SUPPLY CHAIN

Major health & beauty brands collaborate on green labelling

Major health and beauty companies are developing an industry-wide system for measuring and communicating the environmental impacts of products, known as the EcoBeautyScore Consortium. The initiative, co-founded in September 2021 by Unilever, L’Oréal, Henkel, LVMH and Natura & Co, has now been joined by a number of health and beauty brands, including Beiersdorf and Colgate-Palmolive, taking its membership to 36 companies. The aim of the consortium is to create a system for measuring and scoring the environmental impacts of products across their lifecycle. Members are leveraging their own sustainability in-house teams to develop a database of raw materials used in product formulas and packaging. This database will be used to determine the impacts of individual products. The consortium expects to launch a footprinting and scoring prototype by the end of 2022. (edie)

STRATEGY

Credit Suisse under investor pressure over fossil fuel finance

Investment bank Credit Suisse is facing shareholder calls to cut its fossil fuel exposure in the same week that a study has revealed that European companies are making slow progress on emissions reductions. Investors with €2.2 trillion under management have filed a resolution at the Swiss bank calling for it to slash its exposure to oil, gas and coal assets. Credit Suisse has lent more than $82 billion to fossil fuel companies and projects since the Paris Agreement and is Europe’s top bank for the provision of coal mining finance. The move came as monitoring group CDP found that European corporate emissions had fallen just 1.5% annually between 2017 and 2019, far below the pace needed to meet the Paris Agreement aims. (Financial Times)*

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Pixar employees accuse Disney of censoring same-sex affection

Employees at animation studio Pixar have accused production giant Disney of censoring same-sex affection in its films. In an open letter signed by Pixar’s LGBTQIA+ employees and allies, they claim that Disney corporate executives have cut numerous scenes exhibiting same-sex affection from films, stating that “nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest”. The allegation is part of a broader response to the memo Disney CEO Bob Chapek released to company-wide employees regarding Florida’s recently passed “Don’t Say Gay” bill that the “biggest impact” Disney can make in promoting inclusivity is “through the inspiring content we produce”. The open letter notes that employees’ experiences contradict Chapek’s memo, noting that despite pledging $5 million to LGBTQ+ rights organisations, Disney has not pledged to cease donations to anti-LGBTQ+ legislators.  (The Independent; Advocate)

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Octopus Renewables invests in 690MW of wind power capacity

Clean energy investor Octopus Renewables is set to add another 690 Megawatts (MW) of wind power to its generation portfolio over the next 10 years. Through four new European wind farm deals, Octopus will add additional capacity to power almost 500,000 average homes annually. The investor, which is the fund management arm of energy supplier Octopus Energy already manages 745MW of wind assets across its portfolio with aims to double the figure over the next decade. The four new deals are expected to boost the company’s total wind power capacity by up to 90% over the coming decade. The biggest deal will see the firm invest in a joint venture with Wind 2 Ltd to develop nine onshore wind farms across Scotland and Wales with a total capacity of 570MW. (Business Green)*

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

Carbon removal markets must grow rapidly to meet 1.5°C trajectory

A report published by the think-tank Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) has found that natural and engineered emissions removal systems will need to scale up to enable the required 3.5 billion tonnes of removals annually by 2030. The research argues that even if “deep” decarbonisation is achieved, the world will need to rapidly expand its carbon dioxide removal capacity through a mix of nature-based, engineered and hybrid solutions. It outlines how, even if the “fastest feasible path of emissions reductions” was delivered, at least 70 billion tonnes of carbon removals will likely be needed between 2022 and 2050 to address net residual emissions. According to current trajectories, the ETC estimates at least 165 billion tonnes of carbon removals will likely be needed – cumulatively – by mid-century to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C. (edie)

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