Happy Tuesday… Some mammoth stories for you this morning
In today’s edition:
🍔 Burger King’s meat-free restaurant
🧪 Growing algae for biofuel
🙋♀️ Building gender equality and sustainability
Big Business (2-minute read)
Metal mania. Nickel prices fly with repercussions on sustainability
Commodity prices have been spiralling upward on supply fears related to Russia’s onslaught of Ukraine – Nickel prices soared to all-time highs above $100,000/ ton (Causing a controversial suspension of trading by the London Metal Exchange). The record prices will have far-reaching consequences beyond electric vehicle manufacturers – potentially jeopardising countries’ individual net-zero targets.
What’s in a EV?
* 10 kilograms of #lithium (its price is +90% this year)
* 45 kilograms of #nickel (price up 283%)
* 20 kilograms of #manganese (price steady)
* 14 kilograms of #cobalt (price up 12%)
The fallout:
The obvious takeaway is that electric-vehicle costs will go up – expect a push from governments and automakers to shore up domestic nickel supplies (Both through new mines and battery recycling) as well as a diversification of battery tech away from nickel… e.g. Tesla / Chinese automakers use Lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries.
Greenwashing UK fashion firms to be named and shamed by watchdog
The Consumer and Markets Authority has come out and said consumers are being duped into paying a premium for fashion products that make grand claims about their environmental credentials but have no evidence to back them up. The UK watchdog is in the process of naming the worst offenders of greenwashing across fashion, food and supermarkets – and will enforce changes in advertising (e.g Innocent’s advert), or even threaten legal action for those who don’t.
Importance: Ensuring there’s trust between consumers and companies is crucial to ensuring businesses can tackle climate change and hit net-zero in the timelines outlined by the Government.
Burger King to trial meat-free restaurant in London
The Leicester Square Burger King restaurant will become the fast-food chain’s first ever fully plant-based outlet in the UK. Alongside offering vegan versions of its customer favourites, Burger King is adding a further 15 meat-free items to the menu, to test and monitor which meat-free items are popular so that they can be rolled out to other restaurants nationwide. In doing so, the fast-food giant can move towards its goal of having a 50% meat-free menu by 2030. Not just for a plant-based diet… A survey of over 30,000 people demonstrates that of the people who tried meat-free products at fast-food restaurants, 72% were meat-eaters. This initiative means Burger King can capitalise on the ever-growing discerning meat-eater and flexitarian market.
🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)
Bringing Mammoths back from extinction
An American bio-tech company has just received a major cash-injection ($60m) to support bringing back the woolly mammoth from extinction. The company is trying to fuse together the DNA from modern Asian elephants with DNA from mammoths, then implanting the embryos of these ‘mammophants’ into Asian or African elephants. Scientists believe bringing back Mammouths could help reverse climate change, as their grazing patterns restore plant root systems which sequester carbon from the atmosphere and prevent the melting of permafrost (which releases greenhouse gases). Since 1970 there has been on average almost a 70% drop in the populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. This technology could create a path to de-extinction and reverse the trend of biodiversity loss.
Artificial intelligence helps grow algae for producing clean biofuel
The situ: Fuel derived from algae holds several key advantages over earlier biofuels – higher yields and production on land unsuitable for food crops tackling the concern that biofuel would compete with food production. However, its commercialisation is hindered by low yields and high harvest costs preventing price competitiveness with fossil fuels.
Progress: Scientists from Texas A&M AgriLife Research have used advanced machine learning to break a new world record for algae production. The algorithm predicts light penetration and algae density under different conditions then regulates mineral and water flow to optimise the growth of the algae. The system lowers the minimum biomass selling price to around $281 a ton bringing it closer to the standard low-cost biofuel (bioethanol made from corn), which is currently $260 per tonne.
💡Start-up Spotlight (1-minute read)
Building gender equality and sustainability
In recognition of International Women’s Day last Tuesday, the UN has reported 5 ways to increase women’s representation in leadership and decision-making, so that gender equality and environmental sustainability are at the centre of future economic progress. We’ve highlighted the key parts:
- Empower women smallholders: The FAO predicts that if women farmers had equal access to farming resources and finance, farm yields would increase by 30% – providing enough food to keep 150million people from going hungry.
- Invest in care: The global economy depends on unpaid and underpaid care work primarily done by women. Investment in the care sector would acknowledge its importance while creating jobs and fostering economic growth.
- Support women’s leadership: Women’s representation and leadership at both the national and community level drive better environmental outcomes. Countries with more women in parliament tend to adopt stricter climate change policies.
- Fund women’s organisations: Strong civil society and nonprofit organisations provide a counterbalance to the public and private sectors. Women’s organisations can ensure policies meet the needs of women.
- Protect women’s health: Women will bear the brunt of climate-linked negative health outcomes, in part due to their limited access to resources and services. As climate change worsens, it’s important that women’s health services are strengthened to help keep women healthy and safe.
💭 Little Bytes
Quote: “If we care about our common future and the common future of our descendants, we should all in part be naturalists” Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta
Stat: Between 720 million and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020, around one in 10, according to UN estimates.
Watch: How an aeroponics farm in Jordan uses no soil and 90% less water
🗞 Deal Room
Paris-based Kyotherm raises €45M to invest and promote the long-term benefits of energy efficiency projects
Mori Secures $50 Million in Series B Funding to Commercialize its Shelf-Life Extension Solutions
Germany-based Sunvigo raises €10 million for its tech that integrates rooftop solar into electricity contracts
Israeli based ESGGO received $7 million in seed funding for its ESG-reporting tech
London based Provenance raises $5m in a venture round to tackle greenwashing with ‘transparency tech’ on product provenance
🗞 In other news…
- The SEC is set to propose its climate risk rule by the end of March 2022, and would require publicly traded companies in the US to disclose detailed information to investors regarding the impact of climate change on their business.
- Chile Issues the First-Ever Sovereign Sustainability Linked Bond with interest on the bonds tied to the country’s performance on its climate goals
- BlackRock tells oil regulator: ignore our CEO’s climate pledges
- Ocado axes ‘best before’ label on some fruit and vegetables in a bid to reduce food waste
- Manchester City Football Club has scored an environmental own-goal following criticism by green groups after the launch of a recycling matchday cups for air miles initiative.
