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☆ Sustainable Aviation Fuel No Quick Fix to Greening Air Travel
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Oscar the Grouch is United Airlines’ pitchman for a new advertising campaign touting the environmental benefits of jet fuel made from waste. It can cut emissions by up to 80% compared with conventional jet fuel, depending on the feedstock used. First, the sustainably derived fuel is typically two to four times as expensive as conventional jet fuel. Globally, jet fuel cost can be volatile but was around $2.76 a gallon as of March 3, according to the International Air Transport Association. Hydrogen’s energy density makes it more promising as a jet fuel.

☆ U.S. Corporate Boards Boosted Sustainability Experience in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Companies are shoring up sustainability experience in the boardroom as they face mandatory climate-disclosure regulations. Among Fortune 500 companies, 25% of board appointees in 2022 had previous experience on sustainability committees, up from 14% in 2021, according to executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. “Boards feel like they don’t always have the right skills, knowledge, language about what’s going on,” she said. In the longer term, the work of these sustainability committees should be more integrated into the company’s overall strategy, Ms. Breeden said. The agenda of sustainability committees varies among companies and industries, Ms. Breeden said.

☆ IKEA’s Latest Climate Target: Glue
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

The company expects biomaterials to become more cost competitive with fossil-based materials in the coming years. Instead, Mr. Rangel Ahrens said IKEA uses weight because it allows them to measure changes in a material, such as recycled and renewable content. It discovered around half of the material’s emissions were from the glue used to bind the wood chips and fibers together, meaning that fossil-based glue was responsible for about 5% of IKEA’s carbon footprint, Mr. Rangel Ahrens said. “We are not just telling them you should reduce emissions from suppliers by 80% and go fish,” Mr. Rangel Ahrens said. It needs to be available also for people with thin wallets,” Mr. Rangel Ahrens said.

Companies are now working to measure how soil stores carbon as they encourage farming techniques that reduce emissions across their sprawling supply chains. Regenerative practices can increase soil nutrients and yields while also absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, scientific studies say. PREVIEWMany of the world’s biggest food companies, including General Mills Inc. and Nestlé SA, are working with farmers to promote the practices. The company aims to have 20% of its key ingredients sourced from regenerative agriculture by 2025 and half by 2030. General Mills is now working to include the soil carbon and emissions data into its annual footprint.

☆ Global Sustainability Disclosure Standards for Companies Set to Take Effect in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

The International Sustainability Standards Board said it has agreed to rules that would harmonize corporate environmental disclosures across the globe. More than 150 countries follow the IFRS, and the group will promote its sustainability disclosure standards to market regulators. For example, the ISSB standards require companies to report emissions from their direct operations, energy purchases and from their value chains, including suppliers. The ESRS is also more exacting than the ISSB standards, disclosure professionals say. “For companies reporting under multiple frameworks, this will make reporting less challenging.”Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com

☆ Fashion Faces Recycling Fees Similar to Other Industries
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Electronics and packaging companies have banded together to help pay for recycling programs under government rules. EPR programs charge producers tiny fees—often a fraction of a penny—on individual items to fund waste collection and recycling. The fees from the relevant products, such as packaging, electronics or clothing, then fund recycling, including infrastructure, collection, sorting and public communications. Recycling successEPR programs can significantly boost recycling rates, according to a study published this month from the Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit group. It is expanding its textile recycling beyond its customer network, which includes Levi Strauss & Co. and VF Corp. -owned The North Face.

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☆ Corporate Climate Plans Fall Well Short of Targets, With a Few Bright Spots
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Dieter Holger | Carbon Market Watch S Executive Director Sabine Frank | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

The climate plans of major companies continue to fall short—but there are some bright spots. The net-zero plans of Holcim and H&M have also won approval from the Science Based Targets initiative. Decent disclosureWhile scope 3 emissions can be challenging to calculate and control, having net-zero plans that cover the complete value chain is best practice. Apple, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn Technology Co. and H&M were all noted for helping their suppliers to access renewable energy either with financial support, advice or connecting deals. The retailer has worked with suppliers to reduce packaging waste and to adopt farming practices that sequester greenhouse gases, as well as helping them access renewable energy.

☆ Carbon-Credit Raters Aim to Assess a Notoriously Opaque Market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Shane Shifflett | Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Carbon-credit-rating firms aim to give buyers confidence in assessing the unregulated market for carbon offsets, voluntary credits that can help companies fulfill their decarbonization promises. Traders, online marketplaces and corporate sustainability departments are typical customers for carbon-credit ratings, but companies increasingly encounter the scores through intermediaries selling the offsets. Sylvera Ltd., one of the carbon-credit raters, said that less than a third of projects aimed at preventing deforestation are high quality. The market for voluntary carbon credits topped $2 billion in 2022, according to publisher and researcher Ecosystem Marketplace. BeZero has fully rated around 280 projects, Calyx around 260, Sylvera around 115 and Renoster has fully reviewed nine.

☆ How to Craft Successful Sustainability Programs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Sustainability executives shared insights on how to execute sustainability programs that work at panels hosted by WSJ Pro Sustainable Business on Thursday. Now, Scandinavian shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen AS A is looking to develop a new type of wind-powered ship. “We could be coming full circle here,” said Roger Strevens, vice president of global sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen. “What we typically think about in terms of mentoring is the senior executive mentoring the next level employee,” Ms. Evans said. The unnamed executive said she would include lessons from the mentoring program in her future meetings, Ms. Evans said.

☆ Many Companies Boost Sustainability Budgets Despite Economic Uncertainty
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Some companies are boosting their environmental budgets this year despite worries about the health of the global economy. More than 70% of companies say they are increasing sustainability spending over the next 12 months, while only around 2% are planning to reduce it, according to a recent survey of businesses worldwide. Honeywell International Inc., in collaboration with Futurum Research, last quarter surveyed 753 global business leaders involved in their company’s environmental initiatives for its quarterly Honeywell Environmental Sustainability Index published on Tuesday. Optimism among business leaders about meeting 2030 sustainability goals increased around 11% from last quarter. “Every passing year, the economic feasibility of every technology is only going to get better.”Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com

☆ Investors Push Mining Companies to Adopt Better Sustainability Standards
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Investors are pushing miners to adopt tougher sustainability policies amid fears the rush for minerals to expand renewable energy will harm the environment and poor communities. The newly-launched Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030 said it would introduce sustainability standards by next January which will seek to overhaul the mining industry this decade. “We’ll improve the practices and outcomes in the mining industry more quickly,” he said. PREVIEWThe rules will draw on lessons from investors and the mining industry’s development of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management. The tailings standard came out about two years ago following the 2019 Vale SA Brumadinho disaster in Brazil where a tailings dam collapsed and killed 270 people.

☆ Companies Rush to Trace Sprawling Supply Chains as Sustainability Rules Loom
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

The rules come as businesses, especially small and midsize companies, have a limited view of their supply chains and are struggling to broaden their oversight, sustainability analysts say. Imagine that in the landscape of supply chain,” said Tim Constable, partner at law firm Dentons advising companies on supply chains. There are a host of other regulatory developments threatening to affect companies’ supply chains. Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg NewsUnilever has a sprawling global supply chain, with around 54,000 suppliers in 150 countries. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated the program is.”Internet-of-things startups can go beyond aggregating data and instead track actual items.

☆ Many Companies Are Shying Away From Carbon Credits
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Many companies are hesitant to buy carbon credits as the market faces criticism and coming standards remain unclear. Carbon credits are also expected to be discussed at this week’s World Economic Forum annual summit in Davos, Switzerland. As officials work to develop the market, sustainability chiefs must weigh the pros and cons of carbon credits in their climate plans. Carbon solutionsTo address concerns in the carbon market and scale up climate action, there is a movement toward better, widely accepted standards. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market ended its public comment period in September on the 10 so-called Core Carbon Principles it proposed in July.

☆ FTC Weighs Stiff Penalties on Deceptive ‘Green’ Marketing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Officials are seeking public comment until Feb. 21 on nonbinding guidelines for how companies can make environmental marketing claims without breaching federal laws prohibiting deceptive advertising. “People who want to buy green products generally have to trust what it says on the box.”The agency’s so-called Green Guides, launched in 1992 and last updated in 2012, outline principles that apply to environmental marketing claims. The FTC has brought federal lawsuits against companies for making deceptive environmental claims, and the guides are cited in marketing laws in states such as California. The breadth of terms being considered reflects the significant evolution of green marketing over the past decade and companies need clearer guidance, said Caiti Zeytoonian, a lawyer at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP who advises companies on green marketing and represents them before the FTC. Ms. Koss declined to say if the Supreme Court decision triggered the FTC’s consideration of new rules on green marketing.

☆ Big Investors Expected to Scrap ‘Dark Green’ Labels on More EU Funds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

SFDR rules require EU-marketed funds to be designated as one of three categories: “dark green” Article 9 funds, which aim for sustainability or decarbonization; “light green” Article 8 funds, which advance one or more environmental, social and governance objectives; and Article 6 funds, which don’t have any specific ESG-related objectives. Upgrades and downgrades in classifications typically occur with “similar frequency,” but since September, more than 80% of reclassifications have moved Article 9 funds to Article 8, analysts at Jefferies said in December. At the end of November, there were around $452 billion in Article 9 funds, nearly $4.2 trillion in Article 8 funds and $3.9 trillion in Article 6 ones. In November, BlackRock moved 16 funds representing around $26 billion to Article 8 from Article 9, but also retained 13 dark-green funds valued at about $13 billion. Another challenge is for fund managers to gather and report required ESG data—such as greenhouse-gas emissions, gender pay gaps and water use—for individual stocks and bonds in a fund.

☆ After a Bumpy Year, Renewable Energy Looks Poised for Boom Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +9 min

The future has never been brighter for renewable energy, as some of the snags that kept wind and solar production from going full throttle this year seem poised to ease. What is more, by early 2025, the IEA said it expects renewable energy to be the largest source of electricity in the global power mix, surpassing coal. Driving the IEA’s rosier outlook: First is the global energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that led European nations to try to build more renewable energy capacity within their borders to improve their energy security and replace Russian fuel imports. But the climate-and-spending bill’s support for growth of the solar industry should reverse the recent spikes in PPA costs, he said. GridsLong waits for permits and permissions to build new grid infrastructure remain a challenge to getting more renewable energy.

Companies’ impact on biodiversity and ecosystems would become an integral part of sustainability reporting under new plans that aim to create a more complete assessment of how businesses harm the environment. Corporations should explain to investors how they are managing resources sustainably, according to reporting rules proposed Wednesday by the International Sustainability Standards Board, an arm of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, an accounting-standards body. The trial could act as a beacon for such reporting and make other companies more comfortable with the idea of reporting their biodiversity impact voluntarily, Ms. Saint-Laurent said. Overcoming reporting challengesGathering data on biodiversity still poses a challenge for corporations and can often involve expensive teams of dozens of experts. “We’re not quite at the point where we’re able to have one single number,” she said, adding, “it’s multiple numbers that show performance.” Unlike carbon-emissions reporting, biodiversity assessment can be complicated and expensive.

☆ Companies Face Prospect of New Biodiversity Rules From U.N.’s COP15 Summit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Dieter Holger | Joshua Kirby | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Participants at a United Nations biodiversity summit under way in Montreal hope to hash out an agreement to help protect nature by pushing countries and businesses to minimize their environmental impact. Unlike the 2015 deal, the proposed biodiversity framework targets companies as well as nations. Biodiversity reporting would add to the challenge, particularly as the metrics are more varied and complex than carbon-emissions data. Biodiversity reporting has been done in different forms for many years. For instance, mining companies often enlist experts to produce an environmental impact report for governments before they start a project.

☆ A Microsoft Leader’s COP27 Takeaway: It’s Time for Companies to Get Things Done
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +9 min

Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith says there are plenty of emerging opportunities for business leaders to take climate action. The executive who has helped spearhead the tech giant’s sustainability efforts says companies need to step up and do their part. I thought some of the European companies were present but not with senior leadership, not with as many senior leaders as a year ago. But I think if you look over the next 30 years, companies are going to locate manufacturing where there is green energy. It really does serve the world well and our individual companies well if we can standardize some aspects of this.

☆ Products Made With Captured Greenhouse Gas Are Reaching Commercial Scale
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Straws, bottles and packaging made with captured greenhouse-gas are starting to reach commercial scale, offering a way for businesses making and using everyday products to reduce emissions contributing to global warming. Origin Materials Inc. and Newlight Technologies Inc. are trying to meet that demand by bringing factories online that use captured emissions to manufacture materials used to make products including clothes, tires and plastic bottles. Sourcing and transporting raw inputs and captured CO2 are crucial to a product’s so-called carbon-negative credentials, meaning more CO2 is stored than created. The private company sources captured emissions from dairy farms, ethanol plants and landfills, and is expanding into coal mines and exploring direct-air capture. Competitor Origin Materials has a different approach to acquiring captured emissions and plans for its first commercial-scale factory to come online next year.

☆ Amazon’s AWS Aims to Reduce Water Use at Its Data Centers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-computing arm plans to reduce the water consumption of its global data centers as companies face mounting water scarcity around the world. Data centers consume high amounts of water and energy to cool computers with a mix of water, ventilation and electric-powered air-cooled chillers. AWS is focusing on stressed regions, such as California and India, to conserve water through updated cooling systems and water recycling, Mr. Hewes said. AWS recently began reusing 96% of the cooling water from its Oregon data centers for farming, added on-site water treatment systems for reusing water for cooling and now uses recycled wastewater at 20 data centers around the world. An expansion of larger data centers, known as hyperscale data centers, is also putting pressure on water usage, Bluefield Research Chief Executive Reese Tisdale said.

☆ Some Companies Band Together to Support Nascent Low-Carbon Products
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Global companies are combining their purchasing power to help commercialize low-carbon technologies as part of their efforts to meet net-zero commitments. One of the biggest corporate spending plans announced at the United Nations climate conference, known as COP27, was the First Movers Coalition. Its 65 member companies promise to collectively purchase $12 billion of nascent low-carbon products and services by 2030 to help suppliers develop their offerings and scale up. Once commitments are made, companies and suppliers meet regularly to share progress and work together. “Microsoft did not join [the First Movers Coalition] in Glasgow last year.

☆ Fashion Giants Vow to Buy More Recycled Fibers in Boost to Sustainable-Textile Mills
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fashion companies are planning to buy more recycled fibers as part of a wider trend of businesses using their spending power to foster innovative, low-carbon suppliers. Owners of fashion brands H&M, Zara, Gucci and Stella McCartney were among companies that said Monday they would collectively buy 550,000 metric tons of alternative fibers to make textiles and packaging, such as those made from agricultural residues or recycled materials. The planned purchase represents only a small portion of their total output and no deadline...

☆ U.N. Group Recommends Stricter Rules Over Net-Zero Pledges
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Dieter Holger | Pierre Bertrand | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The United Nations is calling for stricter rules governing the net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions promises of companies. A U.N.-appointed group of climate, financial and policy experts is saying companies need to stop funding fossil-fuel expansion, ineffective carbon credits and anti-climate lobbying. If they don’t follow these rules, their net-zero claims aren’t credible, according to the U.N. group. However, it is, as yet, undefined how these recommendations released Tuesday might create enforceable standards. The group unveiled...

☆ Corporate Executives Call for Action-Based Approach at COP27
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Dieter Holger | Rochelle Toplensky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Business leaders are pushing for specific actions to combat climate change and asking for clearer policies to support such initiatives from governments at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt. Top executives of 101 companies penned an open letter last week urging governments and companies to support existing solutions to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

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