This past week was filled with interesting sustainability and climate news, we’ve summarised the top stories below.
Precision fermentation may be the most important green technology
- Precision fermentation refers to a brewing process in which microbes are used to create specific products, including protein-rich foods.
- The technology has the potential to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change via two key means:
Reduce the footprint of food production
- The precision fermentation process uses an estimated 1,700 times less land than soy production and 138,000 times less land than beef production.
- If agricultural land, disused due to the rise of precision fermentation, is rewilded, there is the potential for massive habitat rehabilitation and natural carbon capture.
- The process also uses less water than traditional food production and emits far less greenhouse gas emissions.
Reduce food-miles
- Nations that lack the fertile land and water resources required to create sufficient food stocks rely heavily on imported foods.
- If implemented in these nations, process fermentation has the potential to create self-sufficiency and reduce food-miles.
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US public companies prepare for enhanced sustainability disclosures
- A Deloitte survey of 300 US accounting, legal, sustainability, and finance leaders has found a growing movement to address challenges and prepare for enhanced sustainability reporting.
Key findings
Organisations are taking actions to prepare for disclosure:
- Almost all (99%) of surveyed executives stated that they are likely to invest in relevant technology and tools within the next 12 months.
- 89% are enhancing goal-setting and accountability mechanisms.
- 81% are creating new responsibilities and roles.
Organisations are prioritising ESG:
- 57% of executives stated they have implemented working groups to drive strategic attention to ESG while 42% are in the process of creating such groups.
Business benefits are expected:
- More than half of the surveyed executives expect that talent attraction and retention; increased efficiencies and ROI; and stronger stakeholder trust will result from integrating sustainability into their business strategy.
Data is an issue:
- 35% report that ESG data quality is a top concern while 25% cite access to data as their greatest challenge.
- Only 37% of respondents are currently prepared to disclose Scope 3 emissions.
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£86bn in free carbon permits given to emissions-heavy industries
- New research by the WWF shows that over the last nine years, the EU has given almost £86bn of free carbon permits to organisations in emissions-heavy sectors including cement, steel, aviation, and chemicals.
- The WWF state this is “in direct contradiction with the polluter pays principle”.
- The carbon permits also failed to specify climate conditions (e.g., increasing energy efficiency) and recipients were allowed to make profits by selling unused permits.
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Majority of supply chain organisations can’t track results of sustainability efforts
- Research by DispatchTrack looked into sustainability amongst supply chain organisations.
- The majority (77%) of surveyed companies stated that they were prioritising sustainability, or had plans to do so within the next year, while 80% said they already had sustainability efforts underway.
- Despite this, only 38% of the surveyed companies reported being able to actually measure the impact of their efforts.
- The survey also found that 55% of organisations agreed that sustainability was important to their customers; however, only one-fifth of organisations were sharing their sustainability initiatives publicly.
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