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Ecoalf manages the full process in the supply chain, from waste collection to recycling technologies, manufacture, design and retail.

The company develops fabrics, in partnership with specialist manufacturers around the world, transforming discarded fishing nets, PET plastic bottles, used tyres, coffee, post-industrial cottons and wool into high-quality yarns and components for clothing, accessories and footwear.

The Ecoalf Foundation launched the Upcycle the Oceans initiative to work with fishermen to collect and recycle waste from the ocean. This waste is then recycled into fashion products sold by Ecoalf. To date, the company has recycled over 30 million plastic bottles and 40 tons of fishing nets to make its products. Javier Goyenehce is a Schwab Foundation Social Innovator of the Year 2020.

Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) has agreed to sponsor a targeted, sustainable reforestation project in Brazil to convert barren farmland back into native forest that is rich in plant and animal life. The measure reflects the Group’s recognition of the importance of healthy ecosystems in the fight against climate change, as international bodies sound the alarm about the devastating effects of biodiversity loss.

The eight-year project will help to restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, the ‘other’ Brazilian rainforest, by planting 1 million carefully selected native trees in collaboration with non-profit Instituto Terra. This is part of the commitment made last year when Zurich became the first insurer to sign the UN Business Ambition for 1.5°C Pledge. Healthy forests based on native species help to avoid ‘green deserts’ or monoculture plantations that cannot support functional ecosystems. A

tree will be planted for each of Zurich’s 55,000 employees, with the remainder available to customers through offers to plant trees when they purchase insurance policies.

See more about reforestation at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit here.

Syngenta has launched the second phase of its Good Growth Plan that puts the urgent fight against climate change and biodiversity loss at the heart of farming’s productive future and the global economic recovery.

The company is making 4 ambitious new global commitments to reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint, to help farmers deal with the extreme weather patterns caused by climate change and to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for those farm workers across all of the company's associated farms.

Syngenta’s aim with these commitments is to also help farmers and society sustainably recover from the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Syngenta first launched The Good Growth Plan in 2013, with six hard, stretch targets to be met by 2020 – and has already achieved most of them.

Ikea’s Jesper Brodin, Nestlé’s Mark Schneider and Apple’s Lisa Jackson are among 80 CEO Climate leaders translating ambition into action on making net zero possible. They met yesterday at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit to explain how their companies are actively working towards net zero targets.

Here are 6 takeaways for businesses to rise to the challenge:

1. Commitments are not enough. You need a plan that is practical, based on science and uses all the innovations and technology available.

2. Consumers are voting with their feet. Businesses are expected to take action – if you don’t, you’ll be left behind. And your brand will suffer.

3. The current scenario of rising emissions must not be passed down to future generations of leadership. Time is of the essence to turn things around.

4. Net zero is the new business model – it’s not a sacrifice. And it is compatible with growth.

5. Consider high quality offsets related to your operations. This will give you more latitude to move something quickly in a short period of time.

6. After getting your own house in order, a deep and thorough approach to bringing your entire supply chain to net zero is the essential next step.

Watch the full session here.

Unilever’s Alan Jope joined the Great Reset dialogue today on Restoring the Health of People and Planet. Two key takeaways are his optimism for the role of the private sector in plotting the course of the recovery and a strong defence of globally connected supply chains.

In response to a record-breaking number of hurricanes over the Atlantic and catastrophic flooding in parts of Asia, among other climate events, the Z Zurich Foundation has announced a four-year funding extension in support of development and humanitarian programmes.

Its “Adapting to Climate Change Program” significantly scales up earlier adaptation work, with the ambition to help approximately four million people strengthen their resilience to flooding by 2024.

The Z Zurich Foundation funding will be channelled through a multi-sector collaboration known as the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance.

Boomera transforms complicated waste into objects of value. Based in Brazil, the company works with cutting-edge technology and connects the entire production chain to transform waste into raw material.

This circular economy business brings together industry, academia, and environmental agents to turn waste that is difficult to recycle into raw materials or new products.

Boomera's new methodology called the Circular Pack turns waste into a line of products with a cause, bringing together technology, design, science, and social inclusion. Such as making 15,000 music instruments out of Tang packaging, most of which were donated to public schools in Brazil. To date, Boomera has given new life to over 60,000 tons of plastic. Boomera’s Guilherme Brammer is a Schwab Foundation Social Innovator of the Year 2020.

There has been much hype around apps and technology to record, trace and check health status with respect to containing COVID-19. But there are worries about privacy and human rights. SICPA has developed CERTUS™ technology to provide a portable record of status – such as a health card – to record pandemic, health and vaccination status.

The technology can be used widely – it combines digital seal technology protected by Blockchain with a secure QR code applied to "documents". But the health context is particularly pertinent. The QR code is tamperproof, enabling independent and universal verification without accessing a database. That means it is fully secure and respects personal privacy.

Watch more on Restoring the Health of People and Planet at the Sustainable development impact Summit here.

Mastercard is one of 1t.org's key partners. As part of their Priceless Planet initiative, they are restoring 100 million trees over the next 5 years as part of a broader effort to leverage the full scale of their business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

Mastercard has co-designed the Investing in Forests session at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit, taking place today at 20.00 CET.

BCG's Rich Hutchinson explains why companies need to focus on more than the bottom line.

Many companies are taking total societal impact (TSI) seriously in this crisis— doing right by all their stakeholders, not just shareholders. They are not only doing well for society—these actions benefit their businesses.

Companies with the strongest ESG ratings are outperforming the market during the pandemic. But the work of creating scalable TSI is still in early days. The private sector can and must play an increasing role in the challenges our societies face.

Read the full article here.

Building on more than 15 years of sustainability leadership, Walmart is doubling down on addressing the growing climate crisis by targeting zero emissions across the company’s global operations by 2040.

To help combat the cascading loss of nature threatening the planet, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are also committing to help protect, manage or restore at least 50 million acres of land and one million square miles of ocean by 2030. Walmart is committing to become a regenerative company dedicated to placing nature and humanity at the centre of its business.

More here.

Business leaders will convene today at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit to address the ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) agenda. As the world emerges from the pandemic, it will not be business as usual.

One of the biggest challenges is to dispel the idea that there is an either-or choice between delivering profits and growth, on the one hand, and on the other, giving primacy to the interests of stakeholders – employees, customers, communities, and the environment. One way to achieve this is through non-financial reporting.

Here's what business leaders have said:

Unilever's Alan Jope

“It’s really believing that operating to the benefit of multiple stakeholders works. Serving customers properly, looking after employees, being fair with suppliers, and making a positive contribution to society and the health of the planet will lead to better financial returns.”

Microsoft's Bradley Smith

“We need to have a recovery that is led in part by small business. We're going to need to help small businesses onboard new employees. We're going to need to help small businesses invest in skilling of their employees, and this is a huge opportunity I think for governments to think anew about tax credits and other incentives they can provide.”

Bank of America's Anne Finucane

"In recent years, there’s a fair amount of data that’s been put forward to demonstrate that if ESG is calculated into the behaviour of a company that the company itself does better – less bankruptcy, higher satisfaction with its clients and customers, and even sometimes higher multiples.”

To hear more, watch the session.
Read the report here.

By 2035, the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft could take to the skies. To bring this vision to reality, Airbus is exploring game-changing concept aircraft—known as ZEROe—powered by hydrogen, a disruptive zero-emission technology with the potential to reduce aircraft emissions by up to 50%.

If hydrogen technology development progresses at the expected rate, Airbus’ highly anticipated zero-emission commercial aircraft is expected to roll off the assembly line for entry-into-service by 2035.

To meet this ambitious 2035 target, Airbus will need to launch the ZEROe aircraft programme by 2025. This time frame gives Airbus engineers approximately five years to mature all the required hydrogen technologies. Over the coming months, several hydrogen demonstrator programmes, which will test hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen combustion technologies respectively, are estimated to be formally launched. A full-scale aircraft prototype is estimated to arrive by the late 2020s.

UpLink, created by the World Economic Forum in partnership with Salesforce and Deloitte, responds to the consensus that innovation is not a nice-to-have, but essential to the achievement of the 2030 Global Goals. UpLink connects the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs to networks of contacts that have the resources, expertise and experience to help bring about change.

Read more here. UpLink is the focus of this session at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit today.

Visit UpLink and join the action here.

African food systems are under pressure―from growing urbanization, youth unemployment and, perhaps most crucially, climate crisis. Covid-19 is one more blow, and the resulting disruption to long-term economic development may prove as devastating as its impact on public health. Bain’s Coalition for Farmer-Allied Intermediaries is responding to the challenges Covid-19 adds to Africa’s already-stressed food systems.

Bain is soon to launch a new report, How Farmer-Allied Intermediaries Can Transform Africa’s Food Systems. The paper will share findings from the firms that are critical to driving food systems change in Africa and reveals what is required to help them grow.

Buildings and construction account for 39% of energy related CO2 emissions.

This week is the 11th Annual World Green Building Week (21–25 Sept.) The initiative sparks over 135 events in 35 countries, calling on governments and business leaders to prioritize net zero buildings. The World Green Building Council has secured 110 net zero carbon buildings commitment signatories.

The Week has also prompted more than 100 organizations to endorse a Call to Action statement, urging all levels of government to implement policy to ensure the following:

Over five days, the World Green Building Council network of Green Building Councils and partners will showcase examples of global industry leadership. It will deliver a coordinated, collective voice of the industry to demonstrate the existing leadership in the net zero building movement, and call for bolder and more ambitious regulation to unlock these solutions.

Automation in factories, like that of Bright Machines’ software-defined microfactories, can help improve manufacturing’s environmental impact. A microfactory is a flexible and scalable automation solution that allows for manufacturing closer to the customer.

A Bright Machines Microfactory combines intelligent software with modular hardware to provide a complete automation solution for product assembly, testing and inspection.

It offers a number of advantages. By increasing efficiency, and decreasing waste from defective parts, requiring fewer humans and fewer commuters, and less miles travelled for product distribution, automation can help lower the overall carbon footprint of factories by enabling localized production.