection and data centres, has issued $1.2 billion in green bonds to help to reduce Scope 3 emissions
• As part of the fourth green bond issued by the company, it plans to implement fuel cells to the power data centres and make its facilities emissions neutral by 2030
• With the bond value that totals to $4.9 billion after the latest issue, the company claims to have become world’s fourth-largest issuer of green bonds

30-MAR-2022: Sports

Boston Red Sox baseball team announced plans of working with Aspiration to significantly reduce the impact of city’s Fenway Park carbon emissions

• Boston based Red Sox, an American professional baseball team, announced plans of establishing city’s Fenway Park as the first carbon neutral Major League Baseball facility, in partnership with Aspiration, a climate finance company
• The Park is home to the baseball team and is also one of the oldest baseball parks in the country, which will now use a fragment of ticket proceeds to buy carbon offsets, while not making fans pay a surcharge, under the Red Sox and Aspiration partnership
• To help counter fans’ individual climate impact, the team intends to contribute from the sale of tickets to the Aspiration Planet Protection Fund for the purchase of verified carbon credits

17-MAR-2022: Retail

Amazon and target are seeking ILFI certificate for their stores with the target of setting up net-zero carbon stores in US

• To meet sustainability goals, two largest US retailers, Amazon and Target, are planning to obtain net zero certification from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) for two of their store locations
• The certification indicates that the premises must be energy-efficient, use all electricity from renewable energy, reduce carbon footprint of building materials, and show neutralized carbon emissions from manufacturing and construction processes
• Amazon’s latest ‘Fresh store’ in Seattle, which is one of the 2 stores to obtain the ILFI certificate, has become world’s first grocery store to pursue such certification

17-mar-2022: Cleantech

Google-backed Normative has started offering a free-of-cost carbon footprint tracker for SMEs

• Normative, a carbon-accounting start-up based in Sweden and backed by Google, has launched a free version of its carbon emissions tracker for SMEs that would track the users footprint based on data such as size of their facilities and their expenses on energy resources
• The company has taken the step to help small businesses, for whom tracking carbon emissions is difficult, monitor their carbon emissions and locate emission hotspots
• The company intends to help small companies get a basic understanding of their footprint emissions which can be a starting point for them to set up a climate plan

For a PDF version of this news please download here.