• The Green Tea
  • Posts
  • šŸƒThe Sustainability Top 10: is a case of the Triangle of Stagnation slowing your sustainability progress?

šŸƒThe Sustainability Top 10: is a case of the Triangle of Stagnation slowing your sustainability progress?

Author

Julio Corredor
November 16, 2023

Welcome back šŸ–,

This week in sustainability, we have the Triangle of Stagnation affliction, Unilever case study of a hard (green) reset, AI powering product innovation/formulation, apparel companies like H&M and Gap in the crosshairs of international workersā€™ low-wage protests, the upcoming COP28 and Stocktake, CDP disclosures continued traction, reducing your iPhoneā€™s power use, and moreā€¦

Here are The Green Tea's Top actionable, innovation, and hot sustainability stories this week! šŸ‘‡

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here

1. (GreenBiz) Are your company's sustainability efforts suffering from a case of the "Triangle of Stagnation"?  The Triangle points to 3 supposed "enablers" to a green transition that might actually be slowing down or becoming obstacles to a company's progress.  It might also be one of the reasons why although half of the world's 2,000 biggest listed companies have set a target to get to net-zero emissions by 2050, just a fraction meet United Nations guidelines for what constitutes a quality pledge. 

Case Study

2. (GreenBiz) Unilever is dialing down its sustainability commitments after a decade of pushing for ambitious goals. The realities of an underperforming stock seem to have driven a course correction with one key investor commenting "a company which feels it has to define the purpose of Hellmannā€™s mayonnaise has in our view clearly lost the plot."  Of course, if the stock was doing well, we would not be having this conversation.  The CEO seems to be refocusing sustainability efforts to more tangible and short-term outcomes, rather than grandiose 2050 goals, which might not be a bad thing given that companies are underperforming in their path to achieve long term commitments (see ABOVE/BELOW).  Time will tell how this plays out for Unilever, but it is one story to watch in the coming months as it could be a harbinger for other corporates.  read here

3. (G&A) CDP's busy week on the news: sustainability disclosures organization reports a record 23,000+ companies disclosing environmental impact through it and announces that it will align its reporting platform with European Sustainability Reporting Standards. 

AI Corner - Force for Good and/or for ā€¦?

4. (HBR) Opportunities at the Intersection of AI, sustainability, and project management.  read here

5. (Reuters) Leaders from 28 nations, including China, signed the Bletchley Declaration, a joint statement acknowledging artificial intelligence's (AI) risks, while the United States and Britain both announced plans to launch their own AI safety institutes.  read here

6. (GreenBiz) Unilever and partner Arzeda have developed new enzymes, using artificial intelligence (AI), that can fight stains better, use less water and energy, and replace petrochemical-derived ingredients.  And they did it in 18 months ā€“ five times faster than previously possible.  read here

7. (Reuters) In global inflationary times, the realities and potential exploitative implications of international outsourcing of labor are coming into light in Bangladesh.  The country has 4,000 garment factories employing 4 million workers supplying brands such as H&M, Zara-owner Inditex, Gap, Hugo Boss and Lululemon.  Protesting workers pushed the government to raise the minimum wage by 56.25% to 12,500 taka ($114) a month from Dec 1.  Some workers, however, are not happy with the increase at a time when inflation is running at 9.5%.  "We work to survive but we canā€™t even cover our basic needs," Munna Khan, a garment worker.  read here

 

8. (WRI) Hypocrisy alert? While we start to focus on things to look out for in the upcoming Climate Change COP28 including the first Stocktake readouts, a new report indicates that major fossil fuel-producing countries are together on track to produce double the amount of fossil fuels required to maintain global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius, despite commitments to limit warming.  Will they discuss this at COP28 which by the way is taking place in the United Arab Emirates one of those countries šŸ™„?

9. (ESG Today) The location in the USA of this project will surprise you: BlackRock invests $550 Million in worldā€™s largest Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon capture project.  read here

 

10. (NYTimes) For all those billionaire promises of outer space escapism from Earth decay, here is an eye-opening article on the limitations of the human body (and huge unknowns) to be able to live outside our planet.  read here

 

Personal Action

+. (CNET) Have you ever used Low Power Mode (LPM) on your iPhone and wondered why you cannot keep it always on?  Same!  Apple does not make this easy, but it could reduce your energy use (and emissions) and extend your battery life.  Here is how to do it!  Just keep in mind that some functions will not always be performed while LPM is on as outlined in the article. 

What was the most eye-opening or helpful sip from this weekā€™s TeašŸµ?

Warm regards / saludos,

Julio

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here

Reply

or to participate.