Corporate Sustainability News: Freaking Out
Part 8 of corporate news in the wherefrom newsletter
Investors are calling on big businesses to improve their environmental disclosures, specifically to the CDP. If you don’t know, the CDP is the main platform for environmental disclosures, and it gives businesses grades based on their reporting in three different areas: climate, water, and forests.
1,051 companies have been contacted, accounting for 8 trillion USD in market capitalisation and 4,800 megatonnes of carbon annually. That’s equal to the US’s 2017 emissions. These are very large companies like Nintendo, Facebook, Domino’s Pizza, and Exxon Mobil… with 57% being asked to improve their disclosures (i.e. provide more robust and better quality data) and 30% asked to disclose information on at least two of the three sustainability areas.
On our side, we are also participating in this demand for better disclosures through our petition Make Brands Be Transparent… (which you should totally sign)
Amazon’s carbon emissions rose by 15% in 2019, demonstrating that as their sales grow (in this case by 22%) it will be increasingly difficult for the online retailer to curb emissions.
Amazon’s activities in 2019, including direct and indirect emissions (eg. from their transport partners), generated 51.17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. As the NY Times kindly contextualises, that is the equivalent of 13 coal-burning power plants running for a year. Great.
However! It’s important to remember to think about the long-term and Amazon is now doing that. Yes, it’s frustrating that Amazon was very late to the carbon reporting game — if you don’t know, it took a lot of internal and external pressure for them to start being transparent. Their first such carbon disclosure was published only last year. But, they have set aside 2 billion USD to invest in carbon-reducing technologies including “renewable energy projects like [their] new solar farm in Virginia, and [their] order of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles.” In their eyes, these investments will help them drop their emissions in “future years”. Let’s just hope that the process is speedy because time is a tickin’.
Surprise, surprise! A survey of the 50 largest consumer-facing goods companies (think PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz and Kellogg’s) demonstrates that they are failing to take ambitious and robust action on plastic pollution. The most frustrating part about these results is the fact that they all have “lofty pledges” to do so… but actions speak louder than words.
The As You Sow report measures the progress of these 50 companies on 6 different pillars necessary to reduce plastic: 1) Packaging Design, 2) Reusable Packaging, 3) Recycled Content, 4) Packaging Data Transparency, 5) Support for Recycling, and 6) Producer Responsibility. The highest scoring brand is Unilever with an uninspiring B- and the rest of them have scored between the C and F ranges… with 30% of companies scoring an F! Including WholeFoods…what the F?!
The companies progressed the most in their pledges to redesign packaging to be reusable, recyclable, and/or compostable, as well as their commitments to using recycled inputs and actions to support recycling. However, when it came to reusable packaging innovation, transparency of their data, and producer responsibility, there was much less leadership.
As You Sew include recommendations for each pillar and provide some useful insight. For instance, they write that 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable goals should be viewed as a first step, rather than the endpoint of plastics action. This is because of the difficulties associated with recycling across the world and because it doesn’t tackle the important fact that we need to reduce virgin material inputs. Furthermore, they write that companies should be investing in refilling, sourcing recycled materials, and reducing their overall packaging needs. They also recommend engaging with policy to improve recycling and composting systems. This is really important as these massive companies sell their products across the world and should ensure that countries can actually recycle and compost their products. This is not just a global South issue, it’s also a problem in the UK which outsources two-thirds of its plastic waste to be recycled, has few industrial composting facilities, and has flawed waste management systems. The funding currently in place by these companies only equates to 7% of what is necessary to really support collection and processing systems.
Basically, big brands really need to step up their game. It’s especially frustrating when you see that they are part of large initiatives to reduce plastic pollution including the Alliance to End Plastic Waste or the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Commitment.
Photo: Page II of the Waste and Opportunity 2020 report
