In today’s edition:

🌎 Making earth a shareholder

🚁 Drones in disaster zones

📱Improving sustainability reporting

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💼 Big Business (1-minute read)

Patagonia is making Earth their only shareholder

What happened: Patagonia, a private company since it was founded in 1973, has announced plans to allocate all profits that are not reinvested (around $100mn per year) back into the company to environmental causes. 

The structure: All ownership will be transferred to two newly created entities. All voting stock (about 2% of the total) is now controlled by the Patagonia Purpose Trust, while the other 98% is under what’s called the Holdfast Collective. All profits will be distributed by Patagonia as a dividend to the Holdfast Collective to fund grassroots environmental organisations and invest in businesses that work to protect nature and biodiversity and fight the climate crisis.

Why it’s important: A potential model for others to follow in transitioning away from  shareholder-only capitalism

H&M to Remove Sustainability Labels from Products Following Investigation by Regulator

Fashion retailer H&M and sporting goods chain Decathlon have committed to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) to remove ‘unclear and insufficiently substantiated sustainability claims’ from their products and websites, following an investigation by the Dutch regulator. Global clampdown: The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), for example, recently said that it is investigating fashion retailers, and in the U.S., several state legislators are focusing on increasing marketing accountability - all increasing pressure on brands to back up their claims with tangible positive impact.

PepsiCo turns to more carbon-friendly farming

The food and drink maker has partnered with the multinational food processor Archer Daniel Midland (ADM) to implement carbon-friendly practices - known as “regenerative farming” - across two-million acres of American farmland through financial incentives and technical support for farmers. The effort could eliminate 1.4million metric tons of greenhouse gases through regenerative practices that focus on enriching soil health (equivalent to the greenhouse gas produced by around 200,000 average-sized fuel-powered vehicles annually).

The challenge: It’s difficult to track the progress of regenerative agriculture (due to soil science’s complexity), resulting in scepticism from environmentalists and consumers. The partnership will focus on sharing resources for measuring and monitoring carbon emissions, water usage and chemical inputs which may provide a model for other companies. 

🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)

Drones in Disaster Zones

The situ: Over the past few years, the US phone carrier AT&T has stabilised coverage at disaster sites by driving in trucks called COWs, or “cell on wheels”. For example, after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017.  It later expanded the approach with a fleet of flying COWs.

What’s new: AT&T has begun upgrading the drones it flies into disaster areas with 5G networks, an improvement expected to increase the chances your phone can send a text message or download evacuation plans when conventional mobile networks collapse.

So what: We’re guilty of speaking a lot about cutting-edge tech to mitigate the implications of climate. Adaptation to climate impacts that are already ‘locked-in’ (like increasing frequency of severe weather) is equally important and, in comparison to mitigation technologies, significantly underfunded currently.

Shrimp farming - coming to a city near you

Conventional shrimp production can devastate local habits (farms produce a stream of faeces and chemicals, spreading disease to wildlife and polluting freshwater sources).

Potential Solution: ‘Vertical Oceans’: A startup that grows sustainable shrimp in huge “aqua towers” using algorithms that enable autonomous production in tanks without chemicals or antibiotics. Shrimp production can be located inside cities/demand centres - reducing the food miles of supply chains.

Why’s this important? Traditional shrimp farming has been linked to mangrove deforestation across Southeast Asia - mangroves act as carbon sinks and are crucial in the fight against climate change. Innovation in traditional food production methods (like shrimp farming) will be key to lowering the global food systems' climate and environmental impacts.

An optimistic future: Investor appetite for food-related tech is surging - venture capitalists (VCs) ploughed $39bn into the sector in 2021. 

💡 Deep Dive (1-minute read)

Technology can help ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting:

Evermore companies must provide detailed information on their natural, social and human capital (alongside carbon footprint and labour practices) through ESG metrics. However, collecting, measuring and reporting this non-financial data is difficult as new criteria and evolving frameworks mean that ESG reporting remains a complicated, moving landscape. 

These technologies can support companies with their ESG reporting and acting upon data: 

1. Energy management systems (EMS): Support tracking and optimising energy consumption across an organisation’s physical assets (i.e., factories & offices). Data is collected from smart metres, sensors and power monitoring software. 

• E.G: Telecommunications company, Telekom Malaysia, reduced scope 2 emissions by 9% in 2021 by calculating their indirect emissions and waste generation at 8 sites using advanced energy behaviour analytics and energy alert mechanisms.

2. Integrated ESG analytics platforms: Companies can use their raw ESG data for organisational optimisation. These platforms use ESG metrics to calculate impacts and create actionable insights to save money and reduce consumption. 

• E.G: Engineering and infrastructure company, Gamuda, used ESG data to enhance resource planning - achieving over $66mn in savings through supply chain efficiency. 

3. AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning: Using machine learning platforms, data can be inputted into scenario-based models in the context of a company's sustainability plans to identify trends in resource allocation and opportunities for process optimisation. 

• E.G: Unilever improved its logistics efficiency through an AI-based transport management system which provided insights into container use and journey planning - indicators show the company’s transport emissions were reduced by 9%. 

It makes business sense… to focus on high-quality sustainability reporting rooted in consistent, comparable and trusted information. There are growing expectations from investors and consumers that companies are delivering their sustainability goals - tech is a key to this delivery. 

Not a silver bullet: Ultimately, organisations must ensure that underlying the implementation of new technologies are appropriate internal controls, governance practices and the right human capabilities to use the data and take appropriate actions. 

💭 Little Bytes

Quote:   “Rising energy costs, heightened security concerns, demand to meet climate targets, and stakeholder expectations, are causing a rethink on energy usage – and production.” Rezolv Energy’s chief executive Jim Campion

Stat: Climate change is estimated to have made the rainfall that caused devastating flooding in Pakistan up to 50% more intense 

Watch: Solar power stations built in space 

🗞 In other news…

• Scientists have developed tattoos that change colour in response to glucose, albumin, and pH levels. The new tech could let people with diabetes or kidney disease track and control their health without taking frequent blood samples.

• Uber’s CEO says that it will phase out fossil-fuelled powered cars by 2030 and has rolled out an option allowing users to select EVs for their journeys.

• EU plans to double its firefighting capacity to help countries cope with the devastating impact of climate change

• What will King Charles III’s reign mean for climate change? This article takes a look

Written by Colin and Ollie - Drop us a message!