Friday in Five with Unibloom

We are well into summer and yet world events haven’t slowed down over the last 2 weeks.  That’s right, yesterday was the day that the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence DIrective (CSDDD) officially came into force.  Not quite on the lips of the public but this is a big deal for sustainability.   Welcome to our bi-weekly newsletter where we intend to inspire you with real life business action on climate, biodiversity, nature, circularity and social justice through the lens of driving business value.  Coming to you every other Friday, we want to celebrate the wins, draw attention to the challenges and occasionally even mythbust and we guarantee to do it in under five minutes.

Summary

• What’s getting us excited this week - Ed Miliband confirmed to lead the UK delegation at COP29
• Future Fit - Lab-grown meat entering our pet’s diets soon
• Credible action plans - CSDDD comes into force
• Amazon enters the fast fashion battleground -

What are we hearing this week - We were joined last week by the fantastic Tara Button, Founder & CEO of Buy Me once on our latest webinar and were inspired to hear her ideas around how we can make product durability and longevity much more central to the conversation around circular economy.  One key takeaway was the idea for an ‘average product lifespan’ label on products to enable consumers to compare product lifespan as part of their purchasing decisions, which we love (watch the recording here).

We also released the first in our blog series on the meat and poultry sector, opening up with an overview of the impact of the pork industry on sustainability and written by our own Jegak Seo.  You can read the overview here.

What’s getting us excited this week - Ed Miliband confirmed to lead the UK delegation at COP29

The new Labour government in the UK has sought to positon itself as more progressive than the previous government on climate, despite some notable rollbacks on some key proposed policies, including the scale of green investment, in the run up to the election.  That said, it was positive to hear that the new Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary, Ed Miliband, will lead the government’s negotiations at COP29 in Azerbaijan in a few months time.  Miliband has long been a supporter of greater action on emissions reduction, including steering the UK Climate Change Act through 20 years ago and so this is a positive sign from the new government that climate action will be at the forefront of their policy agenda.

Future Fit - Lab-grown meat entering our pet’s diets soon

Lab grown meat has come a long way in the over 10 years since the first lab-grown burger was eaten live in a studio in London.  And now the UK has approved the sale of lab-grown meat in pet food.  Meatly, is a UK based pet food manufacturer and they have received the approval for meat grown from chicken cells to be integrated into their pet food products.  Advocates of lab grown meat cite the emissions reduction and land use reduction potential that it offers but to deliver at scale still requires regulatory and consumer mindset shifts.

Credible action plans - CSDDD comes into force

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) entered into force legally on the 25th July.   EU member states now have 12 months to put it into national law, ahead of businesses having to comply from 2027 onwards.  There is a vast amount of discussion on CSDDD and it’s partner initiative CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) within the sustainability community because they both heighten the requirements on businesses in terms of how and what they need to report.  In relation to CSDDD, the aim is to ‘foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour in companies’ operations and across their global value chains. The new rules will ensure that companies in scope identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts of their actions inside and outside Europe.’ For more information on CSDDD the EU has a good explainer on its site and if you’d like to chat about either CSRD or CSDDD please get in touch.

Amazon enters the fast fashion battleground

Amazon announced last week their intention to compete with fast growing, fast fashion giants Shein and Temu, through a new discounted marketplace which is focusing on the items priced under $20.  With fashion contributing around 10% of global emissions currently and projections suggesting this could rise to 26% by 2050 it is difficult to see how this move aligns with Amazon’s own climate commitments.  Amazon was removed from the list of SBTi committed businesses last year but we would love to see Amazon, as the dominant actor in the ecommerce market taking a different path here but we will be watching on to see how they seek to reduce the significant impact that this move could potentially have on their emissions reduction goals.

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This is Unibloom's way to support you and your teams to look ahead, plan and prioritise the right actions towards your business and climate targets. We believe that we need a much more collaborative and data-driven approach to achieve the level of transformation all our businesses need to achieve to align with the science, and to grow up to 2030 and beyond.  If you have subjects or issues that you would like us to cover please do leave a comment below and / or get in touch with us in the link above

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